Event Gallery
June 20, 2024
Roundtable: Evaluating the von der Leyen Presidency – A Commission in the Midst of Polycrises
ECPR Conference/Standing Group on the European Union, University of Lisbon
Chair:
Gabriele Abels, University of Tübingen
Speakers:
Johanna Kantola, University of Helsinki
Emanuela Lombardo, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Henriette Müller, NYU Abu Dhabi
Alvaro Oleart, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Uwe Puetter, Europa-Universität Flensburg
The Roundtable will bring together scholars of the European Commission, EU gender research, and leadership studies to discuss the performance of the von der Leyen Commission and the role of the Commission Presidency. Ursula von der Leyen is the first female president of the European Commission. Her term in office 2019–2024 is coming to an end. From the start, her incumbency has been marked by unprecedented challenges and compounding crises, from her nomination and election in the European Parliament in 2019. Amidst these extraordinary circumstances, von der Leyen has steered forward an exceptionally ambitious political agenda, pushing European integration into new territory—from procuring anti-Covid-19 vaccines to building a green and digital economy to expanding the EU’s geostrategic security and defense capabilities—despite the Commission’s limited tools in health and social policies or foreign and security policy and deeply divided member states in these matters. Simultaneously, von der Leyen has demanded a new vision of “A Union of Equality.” Presiding over the first gender-equal College of Commissioners, von der Leyen has embarked on fostering gender+ equality, diversity and inclusion in the European Commission and EU policy-making with unprecedented force, rendering her and her Commission a “critical actor” in this field. Despite having raised high scholarly expectations, research on (1) the EU Commission’s responses to the diversity of crises, (2) von der Leyen’s ascendance to and exercise of leadership in the European Commission and Union more broadly, and (3) scholarship on gender-inclusive substantive representation and EU policy-making during von der Leyen’s term has either remained separate, scarce or preliminary. This Roundtable will discuss – political and academic – achievements and shortcomings of the von der Leyen Commission.
Photo credit: Lucrecia Rubio Grundell
August 3, 2023
Podcast/Interview: Women Leaders in International Law
Episode 6 of the podcast series features Her Excellency Dr Fatou Bensouda, who is currently serving as The Gambia’s High Commissioner to the UK. From 2012 to 2021 Dr Bensouda was the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) – the first woman and the first African to serve in that capacity. She had previously served as the Deputy Prosecutor of the ICC, as Senior Legal Advisor in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and in a number of roles in The Gambia, including Attorney General and Minister for Justice. She spoke to Dr Henriette Mueller, a member of the Women in Diplomacy team and an Assistant Professor of Gender, Governance and Society at NYU Abu Dhabi. They spoke about gender equality in international jurisprudence, and the obstacles women, especially women from the Global South, face as leaders in international law. They also discussed Dr Bensouda’s leadership in ensuring gender equality and diversity at the ICC, and in advancing accountability for sexual and gender-based crimes, a first for the ICC and an important step in the development of international criminal law.
Listen to the Podcast Episode 6
Project: Women in Diplomacy
LSE Foreign Policy Think Tank IDEAS!
Principal Investigator: Karen E. Smith, LSE
Project Coordinator: Marta Kozielska, LSE
Women are still underrepresented in diplomacy, foreign policy, and public policy, particularly in senior positions. This is despite a proliferation of networks advocating for women across sectors, purported support by numerous governments for increasing women’s representation in negotiations, and research illustrating the benefits of including women in negotiations.
This project at LSE IDEAS was set up to help address this issue, understand what obstacles remain, and understand how they can be overcome. The project hopes to create better access to and accelerate women’s representation in international organizations, share knowledge and tools to do so effectively and support structural change.
Dr. Fatou Bensouda, former Chief Prosecutor of the ICC
Credit: Wikipedia
May 17, 2023
Invitation/Online Talk: The State of Women and Leadership in the European Union
Institute of Political Science, University of Tübingen
Women’s leadership matters. This sentence may seem trivial and blatantly self-evident. Yet, despite a recent increase in female politicians, managers, and experts in positions of authority across different countries and levels of governance, scholarship on women’s leadership remains limited.
Drawing on my research on the European Union (EU), this talk critically engages with leadership as a concept and practice as it manifests itself across different institutional contexts and levels of governance in the European Union. First, it conceptualizes and embeds women’s leadership within EU studies. Second, it examines the main opportunities and challenges to women’s access to positions of power (positional leadership) in the European Union. Finally, it analyzes leadership performances (behavioral leadership), illustrating how women in high-level EU positions tend to perform a combination of assertive and conciliatory leadership styles that respond to highly fragmented and contested governance structures.
As women continue to face various structural hurdles in their access to power, this talk will highlight the complex dynamic between governance structures and societal developments through the prism of women and leadership.
April 25, 2023
Online Book Talk:
Women and Leadership in the European Union
European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS)
European Parliament
Speakers: Henriette Müller (NYUAD) and Ingeborg Tömmel (University of Osnabrück)
Discussant: Michelangelo Vercesi (Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI) of the NOVA University Lisbon)
Moderator: Gabriele Umbach (European University Institute)
Credit: EPRS, European Parliament
June 20, 2022
Public Book Talk:
Frauen und Führung in der Europäischen Union / Women and Leadership in the European Union
Venue: Permanent Representation of the European Commission in Germany, Berlin
Panelists: Miriam Hartlapp (Freie University Berlin), Eva Heidbreder (University of Magdeburg), Henriette Müller (NYUAD), Ingeborg Tömmel (University of Osnabrück); Discussant: Linn Selle (European Movement Germany)
Moderator: Annegret Bendiek (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik)
June 17-18, 2021
High-Level Diplomacy Workshop:
The New Diplomacy in an Age of the Emerging Global Binary
Panel: Need for Women-Led Diplomacy for a New World Order
Participants: Dame Judith MacGregor (British Diplomat), Roberta Guerrina (University of Bristol) and Henriette Müller (NYUAD)
Chair: Karen Smith (LSE)
Centre for Security, Diplomacy, and Strategy (VUB, Brussels) and IDEAS Foreign Policy Think Tank (LSE, London)
Credit: Centre for Security, Diplomacy, and Strategy (VUB, Brussels)
February 20, 2020
Interactive Workshop: Leadership in Practice: Women in Family Business
Talk: “Women and Leadership: Mapping the Global Challenge”
Convener: Tharawat Family Business Forum, Dubai, UAE
Credit: Tharawat
January 9-11, 2020
International Conference: Women and Leadership in the European Union
Co-conveners: Henriette Müller & Ingeborg Tömmel
University of Osnabrück, Germany
November 16, 2019
Student Conference: Back to Her Future
Organized by the student group Women’s Leadership Network
New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Photo credit: WLN)
April 23, 2019
Core Colloquium Statehood:
Class Discussion with Guest Speaker: H.E. Patrizio Fondi, Ambassador of the European Union to the United Arab Emirates
New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Credit: Maryam Albelooshi
November 20, 2018
Panel Discussion: Emirati Women in Leadership
Guest Speakers: Dr. Mariam Matar and Dr. Aisha Bilkhair
New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Photo credit: Am Silruk
April 10-15, 2018
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops:
“The Role of Leadership in EU Politics and Policy-Making: Moving Towards Theoretical Integration and Methodological Cross-Fertilization”
University of Nicosia, Cyprus
March 28-29, 2018
NYUAD Institute, Workshop:
Emirati Womenhood: Subjectivties, Creativities and Confines (convened by Dr. Laila Prager)
Paper presentation: The Politics of Women Empowerment: Female Leaders in the GCC (co-authored with Rahma Abdulkadir)
November 9, 2016
NYUAD Postdoctoral Poster Day
Photo credit: Logan W. Thurnauer; PPP template credit: Frahna Karim 2014
April 7-8, 2016
1st PUPOL International Conference:
First International Conference of the Academic Network Public and Political Leadership (PUPOL)
Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Photo credit: PUPOL
July 19 – August 1, 2015
5th Berlin Summer School in Social Sciences:
Linking Theory and Empirical Research
Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences
WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Berlin, Germany
For more, please see here.
November 27-28, 2014
LEAD Conference
Projekt Zentrum Berlin der Stiftung Mercator, Berlin, Germany
Credit: Matthias Erfurt
July 20 – August 3, 2014
4th Summer School in Social Sciences:
Linking Theory & Empirical Research
Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences
WZB Berlin Social Sciences Research Center, Berlin, Germany
