Connect Centre for International Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm

Institute for Relational Research (INTERRELATE)

Our research influences change to prevent sexual, gender-based, and interpersonal violence across all age groups.

We are called ‘Connect’ because we are making connections between: 

  • Responding to overlapping forms of violence and violence experienced at different stages of life. This includes gendered violence to adults and violence, abuse and neglect of children
  • How we understand and respond to violence across different areas of knowledge and practice. Including the areas of social work, criminal justice, health, education, the voluntary sector
  • Understanding and preventing violence across different relationships, countries, settings, communities, cultural and political contexts
  • Research, policy and practice

Research

Our research is policy and practice focused. We are collaborative and work with other researchers and organisations in the UK and internationally. We provide a specialist environment for:

  • PhD and postgraduate research training
  • Consultancy
  • Cross disciplinary and international networking 
  • Debate and collective influencing through the Connect Members Network
  • Support activities for knowledge exchange and the use of research to influence change

Members

Professor Nicky Stanley
Professor of Social Work
Dr Christine Barter
Professor of Interpersonal Violence Prevention
Dr Lis Bates
Reader in Interpersonal Violence Prevention
Dr Kelly Bracewell
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Helen Richardson Foster
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Nicola Farrelly
Research Associate
Dr Emily Cooper
Senior Lecturer
Katie Martin
Senior Lecturer in Social Care and Social Policy
Professor Joanne Westwood
Professor of Social Work Education
Professor Lorraine Radford
Emeritus Professor of Social Policy & Social Work
Dr Charlotte Barlow
Reader in Criminal Justice and Policing
Dr Les Humphreys
Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice and Policing
Dr Chinyere Ajayi
Lecturer in Youth Work and Community Practice
HB
Professor Helen Beckett
Professor of Social Policy and Social Work