Category: Event

Conference talk: Contemporary Womxn’s Writing and the Medical Humanities, 31 July 2021, Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR), London, UK (online).

August 4, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Recently, I participated in a very diverse and intense three-day long conference about womxn’s writing and health humanities, put together by Rebecca Rosenberg (King’s College London) and Benjamin Dalton (Paris Nanterre University). While my own research obviously deals with abortion and sexual and reproductive rights in contemporary visual art, in this presentation I focused on art that employs language and narratives in conjunction with the visual.

The title was “Countering Abortion Stigma in Contemporary Art:  Activist Storytelling in Word and Image”, and you will find the abstract below.

For more information about the whole event, please visit its website.

Abstract: 

“Pregnancy termination is one of the most common medical procedures, yet abortion stigma persists in many countries. Along with the study of what exactly abortion stigma is, how it is produced, and what effects it generates, researchers and activists are trying to find ways to reduce or even to eradicate it. In this paper, I argue that contemporary visual arts are a critical means of challenging abortion stigma. Through a selection of case studies from the late 1980s to the present, I analyse ways in which contemporary artists have narrated and problematised this stigma in a range of socio-political contexts. My examples include Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground), created for the Women’s March on Washington DC in 1989; collages made by Aleksandra Mir in 2005; Tracey Emin’s strategic use of narrative to counter stigma by speaking out about her own abortion in both her autobiography and graphic art; Holly Pester’s 2018 poem Comic Timing, a work that addresses abortion in a like-wise personal, but mundane manner; and the collection of comics titled Comics for Choice (2017) published a group of artists, activists, and writers based in the United States. These works and art projects use innovative combinations of imagery and text to communicate the complexities of abortion and to give voice to different individual experiences. They also function in different spatial contexts and address audiences in unique ways. By showing how artists have tackled the theme of abortion and abortion stigma through a variety of intersecting visual and linguistic narratives, I demonstrate the importance of contemporary arts to public discourses about health care and medical thought.”

Conference talk: Contemporary Issues in Fertility Control, 19 November 2019, Bournemouth University (UK).

June 16, 2020 / / 0 Comments

On 19 November 2019 I gave a presentation at the event Contemporary Issues in Fertility Control, organised by Bournemouth University (UK), entitled: “Countering Abortion Stigma Through Contemporary Visual Art: Responding to Legal Restrictions”.

The event wished to examine the social, ethical, medical, policy and regulatory issues associated with all forms of fertility control.  It also addressed the role of disruptive technology, the shift to ex ante responses to reproductive choice and wider intersectional/ equality concerns surrounding fertility control.  It brought together a range of interdisciplinary perspectives and stakeholders, including policy makers, parent groups, health providers, clinicians and a wide range of academics.  The aim of the day was to identify new issues, future challenges and possible solutions for policy makers.

Other speakers were: Clare Murphy (Bpas), Rianna Raymond-Williams (Shine ALOUD UK), Jeffrey Wale (Bournemouth University), Dr. Samuel Walker (Bournemouth University), Prof. Sam Rowlands (Bournemouth University), and Claire Horn (Birbeck, University of London).

 

Abstract:

Event: (Re-)Imagining the Family – Reading Groups, 7 November and 8 November 2019, Palazzo Mora, Venice (IT).

October 21, 2019 / / 0 Comments

[Re-]Imagining the Family: Forms, Values, Planning and Alternatives.

In response to the Re-imagining Citizenship Activity Book (see details below), which is currently part of a display at the exhibition “Personal Structures – Identities” at Palazzo Mora in Venice, we will organise two reading group sessions. The meetings will create space for a public discussion of issues relating to family, family-related values, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Events such as the World Congress of Families conference that took place in Verona in March 2019, and the ongoing battle for access to safe and dignified family planning services in Italy and beyond, draw attention to ongoing questions of how the idea of the family – what it looks like, who gets to have one and when, and what types of family are legitimate – relate to contemporary political struggles. In light of such issues, both reading groups will seek to explore the concept of family today and how family values are being used as political leverage.

Over two days, we will meet at the Palazzo Mora (European Cultural Centre, Palazzo Mora, Strada Nuova #3659, 30121 Venice, Italy) to read, confer and reflect. The texts that will be examined closely together will be made available before the event, but there is no pressure to read anything beforehand. We will both read and discuss together on the day, and copies of the text will be made available. We will explore family ideals, values and gender/sexual politics through the following themes:

– Thursday 7th November, 15.00-18.00 – The role of the traditional family and declining birth rates in contemporary politics
(Facebook event page)
We will read and discuss:
* bell hooks, “Revolutionary Parenting”, Chapter 10 from her “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center”, Boston, MA: South End Press 1984,  p. 133-146.
Or DOWNLOAD AS PDF
* Jennifer Guerra, “L’ istinto materno non esiste: Non volere figli non è egoista” from The Vision, 17 March 2018.
Or DOWNLOAD AS PDF
* [Anon.], “The Observer View on Immigration Being the Answer to Falling Birth Rates: Observer Editorial”, from The Guardian, 4 August 2019.
Or DOWNLOAD AS PDF

– Friday 8th November, 15.00-18.00 – Abortion as part of family planning: access and societal stigma
(Facebook event page)
We will read and discuss:
* Holly Pester, “Comic Timing”, from Granta #144, 7 November 2018.
Or DOWNLOAD AS PDF
* Kara Fox and Valentina Di Donati, ” Abortion is a Right in Italy. For Many Women, Getting One is Nearly Impossible”, from CNN, May 2019.
Or DOWNLOAD AS PDF

The readings will not be overtly academic and theoretical: we will interrogate items from the news and creative writings, for example. No prior knowledge is required and the texts well be accessible at the events. The writings as well as the discussions will be both in English and Italian. All perspectives and backgrounds are welcome, and we hope to generate a debate that is intergenerational, respectful of difference and informed by the experiences of various cultural contexts. Participants are welcome to attend one or both sessions.

An audio-recording of the event will be made as a documentation for the Re-Imagining Citizenship Living Archive, but just let us know if you do not want to be a part of this.

Re-imagining Citizenship is an ongoing, collaborative project initiated by the Politicized Practice/Anarchism/Theatre Activism research groups based at Loughborough University, UK (https://pparg.net/). We are looking for collective redefinitions of citizenship that are not prescribed or closed down by the language of the media, but rather opened up by artistic methods.

The Re-imagining Citizenship Activity Book/Re-imagining Citizenship Living Archive forms part of this ongoing dialogue around themes related to art and political activism. Since 2014, artists, researchers and associates of the three research groups have organised exhibitions, installations, performances and participatory events to explore the potential for art practices to re-imagine citizenship. These culminated in a series of activities during in March 2019, including the production of the Re-imagining Citizenship Activity Book which has thirty different contributions, inviting readers to respond creatively to sets of instructions (using text, images, video or audio) and to upload them to the Living Archive on http://re-imagining.org/.

The reading groups are initiated and facilitated by Sophia Kier-Byfield (PhD researcher, Loughborough University), Tom Nys (PhD researcher, Loughborough University), and Altea Solari (medical student, University of Bologna).

Event: Feminist Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, 14 March, 21 March and 28 March 2019, Pilkington Library, Loughborough University (UK).

February 27, 2019 / / 0 Comments

 

Together with my friends Sophia Kier-Byfield and Mikaela Assolent, and as a member of the Centre for Doctoral Training: Feminism, Sexual Politics, and Visual Culture at Loughborough University, I am setting up a Feminist Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in the Pilkington Library of the university, located in the idyllic Loughborough in the Eastern British Midlands. The event has three parts: on 14, 21 and 28 March, and is open to anyone (registration is required for 14 and 21 March, 28 March will be a drop-in session). It is designed to improve articles about (local) cis and trans women as well as on non-binary people who are underrepresented on Wikipedia.

The edit-a-thon will include tutorials for the beginner Wikipedian, ongoing editing support and reference materials. Participants will also update Wikipedia entries collaboratively. People of all gender identities and expressions are invited to participate.

In a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors identify as women. This lack of inclusive participation has led to an alarming gap of content in the world’s most popular online research tool. Some key articles about women are missing, the content about them often demonstrates a sexist bias and gender identities (especially concerning transgender people) are inaccurately stated.

This event is part of the international Art+Feminism campaign to improve content on cis and trans women on Wikipedia, and to encourage women to participate on the online encyclopedia. Since 2014, Art+Feminism edit-a-thons have taken place across the world, creating and improving over 11,000 articles.

Other Art+Feminism events have taken place at institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London; Yale University, New Haven; McGill University, Montreal; Archives Nationales, Paris; and many more.

In preparation of the edit-a-thon that will take place 28 March between 1pm and 5pm, two sessions in smaller groups (10-12 persons) will be organised on 14 March from 6pm to 9pm and on 21 March from 2pm to 4pm. Participants are invited to reflect on their own relationship to the production of knowledge. Researchers and students will question how the tools that are available to them (Pilkington Library’s collection, and online content such as Wikipedia) are biased and how they can inadvertently reproduce bias or on the contrary disrupt it.  

Feminism, Sexual Politics, and Visual Culture CDT
The Centre for Doctoral Training: Feminism, Sexual Politics, and Visual Culture was established in 2018. The main catalyst for it is the deepening and rapidly changing global complexity of the relationship between feminist praxis and culture, particularly in politics, arts, and academia. The recent tsunamis of feminist activism, from sport to science, government to entertainment, are the most public evidence of this new complexity.
The CDT is radically integrative, in many ways:

  • we aim for an inclusive, intersectional definition and practice of feminism;
  • ‘visual culture’ or ‘arts’ to us is inclusive of all practices where visuality is significant, including performative and written modes;
  • we have a trans-disciplinary staff team, with expertise including Fine Art, Graphics, English Literature, Drama, Art History, Art Criticism, Politics, and Sociology;
  • the research that is undertaken will have immediate implications for areas such as social policy, pedagogies, and cultural industries as well as feminist thinking and the arts.

Facebook event page: here.

© 2025 Popperola

Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑