On Friday, this network was officially launched at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. During the event, the Mental Elf recorded interviews with some high profile members of the network. These include the network co-investigators; Louise Howard, Sian Oram, Sylvia Walby, Seena Fazel and Leonie Tanczer as well as Dean of the Royal College, Kate Lovett, and  Director of Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, Felicity Callard.

We will follow up with some additional information from the launch, but in the meantime these podcasts should give a sense of the aims and intentions of the network going forward. 

From the 18-22 February 2019, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is running a short course aimed at those who are conducting or commissioning research into gender-based violence. 

Gender-based violence is widespread across the work and takes place in many forms. These include, but are not limited to intimate partner violence, rape and coerced sex, child sexual abuse, and human trafficking. These can have a significant impact on individuals' physical, sexual and psychological health as well as their social and economic well-being. As such, it is essential that rigorously conducted research is carried out and it is used to influence policy and services around the world. 

The course aims to strengthen participants’ knowledge and skills to conduct or commission technically rigorous, ethical and policy-and service-relevant research on various forms of violence against women, children and adolescents.  It will be of particular interest to those who want to add a ‘violence component’ to a study that is quantitative or qualitative or an intervention evaluation. It is relevant for individuals working on health-related topics such as sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, HIV, mental health and substance use. The course will cover topics such as: 

• Conceptualising and researching various forms of gender-based violence
• Associations between violence and health: current knowledge
• Ethics and safety
• Approaches to researching violence: qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, evaluation research
• Developing conceptual frameworks for violence and health research
• Survey research on violence and questionnaire design
• Addressing social norms, engaging men to prevent violence
• Intervention research and evaluation: approaches and challenges
• Violence research in health care settings
• Violence research in humanitarian settings 

If you are interested in attending, please follow this link to the LSHTM website