Research seminar
On 27 April (9:30–14:00), we will host a research seminar featuring several guest speakers: Prof. Hilde Tubex (University of Western Australia), Dr. Aurore Vanliefde De Keyser (KU Leuven), Prof. Olivia Nederlandt (UCLouvain) and Dr. Rachele Girardi (University of Greenwich).
The seminar will open with a keynote by Prof. Hilde Tubex, followed by presentations by Dr. Vanliefde De Keyser and Prof. Nederlandt, and a final talk by Dr. Girardi. Together, these contributions will explore themes related to gender, vulnerability and inequality within prison settings and the criminal justice system.
Keynote
Hilde Tubex is Professor at the Law School of the University of Western Australia (UWA). Her areas of expertise are penal policy, Indigenous Peoples and the criminal justice system, criminalised women, life-sentenced people and parole. She is a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Prisoner Reintegration, as co-lead for their program on Addressing Community Contexts of Reintegration. Hilde obtained her PhD in Criminology from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium where she worked for 15 years as a researcher and lecturer. She also served as an expert advisor to the Council of Europe and advised the Belgian Minister of Justice on penal policy. In 2007 Professor Tubex migrated to Western Australia where she commenced work as Team Leader of Research and Evaluation at the former Department of Corrective Services. Professor Tubex resumed her academic career at UWA in 2011 where she continues her work today.
Stories that matter: research with understudied and overrepresented groups in the criminal justice system
Abstract: Over the last couple of years, I had the opportunity to conduct research with certain subgroups that are both understudied from a scholarly perspective and overrepresented in the criminal justice system (in WA): women, Indigenous peoples and (families) of lifers. Doing research with those groups comes with its own challenges with regard to positioning, methodology and research protocols. It would be my pleasure to share with you some experiences about doing research in prison in times of revived transformative justice in Australia, working as a white female with Indigenous peoples, and building long-term relationships with people with lived experience. Much of my research is focused on pathways into the system and towards desistance, as well as the broader societal context in which those take place.
Follow-up presentations
(Gendered) minorities behind bars: when vulnerabilities compound in prison settings (Dr. Aurore Vanliefde De Keyser and Prof. Olivia Nederlandt)
Abstract: Women constitute, on average, around 6% of the prison population and are therefore a numerical minority within custodial settings. Research suggests that this numerical marginality translates into minority status in practice: women are incarcerated ‘within their gender’ in institutions designed by and for men, where organisational structures and regimes often reproduce gender stereotypes. Drawing on our joint empirical research in Belgian prisons with women's units, alongside Aurore’s doctoral research on incarcerated LGBTQ+ people, we argue that women and other minority groups in prison are disproportionately exposed to forms of institutional vulnerability. Such vulnerability stems from a prison system that only partially recognises their experiences or is unable to meet their specific needs. When attempts are made to do so, they frequently result in the homogenisation of groups of incarcerated people on the basis of gender or other characteristics, with little regard for individual differences. Policies such as sex segregation and the creation of dedicated units for ‘vulnerable’ groups are emblematic of this dynamic: although framed as responding to the target group's needs, these blanket approaches often reflect structural failings of the prison system to ensure the safety of those in its care.
Women’s prisons as distorted mirrors: a gendered perspective on heterotopia (Dr. Rachele Girardi)
Abstract: Drawing on Michel Foucault's seminal notion of heterotopia, this paper examines how women’s prison spaces are entangled with broader social inequalities, reflecting gendered norms and potentially amplifying experiences of trauma, sexism, and transphobia among incarcerated women and gender non-conforming individuals. Based on semi-structured interviews with 12 participants, including prison architects, prison researchers and charity workers in the United Kingdom, this article explores the porous boundaries and interconnectedness between women’s prisons and the outside world. More specifically, the themes identified highlight how the trauma experienced before incarceration, often rooted in histories of abuse, socioeconomic deprivation, poverty, and interpersonal violence, appears to seep inward, potentially amplifying marginalisation, rather than fostering meaningful rehabilitation. At the same time, sexist and transphobic social attitudes can permeate the prison space, generating a continuum of discrimination between prison and the outside world. While sexism appears to emerge through narratives of “double deviance” and stereotypical roles and opportunities, transphobic tropes can manifest in the prison space through punitive strategies, segregation policies and the denial of gender-affirming care. In line with feminist and queer criminological scholarship, this analysis extends carceral geographic work on the intimate connections between prison and the outside world by reconsiders prison spaces through heterotopic gendered lenses. Ultimately, this analysis reveals how these spaces can reflect and amplify the experiences of precarity and marginalisation of already disadvantaged social groups, calling into question the notion of imprisonment as an effective tool for rehabilitation.
Practical information
📅 Date: 27 April
🕘 Time: 9:30 – 14:00
📍 Location: U-Residence (Red Room), VUB campus
🍽️ Lunch will be provided. Please indicate via this link whether you will join for lunch.
The seminar will be held in English.