Driving research towards a future free from violence
In November 2025, ANU Coral Bell School PhD scholar and CEVAW Affiliate Shivangi Seth participated in the CEVAW Higher Doctorate Research (HDR) Showcase event in Melbourne - joining over 30 PhD members of the Centre of Excellence working on various projects related to ending violence.
These are her reflections from participating.
The Australian Research Centre (ARC) Centre of Excellence on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (CEVAW) 2025 HDR showcase was illuminating in terms of highlighting the power of storytelling - which is critical to take our research beyond academic circles. The presentations by HDR candidates underscored how visuals, stories, and statistics all come together to create powerful narratives about our research. As presenters explained their research methods, I was inspired by the collaborative approach taken by most participants in their research design. Everyone emphasised designing with rather than merely for communities to enable research that is more meaningful and sustainable. What also stood out to me was that many presentations concluded with a message of hope – of a more just, safe, and equitable world. This really brought home the idea that we are all tackling problems that are not just theoretically but also practically messy, yet our ultimate intent is to move the needle.
Making research useful
Participants’ insights on achieving impact through research was particularly useful for me as I have pondered over how my research can be of use to conflict-affected communities that are asking for global justice regimes to operate differently. Our conversations pushed me to question some pathways to this which I had previously thought of and even presented new ideas to me. I was encouraged to think about different kinds of research outputs that delved with art, archives, and documentation. I was prompted to think about what are the kind of outputs that communities would read, about making my data accessible and usable, for instance by creating a guide that would facilitate its use, and to think about the sustainability and longevity of my research outputs. I was also energised by listening to HDR candidates discussing plans to build-up grassroots organisations based on their research.
Interrogating theories
The roundtable on theory helped make an intimidating topic feel less so. It demystified, for me, how theory can be operationalised in research. We discussed how theory plays various roles — informing our lens, being something we test, or providing a gap which we aim to fill. We also discussed how theory can be provocative and thus prompt the creation of theories ‘from the margins’ that carry emancipatory potential. We also discussed the implications of insider-outsider research, and how each of us carry baggage, privileges, and shortcomings with us as we approach our diverse research topics. In navigating this, we were encouraged to think about who we approach, how we approach them, and what questions we are asking. There was a focus on precluding extractive research and drawing on indigenous theories and methods of research to create collaborative outputs. We discussed various means to build these more equitable relationships, including how we can share roles and responsibilities and even generate material equity when possible.
Conscious of trauma
Finally, discussions on vicarious trauma were a pivotal aspect of this event. They provided us with the tools to identify and regulate our own emotional state as we all traversed topics that carry trauma within them. They also helped us think about the steps we can take to create safe spaces for interviewees as they may engage in recalling and retelling potentially traumatic experiences. These important conversations prompted me to learn about methods of co-regulation and connection in such contexts, to think about the differences between empathy and compassion, and introduced to me the concept of the resilient compassion model. An invaluable immediate impact these conversations have had is that they helped me realise what I had been mistaking for empathy fatigue in my emotional responses may have been my mind and body successfully regulating my emotions as I read traumatic accounts of violence, building my own form of resilient compassion. These are lessons and tools that I will carry with me throughout my career, far beyond my dissertation.
A thesis on Gender Justice and the ICC
The title of my thesis is Power, Money, and Justice at the International Criminal Court and I am currently nine months into my PhD, supervised by Professor Kirsten Ainley. My research examines justice and accountability in the aftermath of mass atrocities with a focus on gender justice. International criminal courts claim to deliver justice to communities affected by mass atrocities and violence. Such courts routinely cost hundreds of millions of dollars a year and are often funded by third-party states. There is thus a disjuncture between the actors the courts claim to serve and the actors financing them. My thesis examines what kind of power this imbues upon donors and what are its ramifications, particularly for the communities in whose name international justice operates. A key aspect of this examination is how gender justice is prioritised in these international criminal justice regimes, including by addressing not just hyper-visible crimes committed against women in conflict, but also the structural violence, inequalities, and injustices that enable violence against women in both peacetime and war.