School of Social and Political Sciences Book Launch

The School of Social and Political Sciences is pleased to invite colleagues and students to the launch of Dr Aideen O’Shaughnessy’s new book Embodying Irish Abortion Reform: Bodies, Emotions and Feminist Activism (Bristol University Press, 2024).

As part of the School’s research seminar series, the launch event is on Wednesday 23 October, 1pm – 2pm in MB0312.

Offering a unique perspective, this book explores the lived, embodied and affective experiences of reproductive rights activists living under, and mobilising against Ireland’s constitutional abortion ban.

Through qualitative research and in-depth interviews with activists, the author exposes the subtle influence of the 8th Amendment on Irish women and their (reproductive) bodies, whether or not they have ever attempted to access a clandestine abortion.

It explains how the everyday embodied practices, bodily labours and affective experiences of women and gestating people were shaped by the 8th amendment and through the need to ‘prepare’ for crisis pregnancies. In addition, it reveals the integral role of women’s bodies and emotions in changing the political and social landscape in Ireland, through the historical transformation of the country’s abortion laws.

Dr Aideen O’Shaughnessy, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, completed her PhD in Sociology at the University of Cambridge. She has an MA in Gender Studies from Utrecht University and a BA in Sociology and French from Trinity College Dublin.

Her research areas include gender, health, and social movements, with a specific focus on reproductive health, justice, and rights. She is particularly interested in questions of embodiment and emotions as it pertains to abortion politics. She has published widely on these issues in forums including Body and Society, The European Journal of Women’s Studies, and BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Story submitted by Gary Rawnsley
GRawnsley@lincoln.ac.uk