“Sister to sister you sound my grief with your heart beats.” (Ruth Graham 2012) In the midst of dissertation writing season, from the 30th July to the 2nd August, the first ever festival about consent and sexual violence, Clear Lines, came to South London, in a bold attempt to replace the “shame and silence usually associated with this issue, with insight, understanding and community“. […]
2016 will mark 20 years since the signature of the Guatemalan Peace Accords, which brought an end to Guatemala’s 36-year long armed conflict and genocide. The war’s casualties included over 200,000 mostly Mayan indigenous lives and thousands of disappeared and displaced. Yet, despite being a country officially at peace, high rates of ongoing violence – from violent crime to attacks […]
To start off the new academic year, two of our blog editors write on the issue of borders, drawing on the refugee crisis from a British and Canadian perspective. Annette and Julia both participated in the #RefugeesWelcomeHere march on Saturday September 12. Here they reflect on some responses to the refugee crisis and the importance of the politics of […]
The Pope’s recent declaration regarding abortion could be seen as hopeful news for women and those that can experience pregnancy, and was acclaimed by some as a radical turn. By allowing priests to “absolve the sin of abortion”, the Pope seems to be willing to open a space for dialogue within religious institutions and to progressively adapt official dogma to […]
Abuse as ‘Power Over’ and Conflict as ‘Power Struggle’ Sarah Schulman, a long-standing U.S. activist and author of internationally recognized novels, plays and films, was invited to participate in the 2015 Sexuality Summer School on queer art and activism, held in May at the University of Manchester. From her engagement with Act Up in New York in the late 1980s […]
Last week’s shock Conservative victory in the House of Commons has been swiftly followed by the reaffirmation of a commitment to sweeping welfare reforms (following a pre-election pledge by Ian Duncan Smith, now reappointed as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to cut twelve billion pounds from the welfare budget over the term of the new government). Duncan was […]
Actor and presenter Stephen Fry and comedian Elliott Spencer announced their engagement on 6 January, 2015 amidst a flood of media interest. As I followed the coverage, I was struck by the media’s constant reiteration of the couple’s age difference. Rather than celebrating their engagement and later marriage, I was appalled to see how the British media demonised the couple […]
As the general election looms large on the horizon, and the days of the current coalition government appear numbered, what are we to make of progress on women’s rights during the last five years of Tory-Liberal Democrat rule? The question is not a straightforward one to answer. Certainly examples spring to mind of government ministers speaking out about the need […]
Earlier this year LSE held an event to commemorate the sociologist Ulrich Beck. Beck was prominent in developing the theory of reflexive modernity and the related concept of the transformation of intimacy. Such a theory suggests that postmodern society is characterised by diversification, freedom and fluidity within intimate relationships where non-traditional forms of love are being reflexively constructed into ‘elective […]
The horrifying deaths of at least 14 women who had undergone surgery at sterilisation camps in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, highlight the violence of the population control policies that the British government is at the forefront of promoting globally. Far from giving poor women in the global south much-needed access to safe contraception that they can control, these policies dehumanise them […]
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