U of G professor Myrna Dawson took part in an expert panel meeting focused on developing a qualitative research program examining gender-based violence held in Ottawa by Status of Women Canada Thursday and Friday. The panel discussed current and future qualitative approaches, the role of mixed methods, and priority questions for future research. “Along with other stakeholders, this panel’s discussions will contribute to the development of a qualitative research agenda that will complement current initiatives and priorities identified in the 2016 consultations, and focus on marginalized or vulnerable populations by examining questions that can help to improve society’s responses to their experiences of gender-based violence,” said Dawson, professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Public Policy in Criminal Justice. In June 2017, the Government of Canada released It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence. The strategyincludes significant research and data collection components. About two dozen experts from across the country were invited to participate. Dawson studies social and legal responses to violence, especially how legislative, public policy and program reform has helped to prevent intimate partner and domestic violence. Her research centre recently launched the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability.
