Zowie Davy is a PhD student in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CIGS) at the University of Leeds where she is also a teaching assistant. Zowie’s Research interests are situated in transgender studies, sociology and philosophy and centre on the medicalisation of 'deviant' genders, sexuality, citizenship, aesthetics and cosmetic surgery, queer, feminist and phenomenological methods. For the last 8 years she has been a member of the political group Press for Change and has taken up independent efforts which has included lobbying MPs awareness workshops disseminating ideas politics to the wider community including attending local community events such as legal forums healthcare forums. She also trained as a volunteer and did some work for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
Julia Downes is a PhD student based at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies at the University of Leeds. Her experiences as a DiY feminist cultural activist, research assistant and musician come together in her ESRC funded PhD which focuses on riot grrrl, contemporary queer feminist music communities and cultural activism in the UK. Julia has remained active in both her music and activist worlds throughout her research as a drummer in Fake Tan, co-founder of the Manifesta collective, drum tutor at Ladies Rock Camp, and co-organiser of Ladyfest Leeds 2007. She has delivered a variety of papers, fanzines and practical workshops within academic and non-academic spaces. She has recently published a chapter based on her oral history work of the riot grrrl movement 'Riot Grrrl: The legacy and contemporary landscape of feminist cultural activism' in Riot Grrrl: Revolution Grrrl Style Now (Black Dog Publishing).
Lena Eckert is a PhD candidate in Gender Studies at the University of Utrecht. Her main research interests are in queer theory, feminism, psychoanalysis, postcolonial studies, and post-anarchist theory. She has taught Gender Studies at Humboldt University of Berlin and at Leeds University and has given various talks at conferences but also in non-academic spaces. She is co-editor of the online journal “Liminalis. Journal for gender emancipation” and is cofounder and member of the scientific board of the transgender network Berlin (TGNB). Forthcoming publications in edited collections are Post-anarchism and the contrasexual practices of the cyborg in dildotopia and “Diagnosticism” - Three Cases of Medical Anthropological Research into Intersexuality.
Natalia Gerodetti is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Leeds Metropolitan University. She is the author of Modernising Sexualities: Towards a Socio-Historical Understanding of Sexualities in the Swiss Nation (Bern and Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005) and has published numerous articles on gender, sexuality, disability and eugenics originating from a four year research project on “The Social and Political Implications of Eugenics in Switzerland in a European Comparison” affiliated to the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her research interests are in the in the areas of gender and sexuality, identity, agency and politics, and their intersection with eugenics, reproductive politics in relation to theorising time and space.
Dario Llinares is completing a PhD at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CIGS) at the University of Leeds. He also teaches Media and Popular Culture at Leeds Metropolitan University. His research interests span the areas of Cultural studies, Film studies and Gender specifically focusing on postmodern masculinities, alternative media, European cinema, mythology and visual representation. His PhD thesis analyses various representations of the astronaut as a cultural exemplar which embodies notions of ‘idealised’ masculinity. He is also currently working on an article which questions the sanctioned narratives of gender, race and sexuality within critical responses to the BBC drama series Life on Mars
Ana Cristina Santos is a sociologist and a PhD student in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CIGS), University of Leeds (2004-2008). She has studied the Portuguese LGBT movement since 1998 and done research on sexualities, women’s rights and social movements in the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra – Portugal, having national and international publications on these topics. Alongside her activism in women’s and LGBT rights, she is currently a Research Fellow at the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research, University of London, working on intimate citizenship.
