The Dynamics of Sexual Violence and Resistance (DSVR) Project was created to address a critical gap in how sexual violence is understood and responded to in Nigerian communities, both locally and in the UK diaspora. As Africa’s most populous country with a significant UK diaspora, Nigeria offers a vital lens for understanding how culture, migration and community shape women’s lives.

Unlike traditional studies, DSVR uses a participatory, community-based approach. We work with women in their everyday environments and on their own terms, capturing the social, cultural and embodied realities that often go unnoticed. By prioritising participants’ perspectives and situated knowledge, we move beyond extractive accounts of sexual harm to gain deeper insight into how survivors navigate power, resilience and resistance.

Through the DSVR project, we aim to gain insight into:

• How survivors interpret their understanding and experiences of sexual violence in relation to cultural expectations, racialised perceptions and transnational identities.

• How trust (or mistrust) in state institutions such as the police or healthcare shapes disclosure and help-seeking practices.

• How intersecting dynamics such as social isolation, religious and gendered norms, poverty and limited education exacerbate vulnerability to sexual violence.

• In the UK, to understand the everyday strategies of resistance and resilience that survivors draw on, such as informal networks, diasporic community solidarities and culturally embedded forms of care, which are reshaped and re-imagined across transnational spaces.

This project creates a safe space for cross-cultural dialogue and contributes to building more inclusive and equitable communities of care. The use of participatory visual methods—such as photovoice, storytelling and survivor-led art, highlights the project’s commitment to innovative, accessible and socially engaged research that drives meaningful impact and change.

Ongoing Impact Activities

• Knowledge exchange events, co-delivered with NGOs, to inform survivor support services and develop culturally responsive intervention models.

• Creative platforms for survivors to narrate their experiences and strategies of resistance through art - a process that serves simultaneously as participatory knowledge production, supporting healing and a means of advocacy that reshapes community conversations around sexual violence.

• Community training sessions to build understanding of the sociocultural dynamics of sexual violence and challenge harmful norms that sustain it.

• Participatory workshops centred on survivor-led co-creation of knowledge, equipping communities with tools to design more responsive, context-sensitive interventions