Meet the Graduates 2024: Venus Aves

Before arriving at Sciences Po, I had never taken any course on gender. However, through my lived experience as a trans woman and my practical engagements as a queer organiser, I was already immersed in struggles to better understand and confront patriarchy. With this background, I also wanted to approach gender from a multidisciplinary lens and critically tackle it with academic rigour. Pursuing the Advanced Certification in Gender Studies allowed me to do that.

The “Gender and Conflict” class taught by Elisabeth Marteu was definitely one of the best classes I took at Sciences Po. In the context of gender apartheid in Afghanistan and the ongoing genocide in Gaza – and the attempts to pinkwash it –, the class pushed me to reflect on the ways in which conflicts entrench gender inequalities and vice versa. It was one of my more critical classes that gave us no easy answers but instead invited us to interrogate dominant frameworks like the United Nations’ Women, Peace and Security agenda and even progressive ones like feminist non-violence.

Listening to Judith Butler speak at Sciences Po on minority universalism, ethics and the politics of difference!

Do not be afraid to unlearn and relearn everything you think you know about gender.

I am currently working as a junior consultant at the International LGBTI Association (ILGA World), engaged in advocacy efforts for LGBTIQ rights at the United Nations. After this, I want to continue advocating for gender justice in and through multilateral spaces.