Europe Lecture 2019

History at Western Sydney University, in conjunction with the State Library of NSW, is proud to present: Europe Lecture 2019. Sexual violence is an essentially contested concept. Exploring the competing meanings of violence present formidable challenges, which increase in difficulty when explored historically. What do we find when analysing the different meanings attached to sexual violence in Europe from the nineteenth to mid-twentieth century? How did conceptions of such forms of violence change? Joanna Bourke is Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London and is a Fellow of the British Academy. She is a world-renowned scholar of the history of violence and of emotions, and author of over 10 books, including Fear: A Cultural History (Virago, 2005), Rape: A History from the 1860s to the Present (Virago, 2007), and The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers (Oxford University Press, 2014).