
Professor Noël Busch-Armendariz
IASH-SSPS Research Fellow, May - December 2022
Home institution: University of Texas at Austin
Noël Bridget Busch-Armendariz, PhD, LMSW, MPA, is the University Presidential Professor, Steve Hicks School of Social Work, and the Director of the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA) at The University of Texas at Austin. Busch-Armendariz is a nationally recognized expert on gender-based violence having been qualified as an expert witness in nearly 100 criminal, civil, and immigration cases. She has managed $13 million of external funding from a variety of U.S. federal and state agencies such as the National Science Foundation, United States Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice, Office of Victims of Crimes, and the Office of Violence and Women. As IDVSA’s director Busch-Armendariz strives to put her research findings into the hands of game-changers, which led to her participating with the Obama-Biden White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. She led the most comprehensive and methodologically innovative study of its kind in the nation on campus sexual misconduct that included innovating campus change such as the implementation of restorative practices. She is the first author (with Maura Nsonwu and Laurie Cook Heffron) of the award-winning textbook on modern day slavery, Human Trafficking: Applied Research, Theory, and Case Studies (2018). She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and editorials. Busch-Armendariz teaches graduate and undergraduate courses and trains professionals in her areas of expertise including on topics of restorative justice and restorative practices and sexual assault. She is a licensed social worker and a returned Peace Corps volunteer. She has been recognized by her students and colleagues for her superb teaching and as a cherished mentor. Dr. Busch was recently recognized for leading Texas to national prominence in understanding and addressing human trafficking with her keen scientific skills and a tenacious quest for innovative problem-solving. Larry and Daniel Armendariz and her French Bulldog Nola are the loves of her life!
Project Title: A Transnational Approach to Understanding Sexual Assault and Misconducts
The rate of sexual assault and misconducts on university campuses is a great concern and university administrators have an obligation to create safe learning and working environments for students and staff. A Transnational Approach to Understanding Sexual Assault and Misconducts seeks to answer critical questions to the complex crimes of dating/domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking with the aim to understand how to eliminate these violences at institutions of higher education. A major aim of this project is to strengthen international partnerships among colleagues at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Texas at Austin by exchanging and building knowledge and understanding in these areas. Researchers will benefit from engaging with each other on the development of best practice models for conducting research that addresses gender equity, health and wellbeing, and strong institutions. Activities may include developing a detailed taxonomy of sexual assault and misconduct cases, employing an information audit where formal and informal information about global interaction patterns are identified, characterized, and placed in their functional relationships, and implementing a benchmark study.