Shameless! Festival

The SHaME Project generated a number of significant research and public engagement outputs throughout the course of the project, which ran from 2018-2024. In this Project Round-Up you'll find links to our most notable outputs and achievements.

SHaME Public Engagement Lead, Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh, was a contributor at the NCCPE's annual Engage Conference, facilitating a conversation on ethics and public engagement and showcasing the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence.

On 24 September, Ecoar!, the second Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Seeking to empower survivors in their healing, and to provide a call to action for urgent changes to professional practice and policy around abuse, the festival aimed to create a space to share perspectives and build ongoing collaborations. The SHaME delegation to Rio reflect on their experience.

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 2022, SHaME celebrated the release of Professor Joanna Bourke's new book, Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence, published by Reaktion Books. Joanna was 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

SHaME researchers Emma Yapp and Adeline Moussion share their experiences designing and facilitating the ‘Unpopular Opinions Workshop’ at the Shameless! Festival. The workshop provided a space for survivors to express their anger and frustrations, while challenging institutional and societal expectations of victimhood and survivorship.

Dr Ruth Beecher overviews her workshop, History Investigators, from the Shameless! Festival. The interactive session asked festival goers to delve into fact, myth, folklore and personal histories to build a timeline of resistance to sexual violence.

'Words from an "Unideal" Victim' by Mary Morgan   Are you an ideal victim?   In allegations of sexual assault, there exists an “ideal victim.”...

SHaME and WOW have collaboratively assembled an essential activism kit to mark the launch of the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence. From simple actions to recommended reading, we are excited to have you join us in the movement to create a world free from sexual violence.

The SHaME and WOW teams are thrilled to share the schedule for the first ever Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence on November 27th at Battersea Arts Centre. The festival schedule features artists, activists, and scholars covering issues including the normalisation of sexual violence, rape myths, consent, everyday triggers, and survival.

SHaME team member Allison McKibban gives a behind-the-scenes look at her own experience in one aspect of planning the Shameless! Festival. She explains how safeguarding training not only helped her prepare for the festival, but also transformed her ways of thinking around survivorship and the intricacies of creating safer spaces.