Blog

Last week, the SHaME team was thrilled to hear that the 'Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual Violence' had won the award for Public Empowerment at Birkbeck's Public Engagement Award ceremony.

As Lexie Bean wrote in 2018, ‘nothing is heavier than silence’. The stories we tell about experiences of sexual violence in therapeutic spaces are complex, dynamic, evolving. They are spoken in a different language to that compelled by the law, which exercises a register of fact-finding chronology and rationality. They are fundamentally incompatible, and whether we resolve that by new legislation restricting access to therapeutic notes, or through abandoning investment in carceral solutions altogether, is up to us.

A variety of talks from the 2021 Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence are now available to stream on the Birkbeck Youtube channel with captions.

SHaME Postdoctoral Research Fellows Dr George Severs and Dr Rhian Keyse speak to contributors from the 2021 Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence about their work, their reflections on the festival, and their insights on creating a rape-free world.

Professor Joanna Bourke is the Principal Investigator for Sexual Harms + Medical Encounters, a five-year Wellcome Trust-funded interdisciplinary research group based at Birkbeck, University of London. In this inaugural post, Joanna discusses what motivated her return to studying sexual violence.

On 24th September, the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence will take place in its second year in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro. Called Ecoar! Festival, the one day festival will be created and presented by Redes da Maré, in partnership with SHaME and the WOW Foundation.

On October 7th, SHaME will be celebrating the release of Professor Joanna Bourke's new book, Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence, published by Reaktion Books. Joanna will be joined by Jude Kelly CBE, Marai Larasi, Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh, and Maisha Sumah in a conversation between artists, activists and academics on boundary-crossing global approaches to creating a rape free world.

SHaME was honoured to host the official book launch of author, activist, survivor and academic Winnie M Li’s second novel, ‘Complicit’ (Orion). Winnie was joined in conversation by Prof Joanna Bourke and guests Marai Larasi, Prof Liz Kelly, Rowena Chiu, and Dr Katherine Angel.

Amongst the many risks and uncertainties brought on by an act of sexual violence is the threat of sexually transmitted infection. What are the barriers to such post-rape health care and advice? In this blog, SHaME Postdoctoral Fellow Dr George Severs reflects on a policy roundtable which considered these questions in relation to HIV.

On 13th July 2022, SHaME hosted the official book launch of Dr Charlie Jeffries' book, Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the US Culture Wars (Rutgers University Press, 2022). Charlie was joined by SHaME's Prof Joanna Bourke for a short reading and discussion of what this book can tell us about the race- and class-inflected battles over adolescent women’s sexual and reproductive lives.

SHaME's Allison McKibban interviews SHaME's Dr Charlie Jeffries about her first monograph 'Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the US Culture Wars' ahead of the July 13th launch event.

SHaME's George Severs contributes his perspective on creating space for male survivors of sexual violence and the nuances of masculinity at the 2021 Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence. His panel discussion is now available to stream on the Birkbeck Youtube channel with captions.

SHaME's Joanna Bourke presents her captivating address on creating rape-free worlds at the 2021 Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence. Her talk is now available to stream on the Birkbeck Youtube channel with captions.

SHaME's Allison McKibban presents her 'Big Idea' on academia, activism, and sexual violence at the 2021 Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence. Her talk is now available to stream on the Birkbeck Youtube channel with captions.

SHaME Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Rhian Keyse discusses the recent U.S. Supreme Court leaked draft opinion, its ahistorical logic, and its implications for abortion rights in the U.S.

Healing Hearts is a short film of poetry created by a young women's group from The Lighthouse Service in North London, filmmaker Sunnah Khan, Clinical Psychologists Dr Anna Churcher Clarke and Dr Isabella Girling, and Assistant Psychologist George Yerbury.

On 28 April 2022, SHaME presented the official book launch of Associate Prof Sameena Mulla and Associate Prof Heather Hlavka's 'Bodies in Evidence: Race, Gender, and Science in Sexual Assault Adjudication' (New York University Press). Heather and Sameena were joined in conversation by host Prof Joanna Bourke and guests Assistant Prof April Petillo, Dr Gethin Rees, and Prof M Gabriela Torres.

Professor Joanna Bourke reviews Associate Professor Sameena Mulla and Associate Professor Heather Hlavka's forthcoming book 'Bodies in Evidence: Race, Gender, and Science in Sexual Assault Adjudication' ahead of the April 28th launch event.

SHaME and the South Africa's Hidden War project are pleased to present a Call for Papers for our upcoming conference, 'Do No Harm': Researching the Pasts, Presents, and Futures of Sexual Violence, taking place 8-10 February 2023 at Birkbeck, University of London.