Research and writing on women as leaders in post-communist countries has netted a Siena faculty member a prestigious international award and a new publication.
Ausra Park. Ph.D., professor of international relations, has been selected as the 2025 Bertha Lutz Award recipient by the International Studies Association (ISA) Diplomatic Studies Section. The award is given annually to “a scholar who is considered to be conducting the highest quality public writing and research on women in diplomacy.”
The five member ISA committee evaluated Park’s scholarly publications of a case study of Lithuania as well as an empirical comparative study of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that were published last year.
“I’m honored, humbled and thrilled,” said Park. “I never thought this would happen, not even in my wildest dreams. I am truly grateful to the ISA Diplomatic Studies Section for this recognition, and for their ongoing support of research on women in diplomacy.”
“We heartily congratulate Dr. Park, a 2025 nominee for the Raymond C. Kennedy Excellence in Scholarship Award, for this prestigious recognition on the global stage for her groundbreaking and impactful scholarship,” said Christiane Farnan, Ph.D., dean of the School of Liberal Arts.
Park has been conducting interviews for a manuscript on the first women presidents in post-communist Europe, examining the countries of Latvia, Lithuania, Kosovo, Croatia and Estonia. She recently published the analysis “Women in Baltic Politics and Political Leadership” in the Baltic Initiative of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a nonpartisan think tank based in Philadelphia.
“There has been astounding progress in gender equality in these nations, especially women’s representation in politics – from presidencies to parliamentary speakerships to ministries – in an extremely short time,” explained Park. “Large countries – such as the United States, Germany, the UK, France – often have outdated views of smaller states, especially those from the post-communist bloc, when in reality these countries not only have outranked and outpaced the ‘biggies’ in various categories but also could serve as examples to be followed.”
Park said she finds it peculiar and disappointing that powerful states, especially the U.S., can set the tone for backlash on women’s leadership in other nations.
“Once misogynistic views, gendered attacks and sexist remarks without any real-life repercussions become an acceptable norm and practice in the U.S., especially through social media used by politicians, this lowers the bar of what is an acceptable behavior in smaller countries, too,” she said. “It is, therefore, a quite unexpected but not a surprising outcome that achievements of women’s representation in politics worldwide, including in the Baltic States, are now being reversed and regressing.”
Last summer Park worked on a related project about women in Ukrainian diplomacy. She was assisted by CURCA research scholar Aleksandra Wojtowycz ’25.
“The Baltic nations and other post-communist countries remain important in our current political sphere, especially due to the relationship that Russia has with the Western world,” said Wojtowycz. “The choice to focus on women in political positions of power such as ambassadors or prime ministers, and the trends and growth of these appointments, is important in understanding the ongoing cultural shifts of these nations within international relations.”
She decided to add women, gender and sexuality studies as a minor as a result of the collaboration, and is now applying to graduate schools to study international relations.