Violence Against Women Seminar

This seminar includes topics that could potentially be emotionally charged or distressing for some. If you would like more details about the activities prior to registration, please contact the organisers

The past, present and future of ending violence against women and girls

In this presentation Nicole will talk about approaches to ending violence against women and girls over the past fifty years, describe why now is the opportunity to create a turning point based on the Government’s ‘Safer Streets’ mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, and consider what might be needed in the future to make this happen.

About the speaker

Nicole Westmarland is Director of the Durham University Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA) and Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology. Her books include ‘Violence against Women’ (Routledge, 2015, second edition coming out in 2025), ‘Researching Gender, Violence and Abuse: Theory, Methods, Action’ (with Hannah Bows, Routledge, 2018). Her most recent book is ‘Men’s Activism to End Violence against Women’ (with various co-authors, Policy Press, 2021) and is free to download as an e-book.

‘Daphne and her sisters: gendered violence in early modern literature and art’

Ita will present her recently funded research project titled ‘Daphne and her sisters: gendered violence in early modern literature and art’. The Daphne project asks what portrayals of violence against women in the literature and art of the global early modern past reveal about the cultures that produced them. It examines what our continuing fascination with such portrayals says about our culture and society and seeks to develop a model of engagement that deploys such works in the global campaign against the very violence they depict. At this gathering, Ita will explain the genesis, aims and infrastructure of the project and looks forward to discussing with Nicole and colleagues the interdisciplinary methodological approaches and Durham collectives (such as CRiVA) the project may engage with over its four years.

About the speaker

Ita Mac Carthy is a specialist of early modern Italian literature and art and Director of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (in a job share with Richard Scholar). Her most recent book, The Grace of the Italian Renaissance was published by Princeton University Press in 2020 and she’s currently working on a book exploring the many afterlives of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso. Closely aligned with the Daphne project, it examines the uses (and abuses) of early modern Italian literature and art across cultures and time, and seeks to understand the processes of transmission and translation that render them newly relevant time and again.

This event is co-hosted by Durham University's Institute for Medical Humanities and the Affective Experience Lab of the Discovery Research Platform, and organised by Corinne Saunders and Katrin Wehling-Giorgi.

This event is free to attend.

Teams details will be circulated closer to the event.