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JOANNA BOURKE

Blogs
Here are my latest blogs! Enjoy.


Cover of My New Book!
Breaking news! This is the (draft) cover of my new book. It will be 'out' early next year, with the amazing publisher, Reaktion Books....
Jun 151 min read


Sexual Violence Research Instigates Change
Caption: Reception for the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence. Left to right: Professor Joanna Bourke, Julia...
Jun 15, 20243 min read


SHaME's End of Grant Report
I loved working with the SHaME (Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters) team over 5 and a half years. SHaME’s Public Engagement Lead, Dr...
Jun 15, 20241 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


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...
Feb 5, 20243 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...
Feb 5, 20246 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...
Feb 5, 20242 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 ...
Feb 5, 20242 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...
Feb 5, 20244 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...
Feb 5, 202421 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...
Feb 5, 20244 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...
Feb 5, 20247 min read


Sexual Assault: The Courtroom
Review of Heather R. Hlavka and Sameena Mulla’s Bodies in Evidence. Race, Gender, and Science in Sexual Assault Adjudication (New York:...
Jan 3, 20245 min read
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