Title: So that priorities don’t just remain on paper: Institutional challenges for the establishment, development and sustainability of mentoring programmes – Czech case

Kateřina Cidlinská, Ph.D. is a researcher in the field of sociology, higher education studies and gender studies. Her research topics are working conditions in academia, academic careers, exits from academic career, gender inequalities in academia and professional identities. She founded and coordinated mentoring program for early-career researchers, presided EUMENT-NET and Czech PhD Students Association. Currently, she provides consultancy services for research and academic institutions in the field of mentoring and support of professional development of early-career researchers.

Title: Meeting the Challenges and Providing the Winning Strategies for Structural Change for Gender Equality

Eileen Drew is the former Director of the Trinity Centre for Gender Equality and Leadership at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland where she lectured in the School of Computer Science and Statistics and the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies. Her research interests are: gender and the labour market, equality and diversity, work/life balance, family leave policies and gender in entrepreneurship and academic leadership.    Professor Drew played an instrumental role in driving the Athena SWAN initiative in Trinity College, following the successful completion of the INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality (INTEGER) Project in June 2015. She was Coordinator of the Systemic Action for Gender Equality (SAGE) Horizon 2020 Project, 2016-2019. She is the author of numerous academic works. Her latest book The Gender Sensitive University: A contradiction in terms was published by Routledge in 2021.

Harrasment in higher education: an endemic problem?

As a graduate of the Babes Bolyai Faculty of Law in Cluj Napoca, Claudia Cristina Berghezan-Gyarmath holds a PhD in Law, Faculty of Law from the University of Salamanca, Spain, with the theme The principle of equality and non-discrimination in labor law in the European Union.

Currently she holds the leadership and coordination of the Professional Association of Experts in Equal Oportunities in Romania and she is a Trainer of the course Expert in Equal Opportunities.

Through her activity as a Counselor in Equal Opportunities and Psychological Harassment at Work she promotes a positive policy that inspires and supports both the organizations/ institutions and the employees/students/teachers in developing a common source of productivity based on equality, tolerance or any form of discrimination or violence and diversity.

With a great power of adaptation, she can easily face different challenges, accumulating during the years of work and research.Testimony is her research work, found both in her book published in Salamanca, Spain, entitled The Treaty of Amsterdam and equal opportunities in the labor market in the European Union, and in articles written in the field of equality and non-discrimination.

She strongly believes in creating a management system based on tolerance, respect, diversity and the inclusion of all internal and external factors, which, implemented with positive information and education measures can increase the level of performance of any organization/ university/ institution.

Ramona MIHAILA is the Head of the Secretary of State’s Office at the National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men, within the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Equal Opportunities, Romanian Government. She is also professor Ph.D. at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Bucharest, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on women’s writing, gender studies, literature, urban cultures.

She is the author and (co)-editor of 25 books concerning women’s writing, gender studies, narrative strategies. She has attended over 250 conferences and published the delivered articles in international data bases indexed journals.

She has been visiting professor at Arizona State University, research fellow for international institutions: Library of Congress, Washington, Chawton House Library and University of Southampton, Huygens Royal Institute, The Hague, National Library of Vienna, and grants recipient for conference participations.

Besides being a EURAXESS Expert (European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers) and evaluator on gender studies for European Commission, Brussels, Ramona Mihaila has been coordinator and member of European projects on gender studies, women’s writing, literary urban places, social placemaking.

She serves as the executive publishing editor of Journal of Research in Gender Studies, Addleton Academic Publishers, New York.

Women’s Department Representative and Coordinator (ADVU).

Member of international Women’s Association (IWA).

Aynur Gürsoy currently holds the leadership and coordination of the women’s department at the Dialogue and Universal Values Association, while also actively participating in various other associations. She effectively organizes dialogue activities focusing on universal values and shared experiences. Through various initiatives such as training seminars, mentorship programs, leadership courses, vocational training projects, and community engagement activities, she is dedicated to supporting the education and empowerment of women and young girls. Her ultimate goal is to encourage the exploration and empowerment of the potential of women and young girls. Additionally, she endeavors to mobilize volunteers to provide educational support to disadvantaged children.

Laura Grünberg  http://unibuc.academia.edu/LauraGrunberg

(work email: )

Laura Grünberg is Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest, Romania, and the coordinator of the Gender Equality Plan at this university. She is also editor in chief of the  Romanian Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies (www.analize-journal.ro) and writer (Member of National Writer Union).

She has worked in the past as project coordinator and gender focal point for the UNESCO European Center for Higher Education (UNESCO-CEPES) and has long term experience in initiating, coordinating, offering consultancy, implementing or evaluating national, regional and European research projects in the area of education, health, media, politics, urban space, civil society. She has published books and academic articles in international peer-reviewed journals. She coordinated the most recent Gender Barometer in Romania (2018).

Keynote “Approaching Gender Equality Plans in universities from an intercultural communication perspective”

Roxana Elisabeta Marinescu is a Professor with the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania and a PhD supervisor in British and American Literature and Cultural Studies at “Ovidius” University, Constanța, Romania. Her main research interests are feminism and gender issues, democratic citizenship, education for intercultural and plurilingual communication, postcolonial and postcommunist studies.

Dr. Marinescu was the coordinator of the team which designed the Gender Equality Plan in the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), Romania in 2022 and the coordinator of the Committee for Gender Equality, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion of the same university between October 2023 and April 2024. For the past 17 years Dr. Marinescu has been the editor-in-chief of the academic journal Synergy (www.synergy.ase.ro). Dr. Marinescu is the President of the Association of the Romanian Society for English and American Studies in ASE, member of the European Society for the Study of English.

For over 25 years she was a member of the Non-governmental organization AnA Society for Feminist Analyses and a president of the organization between 2018 and 2020. In this capacity, she participated in and coordinated academic projects and community work in the areas of feminism, gender issues and women’s empowerment.

Associate professor at Constanta Maritime University, RO

Dr. Dragomir is associate professor at Constanta Maritime University from Romania, department Management in Transports. She gives lectures of Transport Technologies, Management of Ship Commercial Operations and Human Resources Management since 2008, being invited as lecturer in other universities and as speaker in international and national events. She is reviewer for prestigious SSCI journals indexed in Web of Science Clarivate as WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs (Springer publisher), Journal of Navigation (Cambridge Core publisher) and Technium. Dr. Cristina Dragomir got certification for the following programs of specialisation related to gender expertise. As academic researcher, Ms. Dragomir is specialized in gender studies in transport, being project manager of such dedicated research as well as the author and co-author of more than 40 published articles and four books on gender in transports and associated topics.

Member of eument-net executive board and facilitator of the conference

Studied sociology at the University of Vienna, since 2005 she is head of the Office for Equality, Gender, and Diversity – University for Continuing Education Krems. Moreover, she is co-founder of MOVES, Center for Gender and Diversity.

Her thematic focuses: Conception and implementation of strategies, initiatives, and measures for gender equality, equity, and gender competence at university institutions; coordinator of the “Career Mentoring III” mentoring program, in collaboration with the Universities of Linz and Salzburg; experienced in research and consulting projects on gender aspects in education and research institutions; university lecturer, speaker, workshop leader, and moderator.

Facilitator of the Conference

Emma has devoted her professional life to promoting digitalisation and transformation in the maritime field, with a specialisation in optimising port calls and improving efficiency. However, her dedication has led her to pause and re-evaluate how she can continue to make a significant impact in the industry she has passionately served for over a decade.

Leveraging her extensive experience as a COO within the industry, Emma has recently acquired a professional coaching certification. She aims to empower women across all levels of the shipping industry, with a specific emphasis on unlocking their full potential and facilitating their growth as productive, innovative, and successful leaders.