I am an associate professor at the political science department. I have written extensively on the politicization of gender-based violence, gender mainstreaming and equality policies, social movements and transnational feminist networking based on research conducted in the Netherlands, Spain and Latin America.

My current work focuses on the implications of democratic backsliding for gender equality policies in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. What patterns of dismantling and resilience of gender policies can be found in these contexts and how does this affect gendered democracy? With Andrea Krizsan I was invited to write a working paper for UN Women on Democratic backsliding and the backlash against women’s rights.

This is also the topic of my recent book, co-authored (with Andrea Krizsan) Politicizing Gender and Democracy in the Context of the Istanbul Convention in which we discuss the pushback again the Council of Europe Convention on violence against women and domestic violence in Central and Eastern Europe. The study highlights how some determined governments are blocking or reversing important gains on the international legal front through concerted political and civic action and the wider implication this has for gender equality rights and democracy. 

In the new Horizon Europe CCINDLE project I work with a group of European feminist scholars towards strengthening and re-invigorating European democracies starting from the assumption that feminist theories and activism are essential sources of both resistance to anti-gender discourses and politics.

I previously published The Gender Politics of Domestic Violence. Feminists Engaging the State in Central and Eastern Europe (co-authored with Andrea Krizsan) (Routledge 2018). I edited (together with Bert Klandermans) The Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines (Springer 2017); with Anna van der Vleuten and Anouka van Eerdewijk Gender Equality Norms in Regional Governance: Transnational Dynamics in Europe, South America and Southern Africa (Palgrave 2014), and with Jacquelien van Stekelenburg and Bert Klandermans The Future of Social Movement Research: Dynamics, Mechanisms and Processes (University of Minnesota Press 2013).

I am the co-director of the Amsterdam Research Center for Gender and Sexuality. and a co-convener of the ECPR Standing Group on Gender and Politics

Politicizing Gender and Democracy in the Context of the Istanbul Convention.

This book examines opposition to the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention and its consequences for the politics of violence against women in four countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Krizsán and Roggeband discuss why and how successful anti-gender mobilizations managed to obstruct ratification of the Convention or push for withdrawal from it. They show how resistance to the Convention significantly redraws debates on violence against women and has consequences for policies, women’s rights advocacy, and gender-equal democracy.

Gendering Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe. A comparative agenda (2019)

Editors: Andrea Krizsan and Conny Roggeband

Two decades after transition to democracy, countries in the Central Eastern European region are now experiencing democratic backsliding. De-democratization processes not only challenge democratic institutions but can also be seen as a form of cultural backlash against social and political changes that took place during the last decades. Gender and sexual orientation based equality is particularly hit: the cultural backlash translates to gendered processes of de-democratization. Attacks on gender equality and against actors standing for it are particularly widespread in countries of the Central and Eastern European region. This book aims to map gendered aspects of the decline in democracy in four countries in the Central and Eastern European region: Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. We have a dual focus. First, we look at how processes of de-democratization affect previously established gender equality rights and what forms gender policy backsliding takes in the region. We are interested in learning how governments operate to block or reverse gender equality policies and what specific policy fields or issues are most under attack. Are policies actively removed or do we see more subtle dismantling strategies? Also, we ask if these dynamics and mechanisms are country specific or whether we can find similar patterns across countries? Second, we look at how these developments affect defenders and promotors of gender rights. How do women movements respond to these attacks? Do they change strategies? Do they falter in hostile conditions or we see resistance, maturing, diversifying coalition capacities? What do the anti-gender attacks and hostile states mean for movement capacities and strategies? Introduction provides a conceptual framework for the analysis. Separate chapters discuss gendered dynamics of de-democratization in the four countries.

The Gender Politics of Domestic Violence. Feminists Engaging the State in Central and Eastern Europe.

With Andrea Krizsán.

What are the factors that shape domestic violence policy change and how are variable gendered meanings produced in these policies? How and when can feminists influence policy making? What conditions and policy mechanisms lead to progressive change and which ones block it or lead to reversal?

The Gender Politics of Domestic Violence analyzes the emergence of gender equality sensitive domestic violence policy reforms in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Tracing policy developments in Eastern Europe from the beginning of 2000s, when domestic violence first emerged on policy agendas, until 2015, Andrea Krizsán and Conny Roggeband look into the contestation that takes place between women’s movements, states and actors opposing gender equality to explain the differences in gender equality sensitive policy outputs across the region.

They point to regionally specific patterns of feminist engagement with the state in which coalition-building between women’s organizations and establishing alliances with different state actors were critical for achieving gendered policy progress. In addition, they demonstrate how discursive contexts shaped by democratization frames and opposition to gender equality, led to differences in the politicization of gender equality, making gender friendly reforms more feasible in some countries than others.

Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines (August 2017)

Edited with Bert Klandermans

This handbook provides a broad and comprehensive overview of the study of social movements and collective action, discussing the different disciplinary approaches that have developed. In addition to updated discussions of topics that were included in the 1st edition, this handbook includes substantial advances in the research and scholarship in the field. The study of collective behavior and contentious politics has spread to a number of new disciplines such as communication science, organization science and law. The international wave of new protests in 2013 spurred new scholarship as well. This revised and updated edition integrates the wealth of new theoretical insights and empirical work since 2007.

Gender Equality Norms in Regional Governance.Transnational Dynamics in Europe, South America and Southern Africa

This book investigates the diffusion of gender equality norms in and between the European Union (EU), South America and Southern Africa. It offers an in-depth analysis of the trajectories of norms on gender-based violence and gender mainstreaming of aid and trade. The study proposes a novel theoretical framework that enables scholars to grasp the constant renegotiation of gender equality norms in the dynamics between transnational, national and (inter)regional actor constellations. Moving beyond the predominant 'global-local' approach, it conceptualizes norm diffusion as a multidirectional and polycentric process. The empirical chapters show how new geometries of transnational activism have developed. Last but not least, the text explores how the landscapes through which norms travel impact on the norms as well as on their diffusion, revealing the underlying logics that explain the differences in the strengths of gender equality norms as well as the differences between the EU, Mercosur, Organization of American States and Southern African Development Community.

The Future of Social Movement Research. Dynamics, Mechanisms, and Processes. 

In The Future of Social Movement Research, some of the most influential scholars in the field provide a wide-ranging understanding of how social movements arise and persist, engendering unanswered questions pointing to new theoretical strands and fields of research. The resulting work is interdisciplinary and unusually broad in scope, constituting the most comprehensive overview of the dynamics of social movements available.