November 25 to December 10, 2016 marks 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. This global campaign sees various feminist and human rights groups around the world campaign to further raise awareness about the prevalence and devastating impact of gender violence.

This year the Australian Women’s History Network would like to commemorate this event by inviting members, particularly those engaged in research that touches on the history of gender or family violence, to contribute reflections to the VIDA blog on the issue.

Reflections can be as long or short as the writer desires, and might respond to one or more of the following questions:

• How can histories of violence contribute to contemporary understandings and activism regarding gender violence?
• Was there a particular event or issue that motivated your research on violence?
• In the course of your research, has there been a particular discovery, story or artefact that troubled, shocked or moved you?

We hope to link this initiative to other activism and fundraising activities that take place during the 16 days campaign by directing readers of the reflections to relevant charities, petitions and letter-writing campaigns.

If you would be interested in contributing to VIDA’s 16 days reflections series, please contact the blog’s managing editors, Alana Piper and Ana Stevenson: auswhn@gmail.com. Reflections for the series should be submitted by 10 October.