State responses to tackling femicide/feminicide in Latin America and beyond

This project focuses on ways in which states in Latin America, and beyond, have responded to women's movement demands to investigate and prevent feminicide, that is, the murder of women for reasons related to gender norms in a given society.

The research will build, comparatively, on Professor Macaulay's recent research into how the Brazilian state's responses to feminicide have been transformed by civil society mobilisation, federal government capacity and international partnerships, leading to new laws and operational protocols. It also examines policy entrepreneurship within the criminal justice institutions, including the police, and how they collaborate with local women's groups and support networks for victims. There is virtually no other literature tracing these processes of positive change within state responses, and applications are welcome that examine such processes either within a single country or small number of countries.

Professor Macaulay is a Latin America specialist but has lots of experience supervising research projects focussed on other regions, or which may be cross-regional. Students would be associated with the Department of Peace Studies and International Development, which is an inherently inter-disciplinary department. Therefore, she welcomes students with a background across a range of social sciences (anthropology, sociology, political science, psychology). Methodologically, your research will probably be largely qualitative, and probably focussed on institutions, in the widest sense (formal and informal).