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Disclosure and exposure in the neoliberal university
This Spring, as part of a collaborative partnership of colleagues from the UK and 5 other European countries, I helped to launch a European Commission-funded project entitled ‘Universities Supporting Victims of Sexual Violence‘. Our main aim is to create university environments in which…
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The university campus as ‘Hunting Ground’
The Hunting Ground is an incredibly powerful film. Its main strength is the testimony of the brave survivors who tell their stories on camera – tales of harrowing victimisation, and narratives of resilience and strength as they take on the machinery of their…
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Why the ‘Nordic Model’ sucks (with references)
One aim of the recent Home Affairs Committee Prostitution Inquiry seems pretty clear. The first question contributors were asked to answer is ‘whether criminal sanction in relation to prostitution should continue to fall more heavily on those who sell sex, rather than those who buy…
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Responsible self-promotion: negotiating the relationships between self and Other, myself and ‘my’ work
This is the text of a talk I gave at Sussex University, to a group of early career scholars and PhD researchers. ‘Responsible self promotion’. I think that is probably an oxymoron. Responsibility implies being accountable to something other than the self: the…
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Writing a PhD proposal (social sciences)
For many academics, each new year brings a flurry of Email enquiries about PhD supervision. In my experience these tend to range between a vague notion about a topic (or a few possible topics) and a detailed account of a research idea, usually…
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Sexism and violence in the neoliberal university
This is the text of a keynote speech delivered at the Sexual Harassment in Higher Education conference at Goldsmiths on December 2nd 2015. Content note for sexually violent language and descriptions of traumatic experiences. I want to talk about markets. Education markets, institutional…
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Research with marginalised groups: some difficult questions
Every year, my students ask me questions about doing research with marginalised groups. The university is an incredibly privileged space, but some of our students are not – and many of the others are politically committed and care passionately about inequality and abuses…
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Why sex workers should be part of sexual violence campaigns
CN: some of the articles this piece links to contain extremely offensive ideas about sex workers. I have been asked a number of times how my work around ‘lad culture’ and sexual violence in higher education corresponds to my support of sex industry decriminalisation.…
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‘You’re not representative’: Identity politics in sex industry debates
Alongside ‘listen to survivors’, ‘you’re not representative’ is a key refrain from abolitionist quarters in feminist debates about the sex industry. Most recently, this mantra was chanted in the furore around Amnesty International’s draft policy on decriminalisation, where in addition to claims that…
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‘Listen to survivors’ and the fetishisation of experience
The debate over Amnesty International’s draft policy supporting the decriminalisation of sex work has been heated. Although the organisation developed the policy following extensive research with sex workers and consultation with key stakeholders, it has been accused of wanting to protect the rights…
Alison Phipps 