Dr Fiona Vera Gray teaches on London Met's Women and Child Abuse MA within the School of Social Sciences and Professions.
Fiona Vera Gray
Fiona is an activist, researcher, and campaigner working on violence against women and girls. She comes from a practice-based background, working for over a decade in the Rape Crisis movement before moving into academia, initially based at Durham University. Among other collaborative projects, she is currently working on a UKRI-funded project exploring the harms of sexual violence, and writing up her Leverhulme-funded study on women's experiences of porn for publication by Penguin in 2023.
Fiona teaches on sexual violence, sexual harassment, pornography and feminist anti-violence activism. She also teaches on feminist methodologies including ethics and the importance of emotionally-engaged research.
Books Vera-Gray, F. (2018). The Right Amount of Panic: How women trade freedom for safety in public. Policy Press.
Vera-Gray, F. (2016). Men's Intrusion, Women's Embodiment: A critical analysis of street harassment. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Book chapters (selected)
Vera-Gray, F. and Fileborn. B. (2022) ‘Hiding the harm? An argument against misogyny hate crime’ in Catherine Donovan, Edward Hall, John Clayton (eds) Geographies of Hate, Routledge.
Vera-Gray, F. (2021). Rape porn. In The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication. Ross, K. (Ed.) Wiley Blackwell.
Vera-Gray, F. (2020). The Authority of Pornography. In Gender and Authority across Disciplines, Space and Time. Bardazzi, A. and Bazzoni, A. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 291-312.
Vera-Gray, F. and McGlynn, C. (2020). Regulating pornography: Developments in evidence, theory, and law. In Research Handbook on Gender, Sexuality, and Law. Ashford, C. and Maine, A. Edward Elgar. 471-483.
Vera-Gray, F. and Kelly, L. (2020). Contested gendered space: Public sexual harassment and women's safety work. In Crime and fear in public places.
Vera-Gray, F. (2017). Outlook: Girlhood, agency, and embodied space for action. In Nordic Girlhoods: Past, Present, Outlooks. Formark, B., Mulari, H. and Voipio, M. Cham: Palgrave MacMillian. 127-135.
Journal Articles (selected)
Vera-Gray, Fiona, McGlynn, Clare, Kureshi, Ibad and Butterby, Kate (2021). Sexual violence as a sexual script in mainstream online pornography. British Journal of Criminology 61(5): 1243-1260.
Vera-Gray, Fiona and Kelly, Liz (2020). Contested gendered space: public sexual harassment and women’s safety work. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice
Vera-Gray, F. (2020). The Whole Place Self: reflecting on the original working practices of Rape Crisis. Journal of Gender-Based Violence 4(1): 59-72.
Vera-Gray, F. and Fileborn, B. (2018). Recognition and the harms of “Cheer Up”. The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence II(1): 78-96.
Fileborn, B. and Vera-Gray, F. (2017). “I want to be able to walk the street without fear” Transforming justice for street harassment. Feminist Legal Studies 25(2): 203-227.
Vera-Gray, F. (2017). ‘talk about a cunt with too much idle time’ Trolling feminist research. Feminist Review 115(1): 61-78.
Vera-Gray, F. (2016). Men’s Stranger Intrusions: Rethinking street harassment. Women’s Studies International Forum 58: 9-17.
Fiona has been a regular media commentator on pornography, sexual violence, sexual harassment and rape prevention for years and has advised both Westminster and Scottish governments, including on pornography, sexual harassment and the new relationships and sex education curriculum. She has been interviewed about her work on porn on TalkRadio and Women’s Hour, amongst others, and has appeared in BBC documentaries about porn and its impact including File on Four’s Sexual Abuse in Schools, (May 2021) and an episode of BBC One’s Disclosure series A Question of Consent. She has also been interviewed for international publications including Vanity Fair, and featured in an in-depth interview on her work with women on porn on RadioNZ in New Zealand.
Selected public writing
If we’re serious about ending violence against women, we need to talk about culture, The Guardian, October 2021
From porn to true crime stories, we must end the portrayal of violence against women, The Guardian, March 2021
The ‘right’ amount of panic for a woman in public, BBC News, Oct 2017
Have you ever wondered how much energy you put in to avoid being assaulted? It may shock you. The Conversation, Sept 2016
Porn: Our children are obsessed, but not for the reasons you think. The Telegraph, Feb 2016
Britain's rape crisis: Why won't the Government guarantee support for survivors? The Telegraph, Oct 2015
Dr Fiona Vera Gray
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