Laura Walton-Williams

Dr Laura Walton-Williams is an Associate Professor of Gender Based Violence(GBV) at Staffordshire University. Laura’s research is interdisciplinary and combines her background in forensic biology with criminological approaches to tackle issues relating to socio-cultural determinants of GBV in under-represented groups, the use of creative interventions in tackling GBV and the inclusion of men and boys in addressing GBV. In October 2022, she co-founded the Staffordshire University Violence Against Women and Girls (SU-VAWG) Hub. The Hub is a collaborative network designed to enable organisations involved in supporting those who have experienced domestic abuse and sexual offences to connect, learn, collaborate, and share ideas. Laura also co-leads the Gender Based Violence (GBV) Research Group at Staffordshire University. In 2021, Laura co-led a community research and consultation project funded by Staffordshire Women’s Aid (SWA), focussed on ‘Responding to the Needs of Sexual Assault and Abuse Victims from Black and Ethnic Minority Communities in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent’. In 2023, she co-led a collaborative research project funded by WELCOME Wellbeing CIC, focussed on the ‘Investigation into the socio-cultural determinants of violence against women and girls within South Asian communities in the West Midlands ‘. In 2017, Laura was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship which explored how sexual offence investigations could be improved through engaging with representatives from all aspects of the criminal justice system across Canada and North America. Laura is also Director of Enterprise Education at Staffordshire University. She leads on enterprise and entrepreneurship education across the university. This entails leading on the development and delivery of enterprise education at Staffordshire University, driving entrepreneurship across the region and providing outstanding learning experiences for our students, leading to highly skilled entrepreneurial graduates.