Joanna Bourke

My new book is out today! Aways a nervous thing..... FIVE EVIL WOMEN: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker. First interview: newbooksnetwork.com/five-evil-wo... Really enjoyed talking to the amazing Miranda Melcher about evil & femininity. @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social @reaktionbooks.bsky.social

My new book, 'Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker', is officially 'out' tomorrow. A difficult book to write: how should feminists respond to women who commit horrendous crimes? I am posting blogs of some women who did not 'make it' into the final book. See joannabourke.com/blog

Kid the Younger is out of heart surgery & it went well. A long road yet & still on the ICU, but I'm overflowing with gratitude & love for the NHS & GOSH especially. I'm so proud to count myself amongst a People who created this institution & who fight for it (& within it) every single day.

Teaching Slavery Teaching Slavery offers ground-breaking research and practical guidance for teaching Britain’s role in transatlantic slavery. Combining historical analysis with classroom strategies, it equips educato...

I cannot recommend highly enough this free, open access resource for anyone teaching about slavery in the UK

uclpress.co.uk/book/teachin...

I love this book. Elegantly written, erudite, and full of incredible stories. I have just purchased 6 copies -- so, my friends, now you know what you are getting for your birthdays and name-days!

From handsome prince to a ghost behind glass, Andrew’s face tells the story of his decline | Fay Bound-Alberti Royals have always prized their images as ways to assert their lineage and authority. Now this pathetic photo will define the former prince, says historian Fay Bound-Alberti

Take a look at this fascinating article by historian Fay Bound-Alberti on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, which analyses face and physiognomy. Worth reading her brilliant book as well, entitled simply THE FACE. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Deputy Head of Research Funding The closing date for applications is 12:00 noon, Monday 2 March 2026.

Deputy Head of Research Funding at the British Academy (FT, permanent, £50,108, deadline 2 March).

The postholder will help deliver a range of funding in Humanities & Social Sciences and manage the BA's relationship with 9 British International Research Institutes (BIRIs).

Race on Screen | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

Congratulations to @christinegrandy.bsky.social for the publication of Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain, the latest title in our Cambridge Modern British Histories series. Paperback a snip at £28. #Skystorians

Brodie: wow. A detail I missed

I have been interviewing some of the leading figures in 'Alcohol Studies'. My latest is the incredible Robin Room, whose research on the social aspects of drinking and alcohol addiction have been incredibly influential. See the interview here: www.joannabourke.com/blog

These are incredible! I spent much of my childhood in Haiti and still have Haitian art on my walls as visual inspiration.

hand painted uniforms, green leaves, red horse, a puffy skirt, gorgeous green head wrap. My god they are beautiful.

I don't really care much about the Olympics, but Haiti's uniforms take winterwear to epic new levels of awesomeness. The only hand-painted uniforms in the games, for a nation (to quote designer Stella Jean) 'that refuses to disappear.

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

University begins High Court challenge against £585k free speech fine The University of Sussex says the watchdog overstepped its legal powers in imposing the fine last year.

'As the regulator for all higher education providers in England, the outcome of the challenge against the OfS will have far-reaching implications for its ability to enforce freedom of speech and academic freedom at universities.'

Abolish the OfS, the metastisising cancer of English HE.

Sometimes older book are the best! I recently read Robert Fuller's 1996 book entitled 'Religion and Wine', where he invents the concept of ‘secular oenophilia’: the love of wine as providing drinkers with a sense of spirituality and purpose. I interviewed him here: www.joannabourke.com/blog

I happen to know that this department is chockablock with wonderful people, and the social mission of Birkbeck is hard to beat

Still glowing from this. HWJ has changed immensely over the last 50 years but the spirit of collegiality, care, social justice and warmth is still very much alive and well.

Cover of Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains by John Grindrod

As it’s LGBTQ+ History Month I thought I’d share some bits from my new book Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains (out in mid March) just to give a flavour of what was going on beyond the privet…

Vital case of University of Sussex vs Office for Students is in the High Court this week. The results will matter for all of us given the OfS's overreach and directions of travel.

I love this poem.

The Lie, Mary O'Malley The lie that a protester shot dead by ICE in Minneapolis was a terrorist, the lie that killers set loose on their own cities are victims, the lie that a poem is a gun. A poem is not a gun, though a poem from the pen of Akhmatova or Neruda or Mandelstam, not one of whom ever to my knowledge fired a shot, might in certain conjugations of the stars lodge in the heart and spread out across mountains and borders across languages and the sea and you can’t shoot it down, or lock it up or alter its pixels. It is played on the hollowed reeds of dead bones. A poem like that is a bomb. Mary O’Malley’s most recent collection, The Shark Nursery (Carcanet), was winner of the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry 2025

From yesterday's Irish Times.

Yep, The Times is going with 'The murder of Renee Nicole Good is the fault of immigrants'.

The oldest smile in the world, one of the more special finds @rmoudheden.bsky.social and indeed, what Nina says 👇🙂

A picture of a pile of my books which have just arrived, complementary copies destined for copyright holders and kind friends.

They’ve arrived! It’s out!

Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy a...

"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato."

surreal times

dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

I found the *first half* of Jeffrey Sachs' speech to the UN Security Council a couple of days ago a useful, historical summary. See: www.jeffsachs.org/recorded-lec...

It's official! My new book, FIVE EVIL WOMEN will be published on 1 March (Reaktion Books). See www.joannabourke.com/blog. I have spent years exploring the lives of women who committed the most horrendous crimes: Myra Hindley, Rose West, Karla Homolka, Aileen Wuornos, & Karla Faye Tucker.

a black and white photo of a woman dancing in a room . Alt: A black and white gif of a white woman in a glowing dress dancing energetically in a room

#HAPPYNEWYEAR 2026

wherever you are!!! ❤️

Millions of documents so far, and not a single trans person or drag performer in the Epstein Files hurting children... seems to be 100% wealthy cis white folks.
Imagine that.

I visited Valladolid prison, one of the prisons where the anti-fascist, feminist Maria Bruguera was incarcerated. A terrifying place. Thanks for reminding us of her incredible and very full life.