CANCELLED - Conference: Sexual Violence, Medicine, and Psychiatry

This event was held on Thursday 16 April 2020

Sexual assault kit

Please note this event has been cancelled.

An international, interdisciplinary symposium on the relationship between medicine, psychiatry and sexual violence to be held at the University of Newcastle on 16 –17 April 2020.
The symposium is organised by Professor Joanna Bourke’s SH+ME project at Birkbeck University of London and hosted is by The Centre for the Study of Violence and the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle.

This symposium will explore the role of medical professionals in debates about sexual violence. Police, doctors and forensic medical examiners, GPs, gynaecologists, surgeons, nurses, midwives, prison surgeons, psychiatrists, and therapists working in all forms of institutional and community settings have been influential agents in the interpretation, medicalisation, and adjudication of sexual attacks. This is an important time to investigate the relationship between medical professionals and sexual violence. Scandals around medical and psychiatric responses to sexual abuse emerge on a regular basis (viz. Nauru detention camp; the abuse of people in psychiatric wards, prison, and detention camps; failures to send the biological samples from ‘rape kits’ for forensic examination; complaints about medical examinations; popular anxieties about the medical treatment and rehabilitation of violent offenders). The symposium seeks to promote human health through providing insights into the role of medicine and psychiatry in understanding sexual violence.

Keynote speakers

A draft programme is available. Travel advice for attendees is available here and here. Masterclasses exploring the conference themes will run on Tuesday 14 April and Wednesday 15 April. Questions should be directed to Ms Rhea Sookdeosingh. RSVPs for the masterclasses should be directed to Dr Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen.