New article in the European Journal of Cultural Studies, co-authored with Jacob Johannsen
“From femcels to ‘femcelcore’: Women’s involuntary celibacy and the rise of heteronihilism”
It’s open access and free to read here.
New open access article: ‘The reactionary turn in popular feminism’, published in Feminist Media Studies
Enemy Feminisms: Sophie Lewis in conversation with Victoria Browne and Jilly Boyce Kay
Loughboorugh University London, 13 May 2024
Discussion about femcels on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour
I discuss the phenomenon of femcels at about 48 mins in
Participation at ‘Log Out’ symposium, University of Toronto
I recently spoke at a symposium hosted by the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology (ICCIT). The event was entitled ‘Log Out! The Technopolitics of Refusal’, and focussed on tactics of refusal within our current era of techno-capitalism. My paper was entitled “Andrew Tate for girls”: dark feminine influencers and micro-fascist mirror-worlds.
Podcast discussion about my new work on reactionary feminism and the femosphere
I joined James A. Smith on The Popular Show to discuss some work-in-progress on ‘post-liberal’ feminism and reactionary impulses in the femosphere.
You can listen to it here.
New publication: chapter in the Routledge Companion to Gender, Media and Violence
My chapter ‘The politics of the traumatised voice: Communicative injustice and structural silencing in contemporary media culture’ is now published as part of this new collection. You can read it here or contact me for a pdf.
Podcast discussion on Nancy Fraser
I thoroughly enjoyed discussing Nancy Fraser’s new book Cannibal Capitalism, and her contributions to feminist political theory more broadly, on The Popular Show podcast, alongside some super-smart thinkers.
You can listen to it here (among other places!).
A talk about our new research on ‘femcelcore’
I’ve been working on a new project about the shifting visibilities, aesthetics and politics of ‘femcels’ with Dr Jacob Johannsen (St Mary’s University). We presented our work-in-progress at an event hosted by the Media and Gender group on May 31, 2023.
Feedback very welcome!
New essay to mark my appointment as journal editor
I feel very honoured to become co-editor of the European Journal of Cultural Studies - which is now in its 25th year!
I wrote a short essay reflecting on the journal, becoming co-editor, and on cultural studies more broadly
When We Speak (Wiser Films 2022)
The documentary When We Speak is now available to stream via Google Play, Apple TV, Sky Store, etc. It tells the story of three women whistleblowers, and the incredibly painful costs of their speaking out - and it asks what we can do as a society to better protect and support whistleblowers. I’m really proud to have been able to contribute to this powerful documentary. And thoroughly recommend watching it!
New publication
New article in Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies: ‘“The race. for space”: capitalism, the country and the city in Britain under covid-19’, co -authored with Helen Wood. It draws on the work of Raymond Williams to argue that under covid-19 the dominant ‘ways of seeing’ the countryside and the city in Britain are working to obscure the structural violence of capitalism.
We argue that these binary narratives and aesthetics of a bountiful, white countryside and an infested, racialized city lead to an ‘unseeing’ of the deep structural causes of inequality.
New writing on Raymond Williams
My new essay, written to mark the centenary of Raymond Williams’s birth in August 2021, has been published in the European Journal of Cultural Studies. It reflects on the ways that his thinking runs ‘in the bloodstream’ of cultural studies, some of the critiques of his work, and my visit to his gravestone on the day of Prince Philip’s funeral. It’s open access.
I’m really looking forward to presenting at a research seminar hosted by the Centre for Research Film and Audiovisual Cultures, University of Roehampton.
I’ll be presenting the paper ‘The media nag: the politics of women's transgressive speech in a time of backlash’.
Further details and registration here.
New writing: '"Nanettflix: Hannah Gadsby, the feminist politics of trauma, and the Netflixification of social justice'
A blog for CST Online, February 26, 2020. Available here: https://cstonline.net/nanettflix-hannah-gadsby-the-feminist-politics-of-trauma-and-the-netflixification-of-social-justice-by-jilly-boyce-kay/
Book launch: Feminist Media: from the Second Wave to the Digital Age
I was really pleased to join Dr Claire Sedgwick at the launch of her new book on November 17th, and to provide a response. You can find out more about her book here.
Event on Barbara H. Rosenwein’s Anger: The Conflicted History of an Emotion
I’ll be a discussant at this event on December 10th, hosted by the BSA Emotions Study Group