Talking Research

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.

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 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, how they are failing to do justice to victim-survivors and how they can be improved. Research Discussed: https://nyupress.org/9781479867219/the-violence-of-care/

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.

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/abs/10.1080/13642987.2015.1091562