Dr Rebecca Shaw

Profile

I joined the School of Law as a Lecturer in Law in October 2021, having completed my PhD in Law and Classics at the University of Bristol. This was an AHRC Funded project, via the South West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership, and consisted of a legal-narratological study of the Augustan Marriage Legislation (18BC). 

Responsibilities

• Deputy Director, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies
• Academic Personal Tutor Lead

Research interests

My research lies at the nexus of law, crime and narrative, with particular research interests in the socio-legal, historical and cultural narratives which frame and underpin legislation and crime. I am especially interested in the development of harmful narratives in the context of domestic abuse, and how they are entrenched within individuals, agencies, society and the law. My work investigates the existence of these problematic narratives, and how their co-constitution should be recognised as configuring harms in themselves. Specifically, these narratives, and the perception of domestic abuse they communicate, serve as a significant barrier to prevention activities and delivering long term-cultural and societal change around domestic abuse. My vision, therefore, is to change the narrative of domestic abuse and contribute to long-term societal, cultural and legal change of domestic abuse through improved understanding and awareness. 

In 2023-24, I carried out an ESRC funded project, awarded by the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre’s ECR Development Fund, in partnership with domestic abuse service providers in Leeds, West Yorkshire and York. The project aimed to invesigate the power and persistence of dominant narratives in relation to domestic abuse, as witnessed by front line specialist workers who support both victims and perpetrators. A key ambition of this project was not only to identify and analyse these narratives, but to consider how we might improve future policy and practice to change them. Find out more about the project, its outputs and the final report here. I have subsequently secured funding from the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account and ESRC Creating Opportunities throughLocal Innovation Fellowship (2025) to support follow-on work aimed at embedding ‘changing the narrative of domestic abuse’ into the government’s prevention strategies for domestic abuse, and specifically within the Relationships, Sex and Health Curriculum (RSE) for secondary school children. This is through the creation of a ‘Changing the Narrative of Domestic Abuse’ working group and development of educational resources in partnership with Leeds City Council, West Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Leeds Domestic Violence & Abuse Voices Project, and Secondary School Teachers, The aim of this resource is to educate children about these problematic narratives; improve understanding in order to address the root causes of domestic abuse; and to foster a new generation that are empowered and equipped to prevent domestic abuse and facilitate long term change.  

I am Stream Convenor for the Law, Literature and Humanities Stream of the Socio-Legal Studies Association, and a Research Affiliate with the Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre. 

I am also Deputy Lead for the newly established Feminist Research into Violence and Abuse at the University of Leeds. 

• Domestic Abuse Service Providers and their Stories

Qualifications

• PhD Law and Classics
• Bachelors of Law (Hons)
• MA (Hons) Classical Studies and Ancient History

Professional memberships

• Fellowship of the HEA
• British and Irish Association for Narrative Studies
• International Society for the Study of Narrative
• British Society of Criminology
• Socio-Legal Studies Association

Student education

I teach a number of modules across the undergraduate LLB, including Criminal Law, Foundations of Law, Gender and the Law, and Evidence. I also supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, and currently I am the Module Lead for the LLB Long Dissertation Module. I am also Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Criminal Justice Studies
• Centre for Law and Social Justice