Alexandria Wilson-McDonald, PhD

From 2018 - 2019 I was affiliated with Masaryk University's Faculty of Sociology in Brno, Czechia funded by a Fulbright research grant. During this time, I examined how gender equality organizations frame their messages, focusing specifically on the salient policy issues of domestic violence and the sexual exploitation of women and girls. During this time, I visited numerous gender equality organizations across the country, analyzed textual material, and concluded interviews with activists, policymakers, and representatives of international organizations.  

In 2019, I spent two months in Poland, examining how gender equality activists frame gender-based violence. Through interviews with various activists, I examined how activists link gender-based violence to women's reproductive rights, a nationally salient topic, highlighting gender stereotypes, economic injustice, and the state as the perpetrator of violence. This fieldwork was funded by a Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics from Iowa State University. 

In 2022 I returned to Poland to conduct further interviews with activists and visit new gender equality organizations funded by the Kosciuszko Foundation Postgraduate Research Grant and affiliated with the American Studies Center at the University of Warsaw.

In 2018 I conducted fieldwork in Bratislava, Slovakia, where I examined how gender equality organizations frame the issue of gender-based violence for the public, focusing specifically on the policy issues of domestic violence and reproductive violence, including the forced sterilization of Roma women. This fieldwork included interviews with activists, policymakers, and representatives of government agencies. Further textual data produced by gender equality organizations were collected in 2022.