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The rapid move to predominately online learning engendered by the COVID-19 crisis created an urgent need to rethink support mechanisms central to student engagement and transition, namely community-building and identity within the institution. One important support mechanism, practised and widely researched in a variety of pre-pandemic contexts (e.g. Hall and Jaugietis, 2011), is peer mentoring. This article describes the establishment of student peer mentor schemes in several departments of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Health at Durham University in academic year 2020-21 and assesses their nature and effectiveness. Whilst the shift to online delivery of teaching was anxiety provoking, it also catalysed ongoing engagement efforts. Staff were conscious that peer mentor schemes could be vital in supporting new students - particularly those from marginalised backgrounds - whilst also offering continuing students another connection to the university by volunteering as mentors. This article has several significant dimensions. We explored and integrated perspectives of staff and students (acting as mentors and mentees). In so doing, we conducted this research with student participants who were integral to the development of departmental mentoring schemes. Relatedly, our research emphasis was on identifying elements of the schemes that may not have worked well, with the practical aim of devising improvements. In order to do this, we chose a sequential mixed methods approach, combining quantitative questionnaire data with qualitative focus group insights, something which has surprisingly been under-utilised in this research field. A set of guiding principles to support mentoring in other contexts, was then co-created with students from the focus group. Furthermore, this research relates to an unprecedentedly challenging context for staff and students alike in the higher education (HE) sector, engendered by the COVID-19 crisis and thus contributes to a newly developing area of research. We develop these points in the literature review that follows. The third section of this paper considers research context, the fourth covers research design and our findings are reported in the fifth section. In the spirit of action research, the sixth section offers our guiding principles, developed in light of our findings, for those wishing to develop departmental peer mentor schemes (McAteer, 2013; McNiff, 2013; Elliott, 1991).

There is an international body of evidence indicating that universities are significant sites for GBV (DeGue, 2014). Understanding the prevalence, characteristics, and impacts of GBV among university students and staff is essential for universities to effectively prevent and combat it. In the UK, a limited number of studies have started to address this gap (e.g. NUS, 2011) but they have not beenbeen reviewed and synthesised to create an overall picture of what is known and not known about GBV.The overarchingaim of this study was to undertake a systematic review ofresearch on GBV among UK university students and staff to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of knowledge and emerging findings, as well as to make recommendations for future research. Studies were identified through: 1) systematic searches ofInternational Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), PsychInfo, EmBase and ISI Web of Knowledge and 2) contact with university networks and stakeholders. A total of 1,328 studies were identified. After screening, 15 studies were included in the review. None of the studies reviewed looked at GBV among staff. Thefocus of studies was student victimisation experiences ofsexual violence (13 of 15 studies) anddomesticabuse (3 of 15 studies). Findings suggest sexual harassment appears to be the most prevalent among university students followed by sexual assault and domestic abuse.Most studies (11 of 14) collected biographical information needed to understand how the intersections of gender with other social positions influenced victimisation, with findings suggesting there is a higher prevalence among marginalised groups. There was alack of consistency in how sexual violence and domestic abuse weremeasured, which contributed to large variations in prevalence. Implications for findings and recommendations for future research on GBV among university staff and students are provided. &nbsp

Theories have been used to explain gender-based violence (GBV) inU.S. universities (e.g. Gervais, DiLillo and McChargue, 2014; Tewksbury and Mustaine's, 2001) but they have limited utility in UK universities, asthe history, composition, geography, and culture of UK universities differs(Phipps and Smith, 2012; Stenning et al., 2012). Due to these differences, a theoretical framework relevant to UK universities is needed that canguide studies and contextualise findings. As a starting point, this working paperadaptedHagemann-White et al.’s (2010) framework, which was developed for the European Union (EU). To date, this framework is the most researched, demonstrated and wholistic model for the EU. The framework used an ecological model to identify and categorise factors facilitating and scaffolding GBV, including policies, sanctions, redress and implementation of laws, to provide nation states with a framework to guide developing and implementing policies that would more effectively prevent and combat GBV. This working paper aimed to tailor Hagemann-White et al.’s model to UK universities, using a more sophisticated understanding of intersectional (dis)advantage (such as ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, class, age), men and masculinities, peer-group support for violence, environmental time-space and power relations, and legal duties in prevention and response. &nbsp

Since the gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in 2012 India has generated an enormous amount of national and international media attention and a reputation for sexual violence, pointing to the country’s “endemic problem” (Washington Post, 2012). The rape led to widespread protests, by students and wider society, particularly in Delhi. Notwithstanding these recent events, rape has long been, in fact, a catalyst for feminist and social movement responses in India. This paper will focus on three cases of ‘stranger rape’ that have been valourized as pivotal moments for feminist activism on sexual violence within the country. Reformulating the concept of the critical event as sites of potential ambivalence for Indian feminists the paper explores the manner in which feminist activism on rape in India has shifted since the 1970s. Through the eyes of various feminist actors, from various age groups, the paper examines whether the ideological, social and policy consequences of these events can been perceived as empowering for feminist activism in India. Ultimately, these transformations highlight some of the strengths, problems and dilemmas of Indian feminist political action in the 21st century, particularly faced with the gender challenges of a rapidly globalising neo-liberal Indian political economy.

This paper primarily focuses on the role of the Law Commission of India in the law making process related to sexual violence and rape. The central idea behind the paper is that there is often a mismatch between the Law Commission and the law. The paper begins by contextualizing sexual violence and rape in India and describing the role of the Law Commission as a body that represents state interests and at the same time arguably stands outside it as well. Regarding theLaw Commissions more accepting towards feminist interventions than other institutions, this paper explores two areas of enquiry. Firstly, it examines the role of women’s movements in engaging with the Law Commission over the years. Secondly, it traces the conceptual continuities and changes over time between the 1980 and the 2013 reports of the Law Commission. The paper concludes that while certain key feminist demands have been dismissed or negated in the process of lawmaking, the same should not blind individuals to the importance of the law making process and the central role of the Law Commission with regard to violence against women.

This article explores the contributions and continuing relevance of Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Patriarchy (1987) to current and international debates on gender and gender-based violence. I suggest that Lerner's conceptualisations of the reification of women's sexuality and reproduction in their subordination, and the complicity of women in their own oppression and the oppression of other women, are important in understanding the creation of patriarchy in Western society, through the use of gender-based violence. Further, these ideas have resonance in non-Western worlds, and in the present.

This paper explores the complex relationship between Indian feminism and the law and legal systems, as reflected in the recent (2015) Bombay High Court judgment on domestic violence. It is divided into two sections. The first section looks at feminist interventions in marital disputes and domestic violence through grassroots efforts, and outlines the multidimensional and hybrid feminist understandings of domestic violence, discusses change strategies and ethical principles that underpinned their action, and address the enactment of the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (PWDVA) as one such strategy against domestic violence. This section also focuses on feminist dilemmas and foregrounds the issue of women’s autonomy in situations of domestic violence. The mainstreaming of feminist legal interventions through the PWDVA has brought new challenges for feminists and the second section discusses this issue by focusing on judicial intervention in deciding the boundary of counselling and mediation practices by protection officers under the PWDVA. We suggest that as seen in the 2015 judgement, while the judiciary has upheld some aspects of feminist practice and disallowed reconciliation in situations of serious physical domestic violence, its over-emphasis on equating physical violence with domestic violence and its protectionist stance has limited women’s autonomy and gone against feminist counselling principles and politics undergirding feminist interventions in situations of domestic violence. We suggest that this judgment can be read as a dialogue within a section of feminist groups in India who endorse feminist political ideals of liberty, individual rights, and equality and seek to institutionalize these within the law. This paper is an analytical and interpretive piece and not an empirical inquiry into legal practice or a survey of case law developments of the PWDVA. It focuses on normative questions of theoretical and policy relevance arising from feminist engagements with law.