Lisa has contributed a reflection on the contemporary state of feminism to this open access collection, edited by Yvette Taylor and beautifully illustrated by Samia Singh.
Drawing on her work in Selfish Women, Lisa reflects on the current state of female labour, leadership, and self-actualization in pandemic times.
The full publication can be downloaded for free here.
Some of the concepts introduced in Lisa’s writing have gained especial traction in academic and journalistic writing and have been applied in other sectors and fields.
A lexicon of the critical terms coined by Lisa can be found here.
Lisa’s tour of Scotland took in four cities over ten days from 1st-10th October. She visited Glasgow (Strathclyde University); Edinburgh (The University of Edinburgh and Lighthouse Books); Dundee (University of Dundee); and Stirling (University of Stirling).
Activities included: illustrated talks, Q&A sessions, book sales and signing, and networking events.
Dr Kate Mitchell, who was one of Routledge’s expert readers for the book and Lisa’s host in Glasgow, has written up a post about the book and the Q&A held at Strathclyde for the Strathclyde University Feminist Research Network’s blog. You can read the blog post by clicking here.
On 18th September, Lisa gave a day-time talk at UCD about Selfish Women, organized by the Geography Department, and then launched the book in the lovely city-centre independent bookshop, The Gutter Bookshop.
Locations and Dates – 2019
More details will be provided as they become available.
JULY
London: St. Barts Pathology Museum – Thursday 18th July, 5pm
SEPTEMBER
Ireland
Dublin: University College Dublin and The Gutter Bookshop – Wednesday 18th September.
UCD event – Geography Seminar Room – 1.00-2.00pm
Launch at The Gutter Bookshop – 6.30-8.00pm, The Gutter Bookshop, Cow’s Lane, Temple Bar, Dublin 8. See here and scroll down.
OCTOBER
Scotland Launch Tour
Glasgow: University of Strathclyde – Wednesday 2nd October, 3pm.
Venue: Room 319 McCance Building.
Eventbrite page here – please register for a free ticket.
Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh – Thursday 3rd October, 4pm.
Venue: The Practice Suite at Chrystal Macmillan Building (room 1.12 on the 1st floor).
Eventbrite page here – please register for a free ticket.
Dundee: University of Dundee – Monday 7th October, 4pm.
Venue: Tower Building, Baxter 1.36.
All Welcome.
Stirling: University of Stirling – Wednesday 9th October, 4pm.
Hosted by the 2019-20 Literature and Languages Research Seminar Series.
Venue: Pathfoot C23.
NOVEMBER
Oxford: St Cross College – Friday 22nd November, 5.45 pm
Details here.
DECEMBER
Nottingham: Nottingham Trent University – Tuesday 10th December.
2020
USA Tour:
SEPTEMBER
Owing to COVID-19, regretfully, Lisa’s planned 2020 US tour was cancelled.
Her scheduled talk at University of Buffalo took place virtually by Zoom on 17th September.
On 18th July, Lisa launched Selfish Women at St Bart’s Pathology Museum.
On 17th July Lisa chaired a panel debate on “Wellbeing and Freedom of Expression in a Prevent Culture” to accompany Navine G. Khan-Dossos’s exhibition “There Is No Alternative” at The Showroom in Paddington, London.
The panel members, along with Lisa, were Dr Shazad Amin (CEO of MEND and retired Consultant Psychiatrist), Dr Jonathan Hurlow (Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Birmingham) and Professor Basia Spalek (Visiting Professor of Conflict Management, University of Derby).
The discussion focused on the following three broad issues: (1) impact on the mental health of those having to participate in the strategy, often against their own conscience (GPs, psychiatrists, teachers, social workers, police); (2) impact on the collective mental health of the nation of living under conditions of impaired freedom of expression; (3) impact on gender / race stereotyping and unconscious bias involved in Prevent reporting and counter-terrorism more generally. There was a strong audience presence and interactive discussion.
Lisa’s opinion piece for Huffington Post on the difficulty Theresa May faced as PM in a culture which has a paucity of female leadership role models published today.
May’s premiership was haunted by comparisons to Thatcher. And it’s difficult to see how any future female PM, particularly a Conservative one, will escape the same expectations.
You can read the piece here.
Lisa has worked on a third exhibition project with Navine G. Khan-Dossos. “There Is No Alternative”, which previewed on 4th June at The Showroom, Paddington, London, explores the visual branding of the UK government’s ‘Prevent’ Strategy. It raises subtle questions about whether there really are any alternatives (as per the title, borrowed from a soundbite by Margaret Thatcher) to this counter-terrorism technology. The exhibition will operate as a ‘pre-criminal’ space in which these ideas can be explored and reflected upon.
Two fully painted walls feature Prevent logo-inspired designs, while dossiers of documents, including a folder of the artist’s research, are provided on central tables for visitors to read and interact with. (Visitors are invited to write on post-its and add them to the documents.) Lisa has curated a dossier of documents on mental health practitioner debates about Prevent which features on one of the four tables.
More wall paintings will take place over the course of the next two months, such that new ‘windows’ will overlay the current murals. A series of public-facing events will also be held to coincide with and contribute to the work of the exhibition, including workshops and talks designed and hosted by a number of collaborators. On 17th July Lisa will organise a panel debate on how the implementation of Prevent impacts upon freedom of expression and public mental health. More details to follow soon.
Lisa’s piece on Shamima Begum for the Birmingham Perspective appeared today. Writing it offered Lisa a chance to bring together and explore concerns central to her two current research projects: on the cultural understanding of women and extremism (or what she terms “(s)extremism”) and on the dangers of a shift in public discourse away from facts and reason and towards (knee-jerk) feelings – a cornerstone of populism and anti-intellectualism.
Read the piece here.
