Key details
Dr Alexandra Fanghanel
Associate Professor
Alexandra Fanghanel is a Associate Professor in Criminology with expertise in gender, sexuality, consent, sexual subcultures and public space. She has published widely in leading journals and is author of Disrupting Rape Culture (Bristol University Press), Rough Sex (Edinburgh University Press) and co-author of Sex and Crime (Sage). She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and Chair of the Women, Crime and Criminal Justice Network of the British Society of Criminology.
Responsibilities within the university
Alexandra Fanghanel joined the School of Law at the University of Greenwich in 2015.
- Programme Leader of BA Criminology and Criminal Justice
- Co-lead of the Gender Deviance and Society Research Group
Awards
- Visiting Scholar Award Winner, Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago USA, 2025 British Society of Criminology Women Crime and Criminal Justice Network (WCCJN) Paper prize, 2020
- Winner of British Society of Criminology Women Crime and Criminal Justice Network (WCCJN) Paper prize, 2020
Recognition
- Chair of Women Crime and Criminal Justice Network of the British Society of Criminology
- Steering Group member WCCJN 2020- present
Reviewer for:
- Feminist Criminology
- Psychology and Sexuality
- Sexualities
- Bristol University Press
- Policy Press
- Routledge
- Journal of Gender-Based Violence
Research / Scholarly interests
Dr Alexandra Fanghanel’s research examines gender, sexuality, consent and justice through critical and interdisciplinary approaches. She is particularly interested in how power operates within legal, cultural and spatial understandings of sexual practice. Her current work develops critical approaches to creative research methods, exploring how arts-based and participatory methodologies expand criminological inquiry. She is undertaking archival research into subaltern sexualities, analysing how non-normative desires have been documented and regulated across time. She also leads research on trauma-informed design, investigating how architectural and spatial environments can support recovery, dignity and justice for criminalised and marginalised women.
Key funded projects
Building Hope: The potential of architecture to support trauma-informed practice with criminalised women, 2025-2027 BA/Leverhulme (co-I with Dr Madeline Petrillo)
Media activity
28/04/22 ‘What if sex didn’t matter?’, TEDx Talks, University of Greenwich [available online https://www.ted.com/talks/alexandra_fanghanel_what_if_sex_didn_t_matter]
30/07/19 Contributing expert appearing in ‘Released to Kill Again’, S1 E1, Channel 5, 1 hour programme
02/07/19 Contributing expert appearing in ‘Murdered by…. Burned Alive: The Murder of Gagandip Singh, S2 E3, 5Star, 1 hour programme
13/11/13 Invited speaker for ‘Voice of Russia UK’ radio debate on the sexualisation of young people, [available online http://voiceofrussia.com/uk/2013_11_13/VoR-debate-Too-much-sexism-in-music-videos-4102/]
Recent publications
Fanghanel, A, Milne, E, Zampini, G, Banwell, S, Fiddler, M (2021) Sex and Crime, Sage
Fanghanel, A (2019) Disrupting Rape Culture: Public Space, Sexuality and Revolt, Bristol, Bristol University Press/Policy Press
Fanghanel, A (2018) ‘How to break a rape culture: gendered fear of crime and the myth of the stranger-rapist’ chapter in Lee, M and Mythen, G (eds.) Routledge International Handbook on the Fear of Crime, Abingdon, Routledge, ISBN 9781138120334
Lim, J and Fanghanel, A (2016) ‘Temptresses and predators: Gender-based violence, safekeeping and the production of proper subjects’ chapter in Brown, G and Browne, K. (eds.), The Routledge Research Companion to Geographies of Sex and Sexualities, Abingdon, Routledge , ISBN 9781317043324
Fanghanel, A (2020) On Being Ugly: the grotesque politics of sexualised naked protest’ On Being Ugly: the grotesque politics of sexualised naked protest’ Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 35(2), 262-278
Fanghanel, A (2019) Asking for it: BDSM sexual practice and the trouble of consent. Sexualities, 23 3 269-289 [Winner of 2020 BSC Women Crime and Criminal Justice Prize]
Fanghanel, A and Lim J (2016) Of “Sluts” and “Arseholes” Antagonistic Desire and the Production of Sexual Vigilance, Feminist Criminologies, 12 4 341-360
Fanghanel, A (2015), ‘The trouble with safety: Subjectification, Safety and of Fear of Crime in Public Space’, Theoretical Criminology, 20 1 57-74
Fanghanel, A (2014) ‘Approaching/Departure: Effacement, Erasure and ‘Undoing’ the Fear of Crime’, Cultural Geographies, 21 3 343-361
Lim, J and Fanghanel, A (2013), 'Hijabs, Hoodies and Hotpants': Negotiating the 'Slut' in SlutWalk, Geoforum 48 20-215
Presentations
11/06/24 ‘‘Bad Romance: Sex Games Gone Wrong as cultural artifact?’, British Society of Criminology, Glasgow UK
14/04/24 ‘Capturing consent in the court room’, American Association of Geography, Hawaii, USA
13/10/23 ‘Consent in Crisis: The legal (im)possibilities of rough sex/BDSM in courts’, Sexpan!cs Conference, Dublin City University, Ireland
28/08/23 ‘Consent as an instrument of violence’, European Society of Criminology, Florence, Italy
25/09/22 ‘False Positives: Spectral sex positivity and the rough sex defence’ European Society of Criminology, Malaga, Spain
24/05/22 ‘She looked like she was having fun: Spectres of consent in the sex game gone wrong’, Is Consent Good for Women?’ A Feminist Symposium on Consent Culture. Birkbeck College University of London, UK
24/04/22 ‘False Positives: Spectral sex positivity and the rough sex defence’, SLSA Conference, University of York,
22/05/19 Fanghanel, A ‘Mapping Rape Culture: Nation and the struggle for social justice’, NORA Conference, Iceland
08/12/18 Fanghanel, A ‘On being ugly in public: the spatial politics of transgressive bodies’, Progressive Connexions conference, Vienna, Austria
05/09/18 Fanghanel, A Speaker at BSC Crime and Control Ethnography Symposium, Goldsmiths University, London, UK
30/08/18 Fanghanel, A ‘Mapping Rape Culture: Nation and the struggle for social justice’, Eurocrim, Sarajevo, BiH
05/04/18 Fanghanel, A ‘Penetrated space: At the threshold of propriety, sexual practice and the public’, American Association of Geographers, New Orleans, USA
01/09/17 Fanghanel, A ‘How to break a rape culture’, European Geographies of Sexuality Conference, Barcelona, Spain
14/08/17 Fanghanel, A ‘Mapping rape culture: Agonism and the struggle for social justice’, Sociological Imaginations Conference, University of Greenwich, London, UK
14/11/16 Fanghanel, A ‘Penetrated spaces: At the threshold of propriety, sexual practice and the public’, American Society of Criminology, New Orleans, USA
24/04/16 Fanghanel, A ‘Asking for it: Negotiating consent, desire and rape culture’, American Association of Geography, San Francisco, USA
11/09/15 Fanghanel, A ‘The Pillory and the Ban: The Disputing Politics of Sexual Desire’, Operation Spanner Workshop, Royal Holloway University of London, UK