Current Affairs

Is the family a place of safety or a trap? SHaME Director Dr Ruth Beecher explores the institution of the family and the (lack of) recognition of child sexual abuse within it.

Dr George Severs argues that the history of male victims of rape and sexual violence should make us all alert to the ways in which gender norms silence male experiences of abuse, and prompt us to hear hear male survivors who are so often both silent and silenced.

Can medical institutions participate in colonial violence? SHaME's Allison McKibban argues the involuntary sterilization of tens of thousands of Native American women in the 1970s must be rehistoricised as part of the U.S. government’s broader campaign of genocide.

SHaME Associate Fellow Dr Stephanie Wright explores how society approaches the sexual desires of those with disabilities. She establishes how the historical lack of acknowledgement of vulnerable people's sexual autonomy can result in an increased possibility of harm. 

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.

How has sexual violence been produced through different institutional cultures of harm? And what strategies have survivors used to counter silence, shame, and stigma? The SHaME team explores various forms of institutional sexual violence in a series originally published with History Workshop Online in 2022.

On World AIDS Day (December 1st), Dr George Severs reflects on some of the early HIV responses of forensic medics working with rape survivors.

Curator Fiona Rogers discusses the work of artist Laia Abril in the context of how gendered violence and rape appear in the canon and spaces of art history. An exhibition of Abril's work is on display at the Copeland Gallery from 10-27th November 2022.

Amongst the many risks and uncertainties brought on by an act of sexual violence is the threat of sexually transmitted infection. What are the barriers to such post-rape health care and advice? In this blog, SHaME Postdoctoral Fellow Dr George Severs reflects on a policy roundtable which considered these questions in relation to HIV.

As Lexie Bean wrote in 2018, ‘nothing is heavier than silence’. The stories we tell about experiences of sexual violence in therapeutic spaces are complex, dynamic, evolving. They are spoken in a different language to that compelled by the law, which exercises a register of fact-finding chronology and rationality. They are fundamentally incompatible, and whether we resolve that by new legislation restricting access to therapeutic notes, or through abandoning investment in carceral solutions altogether, is up to us.

SHaME Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Rhian Keyse discusses the recent U.S. Supreme Court leaked draft opinion, its ahistorical logic, and its implications for abortion rights in the U.S.

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.

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

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.”...

Save the date! We are excited to announce the first ever Shameless! Festival will take place on 27 November, alongside a series of digital events...

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...