Past Editors
Cultivate was co-founded by O’Dessa Darling and Gemma Gibson in 2017.
Editorial Team 2022/2023
Sanna Eriksson, Co Editor-in-Chief
Sanna completed her BA and MA in East Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has also studied at EIUC (Venice) and Utrecht University (The Netherlands). She has studied Mandarin at Fudan University (Shanghai) and at NTNU (Taipei). Sanna worked at the Embassy of Finland (Beijing), the European Commission (Brussels), and the University of York before being awarded an ESRC 1+3 scholarship to undertake a PhD in Women’s Studies at CWS in 2019. Sanna is currently in the third year of her PhD which explores contemporary Chinese motherhood, with a particular focus on televisual representations, public discourses and women’s individual experiences. She is excited to be on the editorial team of Cultivate and thus have the opportunity to engage with the feminist early career researcher community.
Daisy McManaman, Co Editor-in-Chief
Daisy McManaman (she/her), is a 3rd year PhD student at the Centre for Women’s Studies. Her PhD research re-analyses representations of women in Playboy, seeking to shift the lens from Hugh Hefner (founder of Playboy and until now the main focus of the majority of texts on Playboy), and onto the women who consumed, produced and featured in Playboy content. Daisy comes from an art based background and holds an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA (hons) in Fine Art Photography from the Glasgow School of Art. Within her research Daisy utilises creative methods, with a particular focus on self-portraiture, as an act of reclaiming the imagery found in Playboy, as well as a tool to explore first hand how it feels to produce and pose in nude photographs. Daisy is also the co-founder of the Re-making Research Network.
Lizzie Merrill, Co Editor-in-Chief
Lizzie Merrill is a PhD student in the Centre for Women’s Studies, supported by WRoCAH/AHRC. With a background in practice-based fine art, Lizzie’s project explores how creative methods can express our embodied experiences of illness. Lizzie currently holds a BA in Fine Art from Central St Martins and an MSt in Women’s Studies from Oxford University. Her work has recently been published in the Polyphony as well as Aspectus (Journal of Visual Culture). Outside of all things academic, Lizzie loves to make, paint, build, sew and walk three unruly dogs. Lizzie is incredibly excited about this special creative issue of cultivate and can’t wait to engage with and illuminate Cultivate’s brilliant creative submissions.
Aakanksha Singh
Aakanksha Singh is a third-year PhD researcher at the English and Related Literature Department. Her research focuses on unravelling representation of queer women characters as “quietly political” in contemporary Indian writing. Aakanksha loves to pretend she knows how to read, garden, cook, live, be a feminist and write a poem and so is really excited to read creative submissions for Cultivate 2023 Special Issue!
Alice Wilson
Alice Wilson is a PhD researcher at the University of York writing about women who build their own tiny houses as a way to resist capitalism and patriarchy. Her work has appeared in Ruminate Magazine, the Apple Valley Review, ZinDaily, and Livina Press. Her flash fiction features in the Sonder Press Best Small Fiction 2022 anthology. Her journalism has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, QueerAF, and Diva amongst others.
Kate Keeble
Kate is an inquisitive and assertive feminist. She is currently studying a double MA at the Centre for Women’s Studies via the GEMMA programme. Kate has accomplished a postgraduate diploma in creative writing. She enjoys prose poetry with a cuppa rooibos and some shortbread biscuits. Her educational journey is walking an autoethnographic pathway to exploring women’s agency in a patriarchal society.
Madelaine French
Madelaine French is a PhD researcher in the Department of Sociology at York. Prior to joining York, she completed her MRes in Sociology at Portsmouth University where she explored the transitional identities of female bikini bodybuilders. Her research interests include embodiment, gender identity, chronic illness, healthism, and reproductive healthcare. Her PhD explores the intersecting embodied experiences of involuntarily childless women with Endometriosis as socially constructed expectations of womanhood are negotiated and(re)imagined. Before completing her MRes she gained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Fashion Photography from The London College of Fashion, which lead to a rewarding career as a womenswear buyer. Clothing design, printmaking and photography still play a huge role in her life. She is passionate about combining the creative and academic and looks forward to working with Cultivate to spotlight feminist voices.
Marieke Wierenga
Born and raised in Germany, Marieke (she/her) studied Archaeology and History at the University of Aberdeen and Universiteit van Amsterdam before moving to England in 2022. At the University of York, she started an Erasmus Mundus MA in Women’s and Gender studies (GEMMA), which will be continued at the Central European University in Vienna in 2023/24. She is interested in the way arts-based research, autoethnography and embodied knowledge contribute to a relational understanding of the world and to social and environmental justice by exploring vulnerability, questions of home/belonging or trauma and intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism. Marieke loves to travel and spend time in nature where she tries out (and fails at) various outdoor activities, but also gets inspiration for occasional projects related to creative writing, dancing, music or photography. She is really excited to see this year’s submissions to Cultivate and keen to experience and promote the power of feminist storytelling.
Rhuan Barcellos
Rhuan Barcellos is a MA student at the Centre for Women’s Studies and Utrecht University. He is doing the Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies. Rhuan joined the centre after completing a BA in International Relations from the Fluminense Federal University and a period of academic mobility at the University of Porto. Queer studies and creative research methods are his main interests. As a voracious reader and writer, Rhuan looks forward to appreciating the exciting feminist and queer contributions submitted to Cultivate.
Renny Iskander
Reny Iskander is gender researcher who did her MA in women and gender studies in the university of York and university of Bologna. As an Egyptian woman, she is interested in gender research in the SWANA region, her main topics of interest are feminist writing as resilience, class and gender, minority writes and gender justice. She recommends reading autobiographical works of Arab women such as Latifa Al Zayat, Huda Shaarawi, Radwa Ashour and Arwa Salih, as a means of grasping their reality in their own words.
Rupsa Nag
Rupsa Nag is a student of Gender Studies at UoY and Utrecht University. She has been involved with Cultivate as the associate editor since last year. A lot of their previous engagements have been around writing, translation, visual and performing arts, research and archives. She loves stories, photography, music, food and is happiest on days she crosses paths with friendly dogs.
Yanrui Cui
Yanrui Cui is a PhD candidate at the Department of English and Related Literature. Her research interests include Victorian fiction, women’s writing, psychoanalysis and narrative studies. Before arriving at York, Yanrui completed her MA and BA in English literature at Peking University, China. She has also completed a double BA degree programme in philosophy from PKU. Her feminist icons include Simone de Beauvoir and Charlotte Brontë, whose works are the focus of her current research. Yanrui is looking forward to learning about the current trends in feminist studies while working with Cultivate.
Caterina Lisi
Caterina Lisi is an international MA student in the Erasmus Mundus project GEMMA – Women and Gender Studies at the Centre for Women’s Studies and the University of Bologna (Italy), where she will obtain a double-degree. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Florence (Italy), she developed a keen interest in gender issues and feminist philosophy. Currently, she is working on her final dissertation, which explores the intersection of feminism and veganism within the realm of ecofeminist theory. Her research interests include ecofeminism, post-structural feminist theory, feminist philosophy, and gender-based violence.
Alice Parkington
Alice Parkington is an MA student with the Centre for Women’s Studies where she is working on a dissertation about the rock art of Southern Africa. Originally from Cape Town, her research interests currently involve non-traditional archives, heritage, ghosts and feminist practices relating to memory. She previously completed an undergraduate degree majoring in History and Gender Studies and post-graduate Honours degree in Gender and Transformation at the University of Cape Town with the Department of African Feminism. She loves the Cederberg Mountains, wearing Dr Martens and dancing. Alice joined Cultivate knowing it would be an opportunity to engage with other feminists in the UK outside of the university and looks forward to being part of the creative team behind Cultivate.
Mahasweta Podder
Mahasweta is studying for a joint Masters in Gender Studies from Utrecht University and the University of York. Her research interests are Comparative literature, mainly focussing on Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and Tamil texts; Translation Studies; Digital Humanities; Postcolonial Theory and Decolonial Practice. When not writing or reading, Mahasweta prefers to spend quality time daydreaming, thinking about an alternative reality. She loves to go out for walks, stargaze, moon gaze, interact with babies. Almost forgot to say, she love to love.
Harriet Foreman
Harriet is an ESRC funded PhD candidate at the Centre for Women’s Studies. Her research project is titled ‘Living in the grey zones: the experiences of the wives of Foreign and Commonwealth personnel in the British army’. Harriet is interested in exploring the intersections of militarism, postcolonialism, and gender in the UK today through creative ethnographic methods. Harriet has an MA in Women, Violence and Conflict and an MA in Social Research. Outside of research, she enjoys cooking and running.
Caroline Duggan
Caroline Duggan is a first year GEMMA MA student, lover of slam poetry, burlesque and manifestos. Her current research project is studying bisexual literature and it’s impact on queer teens.
Editorial Team 2021/2022
Nicki Roy – Editor–in-Chief
Nicole (Nicki) Roy: Originally from Frankfurt, Germany, Nicki studied political science and sociology for her undergrad and spent some time in Lebanon to learn Arabic. She completed her masters in Middle Eastern Studies with a focus on women’s studies and postcolonial studies, then spent a couple of years working in the international cooperation sector in Jordan. In 2019 Nicki moved to York to start her PhD at CWS. In her research she explores the narratives of right-wing women, who join and actively support right-wing-parties in Germany and Austria. She is interested in exploring why women might support these parties, and their thoughts on issues of women’s rights and equality issues in particular. What tensions are there between actively supporting a right-wing party and being a woman? Nicki is excited to be on the editorial board for Cultivate as it is a great opportunity to engage with other early career researchers and their topics.
Xiao Ge – Deputy Editor and Social Media Content Creator
Xiao Ge is currently a second year PhD student at the Centre for Women’s Studies. She received her master’s degree in Anthropology from Durham University in 2020. Her doctoral research investigates the transformation of traditional postpartum care practices and family relations influenced by such practice in contemporary China. She believes it is important to build a bridge between feminist academia and activism. This is also her motivation to be a part of the editorial board for Cultivate.
Agnes Kandlbinder – Associate Editor
Agnes Kandlbinder (she/they), originally from Munich, Germany, has completed the M.A. Women’s Studies program at CWS in 2020/21. Since 2022 she is a PhD candidate in the URPP “Human Reproduction Reloaded H2R” project at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Agnes has earned their B.A. in Religious Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, with a year of study abroad at the Université de Montréal.
Her research interests include body autonomy, access to reproductive healthcare, dis/ability justice, queer family building as well as meaning-making and values in the context of assisted reproduction. Their PhD project focuses on a socioethical investigation of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and germline genome editing from a reproductive justice perspective, with specific attention to dis/ability as a social justice issue.
As one of the associate editors of the third and now fourth issue of Cultivate, she wishes to support early-career researchers like herself in spreading their ideas to a wider audience and facilitating interdisciplinary research exchanges.
Elena Tuan – Associate Editor
MA student in Women’s and Gender Studies at UoY, Elena has lived in 6 countries and will be soon off to the 7th, the Netherlands, where she will be completing the GEMMA Program at the University of Utrecht. Graduating in International Relations and Diplomacy in Italy in 2015, Elena specialized with a MSc and MBA in Arts and Cultural Management in Paris in 2018. After working for 2 years in Museum Development in NYC, she moved back to Italy and found a project intersecting feminism, social justice, and poetry. Over the past 3 years, she organized events, built a 3K+ feminist community, and collaborated with 25+ poets in Italy. She already looks forward to reading the new issue’s creative submissions!
Hannah Westwood – Social Media Content Creator
Hannah is undertaking an MA in Women’s Studies (Humanities) and has completed an undergrad in English and American Studies at the University of Leicester. Hannah is really excited to get involved with the social media team this year and promote Cultivate so that it can reach as many people as possible!
Jaye Cook – Associate Editor
Following a BA and MA in Creative Writing, Jaye joined the Centre for Women’s Studies and is now in their third year of doctoral research. Their thesis uses creative autoethnography to explore trauma narratives and women’s stories of violence. With a strong background in Creative Writing, Jaye is keen to read this year’s creative submissions and to help shape the 2022 issue.
Lauren Cowling – Associate Editor
After completing a BSc in Psychology, Lauren joined the Centre for Women’s Studies as an MA student in 2014 before continuing on as a doctoral candidate. Their PhD research investigates sociocultural conceptualisations of vulvavaginas with a focus on embodiment and gendered selfhood, exploring ‘what (and how) does it mean to have a vulvavagina?’. Lauren was keen to join Cultivate to help continue to bring the feminist community together, particularly given the current global pandemic. They are looking forward to working with other early career researchers and showcasing fantastic work.
Lizzie Merrill – Associate Editor
Lizzie Merrill is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Women’s Studies. Her project ‘Post-Identity Patienthood in the Cancer Narratives of Jo Spence and Anne Boyer’ is supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities. Lizzie joined the centre after completing an MSt in Women’s Studies at Oxford University and a BA in Fine Art from Central St Martins. With a practice based background, her research is interested in creative practice, identity and where the two intersect to explore illness and death. As a keen photographer, writer and occasional poet, Lizzie is really looking forward to reading a variety of academic/creative submissions while working with Cultivate.
Reny Iskander – Associate Editor
Reny Iskander is a women’s rights activist and gender researcher from Egypt and worked on various projects related to women’s economic empowerment, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender based violence. Reny is passionate about reading and writing and strives to make the world less of a harsh place for minorities.
Rupsa Nag – Associate Editor
Rupsa (she/they) studied Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. A lot of her previous engagements have been around writing, translation, visual and performing arts, research and archives. Rupsa worked on a research project about the Chamba embroidery art of Himachal Pradesh, India for the Sahapedia UNESCO Fellowship. Additionally, she worked as a translator in various projects (for example, the Ngugi wa Thiongo’s short story Upright Revolution from English to Bangla for Jalada Africa, a pan-African writer’s collective). As an interviewer with DeCenter magazine, Rupsa profiled Imphal-based musician, Akhu Chingangbam for their 2021 spring issue Resistance. She authored articles on menstrual health awareness for the #PeriodPaath programme by Youth Ki Awaaz magazine and worked at Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata, as a research and exhibitions assistant. Rupsa largely owes her understanding of feminism to anticaste movements and discourses in India that have taught her to fight against Brahmanical patriarchal forces. A three-month publishing course at the Seagull School of Publishing got her engaged with editing and interested in book design which is what motivated Rupsa to join Cultivate. She loves stories, poetry, photography, music, food and is happiest on days she crosses paths with friendly dogs.
Sanna Eriksson – Associate Editor and Web editor
Sanna completed her BA and MA in East Asian Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She has also studied at EIUC (Venice) and Utrecht University (The Netherlands). She has studied Mandarin at Fudan University (Shanghai) and at NTNU (Taipei). Sanna worked at the Embassy of Finland (Beijing), the European Commission (Brussels), and the University of York before being awarded an ESRC 1+3 scholarship to undertake a PhD in Women’s Studies at CWS in 2019. Sanna is currently in the second year of her PhD which explores contemporary Chinese motherhood. She is excited to be on the editorial team of Cultivate and thus have the opportunity to engage with the feminist early career researcher community.
Verónica Lira Ortiz – Associate Editor and Social Media Content Creator
Born and raised in beautiful Mexico, Verónica is currently a student of the MA Women’s and Gender Studies at York and an Erasmus GEMMA scholar. While just having joined the CWS, she organised the first memorial for gender violence victims on 25 November. Veronica studied a BA in International Relations (2018) at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico with a Minor in Government and Public Transformation from Yale University in the US. As an undergraduate, she was a writer of student magazines and later became a feature writer for a US online politics outlet. In 2019 she co-authored and edited a book for secondary children in Mexico regarding gender violence, feminism, and sexuality. Her research interests include gender violence, sexual violence, and women in Latin American security and politics. Other interests include creative writing, movies, travelling, knitting, and dancing.
She describes herself as an axolotl: a being that is in constant change and regeneration.
Editorial Team 2020/2021
Lauren Cowling – Editor–in-Chief
After completing a BSc in Psychology, Lauren joined the Centre for Women’s Studies as an MA student in 2014 before continuing on as a doctoral candidate. Their PhD research investigates sociocultural conceptualisations of vulvavaginas with a focus on embodiment and gendered selfhood, exploring ‘what (and how) does it mean to have a vulvavagina?’. Lauren was keen to join Cultivate to help continue to bring the feminist community together, particularly given the current global pandemic. They are looking forward to working with other early career researchers and are excited to showcase the fantastic work of CWS students in this in-house issue.
Nicki Roy – Deputy Editor
Nicole (Nicki) Roy: Originally from Frankfurt, Germany, Nicki studied political science and sociology for her undergrad and spent some time in Lebanon to learn Arabic. She completed her masters in Middle Eastern Studies with a focus on women’s studies and postcolonial studies, then spent a couple of years working in the international cooperation sector in Jordan. In 2019 Nicki moved to York to start her PhD at CWS. In her research she explores the narratives of right-wing women, who join and actively support right-wing-parties in Germany and Austria. She is interested in exploring why women might support these parties, and their thoughts on issues of women’s rights and equality issues in particular. What tensions are there between actively supporting a right-wing party and being a woman? Nicki is excited to be on the editorial board for Cultivate as it is a great opportunity to engage with other early career researchers and their topics.
Ninutsa Nadirashvili – Deputy Editor
Though she was born and grew up in Tbilisi, Nina has spent a significant amount of time living in the United States and Europe. She completed her undergraduate degree in International Relations at Boston College and is currently undertaking a Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of York. Her undergraduate thesis was a comparative analysis of Georgian and Irish nationalist poetry, and she plans to continue writing about Georgian nationalism, poetry, and conceptions of gender in the future. Outside of the CWS, Nina works as an editor and content creator on a variety of topics. Considering her love of combining academic and creative work, she is extremely excited to be part of the Cultivate editorial team.
Jaye Cook – Associate Editor
Following a BA and MA in Creative Writing, Jaye joined the Centre for Women’s Studies and is now in their third year of doctoral research. Their thesis uses creative autoethnography to explore trauma narratives and women’s stories of violence. With a strong background in Creative Writing, Jaye is keen to read this year’s creative submissions and to help shape the 2021 issue.
Agnes Kandlbinder – Associate Editor
Agnes Kandlbinder (she/they), originally from Munich, Germany, has completed the M.A. Women’s Studies program at CWS in 2020/21. Since 2022 she is a PhD candidate in the URPP “Human Reproduction Reloaded H2R” project at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Agnes has earned their B.A. in Religious Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, with a year of study abroad at the Université de Montréal.
Her research interests include body autonomy, access to reproductive healthcare, dis/ability justice, queer family building as well as meaning-making and values in the context of assisted reproduction. Their PhD project focuses on a socioethical investigation of preimplantation genetic diagnosis and germline genome editing from a reproductive justice perspective, with specific attention to dis/ability as a social justice issue.
As one of the associate editors of the third and now fourth issue of Cultivate, she wishes to support early-career researchers like herself in spreading their ideas to a wider audience and facilitating interdisciplinary research exchanges.
Rumana Mehdi – Associate Editor
Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, I knew that the power of the pen can never be underestimated. As an enthusiastic poet and crocheter, I often think about how craftivism is the new revolution and that is why when I saw the opportunity to be a part of Cultivate, I felt like it was my calling!An avid Harry Potter fan as well, I strongly believe in doing our bit to improve this world. As Dumbledore said, “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
Siyu Chen – Associate Editor and Social Media Content Creator
Siyu Chen is a PhD researcher (2019—) at the University of York working in the field of media and sexual violence. Her thesis explores Chinese journalists’ role and experience in reporting sexual assault against women and girls via in-depth interview and thematic analysis. Outside of academia, Siyu has worked on several Chinese media platforms (Xinhua News Agency, Shaanxi Radio and Television Station, CCTV, etc.). She looks forward to communicating with more feminist media researchers and journalists from diverse cultural contexts, which motivates her to join the Cultivate Journal, editorial team!
Xiao Ge – Associate Editor and Social Media Content Creator
Xiao Ge is currently a second year PhD student at the Centre for Women’s Studies. She received her master’s degree in Anthropology from Durham University in 2020. Her doctoral research investigates the transformation of traditional postpartum care practices and family relations influenced by such practice in contemporary China. She believes it is important to build a bridge between feminist academia and activism. This is also her motivation to be a part of the editorial board for Cultivate.
Yue Liu- Associate Editor
I graduated from University College London (UCL) with a MA in Film Studies in 2017 and got a BA in Chinese Language and Literature from Shandong University, China. Currently, I’m a PhD student at the CWS, focusing on the autonomy and empowerment of single women in contemporary urban China.
Aurèlia Puigdomènech – Associate Editor and Web Editor
Aurèlia is currently a PhD student at the Centre for Women’s Studies. She graduated in History of Art at the Universitat de Barcelona, where she is a guest lecturer in a module on theatre history. She started incorporating her own artistic practice into her academic work during her MA in Women’s Studies (Humanities) at the University of York, creating a hypertext dissertation incorporating her own own zine creations as part of the text. Her current research is an arts-based research project exploring meanings of femininity in contemporary profane images of the Virgin Mary, accessing images, their production, and their viewing through an arts-based project. She is very excited to joing the Cultivate editorial team and contribute to the CWS community, she is particulary keen to read and promote her peers critical and creative research.
Editorial Team 2018/2019
Gemma Gibson – Editor
I graduated from the University of Winchester with a BA in English literature in 2013 and began my MA in Women’s Studies at the University of York in the same year. Currently I am a PhD student at the Centre for Women’s Studies researching ‘mainstream’ representations of fat women and the popularisation of the ‘body positivity’ movement. Although I am presently finding my way through my first few years of feminist teaching and beginning this journal, feminism has influenced my life beyond academia. I am very interested in the intersections between activism and academia which is a large part of my motivation behind Cultivate.
Nicole Froio – Guest Editor
I have a BA in Journalism from the University of Sheffield and an MA in Women, Violence and Conflict from the University of York’s Centre for Women’s Studies. I am originally from Brazil and I’ve worked as a freelance journalist and editor across the UK, US and Brazil. I am currently a PhD student in the Centre for Women’s Studies, where I investigate the intersection of sexual violence, masculinity and the media.
Anaïs Duong-Pedica – Associate Editor
Anaïs is a PhD candidate at Åbo Akademi University. Her research explores ‘mixed-race’ identity at a time of decolonization in Kanaky New Caledonia. She also teaches a Gender Studies course on “White Women & White Feminism”.
Tallulah Lines – Associate Editor
Tallulah Lines is an early-career researcher who graduated from the University of York with an MA by Research in Women’s Studies in 2018. Her research focused on identity and self-perception of domestic workers in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Before studying her MA by Research, Tallulah graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MA (Hons) in History, and spent six years living and working in Spain, Ecuador and Mexico. She currently works as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York, providing research support to the Wellbeing of Human Rights Defenders at Risk project. In her spare time Tallulah is a keen artist, specialising in creating art which promotes themes of equality, diversity and alternative sociopolitical perspectives.
Rachele Salvatelli – Associate Editor and Social Media Content Creator
I graduated from the University of Perugia with a BA in Philosophy and a MA in Philosophy and Ethics of Human Relations. In 2014, I was awarded the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities scholarship and joined the Department of Politics at the University of York for a MA in Political Philosophy. In 2017, I was offered a departmental scholarship to start a PhD in Sociology at the same university. My current project focuses on identity formation, stigma rejection and the narratives of fat body positive individuals.
Katie Smith – Associate Editor and Social Media Content Creator
Katie Smith is a PhD student studying representation of gender in the 19th Century Novel selection of the National Curriculum for English Literature. She also dabbles in social media promoting, although her thesis title doesn’t always fit the Twitter character limit.
Ellie Terry – Web Editor
My background is in politics and political theory which I studied at BA and Masters level at the University of Leeds. I am now a final year PhD student at the University of York. My thesis explores the current cultural politics of sex, examining key moments from the ‘porn wars’ through Raunch Culture to the current #MeToo Moment, utilising textural analysis of Netflix texts Orange Is the New Black and Sense8 and autoethnographic enquiry into my own situatedness both within the culture I am researching, and as a part-time researcher with mental health history. Outside of academia I work in a children and young people’s mental health unit and am active in local, LGBT and feminist politics in the city of York.
Imogen White – Associate Editor
I completed my BA in American History, Literature and Culture from the University of Nottingham in 2017. I had also completed a year of studies at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse and had almost completed enough credits to acquire a Major in the Women and Gender Studies department. Since, I have started an MA in Women’s Studies at the University of York. I also work for a charity in York, and am involved in several more. My researching and reading focus is concentrated on feminism and sex work.