Join us for an exciting book launch event featuring Dr Aideen O'Shaughnessy as she discusses her latest work on abortion activism in Ireland.

The event is being chaired by Dr Lucy van de Wiel, with an introduction by Professor Sarah Franklin (University of Cambridge) and Dr Rishita Nandagiri, Dr Pam Lowe (Aston University Birmingham) and Professor Ruth Fletcher (QMUL) as respondents.

About the book

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.

About the speaker

Dr Aideen O'Shaughnessy

Dr Aideen O'Shaughnessy is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Lincoln. She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, an MA in Gender Studies Research from Utrecht University and a BA in Sociology and French at Trinity College Dublin. Her research focuses on gender, health, and social movements and she is particularly interested in the study of reproductive health, rights, and justice. She has published widely in journals including Body and Society, the European Journal of Women's Studies, and the BMJ Sexual and Reproductive Health. Her new book is entitled Embodying Irish Abortion Reform: Bodies, Emotions, and Feminist Activism (2024) from Bristol University Press.

This in-person event will take place in the beautiful River Room of King's Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS, UK.