Interdisciplinary Conference on Acknowledging Sexual Violence

This conference focuses on how policy discourses structure what counts as violence, whose voices are heard, and which responses become possible. It examines how lived experience is translated into administrative, legal and political categories, and how that translation can both enable and limit recognition, justice and care.

The two-day structure is designed to bring together policy analysis and humanistic insight:

Day One focuses on policy language and institutional frameworks — examining how violence against women and girls is defined, measured, governed and responded to within law, economics, advocacy and public policy.

Day Two turns to the humanities — literature, philosophy and narrative — as ways of rethinking how violence is acknowledged. This day explores how experiences that exceed policy categories can be better understood, expressed and acknowledged, and how these insights might inform more responsive and humane public frameworks.

Together, the conference aims to support more precise, just and effective ways of speaking about violence in policy, institutions and public life.

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Keynote Speakers

Professor Jonathan Herring

Professor of Law, University of Oxford

Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford

with

Dr Marthe Goudsmit Samaritter

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Legal scholar in human rights and gender-based violence

Professor Leigh Gilmore

Professor of English and Trauma Studies, Ohio State University

Author of The #MeToo Effect

Professor Sonia Bhalotra

Professor of Economics, University of Warwick

Professor Meg Jensen

Professor of Literature and Trauma Studies, kingston university

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Policy & Practice ( Live Interview)

Rebecca Hitchen

Head of Policy & Campaigns, End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW)

In conversation with

Professor Paul Standish

Chair of Philosophy of Education, UCL Institute of Education

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Panel: Policy, Practice & Voice

Dr Lea Nossal – University of Warwick

Dr Nick Stock – University of Birmingham

Dr Emma Williams – University of Warwick

Leila Osman – UCL Institute of Education/ UN Women

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Host or Publisher Leila Osman