Rape Revisited: Joanna Bourke reflects on historicising sexual violence, in conversation with Ruth Beecher

Beecher, Ruth (2023) Rape Revisited: Joanna Bourke reflects on historicising sexual violence, in conversation with Ruth Beecher. Women's History Review , ISSN 0961-2025.

Abstract

Joanna Bourke’s career as a social and cultural historian span more than three decades. She is a Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy and the current Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College. She is the prizewinning author of sixteen books, including histories of violence, modern warfare, medicine and science, psychology and psychiatry, the emotions, pain and what it means to be human. Her ground-breaking 2007 book Rape debunked ‘theories’ espoused by academics, doctors, lawyers and scientists that it was women who were responsible for rape; she insisted that we place the responsibility for sexual violence firmly with the rapist. It catalysed a new and vibrant scholarship. In 2018, Bourke established the Wellcome Trust-funded Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters (SHaME) Research Hub at Birkbeck to explore the role of medicine and psychiatry in sexual violence. The reflections below are based on a conversation between Bourke and Ruth Beecher, a post-doctoral historian and applied researcher in the SHaME team. It took place on the publication of Bourke’s new book, Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence, published by Reaktion Books in July 2022. Disgrace explores how sexual violence varies widely across time and place, delving into the factors that facilitate violence and giving voice to survivors and activists. Ultimately, Bourke argues for a transnational feminism that will promote a rape- and violence-free world.

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