Thesis: 'Speaking Rape: Feminist Dilemmas on Language and Experience'

My PhD project 'Speaking Rape' explores the kind of dilemmas that survivor-victims of rape face when disclosing rape. In particular, I am interested in the 'mismatch' between the experience of rape and the idea of rape. I want to suggest that unifying, universal and essentialist conceptions of rape actively silence survivors because such understandings erase the particularities of lived experiences of rape and the particularity of meanings for those who survive.