Masculinity and Vulnerability:
Sexual Violence Against Men During Genocide and Conflict
September 23, 2026 at 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Taper Hall (THH) Room 309K
Join us in person or on Zoom
A public lecture by Anna Gopsill (PhD candidate in Human Rights, University of London)
2026-2027 Robert J. Katz Research Fellow in Genocide Studies
Organized by the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research
Cosponsored by the Human Rights Consortium, University of London
Sexual violence is often understood through a framework of male perpetrators and female victims, but what happens when men are the victims? Drawing on first-person testimony and judgements from the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, Anna Gopsill (PhD candidate in Human Rights) examines how men talk about sexual violence they have experienced and the space institutions give them to do so. She reflects on what survivor testimonies in the Visual History Archive reveal about this violence and asks how international institutions and humanitarian organizations can ensure that men and boys are not overlooked in efforts to address sexual violence in conflict.
Register Here
Lunch will be served.
Anna Gopsill is a PhD candidate in Human Rights at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her research broadly focuses on the nexus between gender and genocide. Anna’s PhD project examines how sexual violence against men was approached and addressed at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She has previously worked as project advisor at Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway where she was involved in projects related to migration, development, and gender.
She holds an MA from the University of Amsterdam in Holocaust and Genocide Studies and an MA from the University of St Andrews in Modern History.
Image of man Credit: Pexels, CC BY-NC-ND
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