Women in Crime 3
Under the patronage of the University of Padua Women in Crime III Home Schedule Speakers Abstracts Venue Home Schedule Speakers Abstracts Venue from Sept. 24 to Sept. 26, 2026 Women in Crime III at the Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies (DiSLL) University of Padua, Italy A three-day summit of talks around the theme “Who Tells the Story of Violence? Gender, Law, and Power” Convened by: Viviana Gaballo, University of Padua, Italy Lili Pâquet, University of New England, Australia The goal of this event is to bring interdisciplinary scholars to interrogate the discursive, institutional, and cultural production of gender-based violence. Rather than treating violence as a self-evident fact, this conference approaches it as a site of contestation—constructed through language, law, media, policy, and cultural narrative. True crime media, courtroom discourse, investigative journalism, and literary fiction all participate in what might be understood as the cultural adjudication of violence, within what Mark Seltzer (2007) terms “our contemporary wound culture”. These sites produce competing truth-claims that alternately legitimize, sensationalize, contain, or resist women’s experiences (Butler 2004). In this sense, the “story” of violence is never merely narrative—it is juridical, ideological, and material. Who authorizes violence as truth? Who adjudicates credibility? Who controls the epistemic conditions under which harm becomes legible as injustice? By centering questions of authorship, authority, and epistemic power, this conference seeks to move beyond representation toward a structural analysis of how violence is narrated into legitimacy—or dismissed into silence. Our aim is to foster sustained interdisciplinary dialogue capable of challenging the normative frameworks that regulate women’s agency, testimony, and justice. This gathering represents a step toward building an international research network committed to rethinking the politics of storytelling, evidence, and institutional authority in the production of gendered harm. The Speakers (sorted alphabetically by surname) Simone BORILE Clinical criminologist, anthropologist, and forensic psychologist, CIELS, Padua, Italy Elisabetta CROCI ANGELINI Former Professor of Economic Policy, Macerata University, Italy Nicoletta DI CIOLLA Adjunct professor of ESP, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy Viviana GABALLO Associate Professor of Linguistics and Translation Studies, University of Padua, Italy Kenya HERRERA BÓRQUEZ Research professor, Faculty of Human Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexico Simon HOBBS Senior Lecturer in Visual Culture, University of Portsmouth, UK Megan HOFFMAN Independent scholar, UK Bry B.P. HOSMILLO Queer poet, curator, editor, and educator, South Korea Zoe LANDSBERG PhD candidate, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University, South Africa Maria Gabriella MIELI International relations manager, Universal Peace Federation (UPF) Italy, and UPF South Europe Coordinator Sam NAIDU Professor of English, Department of Literary Studies in English, Rhodes University, South Africa Lili PÂQUET Senior Lecturer in Writing, University of New England, Australia Angela PROCACCINO Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Foggia, Italy, and Visiting Professor at Istanbul University Kathleen RODGERS Associate Professor of Sociology, University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada Anna ROMAGNUOLO Associate Professor of English Language and Translation, University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Naples, Italy Michael SALTER Professor of Criminology, University of New South Wales, and Director of Childlight UNSW, Australia Rafik SANTROSYAN Assistant Professor of English and Communications, American University of Armenia Silvia SIGNORATO Associate Professor of Criminal Procedure, University of Padua, Italy Cinzia SPINZI Associate Professor of English Language, Tramslation and Linguistics, University of Padua, Italy Laura VITIS Senior Lecturer, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Australia Lubna YASEEN Syrian writer, journalist, and visual artist based in the Netherlands The Venue Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies University of Padua Via Vendramini 13 35137 – Padua, Italy The conference will take place in Theater 2, 1st floor, in the newly refurbished Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies. Attendance to all conference sessions is free and open to the publicNo registration fee is requiredeveryone is warmly invited to attend Let us know if you’ll be attending!Click on the RSVP button below RSVP Free admission. All are welcome.Ingresso libero. Tutti sono invitati a partecipare. Women in Crime III – Who Tells the Story of Violence? Gender, Law, and Power University of Padua, Italy – 24-26 September, 2026