Institutional responses to gender-based harassment and violence

Supervisor: Professor Vanita Sundaram

A) Rationale for the project

Under the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty in the UK public institutions, such as schools, further education colleges and universities have a legal duty to ensure that they do not discriminate against people working and studying within these institutions. Discrimination might occur on the basis of characteristics defined as ‘protected’ under the Equality Act, including gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion, race and sex. Institutional responses to gender-based harassment and violence (and other forms of harassment and hate crime) have been varied, ranging from spot-check solutions to deal with the immediate issue to institution-wide policy change and implementation of training programmes for staff and students. Few of these responses or interventions have been rigorously evaluated; few have considered the cross-cutting forms of harassment that might be experienced by students and staff.

B) References that should be read

Bull, A. and Rye, R. (2018) Silencing students: Institutional Responses to Staff Sexual Misconduct in UK Higher Education. The 1752 Group/University of Portsmouth. Portsmouth, U.K.

Fenton R.A., and Mott H.L. (2018). Preliminary Evaluation of the Intervention Initiative, a Bystander Intervention Program to Prevent Violence Against Women in Universities. Violence and Victims, 33(4), 645-662.

Renold, E. 2019. Primary AGENDA: Supporting children in making positive relationships matter.. Cardiff: Cardiff University, Children’s Commissioner for Wales, NSPCC Cymru/Wales, and Welsh Women’s Aid.

Sundaram, V., Shannon, E., Page, T., and Phipps, A. (2019). Developing an intersectional approach to training on sexual harassment, violence and hate crimes. Office for Students/University of York. University of York, U.K.

C) Research aims and questions

You will explore how educational institutions conceptualise gender-based harassment and violence, and how they respond to it. This might include analysing policies, curricula, speaking with staff tasked with responding to harassment and violence, exploring students’ perspectives on institutional response. You will consider how gender intersects with other characteristics in experiences of harassment and violence, and how institutions address this. You will focus on a specific educational context eg universities, schools, informal settings. You might also evaluate how the experiences of staff or students in a setting where a specific intervention has been implemented compares with those in a setting where no specific institutional intervention is in place.

D) Methods

You will determine your own methodology through reading and supervision. Most likely, this type of project will involve a combination of methods, including document analysis, critical discourse analysis, interviews, survey, focus groups.