[Commlist] New Book: Talking Bodies III

Talking Bodies: new book challenges perceptions.

The ways in which bodies are gendered, stereotyped, their perceived 
capabilities and how they are often seen as falling short of an 
unattainable idea of 'perfection' are highlighted and challenged in a 
new book from the University of Chester Press. Published this month, 
'Talking Bodies III, Transformations, Movements and Expression' aims to 
rethink notions of bodies - how we view, identify, represent, treat, 
use, maintain, develop, and even recreate and re-engineer them.

The collection of essays spans subjects from art, gender, sexuality, 
ageing, disability and race, to history, literature, sociology, 
medicine, politics and law to offer thought-provoking, diverse and 
inclusive narratives of bodies and selfhood.

Originating from the fourth biennial Talking Bodies conference in 2019, 
run by Professor Emma Rees, Director of the University of Chester's 
Institute of Gender Studies, and the third in the series of Talking 
Bodies books, it looks to address ethical, cultural, political, and 
social issues that preoccupy many sections of society.

The volume comprises 10 chapters by emerging voices, established 
academics, and early career researchers from across the globe - and 
includes discussions on:
*body awareness in midwifery and moving towards LGBTQ+ inclusive practice;
*the daily experience for refugees with disabilities;
*developing and teaching the first undergraduate course in Fat Studies 
in a university located in what has regularly been termed the 'fattest 
province in Canada' (CBC News, 2015);
*graphic arts and media representations of the black body through an 
analysis of the Marvel character and Netflix series Luke Cage, examining 
the representation of the 'bulletproof' black body in the context of the 
#BlackLivesMatter movement and the American prison-industrial complex.

The University of Chester is represented among contributors, with 
Institute of Gender Studies alumni Beth Flanagan exploring when women 
actors play Shakespeare's Othello and what this means for gender 
stereotypes, and Michelle D. Ravenscroft, whose chapter is entitled 
'From Little Women to the 'New Woman': Representations of Female 
Adolescent Identity Formation in the Late Nineteenth Century'.
Michelle, who is the lead editor, studied English Literature, Education 
and Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture at the University of 
Chester. She is now an educational consultant undertaking doctoral study 
at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is joined in the editing role 
by Paul G. Nixon from the Hague University of Applied Sciences, in the 
Netherlands; Bee Hughes from Liverpool John Moores University, who is 
also Artist in Residence at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Institute 
for Gender Studies, and School of Art History at the University of St 
Andrews; and Charlotte Dann, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the 
University of Northampton.

The foreword is provided by Professor Rees, Programme Leader of the 
interdisciplinary MRes in Gender Studies and curator of the Talking 
Bodies project, hosting its conferences at Chester.
In the foreword, she wrote: "The essays in Talking Bodies III: 
Transformations, Movements and Expression epitomise the 
interdisciplinarity, inclusiveness, and eclecticism of the Talking 
Bodies project which I started back in 2013. The contributions, in 
inventive and distinct ways, in this most anomalous of eras, interrogate 
"the norm", from (dis)ability to heteronormativity, and from sex to 
sexuality. They range across the globe, and through time, as they 
complicate productively, and challenge constructively."

In their conclusion, the editors state that the Talking Bodies project 
is "inclusive, diverse, and thought-expanding". The book they've edited 
also has all of those elements, and I'm delighted that it's being 
published at a time when we have so much to learn from the body's 
scripts and inscriptions, its maskings and unmaskings, and its 
persistence even in the face of existential threat."

The editors added: "The body, sexuality and gender continue to be 
subjects of much debate in contemporary culture and within academia. 
Finalised at a time when swathes of the global population were placed 
into varying degrees of isolation and self-reflection, this book is more 
than an abstract academic project. It represents the vitality and 
inspiration that comes from sharing knowledge with colleagues within and 
outside our respective disciplines. This collection of activist-academic 
essays scrutinises varied questions relating to how we understand and 
(re)present ourselves and others, and at its core offers hope and 
determination that a different world is possible."

For further information on Talking Bodies III and to order a copy, 
please visit: 
https://storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12_14&products_id=1067
Contact co-editor, Dr Bee Hughes (they/them) at (b.hughes /at/ ljmu.ac.uk)

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