Black Widows: Female Terrorists in Chechnya

Recent dual-degree CREEES and LBJ Global Policies Studies MA graduate Lucia Winkeler returns to the podcast to discuss her research and report “Chechen Chernie Vdovi: The Most Lethal Human ‘Black Widows’” in which she examines the motivations and explanations for Chechen women’s involvement in extremist organizations and actions. Content warning: There are discussions of sexual assault and suicide in this episode. Listener discretion is advised. You can listen to Lucia's first episode with us here: https://www.slavxradio.com/black-widows. ABOUT THE GUEST Lucia Winkeler is originally from Austin, Texas. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a BA in international studies and modern languages as a double major; her degree focuses were politics, diplomacy, and Russian. She came to the University of Texas at Austin for the CREEES and LBJ School of Public Affairs dual degree program which enables students to graduate with an MA of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and a Master's of Global Policy Studies. Her Master's report focused on analyzing the Chechen "Black Widows" within the Chechen insurgency movement in the Russian Federation. Overall her academic interests include foreign policy, diplomacy, US-Russia relations, national security, Russia relations to its near abroad, and the Caucasus region. After earning her Master’s degrees she ideally wants to have a federal career to work on improving the state of US-Russian relations and affect US interests in the Eurasian region overall. PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on December 2021 via Zoom. If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email [email protected] and we will be in touch! CREDITS Producer/Host: Kathryn Yegorov-Crate Associate Producer: Lera Toropin (@earlportion) Associate Producer: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana) Assistant Producer: Sergio Glajar Assistant Producer: Taylor Ham Assistant Producer: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy) Social Media Manager: Eliza Fisher Supervising Producer: Katherine Birch Recording, Editing, and Sound Design: Michelle Daniel Music Producer: Charlie Harper (@charlieharpermusic) www.charlieharpermusic.com (Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by Anthem of Rain, Bernd Bunson, Boss Bass) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (@M_S_Daniel) www.msdaniel.com DISCLAIMER: Texas Podcast Network is brought to you by The University of Texas at Austin. Podcasts are produced by faculty members and staffers at UT Austin who work with University Communications to craft content that adheres to journalistic best practices. The University of Texas at Austin offers these podcasts at no charge. Podcasts appearing on the network and this webpage represent the views of the hosts, not of The University of Texas at Austin. Special Guest: Lucia Winkeler.