A Catalyst for Change: Transforming Responses to Harassment in Higher Education

Following sector-wide interest generated from their pilot study at the University of Leicester in 2020, the Centre for Hate Studies has been awarded a major grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to undertake a ground-breaking new study on harassment in higher education institutions (HEIs).

The project, launched in January 2025, examines students' experiences of harassment in all its forms across a diverse range of HEIs within England. Adopting a mixed-method approach, it centres the voices of undergraduate, postgraduate, domestic and international students and foregrounds their experiences of interpersonal violence, online victimisation, as well as more ‘everyday’ actions and microaggressions such as name-calling, mockery and exclusion. The research is being undertaken in collaboration with a diverse range of universities across England, each of which has been purposefully selected for their very different geographical locations, student demographics and institutional profile.

The project will produce a wide range of academic, policy and creative outputs, for example, a toolkit of resources, a Manifesto for Change co-produced with victims of harassment and an end-of-project report. The research evidence will also inform future regulatory policies within the HE sector whilst facilitating difficult conversations about harassment in HEIs through its use within theatre workshops, which will be created and performed within participating universities as part of the project.

The Team

This project is led by Professor Neil Chakraborti (Principal Investigator) and Dr Amy Clarke (Co-Investigator). Dr Yunyan Li and Dr Talitha Brown are both postdoctoral associates on the project.

News

The Catalyst for Change Blog entitled "A Catalyst for change?" has now been launched. 

Contact

For any questions or more information about the project, please contact us via our email catalystforchange@leicester.ac.uk. 

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