Talking Research

Dr Melanie O'Brien: Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones

Dr Melanie O'Brien is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia and an award winning teacher of International Humanitarian Law and Legal Research. Her research examines the connection between human rights and the genocide process; and sexual and gender-based crimes and against women in conflict zones. She has conducted fieldwork and research across six continents. In this conversation, she shared her research on Research Discussed: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/a...

Dr Sameena Mulla: Sexual Assault Forensic Intervention

Dr Sameena Mulla is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University. She is the author of the Violence of Care: Rape Victims, Forensic Nurses and Sexual Assault Intervention. Her work broadly theorises the gendered regimes of sexual assault intervention that emerge among the state and sexual assault survivors in the contemporary USA. In this episode, Sameena shared her work on forensic interventions for sexual assaults, ho...

Dr Chloë Kennedy: Deceptive Sex

Dr Chloë Kennedy is a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of Edinburgh. Her main research interests are criminal law, legal theory, legal history, and the relationship between these areas. Her research also focuses on law and gender and law and religion. Chloë is undertaking an AHRC research leader fellowship on identity deception, focussing in particular on inducing intimacy. In this conversation, Chloë shared her research on deceptive sex, what it is, what forms it t...

Samantha Freeman: Television Representations of Sexual Violence

Samantha Freeman is a PhD candidate at Northwestern University's Screen Cultures programme and holds dual certificates in Teaching and Gender & Sexuality Studies. Her dissertation traces how television has represented sexual violence since the 1950s, with a particular focus on the medium's narrative conventions and aesthetics. In this conversation, we spoke about tv representation in the 1950s, two contemporary shows Unbelievable and I May Destroy You, how representations of sexual a...

Dr Gemma Hamilton: Changing Police Attitudes in Sexual Offence Cases

Dr Gemma Hamilton is a lecturer in criminology and justice studies at RMIT University. Her research focuses on violence against women and children, with expertise on policing, family violence, sexual offending and forensic interviewing. In 2016, she won a prize for her phD research that focused on improving investigative interviews with Australian Aboriginal children in cases of sexual abuse. In this conversation, Gemma shared her research on improving police attitudes, forensic in...

Erin O'Callaghan: Survivors' Experiences of Sexual Assault Involving Alcohol/Substance Use

Erin O'Callaghan is a Phd Candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, US. Her dissertation will be a mixed methods study of survivors of sexual assault involving substance use at the time of the assault, in addition to investigating survivors' pleasurable and/or wanted experiences. In this conversation, Erin expanded on these topics. Research Discussed: Ullman, S.E., O’Callaghan, E. and Lorenz, K., 2019. Women’s experiences of impairment and incapacitation during alcohol/dr...

Dr Jane Meyrick: Improving Reporting of Sexual Abuse on University Campuses

Dr Jane Meyrick is a Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at the University of West England, Bristol. She is qualified as a Chartered Health Psychologist and is a Public Health Specialist. She has worked at policy and service levels on sexual health for the last 20 years and leads on sexual health, sexual and reproductive rights/violence. She also co-leads the research on sexual abuse/violence at UWE, Bristol. In this conversation, Jane shared her forthcoming research on the prev...

Dr Rachel Simon-Kumar: Why Ethnic Minorities Under-Report Sexual Violence

Dr Rachel Simon-Kumar is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Her key areas of research are in women's studies and public policy. Her research interests lie in the intersections of gender, ethnicity and policy, in the context of Aoetaora/New Zealand as well as the geopolitical south, particularly India. In this conversation, Rachel shared her research on under-reporting in ethnic minorities in NZ, the factors behind...

Riya Singh: Caste-based Sexual Violence Against Dalit Women

Riya Singh is a part of Core Leadership Group in India's single and largest Dalit women collective, Dalit Women Fight. She works on ground with the survivors of caste atrocities of Dalit community in five states of northern India. She is also a PhD scholar at Ambedkar University Delhi and her research focuses on atrocities and the Scheduled Castes - Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act In this conversation, Riya shared her work and research on combating caste atrocities i...

Dr Rachel Lovell: Rape Kits & Serial Rapists

Dr Rachel Lovell is a Research Assistant Professor at the Begun Centre of Violence Prevention Research and Education at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She is a Sociologist and methodologist who works with law-enforcement, community based agencies and public systems to examine the impact of violent behaviour that is primarily directed at women and girls. In this conversation, Rachel shared her research on rape kits and how they can be used to identify serial...

Thomas Kadri: The Challenge of Digital Abuse

Thomas Kadri is an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law and a Mellon Fellow at Yale Law School, where he is pursuing his Ph.D. in Law. He is currently working on the rise of digital abuse and how people are using networked technologies to engage in harassment, stalking, privacy invasions, and surveillance. In this conversation, Thomas shared his research on digital abuse, how tech companies can be more mindful of digital abuse facilitated by their platforms...

Dr Stephanie Bonnes: Sexual Harassment in the Military

Stephanie Bonnes is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of New Haven. She received a PhD in sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2018. Her scholarship broadly focuses on gender and racial inequality at the intersections of victimization, identity, and organizations. In this conversation, Stephanie shared her work researching sexual harassment faced by servicewomen in the US military, bureaucratic harassment, how institutional sexism and raci...

Dr Anna Bull: Staff Sexual Misconduct in Higher Education

Dr Anna Bull is Senior Lecturer in sociology at the University of Portsmouth, and co-founder of The 1752 Group, a research and lobby organisation working to address staff sexual misconduct in higher education. Her research interests include class and gender inequalities in classical music education; and staff sexual misconduct in higher education. Anna has published her research in leading sociology and music education journals. She was academic advisor to the National Union of Stude...

Dr Laura Lammasniemi: History of Consent Laws

Dr Laura Lammasniemi is an Assistant Professor at Warwick Law School. Laura’s principal research interests lie in the areas of criminal law, gender, and class. She has been awarded the Leverhulme Fellow for 2020-2021. Previously, Laura has published on the history of regulation of human trafficking; and on gender, austerity and social welfare. In this conversation, Laura talks about her research on the history of consent law in England, specifically about the Consent Law Amendment A...

Dr Karen Boyle: Media Coverage of Sexual Assault

Karen Boyle is Professor of Feminist Media Studies at the University of Stratchclyde. Karen’s research has long focused on questions of violence, gender and representation and she has published widely in this area, including in the monograph Media & Violence: Gendering the Debate (Sage 2005), as editor of Everyday Pornography (Routledge 2010) and her most recent book #MeToo, Feminism and Weinstein. In this conversation, we spoke about Karen's work on the trial reporting guidelines (link bel...

Prof Karen Boyle: Media Coverage of Sexual Assault

Karen Boyle is Professor of Feminist Media Studies at the University of Stratchclyde. Karen’s research has long focused on questions of violence, gender and representation and she has published widely in this area, including in the monograph Media & Violence: Gendering the Debate (Sage 2005), as editor of Everyday Pornography (Routledge 2010) and her most recent book #MeToo, Feminism and Weinstein. In this conversation, we spoke about Karen's work on the trial reporting guidelines ...

Dr Sreeparna Chattopadhyay: Sexual Coercion & Rape in Marriage

Dr Stephen Burrell: Engaging Men in Preventing Men's Violence Against Women

Dr Stephen Burrell is an Assistant Professor (Research) in the Department of Sociology at Durham University. He completed his PhD on engaging men and boys in the prevention of men's violence against women in England in the Department of Sociology at Durham University in 2019. He is now undertaking an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department. This is building on his PhD research by exploring opportunities for the business sector to contribu...

Dr Bianca Fileborn: Sexual Harassment at Music Festivals & Street Harassment

Dr Bianca Fileborn is a Lecturer in Criminology, School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. In particular, her current work focuses on sexual violence and harassment. She is also interested in concepts of justice, and particularly informal, innovative, and transformative justice. Dr Fileborn is currently an ARC DECRA recipient. Her project examines concepts of justice and justice responses to street harassment. Dr Fileborn is also currently involved in co...

Dr Parveen Ali: Extended Family & Intimate Partner Violence

Parveen Ali is a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sheffield. She is a Registered Nurse, Registered Nurse Teacher and Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts. She leads the MMedSci Advanced Nursing Studies and is Chair the School of Nursing and Midwifery’s Research Ethics Committee. In this conversation, we spoke about Parveen's research investigating attitudes towards intimate partner violence in Pakistan an...

Dr Nicola Henry: Image-Based Sexual Abuse

Dr Nicola Henry is Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow in the Social and Global Studies Centre at RMIT University. Nicola's research focuses on the prevalence, nature and impacts of sexual violence and harassment, including the legal and non-legal responses in Australian and international contexts. Her research has been largely situated in three socio-legal and criminology fields: (1) transitional and post-conflict justice; (2) rape law reform and primary prevention; an...

Dr Joanna Bourke: Cultural History of Sexual Violence

Joanna Bourke is Professor of History in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, where she has taught since 1992. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. Over the years, her books have ranged from the social and economic history of Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to social histories of the British working classes between 1860 and 1960s, to cultural histories of military conflict between the Anglo-Boer war and the present. She has...

Prof Joanna Bourke: Cultural History of Sexual Violence

Joanna Bourke is Professor of History in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, where she has taught since 1992. She is a Fellow of the British Academy. Over the years, her books have ranged from the social and economic history of Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to social histories of the British working classes between 1860 and 1960s, to cultural histories of military conflict between the Anglo-Boer war and the present...

Dr Hannah Bows: Violence Against Older People

Hannah is currently an Assistant Professor in Criminal Law and Director of Equality and Diversity within Durham Law School. She is Co-Director of the Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice and Deputy Director of the Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA). Her research interests are broadly located within the fields of violence against women, victimology, feminist and socio-legal theory. Over the last six years she has conducted research examining different forms o...

Dr Ruth Friskney: Public Understanding of Child Sexual Exploitation

Dr. Ruth Friskney is a Research fellow at the University of Edinburgh, currently working on a European funded project focused on children affected by domestic abuse called Improving Justice in Child Contact. She's also a Trustee of Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. In this conversation, we talked about her study with Barnardo's looking at public attitudes to child sexual exploitation in Scotland. She explained what child sexual exploitation is, what the study found the public's understan...

Dr Rachael Burgin: Consent Law & Affirmative Consent

Dr. Rachael Burgin is a Lecturer in Law at Swinburne University in Australia. Her work focuses on consent law and affirmative consent. In this conversation, we discussed her work on affirmative consent in Victoria, what affirmative consent means, how it is embedded in law, the limitations of law and room for reform. Rachael also spoke about the importance of being mindful of affirmative consent for individuals during sexual encounters and how they can do that. Research Discussed: ...

Dr Rachel Loney-Howes: #MeToo

Dr Rachel Loney-Howes is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Wollongong. She is an early career researcher with expertise in substantial research into the use of digital technologies for anti-sexual violence activism, and has a particular interest in the relationship between activism, support services and law/legal reforms. Rachel is currently co-authoring a collected edition on the "Me Too" movement, due to be published in 2019, with a follow-up book on the use of social ...

Dr. Rachel Loney-Howes: #MeToo

Dr Rachel Loney-Howes is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Wollongong. She is an early career researcher with expertise in substantial research into the use of digital technologies for anti-sexual violence activism, and has a particular interest in the relationship between activism, support services and law/legal reforms. Rachel is currently co-authoring a collected edition on the "Me Too" movement, due to be published in 2019, with a follow-up book on the use of social media for...

Dr. Liz Kelly: Coercive Control

Professor Liz Kelly is a professor of sexualised violence and she is also director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at the London Metropolitan University. She holds the Roddick Chair on Violence against Women. Liz has been active in the field of violence against women and children for 40 years and is the author of Surviving Sexual Violence, which established the concept of a 'continuum of violence' and over 100 book chapters and journal articles. In 2000, Liz was awarded a CB...

Prof Liz Kelly: Coercive Control

Professor Liz Kelly is a professor of sexualised violence and she is also director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at the London Metropolitan University. She holds the Roddick Chair on Violence against Women. Liz has been active in the field of violence against women and children for 40 years and is the author of Surviving Sexual Violence, which established the concept of a 'continuum of violence' and over 100 book chapters and journal articles. In 2000, Liz was awa...

Dr Liz Kelly: Coercive Control

Professor Liz Kelly is a professor of sexualised violence and she is also director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) at the London Metropolitan University. She holds the Roddick Chair on Violence against Women. Liz has been active in the field of violence against women and children for 40 years and is the author of Surviving Sexual Violence, which established the concept of a 'continuum of violence' and over 100 book chapters and journal articles. In 2000, Liz was awarded a CB...

Dr Nadia Wager: Sexual Revictimisation

Dr Nadia Wager is a Reader in Forensic Psychology at the University of Huddersfield. She has over 20 years worth of experience researching sexual violence. In this conversation, she talked about sexual revictimisation, what it is and how it relates to child abuse disclosure and also disassociation. She discussed telltale sings of child abuse, and how to handle disclosures of child abuse and what betrayal trauma is. She also talked about disassociation, what it is and how it relates t...

Dr. Nadia Wager: Sexual Revictimisation

Dr. Nadia Wager is a Reader in Forensic Psychology at the University of Huddersfield. She has over 20 years worth of experience researching sexual violence. In this conversation, she talked about sexual revictimisation, what it is and how it relates to child abuse disclosure and also disassociation. She discussed telltale sings of child abuse, and how to handle disclosures of child abuse and what betrayal trauma is. She also talked about disassociation, what it is and how it relates to disclo...

Dr Alison Phipps: Lad Culture & Political Whiteness

Dr. Alison Phipps is a Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Sussex. She has previously been Director of Gender Studies and Equality and Diversity Chair for the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at Sussex and is currently Research and Impact Lead for the Sociology department. Alison advised National Union of Students (UK) on the groundbreaking 2010 Hidden Marks survey, the first prevalence study of violence against women students and co-authored That's What She Said, the 2013 r...

Dr. Alison Phipps: Lad Culture & Political Whiteness

Dr. Alison Phipps is a Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Sussex. She has previously been Director of Gender Studies and Equality and Diversity Chair for the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at Sussex and is currently Research and Impact Lead for the Sociology department. Alison advised National Union of Students (UK) on the groundbreaking 2010 Hidden Marks survey, the first prevalence study of violence against women students and co-authored That's What She Said, the 2013 r...

Prof Alison Phipps: Lad Culture & Political Whiteness

Alison Phipps is a Professor of Gender Studies at the University of Sussex. She has previously been Director of Gender Studies and Equality and Diversity Chair for the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at Sussex and is currently Research and Impact Lead for the Sociology department. Alison advised National Union of Students (UK) on the groundbreaking 2010 Hidden Marks survey, the first prevalence study of violence against women students and co-authored That's What She Said, the 2...

Dr. Olivia Smith: Court Responses to Rape

Dr. Olivia Smith is a Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at the University of Loughborough. Olivia’s research has been used as an evidence-base on rape justice by the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, and by third sector organisations such as Rape Crisis. In this conversation, we spoke about Olivia's research on the gaps in the criminal justice system in responding to rape victims in England and Wales. We discussed themes such as rape myths, gendered bias in Ancient Greek philosophy...

Dr Olivia Smith: Court Responses to Rape

Dr. Olivia Smith is a Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at the University of Loughborough. Olivia’s research has been used as an evidence-base on rape justice by the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, and by third sector organisations such as Rape Crisis. In this conversation, we spoke about Olivia's research on the gaps in the criminal justice system in responding to rape victims in England and Wales. We discussed themes such as rape myths, gendered bias in Ancient Greek p...

Dr. Manali Desai: Gendered Violence in India

Dr. Manali Desai is a Reader in Comparative and Historical Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on the areas of state formation, political parties, social movements, development, ethnic violence, gender and post-colonial studies. In this conversation, we spoke about gendered violence in India in general and Manali's related research in particular. Manali brought along her expertise of post-colonial India and used her sociological lens to dissect the institutional conditi...

Dr Manali Desai: Gendered Violence in India

Dr Manali Desai is a Reader in Comparative and Historical Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Her work focuses on the areas of state formation, political parties, social movements, development, ethnic violence, gender and post-colonial studies. In this conversation, we spoke about gendered violence in India in general and Manali's related research in particular. Manali brought along her expertise of post-colonial India and used her sociological lens to dissect the institutional...

Erin Shannon: University Responses to Sexual Violence

Erin Shannon is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Education at the University of York in York, England with several years of experience in researching sexual violence in universities. Her Ph.D. research project is a comparative study of university responses to sexual violence in the US and England. In this conversation, we go into her Ph.D. research in detail. We look at how university responses interact with the neoliberal university, preserving reputation and the benefits of com...

Dr. Franziska Meinck: Child Abuse

Dr. Franziska Meinck is a lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focus is the prevalence, risk and protective factors of child maltreatment in vulnerable populations in Sub-Saharan Africa, health outcomes of violence exposure in childhood, childhood violence prevention and on the development and testing of global child abuse measures. Franziska is currently funded by an ESRC Future Research Leader Award and in 2016 she won the ISPCAN C. Henry Kempe Award for outs...

Dr Franziska Meinck: Child Abuse

Dr. Franziska Meinck is a lecturer in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focus is the prevalence, risk and protective factors of child maltreatment in vulnerable populations in Sub-Saharan Africa, health outcomes of violence exposure in childhood, childhood violence prevention and on the development and testing of global child abuse measures. Franziska is currently funded by an ESRC Future Research Leader Award and in 2016 she won the ISPCAN C. Henry Kempe Award...

Dr. Holly Davis: Sex Work & Sexual Violence

Dr. Holly Davis is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow. She received her phD in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh for her research exploring the experiences of pimps involved in illegal prostitution in the United States. She has also worked directly and in various capacities with sex workers, sex trafficking victims, domestic and sexual violence survivors, violent male offenders and male sex offenders. She has convened and delivered the course The Sociology of Sex Work in the depar...

Dr Mithu Sanyal: From Lucretia to #MeToo

Dr. Mithu M. Sanyal is a radio presenter, an award winning academic, a prominent German feminist and an author. Her first book, Vulva, was translated into 5 languages. Her second book Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo came out earlier this year and has received widespread acclaim. In this conversation, Mithu talks about the cultural history of rape, how honour is linked to rape and the notion of 'hysteria' to false accusations. Moving to present day issues, she lends her expertise as an...

Dr. Mithu Sanyal: From Lucretia to #MeToo

Dr. Mithu M. Sanyal is a radio presenter, an award winning academic, a prominent German feminist and an author. Her first book, Vulva, was translated into 5 languages. Her second book Rape: From Lucretia to #MeToo came out earlier this year and has received widespread acclaim. In this conversation, Mithu talks about the cultural history of rape, how honour is linked to rape and the notion of 'hysteria' to false accusations. Moving to present day issues, she lends her expertise as an academic ...

Dr Holly Davis: Sex Work & Sexual Violence

Dr. Holly Davis received her phD in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh for her research exploring the experiences of pimps involved in illegal prostitution in the United States. She has also worked directly and in various capacities with sex workers, sex trafficking victims, domestic and sexual violence survivors, violent male offenders and male sex offenders. She has convened and delivered the course The Sociology of Sex Work in the department of Sociology at the University...