Commentary

SHaME Public Engagement Coordinators Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh and Allison McKibban introduce (Un)Silenced, a series in collaboration with History Workshop Online, which explores how sexual violence relates to various societal institutions.

SHaME researchers Emma Yapp and Adeline Moussion share their experiences designing and facilitating the ‘Unpopular Opinions Workshop’ at the Shameless! Festival. The workshop provided a space for survivors to express their anger and frustrations, while challenging institutional and societal expectations of victimhood and survivorship.

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: A Lost Opportunity By Ruth Beecher and Joanna Bourke   The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), whose...

Dr Ruth Beecher overviews her workshop, History Investigators, from the Shameless! Festival. The interactive session asked festival goers to delve into fact, myth, folklore and personal histories to build a timeline of resistance to sexual violence.

SHaME reflects on the death of bell hooks. We think about hooks’ legacy and influence on our own work.

'Words from an "Unideal" Victim' by Mary Morgan   Are you an ideal victim?   In allegations of sexual assault, there exists an “ideal victim.”...

SHaME team member Allison McKibban gives a behind-the-scenes look at her own experience in one aspect of planning the Shameless! Festival. She explains how safeguarding training not only helped her prepare for the festival, but also transformed her ways of thinking around survivorship and the intricacies of creating safer spaces.

By Emily T. Troscianko, University of Oxford   “Triggering” is a term that gets bandied about a lot these days. What is triggering really?  ...

Military #MeToo: From Dismay to Anger   Joanna Bourke reflects on the devastating conclusions of a report by the Defense Committee (25 July 2021) entitled...

‘Something Needed to be Done’.   Diane Allen, OBE, retired Lieutenant-Colonel and author, discusses the potential implications of the  recently released House of Commons Defence...

Are Women in the Military Being Listened to? An exploration of crucial reforms currently being considered in British, Canadian and US armed forces   Julie...

Watch this space! The British military is having its own #MeToo moment. Increasingly, servicewomen and men have been coming forward to speak about sexual harassment...

On 08 March 2021, our academic lead, Professor Joanna Bourke, joined Jude Kelly, Marai Larasi and Winnie M Li to talk about creating a 'rape-free world' during WOW UK Festival 2021's International Women's Day programming.

Prof Joanna Bourke, SHaME's Principal Investigator, highlights how a rise in domestic firearms sales in the US is exposing girls, women and other minoritised groups to increased domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this post, Prof Joanna Bourke, SHaME's project lead, explores the history of domestic violence and pandemics by looking at the case of the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu.

Prof Joanna Bourke, SHaME's Principal Investigator, discusses the increasing global incidence of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over twenty researchers and practitioners joined the SHaME team for our first online reading group on Monday 18 May 2020. The discussion centred on Jenny Pearce’s recent edited collection Child Sexual Exploitation: Why Theory Matters (Bristol: Policy Press, 2019).

Nick Basannavar, historian and Head of Impact at Frost Included, puts into historical context the increased risk of sexual violence against children in domestic spaces during the COVID-19 'lockdown'.