#MeToo: A Panel Discussion on Vulnerability and Visibility

The impact of the online #MeToo campaign and the ongoing fallout following the exposure of Harvey Weinstein continues to be felt across politics, the arts, and media. Against this backdrop and as part of the IAS 'vulnerability' research theme, this panel will discuss the complex relationship between vulnerability and visibility. Panelists will touch on the ways in which visibility can be empowering - exposing the reality of sexual violence, or giving a voice and platform to disadvantaged groups - but also how visibility can sometimes leave women and others vulnerable to various forms of harassment or abuse.

Contributors include:

• Shaista Aziz, Journalist, writer, and stand-up comedian
• Dr Tiffany Page, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Cambridge
• Kate Parker, London Director, The Schools Consent Project
• Laura Thompson, PhD researcher, City University London

The event will be followed by a wine reception.

Bios

Shaista Aziz is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. Her work been published in the Guardian, New York Times, Globe and Mail, Huffington Post and elsewhere. She is an intersectional feminist and is the co founder of the Women's Advancement Hub, Pakistan and Intersectional Feminist Foreign Policy.

Dr Tiffany Page is currently a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Tiffany's research interests include both the areas and intersections of vulnerability, gender inequalities and institutional violence. In particular she is working on understanding vulnerability as an approach to particular epistemological, methodological and pedagogical concerns. Tiffany has published on what a vulnerability methodology might entail (Feminist Review 2017). Tiffany is the co-founder of The 1752 Group, a research and lobby organisation addressing staff sexual misconduct in higher education and is involved in a number of collaborative research and consulting projects with different institutions and sector bodies.

Kate Parker is a criminal barrister at 5 Paper Buildings and Director of the Schools Consent Project ('SCP'). The SCP is a charity which sends lawyers into schools to deliver workshops to 11-18 year olds on the legal definition of consent and key sexual and communication offences (including 'sexting' and 'revenge porn'). They touch on the age of consent, bystander intervention, appropriate responses to victim disclosure, court procedure as a victim or witness of crime and options in the event of an attack. In two and a half years, they have spoken to over 6000 young people across the country about consent.

Laura Thompson is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at City, University of London. Her thesis examines sexual harassment over straight online dating platforms, integrating analyses of screengrabbed messages posted on social media with interviews with women about their experiences of online dating. The research explores the emerging role of new media in dating abuse and in perpetuating harmful gender and sexual norms. She characterises these phenomena as forms of violence against women, where digital technology is being used to try control, harass and intimidate women in response to a changing (hetero)sexual landscape. She is also a regular media commentator on online harassment of women, including issues such as 'cyber flashing' and 'doxing'.