Gender equality in changing times

Professor Angela Smith has edited a collection of essays exploring issues of gender equality in the global context. Contributors to Gender Equality in Changing Times (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) acknowledge the advances brought about by the second-wave movement of feminism, but highlight the work which still needs to be done in the twenty-first century, including the changes in society that have resulted in shifts in masculinity. The book is divided into two parts. Part One looks at gender equality by exploring the 'experience' of being part of a group where gender boundaries still exist, drawing on auto-ethnographies of those in key groups that are central to this debate, as well as interviews with members of such groups. Part Two investigates wider representations of these groups, offering an insight into the geopolitical world of gender relations in Saudi Arabia and China. Ultimately, this collection shows how much has been achieved, yet how far is also left to go.

Re-reading Spare Rib

Professor Angela Smith has edited a collection of essays about Spare Rib, one of the most iconic symbols of Second Wave Feminism, whose influence has far out-lived the span of its publication (1972-1993).  Re-Reading Spare Rib (Palgrave Macmillan 2017) examines various aspects of the magazine - based on the digitised publication by the British Library in 2015 - in order to explore the ways in which it has influenced society in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as well as the lives of individual readers. By analysing several articles from a modern, post-feminist perspective, and using cross-generational interviews of Spare Rib readers and reflective accounts of reading the publication, the significance and endurance of the publication is demonstrated. Written by academics, experienced researchers and independent scholars alike, the inter-disciplinary nature of the text results in a multi-dimensional reading of Spare Rib suitable for both an academic and general readership interested in cultural and media studies.

In addition to Angela, two other members of the School of Culture have contributed chapters: Dr Kath Kerr-Koch, and PhD student Maria Fotiadou. Other Sunderland contributions come from Professor Catherine Donovan, Professor Donna Chambers, Professor Bridget Cooper, Dr Sheila Quaid,  Dr Rob Worrall, Dr Paul-Alan Armstrong, Trish Bryans, and Helen Fraser.

Gun control and the Second Amendment

Dr Kevin Yuill (with Joe Street of Northumbria University) has edited a book entitled, The Second Amendment and Gun Control, Freedom, Fear, and the American Constitution (Routledge 2018). The collection of essays situates discussion about gun controls within contemporary debates about citizenship, culture, philosophy and foreign policy as well as in the more familiar terrain of politics and history. It features experts on the Constitution as well as chapters discussing the symbolic importance of Annie Oakley, the role of firearms in race, and filmic representations of armed Hispanic girl gangs. It asks about the morality of gun controls and of not imposing them. Published in the spirit of open debate about contentious subjects, it is finely balanced between those who favour more gun controls and those who oppose them. Dr Yuill’s chapter - 'From Virtuous Armed Citizen to "Cramped Little Risk-Fearing Man": The Meaning of Firearms in an Insecure Era' – argues that the two sides of the debate are simply alternative strategies to deal with existential insecurities. One side seeks a policy solution of removing all weapons while the other employs the individual strategy of packing a gun.

Forming and performing femininity

Dr Angela Smith has co-edited a collection of essays exploring various aspects of feminism and femininity in a twenty-first-century context. The articles address a number of contemporary issues: from the way in which women are represented in make-over shows, fashion blogs, and 'selfies' to the wider discourses that frame such representations, such as gym culture, pop culture, film and literature, as well as television sitcoms. Drawing on feminist theory and the emergence of 'fourth-wave feminism', this collection concludes that there is still much work to be done in terms of gaining gender equality in society.

Nally, Claire and Smith, Angela (eds) 2015.  Twenty-first Century Feminism: Forming and Performing Femininity. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Postcolonialism and Islam

Current and past academics from the English and History teams in the Department of Culture have published Postcolonialism and Islam: Theory, Literature, Culture, Society and Film (Routledge, 2013). The book, which had its origins in a conference held at the University of Sunderland in 2010, is edited by Drs Geoff Nash, Kath Kerr-Koch and Sarah Hackett (Bath Spa University).

The essays in the collection examine, question and broaden the applicability of Postcolonialism and Islam from a multifaceted and cross-disciplinary perspective.

Border Crossings

A collection of essays edited by Colin Younger (English) has just been published. Border Crossings: Narration, Nation and Imagination in Scots and Irish Literature and Culture (Cambridge Scholars, 2013) examines the ways in which the borderlands, boundaries and frontiers of the 'British Isles' are crucibles for diverse cultures and multiple alternative histories. The book offers a fresh perspective on the liminality of these porous and contested terrains and the peoples therein.

The essays in the collection show that these borders do not have to be geographical, but can extend to any cultural, psychic or social terrain which exists beyond or between accepted categories, power structures, nations or states.

Border Crossings draws together a number of key researchers in their respective fields and enables a dialogue between different disciplines and scholars. The work of three current and one past member of the Faculty of Education and Society at Sunderland appears in the book. The editor Colin Younger contributes the introduction and an essay on the border ballads; Alison O'Malley-Younger's chapters are on Burke and Hare, and - in conjunction with Professor John Strachan of Bath Spa University - William Maginn, the Irish journalist and writer. Peter Rushton - who is Professor of Historical Sociology at Sunderland - explores narratives of banishment, exile and return in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Authenticity and the Border Ballads

Title page of the third edition of
Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1775).
(Source: Wikipedia)

An essay entitled ‘In Praise of Uncertainty: The Liminal Authenticity of the Border Ballads’ by Colin Younger has been published in Border Crossings (Cambridge Scholars, 2013). Colin argues that the Reivers of the Anglo-Scots borders embody a state of in-betweenness. They are neither English nor Scots, neither slave nor master, and their national status vacillates depending where they choose to be on any given day. Colin’s exploration of the Border Ballads interrogates debates over the putative authenticity of the corpus, and suggests that the perceived barbarity and lawlessness of the Borderers resulted  precisely from their existing on a buffer zone between two warring  countries. He maintains that the ballads which emerged from this zone came also from collective experiences and a common past and are therefore exemplars of an underlying connectedness. To this end he concludes that the debate over authenticity is an expression, not of the provenance of the ballads, but of the Romantic zeitgeist in which it is expressed.

Naked Exhibitionism

A collection of essays by a diverse range of scholars about what it means to be naked in public has been edited by Drs Angela Smith (English) and Claire Nally (Northumbria University). The essays in Naked Exhibitionism: Gendered Performance and Public Exposure (I.B. Tauris, 2013) examine various cultural phenomena from a variety of perspectives to explore the evolution of female exhibitionism from criminal taboo to prime-time entertainment. The volume includes a chapter by Angela entitled 'From girl power to lady power?: postfeminism and Ladette to Lady'. To coincide with the publication of the book, Angela and Claire have written this post on the I.B Tauris blog about the Ukrainian feminist protest group FEMEN.

Alison O'Malley-Younger's Celtic Connections

Dr Alison O'Malley-Younger has co-edited, with Professor Willy Maley from the University of Glasgow, a collection of essays entitled Celtic Connections: Irish-Scottish Relations and the Politics of Culture (Peter Lang, 2013). The volume offers a sustained and up-to-date analysis of the cultural connections between these two neighbour nations, too often overwhelmed by their larger neighbour, England. As well as co-editing the volume, Alison has contributed an essay: 'Doctors and devils: diagnosing racial degeneracy in Stevenson's Gothic fiction'. The collection also contains a chapter by Lauren Clark entitled 'Second cities of Empire: Celtic consumerism exhibited.' Lauren was recently awarded her PhD from the Department of Culture.