Join us for a presentation by Doug Umberger, Director of Admissions and Alumni Engagement & Adjunct Professor, to learn about opportunities with the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Presentation of Dr. Roxani Krystalli's (University of St Andrews) new book, Good Victims: The Political as a Feminist Question (Oxford University Press, 2024), with comments and discussion from Prof. Leigh Payne (LAC/Sociology) and Dr. Samuel Ritholtz (DPIR).

I will discuss the under-theorized role that the erosion of the rule of law has played in the attempted consolidation of Russian democracy and re-establishment of authoritarianism. As a means of periodization and development of analytical concepts, I will discuss three public legal filings that I have made: (1) a 2011 report on the second conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky requested by the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for Civil Society and Human Rights; (2) a 2020 third-party intervention before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Navalnyy & Ofitserov v.

Alexei Navalny was the leading Russian opposition figure – even when behind bars. One year on from his death, what can we say about the impact he, his team, and his movement made on Russian politics? Is his country further away than ever from the “Wonderful Russia of the Future”? And what do his own memoirs reveal?

Special panel marking the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Dame Rachel de Souza (Children's Commissioner for England); Oleksandra Romantsova (Executive Director of the Centre for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient); ⁠⁠Inna Hryhorovych, MBE (Headteacher of St Mary’s Ukrainian School); Tetyana Nesterchuk (Barrister and Arbitrator at Fountain Court Chambers); ⁠Oksana Lebedeva (Founder of Gen.Ukrainian). Moderator: Kseniia Iaremych (Ambassador for Gen.Ukrainian). Co-hosted with Oxford University Ukrainian Society.

State capture by wealthy elites is a widespread phenomenon in developing democracies, yet the mechanisms through which it works and the impact it has on political and policy outcomes remain poorly understood. In this research, I develop a network-based approach to studying captured legislatures and argue that, in the context of a competitive political environment and weak rule of law, oligarchs defend their wealth by promoting as members of parliament individuals who are linked to them via interpersonal ties.