Feminist legal scholars Flora Renz and Davina Cooper wrote an article for our journal recently exploring how/why we should think about gender discrimination and legal responses to address it beyond biological frameworks.
You can read it here (open access): link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Posts by Feminist Legal Studies
The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Gender and Women's History has been launched, including my chapter 'Women and Divorce Law in England and Wales, 1537–2022'. I had great fun writing it and I'm proud to be published alongside so many amazing authors writing on such importantly and timely topics.
Of The Empire We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness. - Mary Oliver
God this poem is haunting me again.
My latest blog post is a detailed invitation to join a research network devoted to critical pedagogies of race and imperialism in law. In it, I outline who its organisers are, the reasons why we have set up the network,and what we hope to achieve in it. All welcome!
folukeafrica.com/invitation-t...
10 years. A love letter to diversity workers. And gratitude for my complaint collective. substack.com/@feministkil...
Screenshot of text: At a time when those of us who are most precariously positioned are being most aggressively targeted, our work must be informed by care, by collectivity, and by deep political clarity. We must think carefully about when and how we show up, how we protect one another, and how we continue to build towards liberation.
On International Women’s Day, I am reminded of the importance of feminist organising for building a more just world.
And shout out to my brilliant Feminist Legal Studies colleagues who continue to undertake this critical emotional and intellectual labour.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
I’ve enjoyed thinking with (and at times being challenged by) @quillkukla.bsky.social’s work on consent for while, so it was a pleasure to review their new book for @flsjournal.bsky.social: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Screenshot of article link.
We are also thrilled to announce the other winner of the Feminist Legal Studies Editors' Prize 2025 is Agnieszka Doll for her article, ‘Fieldwork, Ethics, and the Importance of “Wide Reflexivity”: Feminist Socio-legal Research in Difficult Sites.’
Read it here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Screenshots of article link.
We are very pleased to announce one of the winners of the Feminist Legal Studies Editors' Prize 2025 is Ariël Decoster for her article, 'Men in/and Law: Developing "Critical Legal Studies of Men and Masculinities."'
You can read the article online for free here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
So I recently sat down with Sainted Judge Hilary Charlesworth (blessed be her name), Prof Di Otto, and Prof Christine Chinkin to record the Season 3 opener of #CalledToTheBar
Go have a listen: on.soundcloud.com/Vaq9CC1yiokQ...
📢 HDR/ECR Event Announcement!
Join us for “What do we do now?” — a 1-hour online fireside chat for early-career feminist scholars, independent activists, and anyone navigating pathways in and beyond the academy on 25 Feb 12pm (AEDT)
Register here! events.humanitix.com/what-do-we-d...
“There’s no single answer that will solve all our future problems. There’s no magic bullet. Instead there are thousands of answers—at least. You can be one of them if you choose to be.”
― Octavia E. Butler, A Few Rules for Predicting the Future: An Essay
How does consent operate and find form in dance practices, and to what effects? A one day free online symposium.
This is event forms part of the Legal Materialities and Dance Network convened by Marie-Andrée Jacob and Anna Macdonald. More info: ials.sas.ac.uk/research/lhu...
Image of two people speaking at a desk in front of a background projection of a slide.
One of our editors, @daanika.bsky.social, presented her excellent new book at Manchester Law School. Dr Kamal’s book explores how women in Pakistan articulate their experiences of domestic violence and the ways women are stigmatised/pathologised in courts. Read here: global.oup.com/academic/pro...
Now published and free to download! 'Law and Justice in the 1950s' is a fantastic collection, edited by Fiona Cownie and Rosemary Auchmuty.
My chapter is on the Wolfenden Report, homosexuality and women - others cover everything from legal education to Beeching to London smog.
Are you a private law nerd who flirts with queer scholarship? Are you a queer scholar with a curiosity about private law? Do you like hanging out with cool people? Then check out the Queering Private Law conference taking place in London in September this year and submit a paper if you’re keen!
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Copies of Celebrating Women in Legal History, edited by Lorren Eldridge, Emily Ireland and Caroline Derry. The blue and purple cover shows a door opening onto bookshelves.
Table of contents, showing chapters by Jennifer Aston, Christine Anne George, Anne Logan, Lisa Cowan, Nina Krsljanin, and Valentina Cvetkovic-Dordevic.
Table of contents, showing chapters by Maria Fletcher, Charlie Peevers, Seonaid Stevenson-McCabe, and Deborah Siddoway.
It's published! Histories of women legal historians, edited with @loreldridge.bsky.social and @dremilyireland.bsky.social
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/celebrati...
Sharing word of this critical reflection and intervention, offered by our own @shalininair.bsky.social together with colleagues Molly Ackhurst and @tanyaserisier.bsky.social, and out now in @flsjournal.bsky.social
The effective conclusion of the ET is that trans people have to use third spaces. I think based on very poor legal analysis and uncritical adoption of "gender critical" talking points. But as I say, not binding, and all the relevant issues hopefully to be decided shortly by the High Court.
"Scholarly exchange and academic freedom are aspirations, not business as usual, when we consider the knowledge and expertise economies of colonialism.” Colleagues and I reflect on criminology, conferencing and complicity at this year's Eurocrim
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
If you're interested in presenting or performing at the Fanniversary conference, please submit a title, biography and 150 word abstract of your work here www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/fanniversary...
We are particularly interested in work that bridges the gap between disciplines; works that agitate, distort and/or subvert heteronormative or cisnormative ideologies; and works that centre marginalised voices.
Call for papers, performances, facilitators. Fannyversary conference 2026. Feminism, gender and justice in an increasingly reactionary world. Deadline: February 6 2026. Details on our website.
This spring, we've teamed up with Open University to examine feminism, gender and justice within law, theatre and the humanities at our inaugural Fanniversary conference. We want to hear your proposals for papers, lectures, performances, workshops and more. www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/fanniversary...
A 35 year old letter to the editor, written by a very ballsy 15 year old, about the Rodney King verdict.
Remembering today that having your heart broken is a necessary step on the path to becoming fully human. Whichever heartbreak is your first, it’s probably critical that a state break your heart so that you can develop a political imagination. If this is your first, I’m sorry and also welcome.
For those of you looking to follow some more queer scholar-activists in 2026, check out this starter pack with many fabulous folks.
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My suspicion is that the Trans community and allies left Twitter and arrived here early but it’s still worth re-upping this for those who left it a little longer:
go.bsky.app/N6Qai5F
The Dialectic of Sex was the first book of the women’s liberation movement to propound a feminist theory of sex. Here we have compiled works of feminism that live in conversation with the ideas Firestone expounded.
New piece in Feminist Legal Studies - open access 🧚
I have the joy of working with a fantastic collective of feminist legal scholars as part of the Feminist Legal Studies Editorial Board. As a journal, we seek to publish engaging critical feminist research in both traditional scholarly and more creative formats.
Check it out and share with others.