Maider Galardi Fernandez de Aguirre

A sociologist by training (EHU/UPV 2013–2017), I began working as a journalist at the newspaper Berria when I was one year away from completing my degree in Political Science and Public Administration. Since then, I have combined research and journalism, always focusing on issues of conflict and feminism.

While working at the newspaper, I completed the Master’s Degree in Feminist and Gender Studies (EHU/UPV 2018), through which I had the opportunity to participate in the “Komunitateak Ehuntzen” project. That was my first contact with AFIT. In the following years, I continued working at Berria, focusing mainly on approaching the Basque conflict from a feminist perspective and on addressing the various manifestations of gender-based violence.

Since January 2021, thanks to a predoctoral fellowship from the Basque Government, I have been able to combine both topics: I work with women who were not directly involved in the Basque conflict but who suffered violence due to the participation of a relative or friend. My research considers intersecting conflicts, experienced forms of violence, and resistant practices developed to cope with the situation. I am currently pursuing my PhD within the Feminist and Gender Studies Doctoral Program, as part of the AFIT research group.