Currently a member of the PhD supervisory teams of Senel Wanniarachchi and Rawda Elaskary.

Considering Emma Goldman: Feminist Political Ambivalence and the Historical Imagination by Clare Hemmings (2018)

In Considering Emma Goldman Clare Hemmings examines the significance of the anarchist activist and thinker for contemporary feminist politics. Rather than attempting to resolve the tensions and problems that Goldman's thinking about race, gender, and sexuality pose for feminist thought, Hemmings embraces them, finding them to be helpful in formulating a new queer feminist praxis. Mining three overlapping archives—Goldman's own writings, her historical and theoretical legacy, and an imaginative archive that responds creatively to gaps in those archives —Hemmings shows how serious engagement with Goldman's political ambivalences opens up larger questions surrounding feminist historiography, affect, fantasy, and knowledge production. Moreover, she explores her personal affinity for Goldman to illuminate the role that affective investment plays in shaping feminist storytelling. By considering Goldman in all her contradictions and complexity, Hemmings presents a queer feminist response to the ambivalences that also saturate contemporary queer feminist race theories.

 

Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory by Clare Hemmings (2011)

A powerful critique of the stories that feminists tell about the past four decades of Western feminist theory. Clare Hemmings examines the narratives that make up feminist accounts of recent feminist history, highlights the ethical and political dilemmas raised by these narratives, and offers innovative strategies for transforming them. Winner of the Feminist and Women's Studies Association (FWSA) Book Prize 2012.

Read a review of the book by Karen J Leader: Why Stories Matter.

 

Bisexual Spaces: a Geography of Sexuality and Gender by Clare Hemmings (2002)

Armed with theoretical agility, experiences personal and political, feminist and queer commitments, and an unflinching skepticism, Clare Hemmings wanders through the multiple spaces of bisexuality-geographical, theoretical, political, and cultural. Her report from these fronts is keen and challenging, a welcome addition to the development of critical bisexual theory, and to gender and sexuality studies more generally.

 

Books, Edited Collections and Special Issues:

• Co-editor with Itana Eloit, 'Haunting Feminism: Encounters with Lesbian Ghosts', Feminist Theory 20. 4, December 2019
• Considering Emma Goldman: Feminist Political Ambivalence and the Historical Imagination (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2018)
• Revolutions, Feminist Review, Issue 106 (eds) Rutvica Andrijasevic, Carrie Hamilton and Clare Hemmings (2014)
• Co-editor with Mary Evans, Marsha Henry, Hazel Johnstone, Sumi Madhok, Ania Plomien and Sadie Wearing, Handbook of Feminist Theory (London: Sage, 2014)
• Co-editor with Rutvica Andrijasevic and Carrie Hamilton, ‘Revolutions’, Feminist Review, Issue 106, 2014.
• Why Stories Matter: the Political Grammar of Feminist Theory (Duke University Press, 2011)
• Editor, 'Transforming Academies', Feminist Review, Issue 95, 2010
• With Veronica Vasterling, Enikő Demény, Ulla Holm, Päivi Korvajärvi and Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou, Practising Interdisciplinarity in Gender Studies (York: Raw Nerve Press, 2006)
• Co-editor, Travelling Concepts in Feminist Pedagogy: European Perspectives (York: Raw Nerve Press, 2006). [series of 4 texts and website]
• Co-editor, 'Sexual Moralities', Feminist Review, Issue 83, 2006.
• Co-editor, 'Everyday Struggling', Feminist Review, Issue 82, 2006.
• Bisexual Spaces: a Geography of Gender and Sexuality (New York: Routledge, 2002).
• Guest editor, 'Stretching Queer Boundaries', Sexualities, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 1999.
• Co-editor, Bi Academic Intervention, ed., The Bisexual Imaginary: Desire, Representation, Identity (London: Cassell, 1997)

 

Recent Journal Articles:

• “We thought she was a witch”: Gender, class and whiteness in the familial “memory archive.” Memory Studies, 16(2), 2022:  https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980211066578
• “But I thought we’d already won that argument!”: “Anti-gender” Mobilizations, Affect, and Temporality. Feminist Studies, 48(3), 2022: 594–615. https://doi.org/10.1353/fem.2022.0042
• ‘Unnatural Feelings: the Affective Life of “Anti-Gender” Mobilisations’, Radical Philosophy, 2.09 (Winter 2021): 27-40. 
• ‘When M. Mitterrand was a Faggot: Reading Ignorance and Pleasure in Eve Sedgwick’s “Axiomatic”’, Special Issue ’1990 at 30’, Post45, May 2020, http://post45.org/sections/contemporaries/1990-at-30/  
• ‘A Feminist Politics of Ambivalence: Reading with Emma Goldman’, keynote published in Revista Estudos Feministas in English and Portuguese (translation) and English (2018):
• https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ref/author/submission/58564 
• 'Resisting Popular Feminisms: Gender, Sexuality and the Lure of the Modern', Gender Place and Culture, special issue 'Ungendering Europe', Vol. 25, No. 7, 2018: 963-977
• 'Is 'Gender Studies' Singular? Stories of Queer/Feminist Difference and Displacement', Differences, special issue 'Le Printemps International du Genre', Vol. 27, No. 2, 2016: 79-102
• ‘Sexual Freedom and the Promise of Revolution: Emma Goldman’s Passion’, Special Issue: ‘Revolutions’, Feminist Review, No. 106, 2014.
• 'The Materials of Reparation', Feminist Theory, Vol. 15, No.1, 2014, pp. 27-30.
• 'Considering Emma', European Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 20, No.4, 2013, pp. 334-346.
• ‘In the Mood for Revolution: Emma Goldman’s Passion’, Special Issue: ‘In the Mood’, New Literary History, No. 43, 2012, pp. 527-545.
• ‘Affective Solidarity: Feminist Reflexivity and Political Transformation’, Special Issue: 'Affecting Feminism: Questions of Feeling in Feminist Theory’, Feminist Theory, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2012, pp.147-161.
• ‘Sexuality, Subjectivity and… Political Economy?‘ Subjectivity, Vol 5, No. 2, 2012: pp.121-139; to be reprinted in Handbook of Feminist Theory (also Sage, 2013)
• ‘Collective Powers: Rupture and Displacement in Feminist Pedagogic Practice’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3, 2011: pp.4-10.
• 'Tuning Problems? Notes on Women's and Gender Studies and the Bologna Process ', European Journal of Women's Studies, Vol 15, No. 2, 2008: 117-127.
• 'What's in a Name? Bisexuality, Transnational Sexuality Studies and Western Colonial Legacies', International Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 11 Nos.1/2 March 2007, pp. 13-32.
• 'Rescuing Lesbian Camp', Special Issue: 'Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies', Journal of Lesbian Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1/2, 2007, pp. 175-182.
• 'What is a Feminist Theorist Responsible for?: Reply to Torr', Feminist Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2007, pp. 69-76.
• 'Invoking Affect: Cultural Theory and the Ontological Turn', Cultural Studies, Vol. 19, No. 5, 2005, pp. 548-567.
• 'Telling Feminist Stories', Feminist Theory, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2005 pp.115-139.

 

Chapters in Books:

• 'Affect and Methodology: Or, What does it Mean to be Moved?', in Frederick Tygstrup and Devika Sharma, eds Structures of Feeling: Affectivity and the Study of Culture (de Greuter, 2015), pp. 147-158
• With Amal Treacher, 'Feminist History and the Subject of Agency', for Sumi Madhok, Anne Phillips and Kalpana Wilson, eds, Agency and Coercion (Palgrave MacMillian, 2013).
• 'Crossings', in Mary Evans and Kathy Davis, eds, Transatlantic Conversations: Feminism as Traveling Theory (Ashgate, 2010).
• 'The Life and Times of Academic Feminism: Checking the Vital Signs of Women's and Gender Studies', in Kathy Davis and Mary Evans, eds, The Handbook of Women's and Gender Studies (London: Sage, 2006), pp.14-34, reprinted in A. Honing, ed Travelling Heritages (Amsterdam: IIAV, 2008), pp. 263-284.

 

International Keynote Lectures

• 'Unnatural Feelings: the Space and Time of 'Anti-Gender' Discourse', EJWS conference, University of Uppsala, Sweden, February 2019.
• 'Writing Absence: Sexual Politics and the Speculative', Writing Wrongs: Contemporary Women's Writing Association Conference, University of Newcastle, September 2018.
• 'A Feminist Politics of Ambivalence', Women, Art and Feminism, National Gallery of Victoria, University of Melbourne, Australia, February 2018.
• 'Utopian Feminist Methodology', Feminist Utopias: Past, Present, and Imagined, ANU, Canberra, Australia, September 2017.
• 'Telling Feminist Stories about Nationalism: Transnational Lessons from Europe', 13th Women's Worlds Congress, University of Florianopolis, Brazil, August 2017.
• 'Feminist Articulations: Narratives of Gender in a New Feminist Landscape', Destroying the Joint: Australian Women's and Gender Studies National Conference, Brisbane, Australia, July 2016.
• 'Narrating Feminism: Sexual Politics and Universal Feminism', International Conference on Narrative, University of Amsterdam, June 2016.
• 'Is Gender Studies Singular? Epistemologies of Queer/Feminist Difference', Timelines of Academic Feminism conference, University of Turku, Finland, April 2016.
• ‘Telling Feminist Stories about “Gender”’, Gender Studies 20th Anniversary Conference, University of Lisbon, Portugal, October 2015.
• ‘A Longing For Letters: Writing the Impossible as Queer Feminist Method’, Writing Affect, Humboldt University, Berlin, July 2015.
• ‘Why Stories (Still) Matter: Institutionalising Feminism In and Out of the Academy’, Akademischer Feminismus. Produktion und Transfer von Genderwissen conference, University of Freiberg, February 2015.
• ‘Is Gender Studies Singular?, 40th Anniversary Celebration Conference, Centre de Genre, Paris 8, France, May 2014.
• ‘Feminist Historiography for Our Times’, keynote, Gender and Politics, Annual Gender Research Conference Copenhagen, April 2013.
• ‘Feeling Judgment’, keynote, Feminist Judgment Conference, LSE, May 2012.
• ‘Desiring the Past, Inhabiting the Present’, keynote, 8th European Feminist Research Conference, Budapest, May 2012.

I have two main areas of research focus – feminist theory and sexuality studies – and am particularly interested in thinking through the relationship between these, as well as the ways in which both fields have been institutionalized at national and international levels. This interest has led me to think about how participants in these fields tell stories about their history as well as current form, and to explore how such stories resonate with (rather than against) the broader take-up of feminism and gender equality. I am particularly concerned with the ways in which ideas travel (or do not) across geographical and temporal borders, and am increasingly interested in experimenting with different forms as well as theories of intervention.

Why Stories Matter: The Political Grammar of Feminist Theory was published by Duke University Press in 2011. It explores how feminists tell stories about feminist theory's recent past, why these stories matter and what we can do to transform them. Challenging the frequent assumption that take-up of feminist narratives for conservative agendas is a lamentable co-optation, I suggest that the form of feminist stories produces such amenability. The part of this work that I like the most, though, is where I seek to intervene in these stories, to realign their political grammar to allow a different vision of a feminist past, present and future. This pleasure is partly because it best reflects my interdisciplinary background in literary criticism as well as sociology. Why Stories Matter won the FWSA (Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK and Ireland) Book Award in 2012, and I continue to lecture on its main themes. 

I have just completed a monograph 'Considering Emma Goldman: Feminist Politics of Ambivalence', published by Duke University Press in October 2017. The book considers the significance of the work and life of the anarchist activist Emma Goldman (1869-1940) for contemporary feminist theory and politics. An archive-based project, I initially wanted to continue the work in Why Stories Matter to explore a new way of telling a different set of stories about feminism’s present: ones that do not rely on identity, do not separate sexuality and economics, and have long been internationalist. But in the course of my research I realized that I am at least as interested in the strands we would prefer to leave behind in Goldman’s thinking: her essentialism, her viciousness to women (and men), and her vexed relationship to race politics. Attention to these aspects of her thought interrupt contemporary feminist thought in rather different ways, and suggest a feminist politics that addresses directly some of the difficulties – of femininity, race and the human – that I believe need urgent attention. The project returns me to my literary theory roots in a different way to the 2011 project, insofar as it includes a creative letter-writing project that seeks to animate and intervene in the sexual archive.

Clare is on leave during Autumn Term 2024-25

• GI429 Archival Interventions: Feminist, Queer and Decolonial Approaches