Genders, sexualities, relationships, intimacies

The Social Policy and Criminology discipline has longstanding interests in critical interdisciplinary scholarship in this field. Our substantive areas of interest include:

• everyday nuances of intimacy and family life
• same-sex parent families and long-term relationships
• sex, sexuality and sexual citizenship
• intimate relationships, organisations and social institutions as sites of gendered violence, abuse and harm
• domestic homicide and gender in policing
• gendered relations of health and social welfare
• punitiveness towards gendered and sexual subjects at the intersections of criminal and social justice
• resistance, agency and activism of women, victim-survivors, non-binary and transgender individuals, lesbian, bisexual and queer women
• ‘justice’, ‘survival’, ‘rights’ and ‘recovery’ in criminal justice approaches, support services, social movements and transformative justice.

Many staff participate in the following research groups:

• Gender, Intimacies and Sexuality research stream in the Citizenship and Governance Strategic Research Area
• Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative 
• Innovation, Knowledge and Development

These all warmly welcome Postgraduate Student participation.

Entry requirements

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent). If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your knowledge of English. 

Potential research projects

We are open to receiving proposals on a wide range of research projects on this broad topic.

Potential supervisors

• Dr Victoria Cooper
• Dr Leigh Downes
• Professor Jacqui Gabb
• Dr Isla Masson
• Professor Louise Westmarland
• Dr Teresa Willis
• Professor Nicola Yeates

Fees and funding

Some of our research students are funded via The Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

Links

• Social Policy and Criminology at The Open University
• Gender, Intimacies and Sexuality research stream 
• Innovation, Knowledge and Development
• Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative