Tackling Gender-Based Violence in Universities – Call for Papers
Tues 14 March, 2017
A joint symposium between Newcastle University (Kathryn Hollingsworth and Nikki Godden-Rasul), Northumbria University (Ruth Lewis) and British Sociological Association Gender Study Group
Venue: Newcastle University
Gender-based violence (GBV) on UK campuses has finally begun to gain the attention of scholars, government, the media and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), decades later than it has in some other countries (notably the USA). The 2016 Changing the Culture report published by the Universities UK Taskforce – established to examine violence against women, harassment and hate crime affecting university students – and the accompanying guidelines advising universities on how to handle alleged student misconduct that may also constitute a criminal offence, mark a turning point in the regulatory framework governing HEIs’ response to GBV. These changes have happened amidst a wider revival of resistance to GBV in all its forms. In universities, the resistance has focused particularly on sexual harassment, sexual violence, and sexual objectification, ‘lad culture’ amongst students, and the enduring legacy of abuse by academic staff against other staff and/or students.
This one-day symposium seeks to illuminate critical perspectives on these developments. We invite contributions from a range of disciplines (including sociology, law, education, gender/women’s studies and psychology) in order to explore, analyse and critique:
· How recent government and HEI responses have framed GBV in universities;
· The scope, adequacy and potential of the legal and regulatory framework governing HEIs on how to address and prevent GBV;
· The inter-relationship between HEIs’ responses to GBV (including but not confined to disciplinary proceedings) and other forms of justice (including criminal justice, civil justice, and restorative justice);
· How the neo-liberalisation of HEIs impacts on university cultures, responses to GBV, and activism around GBV in universities;
· The role of student activists in bringing attention to GBV in universities and in holding universities to account for GBV amongst their staff and students;
· Conceptual frameworks which forefront ‘risk’, ‘safety’, ‘danger’ and ‘protection’;
· How prevention interventions might shift campus cultures;
· How universities are responding to increased expectations that they improve preventative measures and responses to GBV.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be sent to law.events@newcastle.ac.uk by Friday 6 January 2017.
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