Women in Conflicts

Special POLSIS and Gender and Feminist Theory Research Group Seminar  

Dr Lara Scarpitta will examine not only the impact of conflict on women and girls, but also women’s roles in conflict and post-conflicts environments including peacebuilding and conflict resolution work, and crisis management.  

Speaker

Lara Scarpitta (OSCE Senior Adviser on Gender)

• Discussant: Giuditta Fontana 
• Chair and Convenor: Tim Haughton 

Bio

Lara Scarpitta joined the OSCE in May 2022 as the new OSCE Senior Adviser on Gender Issues in the Office of the Secretary General. She is an expert on peace mediation and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) with over a decade of experience in promoting the role of women in conflict and post-conflict countries in South East Europe and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, Yemen and Libya. 

Prior to joining the OSCE, she worked for over 15 years for the EU (European Commission and the European External Action Service) and served in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2008-2012), Turkey (2012-2017) and Brussels (2017-2019). From 2020 to 2022 she worked as Political Adviser on Peace, Mediation and Gender at the EU Delegation to the United Nations in Geneva, focusing on the MENA region. She was instrumental in the creation in 2018 of the Syrian Women Platform (also known as the Gaziantep Women Platform), an EU-supported initiative linking Syrian grassroots female activists with negotiators in the UN-led Syria Peace Process.

Dr Scarpitta holds both an MA and a PhD from the University of Birmingham.