Celebrating Joanna Bourke

Join us for this evening celebrating the pathbreaking and prizewinning work of Professor Joanna Bourke as she retires from Birkbeck and Gresham College. 

Joanna’s early studies brought radically new perspectives to women’s work in Ireland, working-class cultures in Britain and masculinities emerging from the first world war.  Subsequent urgent, compelling work dealt with histories of war, killing, fear, being human, animal-human relations, pain, bestiality, radical learning, and sexual violence. She is one the UK’s leading public intellectuals and is global in her reach; she has spoken to diverse audiences around the world and her work has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, and Greek. 

At this event Professors Sir Richard Evans, Pat Thane, Julie-Marie Strange and Robin May Schott will reflect together on the significance of Joanna’s work.  Afterwards, in discussion with Professor Julia Laite, Joanna will look back over her thirty-year career – and give a flavour of the books she still has in store. 

The evening, which concludes with a wine reception, is hosted by Jude Kelly, CBE, CEO of the Woman of the World (WOW) Foundation, and collaborator on the Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters (SHaME) project which Joanna led until earlier this year. 

Celebrating Joanna Bourke has been organised by the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, BirkBeck, University of London and Gresham College.