Joanna Bourke (2022) | The Last Taboo

Festival of Dangerous Ideas

Our modern society is dependent on extraordinary levels of abuse and violence towards non-human animals. While we may love animals, we continue to interact with them in thoughtless, violent and cruel ways. We destroy their habitats, regulate their slaughter, farm and exploit them, and even in extreme circumstances, sexually abuse them.

Historian Joanna Bourke asks us how we can love and care for animals better?

Please note this session contains themes that may be sensitive to some listeners including depictions of animal abuse and bestiality.

Joanna Bourke is a historian, academic and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy. She is also the Gresham Professor of Rhetoric (London, 2019-2023). She is the Principal Investigator on a Wellcome Trust-funded project entitled SHaME (Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters). She is the prize-winning author of 14 books, as well as over 100 articles in academic journals.