Hartwick’s Chernyak to Present Next Faculty Lecture

Hartwick College Visiting Professor of Sociology Dr. Elena Chernyak will present “Intimate Partner Violence in The Former Soviet Union Societies: Risk Markers and Protective Factors,” the next installment of the 2017-18 Faculty Lecture Series. The event will take place Wednesday, November 29 at 12:20 p.m. in Eaton Lounge, Bresee Hall, on the College campus. The lecture is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

While intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pressing global problem that violates women’s rights and affects their well-being, investigating IPV in different societies and analyzing micro- and macro-level factors that contribute to this social issue is important to understand the nature of IPV. Elena’s research examines physical IPV against women in five countries of the former Soviet Union: Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Ukraine. Drawing on socialist feminist and resource theories, it explores the phenomenon of IPV through a comprehensive set of hypotheses predicated on the assumption that the roots of violence against women are based in the unequal power relations between men and women and the normative use of violence in society.

A winner of The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada doctoral scholarship – the Canadian counterpart to the NSF Social, Behavioral, & Economic Sciences Directorate – and three-time recipient of an Ontario Graduate Scholarship from the Provincial Government of Canada, Chernyak teaches a variety of courses in the fields of sociology and social work at Hartwick College. Her research interests encompass gender (i.e. gender ideology, gender discourses, and social institutes), gender-based violence, gender and gender politics in Soviet and post-Soviet societies, and cultural and religious influence on behavior and identity. Her research has been published in academic journals, and disseminated at a number of academic conferences.

Chernyak received her Ph.D. in Sociology and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Windsor (Canada). She also holds a M.A. degree in Journalism from Saint-Petersburg State University (Russia), and a Master of Religious Education degree from Assumption University (Canada).

Throughout the Faculty Lecture Series, Hartwick professors discuss recent research in their fields, focusing on physics, politics, religion, art, economics, biology, psychology, and more. The presentations take place on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays throughout the academic year. The Spring Faculty Lecture Series schedule will be announced in early December.

For more information on the Faculty Lecture Series, contact Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Amy Forster Rothbart at 607-431-4865 or forsterrotha@hartwick.edu.