International Relations Lecturer facilitates Anti Street Harassment workshop in Egypt

Dr Elisa Wynne-Hughes, Lecturer in International Relations, recently co-organised a research workshop in Cairo on ‘Anti-Street Harassment Tactics’.

The workshop, which took place on 31 March, was entitled ‘Anti-Street Harassment: Reflecting Diversity in Tactics’ and was sponsored by the Independent Social Research Foundation. Dr Wynne-Hughes co-organised the event with Jutta Weldes and Karen Desborough, both of the University of Bristol.

The workshop brought together members of anti-street harassment groups Hollaback! London and HarassMap (who are based in Cairo) to compare the strategies they use to address and combat street harassment in different contexts. The main focus of this workshop was to look at who is potentially included and excluded through their various tactics. The workshop asked how these groups can target and reach a diverse audience of harassers, bystanders and victims/survivors of harassment?

Based on the needs previously identified by these groups, the workshop aimed to collectively develop ideas for future strategies that are as inclusive as possible, taking into account diversity along the lines of gender, race, class sexuality and age.

Lively discussions took place which covered the similarities and differences in the challenges faced in countering myths around street harassment, the role of social media in attracting selective audiences, and the barriers to participation for more marginalised communities.

Based on this research and follow-up interviews, Dr Wynne Hughes and her co-organisers will write a report and a journal article to be presented to the anti-street harassment groups and at the Pan-European Conference of the European International Studies Association in September 2016.

Further reports on the event are available on both the Independent Social Research Foundation and Hollaback!London websites.