Dr Bridget Steele
About
Dr Bridget Steele is a social epidemiologist and mixed-methods researcher focused on the structural causes of gender-based violence and its impact on survivor health and wellbeing. Through her research, Dr Steele aims to inform the design and evaluation of prevention and responses programmes and policies. She has specific expertise in survey design and dissemination and systematic review and meta-analyses methods.
Dr Steele leads the OUR SPACE research project on gender and sexual-based violence in higher education. She sits on the advisory group task force for the Office of Students on measuring sexual violence in higher education and the UK Ministry of Justice Roundtable on Sexual Offending. Dr Steele is also involved in several global research collaborations on violence against women and children. For example, she co-leads a global study on what works to prevent childhood sexual violence in collaboration with The Safe Futures Hub and The Sexual Violence Research Initiative.
Dr Steele has a DPhil in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation from the University of Oxford.
Expertise
- Sexual violence (including sexual harassment, rape, sexual assault and perpetration)
- Gender-based violence or violence against women
- Higher education policy around gender/violence/ relationships/bullying/harassment
- Child sexual violence
- Survey design and methodology
- Systematic review design and methodology
Selected publications
Media experience
Dr Bridget Steele has media experience including interviews with Times Higher Education and Wonkhe. Dr Steele's work has also been featured in publications such as The Guardian and Canadian news outlets including CBC.
Recent media work
- Manchester bans some staff-student relationships after criticism (Times Higher Education, 2025)
- Funding crisis risks ‘uneven’ response to new harassment rules (Times Higher Education, 2025)
- UK’s ‘uneven’ sexual harassment policies ‘put students at risk’ (Times Higher Education, 2024)
- ‘It’s a power game’: students accused in university rape hearings call in lawyers (The Guardian, 2023)
- Surveying students on sexual violence requires institutional diplomacy as well as research sensitivity (Wonkhe, 2023)
- Half of Oxford students sexually harassed (Times Higher Education, 2023)