What is Gender-Based Violence (GBV)? Policies and Politics of Recognition and Prevention

Catalog description

This course investigates violence, broadly defined, in perhaps its most common and historical manifestation, based on gender identity. Utilizing an interdisciplinary lens, it explores the complex phenomenon of gender-based violence (GBV), examining its causes, manifestations, and the political, social, and economic structures that sustain it, as well as ways to prevent and address it. The course asks how GBV, while globally widespread, manifests differently across varied contexts and has varying implications for intersecting identities across gender, religion/belief, nationality, class, disability, race, migration status, and more. Given the growing threat of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), the course also delves into how technology and online spaces can harm individuals and groups based on gender, with grave political implications, including on democracy and freedom of expression. Moving from recognition to prevention, the course integrates both theoretical analysis and applied approaches. It examines the roles of state and non-state institutions, community groups, and individuals in identifying and resisting violent structures and advancing strategies for justice and human rights. Special attention is given to policymaking, international frameworks (such as those developed by the United Nations), and transnational feminist responses across the Global South and North. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the critical tools to analyze the dynamics of gender-based violence across global contexts and to imagine transformative responses, policies, and laws.