The QUTC4J Gendered, Sexual and Institutional Violence theme critically examines the intersections of structural power, institutional dynamics, and a range of gendered harms, with a view to developing new understandings and informing prevention and response measures. The work of this group interrogates how institutional structures and social systems perpetuate various forms of gendered violence, discrimination, and abuse across multiple contexts including religious, health, education and justice systems.
Researchers in this theme employ innovative methodologies including those derived from feminist theoretical frameworks, critical masculinity studies, and institutional analysis and work with an array of relevant partners from industry, including government agencies and not-for-profit organisations and other stakeholders. In doing so, the group produces critical scholarship that challenges existing ways of thinking and operating across many institutional contexts and advances a transformative agenda for addressing gendered, sexual and institutional violence.
Our objectives of this group are to:
- Advance understandings of gendered and sexual violence, including how institutional power structures contribute to a range of gendered and sexual harms
- Develop evidence-based prevention and response measures through collaborative research with industry partners and relevant stakeholders
- Innovate with novel methodological approaches for investigating complex manifestations of gendered and sexual harm that produce the evidence needed to guide reform and social change
