Shameless! (just a few of the 'star' speakers)
The SHaME project have talked to some incredible people who reflect on sexual violence and ways to create rape-free worlds. You can...
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JOANNA BOURKE
Blogs
Here are my latest blogs! Enjoy.
Apr 241 min read
Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence
The events I have enjoyed most in connection with the SHaME project were our two Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual...
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Apr 241 min read
SHaME: Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters
For five and a half years, I have been privileged to work with the SHaME team at Birkbeck. It has been the most intellectually rewarding...
70
Mar 92 min read
Lighten up! Make Coral Lace Tuiles.
Are you like me? Working on 'difficult' subjects? So.... Take care of yourself and your friends. Here is something more relaxing…. Try...
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Mar 75 min read
Clare Shaw's Incredible Poems in 'Towards A General Theory of Love'
Clare Shaw, Towards a General Theory of Love (Hexham: Bloodaxe Books, 2022) Clare Shaw’s new, prize-winning poetry collection is their...
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Feb 64 min read
Rape (a very very short history)
We are never told her name. None of the soldiers encircling her would have been interested in such niceties. The only relevant...
250
Feb 621 min read
Cruelty: Pain, War, Sexual Abuse
The three sites of cruelty I will explore are (firstly) hierarchies of sentience, (secondly) wartime wounding, and (thirdly) sexual...
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Feb 53 min read
Imkaan, Intersectionality, and Sexual Violence
On 4 March 2020, the Black feminist organisation Imkaan launched a report in the Houses of Parliament on sexual violence against...
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Feb 56 min read
Medical Professionals and Sexual Violence
On 12 June 1993, the editors of the British Medical Journal published an account by a male doctor of being sexually assaulted by another...
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Feb 54 min read
Domestic Violence and Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of human vulnerability. To be vulnerable (from the Latin ‘vulnus’, meaning ‘wound’) is to be...
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Feb 52 min read
Domestic Violence, Firearms, and Covid-19
Covid-19 exposed girls, women, and other minoritised groups to increased domestic violence. As has happened throughout the world, calls...
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Feb 52 min read
Rape Kits and the 'Technoscientific Witness of Rape'
Andrea Quinlan’s 2017 book The Technoscientific Witness of Rape: Contentious Histories of Law, Feminism, and Forensic Science (University...
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Feb 54 min read
'Forgetting Rape': Proprandolo
What if nurses in A&E wards or staff at rape crisis centres could give rape victims a drug that would make them feel emotionally composed...
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Feb 54 min read
Domestic Violence During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
In 1918-19, the world was in the midst of a global influenza pandemic, that killed 50 million people (more than the 1914-18 war). When...
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Feb 518 min read
Murder, Women & Police Surgeons: A History
25 February 1946. ‘Poor Mary’ (a.k.a. Mary of Hendon) lies murdered in a field, her petticoats in disarray. Trainee detectives pile out...
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Feb 521 min read
A (very short) Global History of Sexual Violence
This is a short piece from my book, Disgrace (Reaktion Books, 2022) Sexual violence: it is a difficult subject to talk about. There is...
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Feb 511 min read
Training in Violence: Military Hazing
In 1975, Dennis Coates published a short book of poetry inspired by his time at West Point, the U.S. Military Academy. One poem –...
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Feb 55 min read
Sexual Assault in the Military
Sexual violence and abuse are ingrained into military cultures. Armed conflict not only radically lowers the threshold at which...
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Feb 54 min read
Self-Defence for Women: A History
In the 1870s, middle-class women carried ‘dagger-fans’ when alone in public places; in the early 1900s, they hosted ‘jujitsu parties’ for...
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Feb 57 min read
Military '#MeToo'
In this blog, I reflect on the devastating conclusions of a report by the Defense Committee (25 July 2021) entitled ‘Protecting Those Who...
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