Acadia University will host internationally-renowned expert on gender and violence, Professor Gill Hague, who will be give a talk entitled "Violence against Women: the Devastating Legacy and the Transforming Struggle." The presentation is set for Wednesday, November 17 from 1-2:30 p.m. in the Beveridge Arts Centre, Room 138.

This public lecture will discuss, in an accessible way, the tragedy of violence against women across the world, and the transforming efforts to campaign against it and to build policy, practice and activism. 

It includes a brief discussion of the work of the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the University of Bristol, UK, one of the largest such centres, which works nationally and internationally, using an activist frame wherever possible.

The lecture will be a broad-brush 'global' coverage of violence against women, and various versions of it have already been presented in three continents.  Prof. Hague will illustrate the talk with examples both from the work of activists internationally and from her own contributions over nearly 40 years, as a women's movement activist and a researcher in many countries of the world. 

This often-distressing work feeds into the transformative and moving struggle to make violence against women a thing of the past. The lecture will end on an uplifting note to celebrate the historic achievements of this struggle so far.

The following morning on Wednesday, November 18, Prof. Hague will be available for a "Coffee Klatch" from 9-10 a.m. in the Garden Room at the K. C. Irving Centre. This will be an informal social gathering where people will have a chance to ask questions and talk about her work.

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About Professor Hague

She is professor of Violence Against Women Studies in the Centre for Gender and Violence Research (previously the Violence Against Women Research Group) in the UK. Professor Hague was a founder member of this Centre, 20 years ago, and it is now one of the largest sites for gender violence research across the world. The Centre conducts a wide range of international, national and local research, teaching and training, working from an activist frame, wherever possible.  It offers consultancy to policy-makers, practitioner and activists both in the UK and other countries, and works on all aspects of gender violence, including domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, forced marriage, 'honour'-based violence, abuse in same sex relationships, domestic violence and young people, perpetrators, and so on. The group has members from about nine countries in various roles.  Professor Hague has been working on violence against women issues for nearly 40 years as both an activist and a researcher.  She has conducted research and worked on violence against women issues in many countries of the world, including -- as well as Canada and the UK -- India, South Africa, Uganda, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Iraqi Kurdistan etc. In these international partnerships, committed attempts are always made to build trans-national feminist work which avoids Western dominance. Some of Professor Hague's main research areas have been domestic violence, raising the voices of abused women and children, marriage rites and violence, issues for abused women with disabilities, multi-agency and inter-sectoral work on violence against women, participatory action research, and violence on the grounds of 'honour'.  She has about 100 publications including books, scholarly and professional papers, guide-books to good practice etc.  Her books include the popular UK book, Domestic Violence: Action for Change, now entering its fourth edition.

 Visit: www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/research/centres/genderviolence/ and http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sps/aboutus/sps-staff-details/hague/

For more information, contact:

Phyllis L. F. Rippeyoung, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology;

Coordinator, Women's and Gender Studies; and

Academic Co-Director, Atlantic Research Data Centre

10 Highland Avenue, BAC 302

Acadia University

Wolfville, NS B4P 2R6

902-585-1431