Left Write Hook: A Conversation with Dr Shannon Owen (Internal Activity)

This session is hosted by Melbourne Social Equity Institute's Community Engaged Research Network and is only open to staff and graduate researchers based at the University of Melbourne. Please use your @unimelb or @student.unimelb email address to register.

Left Write Hook is a survivor-designed, peer-led program that aims to empower adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse or other gendered violence to reclaim their bodies and rewrite their stories. It began in 2019 when film producer and academic Dr Donna Lyon started a small grassroots program at her local boxing gym in Ferntree Gully, Victoria. She wanted to connect with other survivors and find a way to release and express trauma through writing and boxing.

In 2020, Donna teamed up with colleague Dr Shannon Owen, a filmmaker and researcher whose work investigates the power of nonfiction storytelling to foster dialogue and social change. Together they began developing a documentary film project with a small group of survivors who were participating in the program.  What was initially conceived as an observational documentary following the participants across the eight-week program, evolved into something much more.

At this special event for the Community Engaged Research Network, Shannon will join Professor Karen Block, Deputy Director of Melbourne Social Equity Institute, in conversation to reflect on the co-creative process of Left Write Hook, the importance of centring lived experience in research, and the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting this work in a university research environment.

Please note: this event will not include a screening of the documentary which is currently available on Netflix. Attendees are not all expected to have watched the film in full, though are encouraged to visit the film’s website for further background.