Keynote lecture by Professor Joanna Bourke, Birbeck University of London
We are living in violent times. In this talk, I reflect on what a history of fear and anxiety contributes to the militarization of the ‘long war’ against internal and external ‘enemies’ in modern America. The focus will be on changing ideas about ‘wound nationalism’, the role of national and international organizations in the politics of Christian evangelicalism, and shifts in both the sexualization and racialization of psychic lives. I consider performative as well as affective dimensions of institutional and interpersonal attachments. I end with some thoughts on the politics of radical justice.
Joanna Bourke is Professor Emerita of History at Birkbeck, University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy, and OBE. She is the prize-winning author of eighteen books, as well as over 120 articles in academic journals. In 2022, Reaktion Books published Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence. Her book, entitled Five Evil Women, was published in March 2026. Her books have been translated into Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Turkish, and Greek.
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