Institutional Sexism: understanding sexual violence as an administrative evil in public institutions

Applications are invited for a fully-funded three year PhD to commence in October 2025. 

The PhD will be based in the Faculty of Business and Law, and will be supervised by Professor Karen Johnston and Dr Ozlem Araci.

Candidates applying for this project may be eligible to compete for one of a small number of bursaries available. Successful applicants will receive a bursary to cover tuition fees for three years and a stipend in line with the UKRI rate (£19,237 for 2024/25). Bursary recipients will also receive £2,000 for fieldwork purposes.

Costs for student visa and immigration health surcharge are not covered by this bursary. For further guidance and advice visit our international and EU students ‘Visa FAQs’ page.

The death Sarah Everard, and the sexual violence perpetrated by Jimmy Saville, David Carrick, and others in public life represents egregious acts by those employed in public institutions, and erodes public trust in institutions. Sexual violence remains a problem within society with social movements (e.g. #MeToo) voicing these concerns. The main aim of the project is to advance the research on sexual violence as an ‘administrative evil’ by seeking to understand how egregious acts within public institutions takes place and persists to the extent that numerous public inquiries and reviews report of institutional failures. These acts within public organisations have been described as ‘the system and organisational culture’ that enabled the immoral acts and behaviour. Thus, the objectives of the research will seek to understand, inside the ‘black box’ of public organisations, the institutional enabling factors, and measures that could be implemented to prevent future sexual violence in public life.

In recent years there have been a number of scandals and failures within public institutions and perpetrated by those in public life. These are usually described as institutional failings with the promise of lessons will be learned. The UK government is introducing a ‘Hillsborough Law" to improve transparency and accountability in the public sector where there has been a failure in the provision and delivery of public services, and is the subject of public investigation and scrutiny. The law aims to reduce the culture of defensiveness in the public sector and ensure that recent scandals are not repeated. 

The project will investigate institutional sexual violence drawing upon publicly available data from statutory public enquires in the UK and official government commissioned reviews (e.g. Casey Review, 2023), and interviews with key stakeholders to better understand, despite legislative and regulatory frameworks, how sexual violence within public institutions is enabled, and importantly understand ways in which sexual violence could be prevented, presenting a further pathway to impact on improving gender equality and relations within public institutions. Drawing upon the concept of ‘administrative evil’ (Adams and Balfour, 1998), the research will advance the field of public administration and gender studies by seeking to better understand systemic institutional enabling factors, and propose measures that could be implemented to prevent future administrative evil and gender-based violence by those employed in public organisations.

How to apply

We’d encourage you to contact Professor Karen Johnston (karen.johnston@port.ac.uk) to discuss your interest before you apply, quoting the project code.

When you are ready to apply, you can use our online application form. Make sure you submit a personal statement, proof of your degrees and grades, details of two referees, proof of your English language proficiency and an up-to-date CV.  Our ‘How to Apply’ page offers further guidance on the PhD application process. 

Please also include a research proposal of 1,000 words outlining the main features of your proposed research design – including how it meets the stated objectives, the challenges this project may present, and how the work will build on or challenge existing research in the above field. 

If you want to be considered for this funded PhD opportunity you must quote project code OSP50310125 when applying. Please note that email applications are not accepted.