Joanna Bourke

@joannabourke.bsky.social

1.3K followers 800 following 82 posts

Historian curious about violence, the emotions, and what it means to be human. Currently writing a book on Women and Wine! See joannabourke.com

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Joanna Bourke is a British historian and academic. She is professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London.

Source: Wikipedia

Political science 32%

History 28%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, there are so many contenders for the label 'evil woman'! I originally set out with nearly 30. And although the book focuses on 5, others are discussed in the context of these women, or as contrasts.

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Joanna Bourke , and 3 more Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Joanna Bourke, Peter Campbell, Alan Lester, John Foot

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 7d

Even by my low expectations for Kemi Badenoch ‘violence against women and girls is something done by immigrants and nobody else’ has shocked me.

Zoë Grünewald @zoegrunewald.bsky.social · 7d

Dog-whistle and factually incorrect. Ladies, raise your hand if you were sexually assaulted by a boy at school? I’d wager this or a family member is most women’s first experience of sexual violence

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Tim Bale , and 6 more Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Tim Bale, Joanna Bourke, Peter Campbell, Mark Priestley, Glen O’Hara, Jackie Goode, Gerry Hassan

Zoë Grünewald @zoegrunewald.bsky.social · 7d

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 8d

Inuk artist Pitseolak Ashoona,
Girl chased by dog, 1961 #WomensArt #ArtAdvent

Print featuring a girl in black with hands in the air running right with a black dog behind her holding her skirt

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 8d

So, they are 'reflecting'?!!! Isn't Sex Matters a hate group?

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 8d

After an oral hearing, the High Court 'reserved' - ie is thinking about - whether to give permission for the Sex Matters hate group to try and overrule in court the wishes of the majority of the users of Hampstead women's pond. goodlaw.social/gofy

Hampstead women’s pond: No decision on challenge to trans inclusion | Good Law Project

After hearing arguments from Sex Matters, the High Court will reflect on whether the anti-trans group can challenge inclusion at Hampstead women’s pond.

goodlaw.social

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 8d

Hampstead women’s pond: No decision on challenge to trans inclusion | Good Law Project

After hearing arguments from Sex Matters, the High Court will reflect on whether the anti-trans group can challenge inclusion at Hampstead women’s pond.

goodlaw.social

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Martin Paul Eve @eve.gd · 9d

I also thought it was time for my blog/site to take a redesign, which is now done :) eve.gd

Martin Paul Eve

Martin Paul Eve, Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing, Birkbeck, University of London.

eve.gd

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 9d

Lets see. If I was any dictator around the world would I prefer the BBC to be getting on doing its job or being distracted by a vexatious law suit?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Trump sues BBC for defamation over Panorama speech edit

The US president has requested $5bn (£3.7bn) in damages, according to court documents filed in Florida.

www.bbc.co.uk

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 10d

thanks, Daniel, the discussion was incredibly interesting, especially about geopolitical differences and similarities. Brilliant group of thinkers at this conference. Thanks to all! Another day of leaning

Reposted by Joanna Bourke, Kate Bradley

Daniel Grey @djrgrey.bsky.social · 10d

At the National Library of Lithuania today and tomorrow to discuss imperial family violence in 19th & 20th centuries with @mmuravyeva.bsky.social @joannabourke.bsky.social and other colleagues and friends 📃https://blogs.helsinki.fi/fourepochsofviolence/program/

Program – 'Till Death Do Us Part': Four Epochs of Violence in Every Family in Russia – what makes it Russian? (FEVER)

blogs.helsinki.fi

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 12d

Keen to read this book.

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Reaktion Books @reaktionbooks.bsky.social · 12d

Listen now: Benvenuto Cellini and the Embodiment of the Modern Artist on New Books Network

🔉 buff.ly/WWBMf1T
📚 buff.ly/RXAWcVl

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 13d

A shout out to all of the people who find this time or year difficult for lots if reasons....
Big hugs to you ❤️

Reposted by Mary Bosworth, Richard S.J. Tol, Howard Williams , and 35 more Mary Bosworth, Richard S.J. Tol, Howard Williams, Dave O’Brien, Jonathan Wolff, Joanna Bourke, Elizabeth Stokoe, Martin Paul Eve, Charles West, Helen King, Lynn Abrams, Malcolm MacLean, John Foot, Jonathan Hopkin, Mike Rowe, Ben Worthy, Duncan Bell, Holger Nehring, Keith Lilley, Tom Griffin, Matthew Kelly, Adrian Vickers, Margot C. Finn, Michael H. Whitworth, Jonathan Birch, Laura Kelly, Pratik Chakrabarti, Stuart White, Katrina Navickas, Kathleen Kennedy, Mary Burke, Hayley Bennett, Pascale Aebischer, Kate Bradley, Stijn Smismans, Renaud Morieux, François Guesnet, Andrew Perchard

lucynoakes1.bsky.social @lucynoakes1.bsky.social · 14d

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 15d

Always fascinated by your 'take' on these big questions.

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 15d

I have a new book coming out on 1st March: Five Evil Women Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Karla Homolka, Aileen Wuornos, Karla Faye Tucker. reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/five-ev....
I ask this challenging question: how should a non-carceral feminist respond to women who have acted in such atrocious ways?

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 15d

Yes, 'mad. bad, sad' is so reductive! One of the most challenging parts of my book involved thinking about my answer to this question: how should a non-carceral feminist respond to women who have acted in such atrocious ways?

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Geth Rees @gethrees.bsky.social · 15d

Just writing a section for a book chapter on Liaison & Diversion needing to see all women in police custody as they must be "mad, bad or sad". Looking forward to seeing your take on this!

Joanna Bourke @joannabourke.bsky.social · 15d

Have a publication date for my new book, FIVE EVIL WOMEN; 1 March! Why do certain women become icons of evil? Explores Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, Karla Homolka and Karla Faye Tucker. Spread the news please because I need publicity 😅 reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/five-ev...

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 25d

Amazing

www.them.us/story/1000-y...

The 1,000 Year History of the Strap-On

From medieval Europe to Zanzibar, the strap-on dildo has deep lore.

www.them.us

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Jaclyn A. Siegel, PhD @jacasiegel.bsky.social · 25d

Quick read this weekend: “Sex is a Spectrum” by Augustín Fuentes. Fuentes expertly draws from biological research on non-human animals and human anthropology to reveal the inadequacy of the sex binary for understanding human and non-human biological sex. The book is pretty dense, but a great read.

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Joanna Bourke, Robert Wolfe , and 5 more Anna O. Law, Joanna Bourke, Robert Wolfe, Aaron Sojourner, Gerald Friedman, Steven S. Taylor, Aidan O’Sullivan, Élisabeth Vallet

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 25d

Good front-paging.

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 26d

Rule of thumb. If someone says:

"Look, that's just the way things are"

Chances are they are benefitting from an injustice they don't want to talk about.

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Carsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 28d

Useful reminder here from historian of medicine Fay Bound-Alberti that assumptions that the human body can be repaired like a machine as long as spare parts can be sourced, are misguided.

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Face transplants promised hope. Patients were put through the unthinkable

Twenty years after the first face transplant, patients are dying, data is missing, and the experimental procedure’s future hangs in the balance

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · Nov 25

If you enjoy our social media posts, make sure to subscribe to our flagship podcast, Working Class History! You can join us on Goodpods here:
go.goodpods.com/urAYmN

Working Class History - | Listen on GoodPods™

go.goodpods.com

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · Nov 19

Each of these sentences is devastating to read. Worlds upon worlds being destroyed

Julie Beth Napolin @voicesbend.bsky.social · Nov 19

The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.

Reposted by Joanna Bourke, Juan Cole, Felicity Callard , and 4 more Joanna Bourke, Juan Cole, Felicity Callard, Alan Richardson, Anne Norton, Stuart White, Clark Gray

Julie Beth Napolin @voicesbend.bsky.social · Nov 19

Reposted by Joanna Bourke, Margot C. Finn, Dolly Jørgensen

Animal History Group @animalhistories.bsky.social · Nov 18

For those who couldn't attend last week, here is @s-pooley.bsky.social's excellent talk on their new book DISCOVERING THE OKAPI.
Out now with Johns Hopkins University Press! 📗🦒
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx1Z...

Reposted by Joanna Bourke, Carmen M. Mangion

Heike Bauer @heikebauer.bsky.social · Nov 17

This week Wednesday at Birkbeck, right in the heart of Bloomsbury: join us for thought-provoking talk by the brilliant Julia Laite on the history of Newfoundland, home of one of the British Empire’s most remote settlements where one of its most complete genocides took place. Free but pls register

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Annual Graduate Lecture 2025 - Stories at the Edge of Empire: Newfoundland, 1763-1829

Join us for an exploration of ways of mapping and knowing Newfoundland in the 18th & 19th centuries delivered by Julia Laite

www.bbk.ac.uk

Reposted by Joanna Bourke

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · Nov 16

Trouble is, the buck doesn’t stop any more.

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