GENDER BASED VIOLENCE RESEARCH FORUM
The forum is a network for staff and postgraduate students across the University to share information, develop research ideas, and receive support in relation to gender-based violence research.
Our activities include:
- Sharing information, knowledge and opportunities in relation to GBV work (e.g. policy developments, conference, funding opportunities) amongst members
- Organising GBV related seminars (with internal and external speakers)
- Producing the Scottish GBV Research Resource List (annually)
- Providing emotional and practical support for members around GBV research
- Collating information about UoG staff and students with GBV research expertise and publications via the GBVRF webpage
If you or someone that you know has been affected by gender-based violence, you can find information about support services available for students and non-students online.
If you are interested in joining the forum, please contact the convenor Oona Brooks-Hay: oona.brooks@glasgow.ac.uk
Convenors
Dr Oona Brooks-Hay, Dr Clare McFeely, and Ulku Baturoglu Balci.
Events
Previous Events
2021
To mark the 16 Days of Action on GBV, the University of Glasgow GBV Research Forum hosted two online seminars.
Post-Separation Economic Power and Control
Speaker: Jenn Glinski (University of Glasgow)
Date and time: Thursday, 9 December, 1-2 pm
View the seminar presentation.
Women's Experiences of Victim Blame from Agencies
Speaker: Amy Beddows (London Metropolitan University)
Date and time: Thursday, 25 November, 1-2 pm
View the seminar presentation.
2019
Behind Glass Walls: Gendered barriers to justice for women experiencing domestic abuse
Speaker: Emma Forbes (SCCJR, University of Glasgow)
Date and time: Friday, 15 November 2019
Venue: Yudo Seminar Room, Woolfson Building, University of Glasgow
ACEs: Through a feminist lens
Speaker: Professor Jane Callaghan (University of Stirling)
Date and time: Monday 16 September, 1-2.15 pm
Venue: Yudo Seminar Room, Woolfson Building, University of Glasgow
GBV Research Forum and QRaG Seminar:
'The challenges (and successes) of using an arts-based qualitative research approach with women who have lived experience of gender-based violence'
Speaker: Nicola Dickson (School of Education, University of Glasgow)
Date and time: Tuesday 26 March, 1-2 pm
Venue: Room 916, Adam Smith Building
QRaG is a new initiative to promote advanced qualitative methods and research via seminars open to all.
'Whose rapes matter?'
Speaker: Rebecca Helman (University of Edinburgh)
Date and time: Tuesday 5 June, 10-11 am
Venue: The Gannochy, Wolfson Medical School Building, University of Glasgow
This seminar was organised by the University of Glasgow GBV Research Forum, the Scottish GVBRN and SCCJR.
Gender-Based Violence Research Forum meeting:
Date and Time: Tuesday, 5 June, 11:15 am-12:15 pm.
2017
SCCJR and GBVRF Seminar:
'South Asian women's experience of abuse by female affinal kin: a critique of mainstream conceptualisations of 'domestic abuse'
Speaker: Nughmana Mirza, SCCJR, University of Glasgow
Date and time: Tuesday, 10 October 2017, 12:30-2:00 pm
Venue: Adam Smith Research Foundation Seminar Room, 66 Oakfield Avenue
SCCJR and GBVRF Seminar:
'Consensual Sexual Behaviour Between Adolescents: Improving the Statutory Framework in Scotland'
Speaker: Isla Callander (School of Law, University of Glasgow)
Date and time: Wednesday, 21 June 2017
Gender Based Violence Research Publications in Scotland: 2024
This resource list details Scottish GBV-related research articles and reports published in the past five years. It is prepared annually by the University of Glasgow GBV Research Forum to help improve access to research publications and share knowledge within and beyond academia. The publications listed have been divided into thematic categories, though some are relevant to more than one category. Where resources are available online, hyperlinks have been included. Some journal articles require a subscription, but a free pre-publication version of the article may be found on the homepages of academic authors.
Children and young people
Child contact
Domestic abuse and stalking
McPherson, R., Burgess, N. and Gormley, J. (2024) The sentencing of offences involving stalking in Scotland. Literature review. Documentation. Scottish Sentencing Council, Edinburgh.
Burman, M., Brooks-Hay, O. and Friskney, R. (2023) ‘Operationalizing Coercive Control: Early Insights on the Policing of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018’ in Douglas, H., Fitz-Gibbon, K., Goodmark, L. and. Walklate, S. (eds.), The Criminalization of Violence Against Women: Comparative Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, J., Cullen., B. and McFeely, C. (2023) ‘Posttraumatic Growth in Survivors of Domestic Abuse in Scotland’ in Berger R (ed) Routledge International Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth. Oxon, Routledge.
McPherson, R. (2023) Killings following domestic abuse: public opinion, law reform and the future direction of Scots law. Juridical Review, 2023(2), pp. 97-112.
McPherson, R. (2023) Prosecuting and sentencing domestic abuse in Scotland. In: Bettinson, V., Speed, A., Richardson, K. and Burton, M. (eds.) Research Handbook on Domestic Violence and Abuse. Edward Elgar.
McPherson, R. (2023) Fit for purpose in today’s society? Reflecting on provocation pleas in modern Scotland. Journal of Criminal Law, 87(2), pp. 97-108. DOI:10.1177/00220183231165813
Houghton, C., Morrison, F., Warrington, C. and Tisdall, E.K.M. (2022) Domestic Abuse Court Experiences Research: the perspectives of victims and witnesses in Scotland. Edinburgh: Scottish Government.
Lombard, N. and Proctor, K. (2022) Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and the Criminal Justice System: Women’s Experiences. The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research.
McPherson, R., Gormley, J. and Wheate, R. (2022) The sentencing of offences involving domestic abuse in Scotland. Documentation. Scottish Sentencing Council, Edinburgh.
McPherson, R. (2022) Women and self-defence: an empirical and doctrinal analysis. International Journal of Law in Context, 18(4), pp. 461-475. DOI: 10.1017/S1744552322000131
Friskney, R., Brooks-Hay, O. and Burman, M. (2021) Frontline responses to domestic abuse in Scotland. In: Lobinkar, B., Vogt, C. and Kersten, J. (eds.) Improving Frontline Responses to Domestic Violence in Europe. University of Maribor University Press: Maribor: 239-255.
Domestic/intimate partner homicide
McPherson, R. (2023) Reflecting on legal responses to intimate partner femicide in Scotland. Violence Against Women, 29(3-4), pp. 686-704. DOI:10.1177/10778012221094068 (PMID:35989666)
McPherson, R. (2022) Women accused of killing with others: experiences of the Scottish criminal justice system. Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 61(4), pp. 484-501. DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12490
GBV and inequalities
Zero Tolerance (2024) Extreme misogyny is rife in Scottish schools. Zero Tolerance, Edinburgh.
Scottish Government (2023) Women’s Justice Leadership Panel Report. Edinburgh.
Media
McPherson, R. (2023) News media reporting on Scottish cases in which women kill following domestic abuse. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism. DOI: 10.1177/14648849231207677 (Early Online Publication)
Boyle K., Brenna, J. and Strickland, M. (2022) ‘Rape in the news: contemporary challenges’, in Rape Challenging Contemporary Thinking - 10 Years On Challenging Contemporary Thinking - 10 Years On. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Pandemic
Brooks-Hay, O., Saunders, K. and Burman, M. (2022) A toxic mix: the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on the post-separation experiences of domestic abuse survivors. Journal of Gender-Based Violence, 6(3): 426-441.
Houghton, C., Morrison, F. and McCabe, L. (2020) Domestic Abuse: Children’s Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA), Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland: Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment on the Response to Covid-19 in Scotland.
Prevention
Kerr, N. and Dawson, K. (2022) ‘Rape Crisis: Taking a partnership approach to addressing gender-based violence with universities and colleges across Scotland’ in C. J. Humphreys and G. J. Towl (eds.) Stopping Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education: Policy, Practice, and Partnership. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
McCarry, M., Jones, C. and Donaldson, A. (2022) ‘The significance of culture in the prevention of gender-based violence in universities’ in C. J. Humphreys and G. J. Towl (eds.) Stopping Gender-Based Violence in Higher Education: Policy, Practice, and Partnership. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
Burman, M., Dawson, K., McDougall, L., Morton, K. and Nokhbatolfoghahai, F. (2020) ‘Building authentic partnerships for responding to gender‐based violence in universities’ in R. Lewis and S. Marine (eds.) Collaborating for change: Transforming cultures to end gender-based violence in higher education. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McMillan, L. and White, D. (2021) The Promises and Perils of Anti-rape Technologies, in Powell, A., Flynn, A. and Sugiura, L. (eds). Palgrave Handbook of Gendered Violence and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan.
White, D. and McMillan, L. (2020) Innovating the Problem Away? A Critical Study of Anti-Rape Technologies, Violence Against Women, 26(10): 1120-1140
Rape and sexual assault
Keane E. P. H. (2024) Criminal justice, legal reform and devolution: Juryless trials and the Victims, Witnesses & Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. In: Centre for Public Policy.
Biggs, H., Reid, S., Attygalle, K., Vosnaki, K., McPherson, R. and Tata, C. (2021) Public Perceptions of Sentencing in Scotland: Qualitative research exploring sexual offences. Documentation. Scottish Sentencing Council, Edinburgh, UK.
McPherson, R., Burgess, N., Gormely, J. and Tata, C. (2021) Sexual offences involving rape literature review. Documentation. Scottish Sentencing Council, Edinburgh.
McPherson, R., Gormely, J., Burgess, N. and Tata, C. (2021) Sexual offences involving sexual assault literature review. Documentation. Scottish Sentencing Council, Edinburgh.
Member biographies
Susan Batchelor is a Senior Lecturer based in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Her research interests centre around the intersections of gender, generation, culture and crime and include: the strengths and limitations of gendered accounts of violence; approaches to working with girls and young women who offend; women and risk; girls and gangs.
Carolyn Blake, Research Associate (MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit)
Lisa Bradley is a Lecturer in Creative and Interdisciplinary Studies in Education at the School of Education and an Affiliate Researcher with the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Her research focuses on the relationships between dominant knowledge structures/practices and marginalised ways knowing of being. She specialises in designing post-qualitative and arts-based methodologies to uncover and transform such structures; and has used such approaches in her work with survivors of rape, sexual assault, and domestic abuse towards making visible their perceptions and experiences of abuse and justice.
Oona Brooks-Hay is a Reader in Criminology based within the Sociology subject area and the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR). She has worked as a researcher and practitioner in the field of gender-based violence for over twenty years. Recent research includes projects focusing on creative representations of rape victim-survivor experiences of the criminal justice process, rape advocacy, and frontline responses to domestic abuse across Europe.
Ulku Baturoglu Balci is a PhD researcher in Sociology & Criminology at the University of Glasgow, based in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR). Her PhD research, titled “Constituting Violence: Women’s Experiences of Violence in Rural Scotland”, aims to understand women's experience of gender-based violence in rural and island communities in Scotland.
Michele Burman is a Professor of Criminology. She has substantial specialist knowledge and expertise in the area of gender, crime and criminal justice, in particular in relation to sexual offences and violence against women.
James Chalmers works in the School of Law and carries out research in the areas of criminal law, evidence and procedure, including court processes. In particular, he has worked on the reform of sexual offences law and the use of victim statements in criminal proceedings.
Isabella Copplestone is a postgraduate student in the Gender History MSc at Glasgow. She is looking to orient her dissertation around the exclusion of older women from feminist- and/or state-organised GBV service provision. More generally, she is interested in learning more about the intersections of gender, older age, disability, and justice, as well as intergenerational relations in feminist organizing.
Lindsay Farmer works on the history and theory of criminal law. He has a particular interest in legal responses to sexual and gender violence. He is the author, most recently, of Making the Modern Criminal Law. Criminalization and Civil Order (Oxford, 2016).
Ruth Friskney is based in SCCJR as a research associate on the European funded project. IMPRODOVA: Improving frontline responses to high-impact domestic violence at the University of Edinburgh, she has been working on Improving Justice in Child Contact, a five country European project seeking to enhance children’s participation in decisions that affect them. Ruth also works part-time at the University of Stirling on Constructions of children and parents during the reform of family law in Scotland, a project looking at discourses around domestic abuse and families during the parliamentary process of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020.
Christine Goodall is a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Oral Surgery based in the Dental School. She has research interests in the epidemiology of violence, violence prevention and interventions for violence and alcohol in clinical settings, particularly trauma clinics. She founded Medics against Violence, a violence prevention charity in 2008 and as part of that, developed a training (Ask Support Care) around domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault for those working in health and other front-facing roles where they may encounter those experiencing abuse.
Mo Hume is a Senior Lecturer in Politics. Her research focuses on how multiple and overlapping forms of violence are perceived by those who live in contexts of chronic insecurity. She has applied the insights from feminist theory and practice for understanding violent processes and women's responses to these. This involves detailed research on violence against women, as well as a situated exploration of the wider gendered politics of violence. She has carried out extensive fieldwork in Central America.
Natalie Jenkins is a research assistant with the Glasgow Brain Injury Research Group and Centre for Dementia Prevention (University of Edinburgh) with an interest in domestic abuse and dementia risk.
Fiona Leverick, Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice (School of Law)
Mhairi Mackenzie works in the field of health inequalities with a particular interest in researching discourses of health and its social determinants. She also conducts research within the arena of gender-based violence and is concerned with how structural factors play out in the microlevel encounters that women experiencing abuse have with service providers.
Jane Mair, Professor of Private Law (School of Law)
Clare McFeely is a Lecturer in Nursing & Health Care, MVLS. Clare is interested in gender-based violence as a public health issue, health service responses to survivors (primarily of domestic abuse) and in introducing GBV to the undergraduate curriculum. Prior to working at the University of Glasgow Clare worked in a range of roles within the NHS, originally as a midwife and latterly as a research manager on the Scottish Government National GBV & Health programme.
Rachel McPherson, Lecturer in Criminal Law (School of Law)
Nughmana Mirza is a lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, based in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. Her main research interests relate to South Asian women’s experiences of family abuse at the macro and micro levels.
Kirstin Mitchell is a Senior Research Fellow at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Institute of Health and Wellbeing. She is a social scientist specialising in sexual health and is interested in links between sexual violence, gender inequality, and sexual health outcomes (including sexually transmitted infections and sexual function). Kirstin is currently collaborating with Rape Crisis, Zero Tolerance and Glasgow Caledonian University, to develop and evaluate a Whole-Schools approach to addressing gender-based violence in secondary schools.
Ellena Nowell is a Leverhulme funded PhD student currently researching criminal law reform. She is jointly supervised by the School of Law and the SCCJR. Her working title is 'Criminal statistics and the development of sexual offences'.
Helen Sweeting started work at the MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU) within the Youth and Health Programme in late 1990, and she has a longstanding interest in influences on young people's health and health behaviours. Helen is currently involved in collaborative work between SPHSU, Rape Crisis, Zero Tolerance and Glasgow Caledonian University, to refine, pilot, deliver and evaluate a Whole-Schools approach to addressing gender-based violence and sexual harassment in Scottish secondary schools.
Mairi Hamilton is a PhD researcher based in the Centre for Gender History at Glasgow. Her thesis examines narrative accounts of women’s experience of domestic abuse in early nineteenth-century Scotland. It analyses court records from a feminist perspective to shed light on the impact of male violence on diverse aspects of women’s ordinary lives.
Tracey McKee is a part-time student on the (new) MVLS MSc in Digital Health Interventions and works as a Librarian in the NHS where she has experience of developing mobile apps in the area of mental health. Her dissertation project is around the use of mobile apps to support survivors of sexual violence; this will involve undertaking qualitative research with survivors in partnership with Rape Crisis Scotland in 2022.
Ana Cannilla is a Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests include constitutional law, jurisprudence and feminist legal theory. Ana teaches Constitutional Law 1 and is the course convenor for the honours course Gender, Sexualities and the Law.
Phoebe Reilly is a postgraduate student undertaking an LLM by Research. Her thesis is looking at Scottish university responses to GBV complaints, focusing on student-to-student harassment and violence. Other areas of interest include trauma-informed legal practice, GBV prevention training programmes, and ending violence against women through cultural and legal reform.
Naomi Browell is a postgraduate research student in Theology & Religious Studies. Her PhD studies focus on the meeting point of trauma and liturgy – discovering whether, and in what ways, women experience the liturgy of the Scottish Episcopal Church as life-affirming or life-denying after living through a sexual assault.
Sandy Brindley is a part-time PhD student at the School of Law, researching victim participation for rape complainers in adversarial criminal justice processes. She is also the Chief Executive of Rape Crisis Scotland.
Stephanie Love is currently a Research Assistant on the Bluestone Soteria project with fellow colleagues at the Scottish Centre for Criminal Justice Research (SCCJR) and is also a PhD student at the University of Glasgow. Her thesis aims to explore the ways in which gender hierarchies and inequalities manifest in online dating contexts. She has experience of working with women within the criminal justice system as both a practitioner and a researcher.