Feminism: Casting The Net Wide
Channel: British Library
Date: 2021-06-02

Feminism is the focus of the British Library’s acclaimed current exhibition Unfinished Business: the Fight for Women’s Rights, and it is the inspiration for a new Penguin anthology of writing. Its editor Hannah Dawson brings together voices from the treasure trove of the book, to reflect on the vast scale of global feminism.

Hannah Dawson is a historian of ideas at King’s College London, and a regular contributor to television, radio and festivals. She wrote books on Hobbes and Locke until her consciousness was raised.

Lucy Delap teaches history at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of Murray Edwards College. Her work includes the prize-winning The Feminist Avant-Garde: Transatlantic Encounters of the early twentieth century (2007) and Feminisms: a global history (2020).

Fatemeh Shams is a poet in exile and professor of Modern Persian literature at University of Pennsylvania and her poetry features in Mirror of My Heart: One Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women (2021) and The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing (2021)

Pratibha Parmar is a renowned writer, filmmaker, and human rights activist. She was on the BBC’s 2016 list of 100 inspirational and influential women and is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Vivi Diwantesa is a graduate of WAC Arts, where she was taught by Chè Walker, Indra Ove and Daniele Lydon. She performed alongside Anita Rani in An Amazon Stept Out at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. Her dance credits include Wembley Stadium and the Excel Centre.

Mei Mei Macleod was raised in Beijing and graduated this year from Drama Centre London’s MA Acting course. . She has worked with Yellow Earth Theatre, and Pigfoot Theatre, the UK's first carbon neutral theatre company.