Nineteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper reflects on the experiences of sociologist, Francine Banner, and historian, Anna Muller, who in 2023 traveled to Lithuania to conduct workshops on gender-based violence with Belarusian activists and service providers [as part of the US State Department Professional Fellows program]. The participants were women in multiple precarious political and social situations. Some were deprived of the right to work; some faced imprisonment, all of them had to leave Belarus and look for a place to live somewhere else. Their legal status remained unclear to us. Throughout the workshops, our aim was to create a space grounded in openness and trust, encouraging participants to seek answers and solutions on their own rather than relying on us. Aware of the associations that come with the term of western experts, we actively worked to be facilitators of knowledge exchange rather than mere knowledge providers. However, this approach made the space more vulnerable, revealing the multiple traumas of the women participants, and highlighting the personal struggles they faced as they attempted to advocate on behalf of others while balancing their own, uncertain personal, economic, and political situations. Ultimately, our experience in conducting these workshops forced us to reflect on our own roles as educators, as well as on the nature of trust that developed between us (willingness to become vulnerable). Our reflections raise questions about the potential for disrupting Western-centric modes of knowledge production, and the role of academics in confronting the multiple challenges faced by migrants.