Vanita Sundaram

Professor Vanita Sundaram is a Professor in the Department of Education at the University of York, where she serves as Deputy Head of Department (2018-present) and leads the Centre for Research in Education and Social Justice. She joined the Department in March 2006 after a five-year research post at the Danish National Institute of Public Health. University-wide, she chairs the Social Sciences Athena SWAN Group (2020-present) and represents Social Sciences on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (2016-present).

Her educational background includes:

• Sociology undergraduate degree from University of Kent at Canterbury
• MA in Women's Studies from University of Kent at Canterbury
• PhD in Public Health from University of Copenhagen

Professor Sundaram's research focuses on sexual harassment and gender-based violence in educational settings, with particular emphasis on developing prevention models and methodologies for researching harassment with children and young people. Her work critically examines sex and relationships education's role in preventing gender-based violence, with growing attention to intersectional approaches addressing how race compounds gender-based violence experiences. She has increasingly focused on Black and minoritised women's experiences of sexual harassment and whole-school approaches to tackling gender inequality.

Her publication record shows consistent progression from foundational work on gender-specific health effects of violence toward increasingly intersectional analyses of how race, gender, and other identity markers shape harassment experiences across educational contexts from primary schools to universities. Recent work emphasizes practical implementation of culture-change initiatives in educational institutions.

Professor Sundaram has secured significant research funding from diverse sources including the European Commission (€907,833 for 'Universities Supporting Survivors of Sexual Violence'), Council of Europe (£6k), Plan International (£20k), and multiple HEFCE grants totaling over £90k. Her projects address critical gaps in understanding and preventing gender-based violence across educational settings.

She actively supervises eight PhD students working on topics including consent education in India, child-led sexuality education, gender representation in Saudi Arabian textbooks, and parental views on sex education in China. She has successfully guided nine PhD students to completion on related topics such as lad culture in higher education and university responses to sexual violence disclosures.

As leader of the Centre for Research in Education and Social Justice, Professor Sundaram fosters collaborations across institutional and national boundaries, maintaining active partnerships with researchers in Denmark, Australia, Spain, and Greece to advance understanding of gender inequality in educational contexts globally.