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Phone:: (023) 8059 3418
Email:: D.Gurnham@soton.ac.uk

Professor David Gurnham LLB (Lancaster), PhD (Warwick)

Deputy Head of School and Professor of Criminal Law and Interdisciplinary Legal Studies

David Gurnham is a Professor of Criminal Law and Interdisciplinary Legal Studies within Southampton Law School at the University of Southampton. He came to Southampton as a Reader (Associate Professor) in 2012, having previously been a Lecturer in Healthcare Law and Ethics at the University of Manchester (2005 - 2012), and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Reading (2003 – 2005). His research and teaching reflect a primary interest in law in its contexts, and looks beyond law’s traditional boundaries in order to forge new critical and methodological possibilities.

Centre for Law, Policy and Society (CLPS)

Member

Health Ethics and Law (HEAL)

Associate Member

Research

Responsibilities

Publications

Teaching

Contact

Research interests

Criminal law
Law and Literature
Critical and theoretical approaches to law (including psychoanalysis and feminism)

PhD supervision

I am in principle available to supervise on any topic within my research expertise. I have recently finished supervising Hector Olivas (with Mark Telford) on the legitimacy of prisons privatization in Mexico and the UK, James Thornton (with Mark Telford) on reforms to criminal procedure and fees structures in England and Wales, both of whom passed subject to modest corrections. I am currently supervising Ana Fuentes (with Harry Annison) on public bodies’ responses to human trafficking.

PhD research

PhD (Warwick) 2004: ‘Judicial Rhetoric and Ethical Dilemma: The Role of Liberal Principle in Legal Language’.

Research projects

‘Young People's Perceptions of Sexual Consent: Exploring the implications for policy and practice’. (with Dr Harry Annison and Mr Mark Telford).

We have been awarded funds from the ESRC (Impact Acceleration Account) and the Public Engagement with Research unit to conduct a research and public engagement project on the subject of sexual consent. The project uses qualitative empirical research methods to explore how young people understand consent and gender. We debated our initial findings at a stakeholder roundtable in Southampton with representatives of Hampshire Police, the criminal bar, young people’s and victims’ charities, academics and students in December 2017. Findings from follow-on research will be debated in Winter 2018/19 (see publications tab for links to briefing papers 1 and 2). We plan to publish our findings and analysis in legal academic press in 2019.

Relatedly, my article on Ched Evans, rape myths and ‘the gaze’ will appear soon in the International Journal of Law in Context (see publications tab).

Director of Research, School of Law
Editor in Chief (with Professor Gary Watt, Warwick Law School) of Law and Humanities (Taylor & Francis)
Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the ‘International Journal of Law in Context’ (CUP)
Member of Centre for Law, Policy and Society (CLPS), and an Associate Member of Health Ethics and Law (HEAL).

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Guest Co-Editor: New Criminal Law Review: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal

Edition: New Criminal Law Review: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol 17(1)
(Guest-edited with Imogen Jones)

Articles

Books

Gurnham, D. (2014). Crime, desire and law's unconscious: law, literature and culture. (a GlassHouse Book). New York, US: Routledge.
Gurnham, D. (2009). Memory, imagination, justice: intersections of law and literature. (Law, Justice and Power). Farnham, GB: Ashgate.

Book Chapters

Gurnham, D., & Ashworth, A. (2015). Revisiting the criminalization of disease. In Pioneering Healthcare Law: Essays in Honour of Professor Margaret Brazier (pp. 268-279). (Bioethical Law and Ethics Library). Abingdon, GB: Routledge.
Gurnham, D. (2013). Plato's fertility clinic: status and identity rhetoric in parenthood disputes. In M. D. Freeman, & F. Smith (Eds.), Law and Language (pp. 356-370). (Current Legal Issues; Vol. 15). Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199673667.003.0191
Gurnham, D. (2012). Donor-conception as a 'dangerous supplement' to the nuclear family: what can we learn from parents' stories? In D. Cutas (Ed.), Families: Beyond the Nuclear Ideal (pp. 84-96). (Science, Ethics and Society). New York, US: Bloomsbury Academic.
Gurnham, D. (2012). Risky sex and manly diversions: contours of consent in HIV-transmission and rough horseplay cases. In A. Alghrani, R. Bennett, & S. Ost (Eds.), The Criminal Law and Bioethical Conflict: Walking the Tightrope (Cambridge Bioethics and Law; Vol. 1). Cambridge, GB: Cambridge University Press.

Working Papers

Gurnham, D. (2019). Metaphor and moral plausibility in legal judgment: constructing culpability on fragile foundations? . (School of Law Working Papers). Southampton: University of Southampton.
Gurnham, D., Annison, H., & Telford, M. (2018). Young people’s perceptions of sexual consent: implications for policy and practice? Briefing paper 2: moving the agenda forward. University of Southampton.
Gurnham, D., Annison, H., & Telford, M. (2018). Young people’s perceptions of sexual consent: implications for policy and practice? Briefing paper for stakeholder roundtable, December 13th 2017, Southampton. Southampton: University of Southampton.

Co-module lead (with Mark Telford), and lecturer for Criminal Law (LAWS1014).
Module convenor and teacher for all classes for ‘Violence and Sex in Law, Literature and Culture’ (LAWS3098)

Professor David Gurnham
Southampton Law School, Building 4 University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ UK

Room Number: 4/3059

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