In her lecture entitled: ‘Decolonising sexual violence: Erotic transformation as revolutionary politics’ Dr Russell sought to investigate the theoretical steps necessary to support a revolutionary agenda to end sexual violence.   She argued that if we are truly interested in erotic transformation as a way to both end sexual violence and to think desire and affectivity otherwise, we must engage in this work as a component of thinking revolutionary change more broadly.  Drawing on the work of indigenous Māori feminist scholars, Dr Russell claimed that feminist anti-rape scholarship must look beyond the act of rape as its point of departure for resisting praxis and instead orientate itself around radical ontologies of sexuate being that offer an alternative to those through which rape culture currently proliferates.  You can read more about Dr Russell’s work in this area here and in a paper forthcoming next year in the journal Signs. 

Linda Martín Alcoff, Professor of Philosophy at City University New York, delivered the workshop’s other keynote on the limits to the concept of consent and workshop participants heard presentations over two-days on a variety of topics, including: rape law reform, anti-rape activism, and consent in history.

Commenting on the workshop Dr Russell said: “It was a great privilege to meet with and speak to so many fantastic scholars, activists and lawyers whose work, primarily in Australia, is having such a big impact on the field more broadly.  My own work has great resonance with the important research currently being done by Aboriginal and First Nations scholars and activists to address the legacy and ongoing reality of colonialism and sexual violence in Australia.”