Talking Research

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 worked on the history of the emotions, particularly fear and hatred, and the history of sexual violence. In the past few years, her research has focussed on questions of humanity, militarisation, and pain. She wrote a book entitled What It Means to Be Human. In 2014, she published two books: Wounding the World. How Military Violence and War Games Invade Our World and The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers.

In this conversation, we spoke about her book Rape: A history From 1860 to the Present and general themes such as the fall in conviction rates, why we need to look at perpetrators, the importance of a survivor- centered definition of rape & more.

https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Rape.html?id=e_EDAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

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 of violence against older people, with a specific focus on domestic violence, sexual violence and homicide of older women. This work has led to a range of outputs, media interviews and articles, policy and public engagement activity. She was awarded an ESRC Outstanding Impact (runner-up) prize in 2017. She is currently working on a British Academy funded project with colleagues in the Department of Sociology examining Sexual Violence at UK music festivals. You can find out more about the study here: https://safetystudydurham.wordpress.com/. Outside of the university, Hannah is the founder and director of the International Network for Research into Violence and Abuse and co-director of the British Society of Criminology Victims Network (with Professor Pam Davies at Northumbria University). She is Chair of Age UK Teesside.

In this conversation, we spoke about her work on violence against older people and specifically sexual violence against older people in the UK. Hannah shed light on the forms this violence takes, survivors, perpetrators, the 'real rape stereotype', the work that needs to go into tackling violence against older people and more.

Research discussed:

Bows, H. (2018) ‘Domestic Homicide of Older People (2010-2015): A comparative analysis of intimate-partner homicide and parricide cases in the UK’. British Journal of Social Work. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy10

Bows, H. and Westmarland, N. (2018) ‘Rape of Older People In The United Kingdom: Challenging The ‘Real Rape’ Stereotype. British Journal of Criminology. 57 (1), 1-17. Available from: http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/11/24/bjc.azv116.full

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 understanding of it was, some common misconceptions about it, and other related themes.

Research discussed:

https://www.barnardos.org.uk/barnardo_s_scotland_-_public_understanding_of_cse_in_scotland_2019.pdf

Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre's creative writing anthology by survivors who have used their service: https://www.ercc.scot/rising-free/

Improving Justice in Child Contact (IJCC) webpage and blogs:

www.ed.ac.uk/education/ijcc

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/ijcc/

Yello!’s (IJCC young expert advisers’) submission to the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament on the Children (Scotland) Bill

https://www.parliament.scot/S5_JusticeCommittee/Inquiries/JS519CH21_Yello.pdf

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:

Rachael Burgin, Persistent Narratives of Force and Resistance: Affirmative Consent as Law Reform, The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 59, Issue 2, March 2019, Pages 296–314, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azy043

Burgin, R., & Flynn, A. (2019). Women’s behavior as implied consent: Male “reasonableness” in Australian rape law. Criminology & Criminal Justice. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895819880953

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 anti-rape activism to be released in 2020 with Emerald Press. She is also the recipient of a Faculty Partnership Grant with Illawarra Women's Health Centre investing domestic violence prevention in high schools. In this conversation, we spoke about #MeToo, its emergence and digital spaces for anti sexual-violence activism. We discussed mainstream media's reporting on #MeToo, representations of rape, the rape-script, effect of online disclosure on victims and more. Research discussed:

Loney-Howes, R. (2018). Shifting the Rape Script: "Coming Out" Online as a Rape Victim. Frontiers: a journal of women studies, 39 (2), 26-57.

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 CBE in the New Years Honours List for 'services combating violence against women and children', and in January 2005 was appointed to the Board of Commissioners of the Women's National Commission. In this conversation we spoke about Coercive Control: what it is and why the concept is needed.

Research discussed:

Kelly, L., Sharp-Jeffs, N., & Klein, R. (2014). Finding the costs of freedom: How women and children rebuild their lives after domestic violence.

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 disclosure and revictimisation and everyday situations.

Research discussed:

Wager, N., 2011. Researching sexual revictimisation: associated ethical and methodological issues, and possible solutions. Child Abuse Review, 20(3), pp.158-172.

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 report on women students' experiences of 'lad culture'. In this conversation, we spoke about Hidden Marks and That's What She Said. We also spoke about tackling lad culture, how it interacts with rape culture and Alison's new book about political whiteness in feminist movements- Me Not You: The Trouble With Mainstream Feminism. Me Not You

Research Discussed:

Phipps, Alison (2019) The fight against sexual violence. Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture, 71. pp. 62-74. ISSN 1362-6620

Phipps, Alison (2016) (Re)theorising laddish masculinities in higher education. Gender and Education, 29 (7). pp. 815-830. ISSN 1360-0516

Phipps, Alison and Young, Isabel (2015) 'Lad culture' in higher education: agency in the sexualisation debates. Sexualities, 18 (4). pp. 459-479. ISSN 1363-4607

Phipps, Alison and Young, Isabel (2013) That's what she said: women students' experiences of 'lad culture' in higher education. Project Report. National Union of Students, London.

https://www.nus.org.uk/Global/NUS_hidden_marks_report_2nd_edition_web.pdf

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 based concepts of reason and ration- and how they affect court responses to rape victims, moving towards a survivor-centric criminal justice system and more.

Research discussed:

Smith, O. (2017). The practicalities of English and Welsh rape trials: Observations and avenues for improvement. Criminology & Criminal Justice. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895817702508

Smith, O. & Skinner, T. (2017). How rape myths are used and challenged at court. Social & Legal Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663916680130

Smith, O. & Skinner, T. (2012). Observing Court Responses to Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault. Feminist Criminology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085112437875

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 conditions that normalise violence, neoliberalism and how that relates to sexual violence, white feminist gaze and more.

Article that we discussed: Desai, M. 2016. ‘Gendered Violence and the Body Politic in India', New Left Review, May/June.

Manali's Books:

DeLeon, C., M. Desai and C. Tugal (eds.). 2015. Building Blocs: How Parties Organize Society. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. (ASA Political Sociology Section: Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship (Article or Book Chapter) Award (Honorable Mention)

Chatterjee, P., M. Desai and P. Roy (eds.). 2009. States of Trauma: Gender and Violence in South Asia. New Delhi: Zubaan and Cambridge University Press.

Desai, M. 2007. State Formation and Radical Democracy in India, 1860-1990. [Studies in Asia's Transformations Series]. London and New York: Routledge.