Academic Partnerships to Confront Gender-Based Violence in the Field

Ana Laura Zavala Guillen, Itzel San Roman Pineda

Research output: Other contribution

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Abstract

In 2021, the Bartlet Development Planning Unit from the University College London partnered with the Network of Women Doing Fieldwork (NWDF) to produce a report to assess and improve mechanisms that prevent and mitigate the risk of gender-based violence against PhD researchers who are doing data collection away from their home institutions. This data collection is commonly known as fieldwork. The report, Confronting Gender-Based Violence in Fieldwork: Potential Sites of Intervention within DPU’s PhD Programme, was presented on International Women’s Day with the participation of PhD students, academics, management staff, and experts in gender, disabilities, and race studies. Gender-based violence refers to harmful acts directed at an individual based on gender.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, three former PhD students at the Geography Department of the University of Sheffield, Ana Laura Zavala Guillen, Itzel San Roman Pineda, and Jenny Veenstra, founded the Network of Women Doing Fieldwork. What started as an online and informal safe space for mutual support against gender-based violence experienced during research became a women activist movement across social and environmental sciences based on five continents. The NWDF envisions a world where women researchers can conduct fieldwork free from violence, with dignity and joy, and with the right support from their institutions and funders.

Before summarising the main key aspects of the report in the following sections, Confronting Gender-Based Violence in Fieldwork: Potential Sites of Intervention within DPU’s PhD Programme is also an invitation for other academic and education actors to revisit their data collection policies and champion fieldwork cultures in the light of women researchers’ rights as human rights in academia.
Original languageEnglish
TypeBlog
Media of outputWebsite
PublisherThe Royal Geographical Society
Number of pages4
Place of PublicationLondon
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Apr 2023
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameGeography Directions
PublisherThe Royal Geographical Society

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