Shameless! Festival London feat. Allison McKibban – Big Ideas

Inspired by WOW Festivals, these Big Ideas were filmed at the first ever Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence in London. Each Big Idea introduces you to thoughts and ideas from people you’ll know and those we think you should.

SHaME Senior Associate Fellow Allison McKibban joins Thuto Mali and Mamatha Isha Sumah to share her ‘Big Idea’ on activism, academia, and sexual violence. In this talk, she argues that academia and activism must be co-conspirators in the pursuit of a rape-free world, and researchers must actively consider their positionality and their relationships to the communities they research. 

The Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence took place on 27th November 2021, created in collaboration by Birkbeck’s SHaME project and WOW – Women of the World. The festival featured high profile speakers, survivors, researchers and medical professionals, alongside performances by incredible artists, poets and musicians, interactive workshops, ‘how to’ clinics, wellness spaces and more.

Inspired by and building on the work of SHaME, WOW and activists and academics across the world, the festival aimed to revolutionise conversations around sexual violence; burst open inherited ideas of shame; and give everyone the chance to say to all societies, enough is enough, sexual violence must end. A number of the day’s talks are now available to watch on the Birkbeck YouTube channel, with captions by Stagetext.

Allison McKibban is a doctoral student and Senior Associate Fellow for The SHaME Project at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research interests occupy the intersection of gender, law, and decolonising studies. Her current project confronts the ways in which U.S. federal policy utilizes settler colonial discourses to (re)produce sexual violence against Indigenous women. Allison also works as the Public Engagement Officer for the AHRS-funded project ‘What is Public History Now?’ She tweets as @AllisonMckibban.