Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Research
  • Resources
  • Events
  • Shameless!
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Search
F31DB8AA-A866-47F2-A134-640BF62E7754 Created with sketchtool.
  • Home
  • About
  • Research
  • Resources
  • Events
  • Shameless!
  • Blog
  • Contact
Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence
Blog

Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence

SHaME has been awarded a Wellcome Trust ‘Research Enrichment – Public Engagement’ award to co-produce a series of festivals with The WOW Foundation.

Shameless! Festival1111
Joanna Bourke 20 July 2020
Shameless! Festival

We are thrilled to announce that the Wellcome Trust has awarded SHaME a “Research Enrichment – Public Engagement” award to run a series of Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual Violence in collaboration with The WOW Foundation.

Shameless! festivals are exciting cross-arts events combining academic research, activism and art to confront sexual violence. The project, which will run for three years starting in 2021, will take place in the UK and Brazil. These festivals will bring together diverse communities of survivors and the expertise of researchers, medical, psychiatric and legal professionals, artists and activists in a transformative programme of talks, performances, workshops, ‘how to’ clinics, wellness spaces, and a schools’ programme.

We are particularly thrilled to be collaborating with The WOW Foundation. WOW festivals have successfully mobilised a global feminist movement reaching over two million people across sixty-five festivals in seventeen countries. Our respective knowledges and expertise will develop a strong complementary programme: uniting SHaME’s interdisciplinary research with WOW’s provocative and celebratory programming, Shameless! will create real impact in the lives of sexual violence survivors.

We will be working with national, international and grassroots organisations and charities, and commission local artists and wellness practitioners to facilitate safe spaces for dialogue and healing. Offering a unique environment for children, families, young people, women, gender- and trans-diverse people, the festivals will provide safeguarding measures to protect members from vulnerable and marginalised communities (race, class, abilities, sexualities and genders).

Scrabble letters spelling 'Time for Change'. Photo by Alexas Fotos on Pixabay
Scrabble letters spelling ‘Time for Change’. Photo by Alexas Fotos on Pixabay

Shameless! aims to revolutionise conversations around sexual violence between survivors and professionals; burst open the constructed and inherited ideas of shame; and create an emboldening attitudinal shift from stigma to agency. We aim to confront and dismantle the shame surrounding sexual violence, to create a collective, transformative shift within society and tangible impact for survivors, who will leave the festival with essential tools and knowledge to support their recovery.

Shameless!’s purpose is to change societal attitudes towards sexual violence.

We hope you share our vision and will join in these festivals of activism against all forms of sexual abuse.

CfP for special issue: ‘Historicising the perpetrators of sexual violence: global perspectives’
Spotlight On: RESPOND

Further Reading

Shameless! Festival London feat. Dr George Severs - Male Survivors and Masculinity

10 Jun 202210 Jun 2022
George Severs
Shameless! Festival
no comments
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.

Shameless! Festival London feat. Prof Joanna Bourke - How to Create Rape-Free Worlds

10 Jun 202210 Jun 2022
Joanna Bourke
Shameless! Festival
no comments
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.

Shameless! Festival London feat. Allison McKibban - Big Ideas

10 Jun 202210 Jun 2022
Allison McKibban
Shameless! Festival
no comments
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.
View all

Get updates from SHaME

Join our mailing list

Follow us

Supported by

  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

2019-2023 © Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters Research Group. All Rights Reserved.

Design and Build by Playfields