Speaking Truth to Power: Gender-Based Violence

Professor Parveen Ali, PhD, FFPH, FAAN, FRCSI

University of Sheffield

Summary

Gender-based violence research and nursing scholarship illuminate forms of labour that are central to the functioning of universities yet remain largely invisible within academic reward systems. This keynote examines how care work, emotional labour and survivor-centred research are disproportionately undertaken by women and by those working in applied and practice-based disciplines, while simultaneously being undervalued in promotion, workload allocation and institutional esteem. Drawing on research in domestic abuse and nursing, the talk explores how gendered expectations shape perceptions of academic contribution, credibility and leadership, and how courage is often required to sustain this work in hierarchical environments that privilege distance over care. The keynote invites the professoriate to reflect critically on whose labour is seen, whose harms are acknowledged, and how academic economies might be re-imagined to recognise ethical, relational and socially necessary forms of scholarly work.

Professor Parveen Ali

University of Sheffield

Professor Parveen Ali is Professor of Nursing at the University of Sheffield, based in the School of Allied Health Professions, Ph*rm*cy, Nursing and Midwifery and holds a joint appointment with Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is Editor-in-Chief of International Nursing Review and a nationally and internationally recognised leader in nursing, health inequalities, and gender-based violence research.

Professor Ali has over fifteen years’ experience researching domestic violence and abuse, with a particular focus on culturally informed responses, marginalised communities, and health and social care systems. She has pioneered innovative approaches to research capacity building among nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals, including the development of nationally used tools and programmes to strengthen research culture and leadership within the NHS. Her work continues to influence policy, education, and practice in the UK and internationally.

Professor Ali is a Fellow of; the Faculty of Public Health, the American Academy of Nursing and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland. and has led and contributed to major national and international research programmes. She is a former chairperson of the Upsign, president of British Pakistani Nurses and Midwifery Association and the first British Pakistani nurse to be appointed Professor of Nursing in the UK. She serves as an international expert, advisor, and consultant on nursing leadership, workforce development, and gender-based violence, contributing to global debates on nursing, health equity, and policy reform.

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