Research team

Dr Kate Hardy is a scholar of work and employment with an interest in working conditions, collective organizing, gender and self-employment in gendered and marginal forms of employment. Her major work to date has addressd the sex industry and other forms of low paid women’s work, such as childcare and early years work.

Kris Dunn is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Comparative Politics and Political Psychology at the University of Leeds. His research looks at how value orientations, particularly individual-level authoritarianism, influence people's perceptions of others; their responses to economic, social, and political crises; and their understanding of and support for democratic institutions and norms.

Dr Chloë Gott is a sociologist whose research focuses on gendered violence; sex work; trauma and conflict; the social and epistemic harms of religious carceral spaces; and the intersections between religion and marginalised identities. She is also involved in the sex worker rights movement, with the Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM).

Soraya Bouwmeester, MSc., provides coordination support to the research. With a background in public health and  sociology and as part of the team coordinating the Hands Off programme, she works together with sex worker-led organisations and NGOs and CSOs to reduce violence against sex workers in Southern Africa.

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Ingeborg van Beekum, MSc., supports with the coordination of the research. Ingeborg has a background in International Development and over a decade experience in the NGO sector. As the coordinator of the Hands Off programme, she closely works with sex worker-led organisations, and stakeholders such as service providers, community leaders and police, to reduce (gender-based) violence against sex workers in Southern Africa.

Click here to find out more about the partners we worked with in Botswana

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Click here to find out more about the partners we worked with in South Africa

Click here to find out more about the partners we worked with in Zimbabwe

Click here to find out more about the partners we worked with in Mozambique