Dr. Vera Beloshitzkaya, Senior Scientist at the ATHENA Salzburg Center of Intersectional Research, has been awarded a competitive Visiting Scholarship at the  Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences for Spring 2027

Dr. Beloshitzkaya is a scholar of politics and gender specializing in Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries. . Prior to her current role, she served as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Horizon Europe project  Push*Back*Lash. This collaborative project analyzes the systemic “backlash” against gender equality and its ties to anti-democratic movements, aiming to develop evidence-based strategies to support democratic resilience across Europe. 

At Harvard, she will continue her work on the book project “Families as Guardians of Democracy,” which is supported by the University of Salzburg’s  SAFEGUARD early career grant. Her research advances an original mixed-methods inquiry into how family practices and narratives shape long-term commitments to liberal democracy. This appointment further confirms the University of Salzburg’s reputation as a leading center for cutting-edge political science research in the field of gender and politics.