Leandra Bias is an advanced postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Political Science, University of Bern and affiliated researcher with the Berlin-based ZOiS - Centre for East European and international Studies.

With a regional focus on Russia, Serbia and Ukraine, she investigates how gender relates to (de-)democratization and political violence and how different feminist actors and policies respond to this. Her main ongoing project looks at the rise and use of the narrative of defending "traditional values" in Russian foreign policy as well as tensions within transnational and Russian feminism before and since the full-scale invasion. In addition, she is Co-Principal Investigator in the Horizon Europe project UNTWIST, which examines whether right-wing populist parties in Europe act as niche parties thanks to anti-gender stances.

Her book Power, transnational feminism and backlash is forthcoming with Oxford University Press in 2025. Leandra’s work has been awarded by the European Consortium for Political Research in 2023, the Walter Benjamin Kolleg in 2022 and the Swiss Association for Gender Studies in 2021.