CITR Colloquium 2026: “The most brutal cruelty, violence, and profligacy on the part of a husband”: Narratives of ‘wife-beating’ in nineteenth century Aotearoa/New Zealand

AUT's Centre for Interdisciplinary Trauma Research (CITR) supports and conducts trauma research that contributes to the health and wellbeing of people living in Aotearoa New Zealand. CITR sponsors regular research colloquia.

For more information and a link to the event stream, see the CITR News and Events page.

The history of how society has addressed and responded to the problem of male partner violence (violence committed by men towards their (hetero)romantic partners) is both complex and non-linear. Historical accounts, dating as far back as the Roman Era, map the ebbs and flows of how social fields have hidden, unearthed, misogynised, paternalized, gendered and un-gendered the problem of male partner violence. These historical undulations have created inconsistent understandings of what male partner violence is and the impact it has had and continues to have on women.

This presentation sits within a larger research project mapping how newspapers have covered the topic of male partner violence in Aotearoa/New Zealand from the nineteenth century through to the current day. This presentation specifically explores newspaper coverage from the nineteenth century on the problem, which was widely known as wife-beating. This dataset contains rich historical accounts that document how male partner violence was made sense of during this eventful period in Aotearoa/New Zealand’s political and social history. This presentation will also discuss why this historical work is important to do, in order to continue making sense of the problem of male partner violence today.

Dr Christina Batistich-Vogels is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology. Her research is underpinned first and foremost by a passion for violence against women prevention. Included in this broad research interest is the following expertise: critical feminist media analysis of love stories, interrogating young masculinities and femininities, and historical media analyses of gendered violence in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Her conceptual influences include feminist Bourdieusian theory, critical masculinities studies and a critical feminist appraisal of femininities within the social world.

Please direct all queries to the organiser: citr@aut.ac.nz.