September 9, 2026, 13:00-14:30 CEST – online
Join us for this webinar with Dr. Leah Burch, researcher specialising in disability hate crime and sexual violence.
Gender-based violence against disabled people is pervasive and shot through everyday interactions. At the same time, it is highly normalised and thus, there is little recognition about its omnipresence in the able-bodied world of higher education institutions.
What does it mean to account for cases of gender-based violence against disabled victim/survivors in higher education? This webinar delves into the obstacles disabled people face in the academy when accessing support systems and making their reports legible. Touching on barriers from physical to attitudinal aspects, this webinar will trace experiences that lead to distrust and withdrawal, resulting in underreporting. In conversation with trainer and educator Sara Hassan, Dr. Burch will offer critical insights from her research and recommendations for how institutions can better respond to disability hostility in the workplace, address institutional responses that exclude disabled victims/survivors, and point to more inclusive practices.
Learning objectives
- Gain a common understanding of the nature of intersectional experiences of gender-based violence and how current institutional reporting mechanisms fail to account for them
- Get insight into the key lessons of research on more inclusive reporting systems
- Tune in on a conversation on what is necessary to design reporting processes that reflect different forms of discrimination and recognise early instances of gender-based violence in all its forms
Who is it for?
- Gender equality officers/focal points, equality and/or diversity officers
- Human resources officers
- Gender equality plan implementing teams
- Health and safety officers
- Head of Departments/Units in charge or involved in gender-based violence
- Trainers on the topic of gender-based violence in academic settings
- Staff and students interested in policy implementation
The webinar is designed for anyone interested in or working with anti-discrimination and equality structures in higher education.
Introducing the panel
Dr. Leah Burch is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Liverpool Hope University. She is a member of the British Society of Criminology Hate Crime Network, where she co-leads on postgraduate and early career researcher events. Dr. Burch’s research specialises in disability hate crime, sexual violence and creative methodologies. Her most recent project explored the use of comedy as a tool for raising awareness of disability hate crime. Dr. Burch published in a number of leading journals on the topic of disability hate crime and affect theory. Her book Disability and Everyday Hate was published in 2021 by Palgrave Macmillan, which examines the diverse ways in which disabled people understand, negotiate, and respond to disability hate crime within their day-to-day lives.
Sara Hassan (they/them) is a writer, trainer, and moderator working on power abuse with an intersectional perspective. Originally trained as a journalist, Sara worked in the field of political communication, including in the European Parliament. Their work on gender justice turned into a book about power abuse, It’s not that grey, to identify early warning signs of harassment. Sara got their Master’s degree at New York University as a Fulbright Austria scholar. Today, Sara works as a consultant with various international organisations to create more equitable workplaces and gives lectures on abuse of power.
