Description:
There are two main strands to my doctoral research project. First, I am mapping out efforts to engage men and boys in the prevention of intimate partner violence and other forms of men’s violence against women in the UK, by interviewing some of the individuals who have been playing a key role in the development of this work. This is to illustrate and provide insights into the contemporary context of this work in the UK, and explicate some of the key issues, opportunities and problems in policy and practice in relation to it, as well as what can be learnt from the current environment to help develop violence prevention work with men and boys in the future.
Second, I am exploring how young men understand and use prevention efforts focusing in particular on intimate partner violence, by conducting focus groups with men’s university sports teams facilitated by material from examples of different prevention campaigns. I am interested in how men construct masculinities in relation to violence against women, how we enact complicity with – or resistance to – the legitimisation and reproduction of this violence amongst one another, and how this complicity can be challenged and transformed through prevention campaigns. This research project is heavily inspired and influenced by feminist and pro-feminist scholarship and critical studies on men and masculinities, and I am actively involved in Durham University’s Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA).
