Join us to celebrate the launch of our latest book, The Art of Being Dangerous: Exploring Women and Danger Through Creative Expression (Leuven University Press, 2021)! Showcasing an array of contemporary art that highlights the breadth of talent among today’s female artists, The Art of Being Dangerous offers many images of women - some humorous, some challenging, some well-known, some forgotten, but all unique.
The online launch will feature Prof. Jo Shaw in conversation with Margie Orford, readings by Heather Pearson, Elaine Gallagher, Nkateko Masinga and Kate Feld, and a presentation by Heshani Sothiraj Eddleston.
We hope to see you there. Free tickets can be booked at Eventbrite.
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Speakers:
Professor Jo Shaw: Jo holds the Salvesen Chair of European Institutions in Edinburgh Law School and is a part-time Professor in New Social Research at Tampere University in Finland. Between 2014 and 2017 she was Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. Her research interests lie in the fields of EU law, constitutional law, and citizenship. Twitter: @joshaw
Dr Margie Orford: Margie is the current IASH Community Fellow. She is the author of the internationally acclaimed Clare Hart novels, a literary crime series, which have been translated into ten languages and are currently being developed as a television series, and of a number of books of non-fiction. She has written several children’s books, is an award-winning journalist, has published a number of scholarly articles on Namibian and South African literature, representation and gender-based violence, and was an editor of Coming on Strong, Namibian Women’s Writing and of Women Writing Africa, the southern volume. She was writer in residence at the University of York in 2015, a judge in 2019 for the AKO Caine Prize for African Literature, the patron of Rape Crisis in South Africa, president of PEN South Africa, a member of the executive board of PEN International. She is a co-author of the PEN International Women’s Manifesto, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Johannesburg Review of Books.
Heather Pearson: Heather is a Scottish writer, editor, and creative content-maker who loves good design, nature, progressive politics, and tech. Find her @betamother.
Elaine Gallagher: Elaine is a Glasgow writer, activist, and poet. She has published stories in Thirty Years of Rain from GSFWC, and We Were Always Here from 404 Ink. Her short film, High Heels Aren't Compulsory, directed by Annabel Cooper and starring Jo Clifford, won Best Scottish Short at the SQIFF 2015 and was shortlisted for the Iris Prize 2016. Her first poetry book, Transient Light, is available from Speculative Books at speculativebook.net, and she writes a newsletter, Your Mileage Will Vary, at elainegallagher.substack.com.
Nkateko Masinga: Nkateko is a South African Writer and 2019 Fellow of the Ebedi International Writers Residency. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 and her work has received support from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg and the Swiss Arts Council. In 2019, she co-won the Brittle Paper Anniversary Award. She is an interviewer and director of the Internship Program at Africa in Dialogue, an online interview magazine that archives creative and critical insights with Africa's leading storytellers, as well as the founder and managing director of NSUKU Publishing Consultancy. She is the author of a digital chapbook titled the heart is a caged animal, published by Praxis Magazine. Her latest chapbook, psalm for chrysanthemums, has been selected by the African Poetry Book Fund and Akashic Books to be published in the 2020 New Generation African Poets chapbook box set.
Kate Feld: Kate is a writer and photographer who grew up in Vermont and has lived for many years in the North of England. She writes essays, fiction, poetry, and prose that sits between forms. Her work has been published widely in journals and anthologies including The Stinging Fly, The Letters Page, The Lonely Crowd, Hotel, Structo, Entropy and Caught by the River. She is the founding editor of The Real Story, the UK's first creative nonfiction journal and reading series, and lectures in journalism at the University of Salford.
Heshani Sothiraj Eddleston: Heshani is a Sri Lankan visual storyteller based in Edinburgh. Much of her work has focused on children's and women's rights and socio-economic and developmental issues in South Asia. Currently, her main interest is studying the representation of a 'virtuous' woman in the visual medium and how it has been translated in South Asian cinema. http://heshanise.com
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Please note that this launch will contain discussion of illness that may be triggering to some.