Dr Clare Wiper

Clare is an Assistant Professor in Criminology at Northumbria University and co-lead of the Gendered Violence and Abuse Interdisciplinary Research Theme. Her research examines various forms of gender-based violence (GBV) including economic abuse, tech-facilitated violence and coercive control. Clare's current ESRC project (2026-2029) is a collaboration with Dr Kathryn Royal and Surviving Economic Abuse, and engages victim-survivors and other stakeholders in the co-production of a cross-sector framework for responding to coerced debt in England and Wales. Clare is also researching the role of purpose-driven financial institutions - particularly credit unions and CDFIs - in responding to economic abuse (with Alice Merry). 

Clare's previous EPSRC/UKFIN+ project (2024-25) focused on "designing out" economic abuse in the UK banking industry (with Dr Belen Barros Pena & Surviving Economic Abuse) and her British Academy project (2021-2023) examined the nature, dynamics and consequences of coerced debt for women victim-survivors of domestic abuse. Clare has also investigated online misogyny and abuse (with Prof Mike Rowe & Dr Ruth Lewis) and trauma-informed lawyering in the context of civil claims for sexual violence (with Dr Nikki Godden-Rasul). Her work adopts qualitative, ethnographic and participatory design methodologies, is committed to intersectional analysis, and typically draws upon a feminist political economy theoretical framework.

Clare welcomes enquiries from prospective students who wish to undertake a PhD about any topic relating to GBV – especially projects about economic abuse, post-separation abuse, tech-facilitated abuse, misogyny and incel culture, and the political-economic causes and consequences of GBV. Clare is the NINEDTP Pathway Lead for Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work and can support students with their applications.