Join us for an empowering and transformative workshop facilitated by Dr Choman Hardi - exploring the power of poetry as a method to investigate profound and often silenced experiences of gendered violence. This workshop provides a safe and supportive space for participants to explore, express, and share through poetry, with a strong emphasis on trauma-informed writing techniques.

After an introduction and grounding exercise, the workshop will comprise of 3-4 guided writing exercises as follows:

• We will introduce and discuss a poem with participants.
• We will provide a writing prompt and time to write, usually 10-15 minutes.
• The participants will read their writing (optional), share reflections and get feedback from the group.

The workshop will conclude with a reflection session, where participants can discuss their experiences and takeaways. We will also signpost resources for continued support and writing beyond the workshop.

Tea, coffee and biscuits will be available. This workshop is open to King's staff and student only.

Whether you are a seasoned poet or new to writing, this workshop welcomes all who seek to understand and articulate the impact of gendered violence on individuals and communities. Our trauma-informed approach ensures that participants feel respected, understood, and supported throughout the workshop.

Please note that places are limited for this workshop. If you register and find you are unable to attend, please let us know so that we can offer your place to someone else.

Choman Hardi

Choman is an educator, poet, and scholar whose work is informed by an intersectional approach to inequality. She is renowned for her pioneering work on issues of gender and education. Choman returned home after twenty-six years of displacement, to teach English and initiate gender studies at the American University of Iraq- Sulaimani (AUIS). Choman is a Co-Director of the GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub, on which she is researching about the role of institutions and practices on the construction of masculinity. She is the author of critically acclaimed books in the fields of poetry, academia, and translation. In 2011, her Leverhulme Trust funded post-doctoral research, Gendered Experiences of Genocide (Routledge) was named a UK Core Title by the Yankee Book Peddler. Since 2010, poems from her first English collection, Life for Us (Bloodaxe, 2004) are studied by secondary school students as part of their English curriculum in the UK. Her second collection, Considering the Women (Bloodaxe, 2015), was given a Recommendation by the Poetry Book Society and shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Rachel Kerr

Rachel is a contemporary historian whose research focuses broadly on how states, societies and individuals contend with legacies of war and atrocity. Her past work has focused on the law and politics of international judicial intervention in the context of the ICTY’s record in the Western Balkans, the Special Court in Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court’s examination of the UK’s handling of allegations of war crimes in Iraq (2003-9).

Rachel’s current research is focused on the role of art and creative approaches to contending with ongoing and past violence, and how visual and embodied methodologies can be leveraged to address intersectional gendered violence in the context of war and genocide.