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JOANNA BOURKE

Blogs
Here are my latest blogs! Enjoy.


Wine, Women, & Substance Abuse: A Discussion with Betsy Ettore
On Wednesday, 25 th March 2026, Elizabeth (‘Betsy’) Ettore and I sat down on Teams to discuss her research. JB: Lovely seeing you, Betsy. Let’s start. You were born in Connecticut and educated at Fordham University in New York and then at the LSE in London, where you did your PhD. After posts in London (including the Institute of Psychiatry and my college Birkbeck, University of London in the 1980s), Finland, and Plymouth, you settled at the University of Liverpool wher
Mar 2915 min read


The Lurgan Mechanics’ Institute
In 1859, the Lurgan Mechanics’ Institute was formally inaugurated, ‘in the presence of one of the largest and most fashionable...
Apr 12, 202532 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...
Apr 24, 20241 min read


Marianne Elliott: Inspirations Series
Marianne Elliott is one of the greatest living historians of Ireland, with books that have changed the way we think about revolution and...
Feb 6, 20246 min read


Helena Kennedy: Inspirations Series
Kennedy’s great passion is for law. She was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1972. At the age of only 24 years, just out of pupillage,...
Feb 6, 20245 min read


Judith Butler: Inspirations Series
Judith Pamela Butler is the most widely read philosopher on the planet and the most influential voice in contemporary gender theory....
Feb 6, 20245 min read


Marai Larasi: Inspirations Series
‘If we are to end violence against women and girls, we need to create seismic shifts across our social norms’. So says Marai Larasi,...
Feb 6, 20245 min read


What is a University? Birkbeck College
Walking into the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution (as it was then called) in the 1890s could be a dispiriting experience....
Feb 5, 20244 min read
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