Sally-Anne Beverley

Profile

I have a BA in Politics and an MSc in Politics with Research Methods, both from the University of Sheffield. Previously, my research has looked at transfeminism and bisexual communities. 

I’m a feminist and bisexual activist. I’m driven by my own experiences of violence.

Research interests

My research focuses on bisexual women’s experiences of psychological, physical and sexual violence. Studies consistently show that bisexual women more extremely, report more rape, sexual assault, intimate partner violence and child sexual abuse compared to heterosexual and homosexual people. Recently data released in the UK shows that half of British bisexual women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

This study will use feminist approaches which centralise gender to explore the causes of this increased violence, how bisexual women experience violence and the implications for services which support women who have experienced violence. The study takes a standpoint feminist approach, which centralises experiences and will use semi-structured in-depth interviews with bisexual women who are survivors of violence.

Objectives:

• To explore bisexual women’s experiences of sexual, physical and psychological violence
• To explore bisexual women survivors of sexual, physical and psychological violence’s interactions with support services
• To provide information and guidelines to service providers interacting with bisexual women survivors of sexual, physical, psychological violence

Questions:

1.  How does gender impact bisexual experiences of violence?
2. How are bisexual women’s experiences of violence different from heterosexual and homosexual experiences of violence?
3. What are bisexual women’s experiences with support services and how can these inform best practice?