Istratii Romina

About

Dr. Romina Istratii is a renowned researcher from Eastern Europe, specializing in social sciences, with a focus on gender studies, international development, and the role of religion in African societies. With a career marked by over a decade of experience, she graduated from Bates College in the USA with a bachelor's degree in politics, Chinese, and economics, followed by a master's degree in gender and development from the University of Sussex and a PhD from SOAS University of London. Among her main achievements is the monograph "Adapting Gender and Development to Local Religious Contexts: A Decolonial Approach to Domestic Violence in Ethiopia," published in 2020 by Routledge, which proposes a decolonial approach to analyzing domestic violence in Ethiopian religious contexts, based on extensive ethnographic research in the Aksum region. Her main activity has focused on Ethiopia, where she conducted independent research fieldwork in Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Senegal, supported by foundations such as the Thomas J. Watson, Tokyo Foundation, and Harry Frank Guggenheim. As a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at SOAS, she led a project funded with nearly £1.8 million, dedicated to culturally sensitive and faith-informed responses to domestic violence in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the UK. She collaborates closely with the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, monasteries, and theological colleges, developing training programs for clergy and interfaith initiatives, promoting the integration of Orthodox theology into solutions for gender issues. Of Orthodox background, Romina Istratii is the founder of the Decolonial Subversions platform and initiatives for decolonizing knowledge at SOAS, criticizing Eurocentric paradigms in gender and development studies. She conducted a year of fieldwork in Ethiopian villages, building trusting relationships with local communities, and continues to promote equitable North-South collaborations through interdisciplinary publications and consultancy for international organizations. Currently, Director of the Institute for Domestic Violence, Religion, and Migration (IDVRM), she contributes to global debates on decolonial ethics and innovative interventions in gender-based violence.