Claudia Vince

Claudia is a first-year part-time PhD student exploring experiences of trauma among men and women serving life sentences. The research is funded by the ESRC and will explore how men and women serving life sentences articulate experiences of trauma in relation to an exploratory framework of trauma capturing the different stages at which people may encounter traumatising experiences – in childhood, in response to committing a serious violent offence, in response to receiving a life sentence and in response to spending a long time in prison. The work will attempt to unpick the way gender shapes experiences of trauma, particularly in relation to how men and women express distress in ways they deem to be socially acceptable within prison settings.

Claudia also works as Programme Coordinator for the Prison Reform Trust’s Building Futures programme, which focuses on the experiences of individuals serving long prison sentences. This involves facilitating working groups in prisons, conducting consultations and research alongside prisoners, and creating opportunities for long-term prisoners to directly respond to and inform the policies and debates that impact them.