Intersex Embodiment Book Launch

This event will celebrate the launch of the new book Intersex Embodiment: Legal Frameworks Beyond Identity and Disorder by Fae Garland and Mitchell Travis.

The book is being published by Bristol University Press. You can pre order it here: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/intersex-embodiment

Intersex Embodiment examines the divergent medical, political and legal constructions of intersex. The authors use empirical data to explore how intersex people are embodied through these frameworks which in turn influence their lived experiences.

Through their analysis, the authors reveal the factors that motivate and influence the way in which policy makers and legislators approach the area of intersex rights. They reflect on the limitations of law as the primary vehicle in challenging healthcare’s framing of intersex as a ‘disorder’ in need of fixing. Finally, they offer a more holistic account of intersex justice which is underpinned by psychosocial support and bodily integrity.

The event will feature a talk from Fae Garland and Mitchell Travis followed by discussion of the book from David Griffiths (University of Sussex), Sean Saifa Wall (University of Huddersfield, Intersex Justice), Aileen Kennedy (University of New England, Intersex Human Rights Australia) and Valentino Vecchietti (IERUK). This discussion promises to cover a broad range of interdisciplinary insights including the sociology and history of medicine, activism and law.

The event will be followed by a wine reception sponsored by the University of Manchester Law School.

Bios

Fae Garland is the Co-Director for the Manchester Centre of Regulation, Governance and Public Law. She is the co-author of Intersex Embodiment: Legal Frameworks Beyond Identity and Disorder (2022, Bristol University Press). Her research examines the impact of legal regulation on the lived experience of intersex people. She has co-authored national and international governmental reports that explore intersex rights and law and has also led several empirical projects in this area. Most recently, she has been awarded funding by the British Academy (with Dr Travis) to examine the operation of Maltese legislation which prohibits deferrable surgeries on minors with variations in sex characteristics.

Mitchell Travis is the Director of the Centre for Law and Social Justice at the University of Leeds. He is the co-author of Intersex Embodiment: Legal Frameworks Beyond Identity and Disorder (2022, Bristol University Press), The co-editor of A Jurisprudence of the Body (2020, Palgrave) and has co-edited special issues of Law, Technology and Humans (2022) and Culture, Health and Sexuality (2021). Mitchell has also published widely in such journals as Legal Studies, Law and Society and Social and Legal Studies.

David Andrew Griffiths is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey. He gained his BA in English Literature as well as his MA and PhD in Critical and Cultural Theory from Cardiff University. His research brings together gender and sexuality studies, feminist science studies, and cultural histories of medicine and health. He has published research on the recent and

contemporary history of intersex in Britain in leading journals including GLQ, Social Studies of Science and Sexualities.

Sean Saifa Wall (he/him/his) is a Black queer intersex activist and rising scholar. He is a Marie Skłowdoska-Curie fellow examining the erasure of intersex people from social policy in Ireland and England at the University of Huddersfield in England (intersexnew.co.uk). Saifa is also committed to racial equity and a radical vision of bodily autonomy for intersex folks. As co-founder of the Intersex Justice Project (intersexjusticeproject.org), a grassroots initiative by intersex people of color, he is determined to end harmful genital interventions on intersex children and advocate for affirming healthcare for all people with intersex variations.

Valentino Vecchietti is a multi-award winning intersex equality rights campaigner who founded Intersex Equality Rights UK (IERUK). They are also a writer, consultant, and journalist (including a regular column for Diva magazine). Valentino was the designer of the intersex-inclusive Pride flag.

Aileen Kennedy is a lecturer at the University of New England, Australia. Her research is in the area of health law, and she researches and writes from a feminist perspective. She is interested in law and medicine’s contribution to how sex and gender are constructed and regulated. She is committed to supporting human rights for intersex people, in the face of ongoing medicalisation and unnecessary medical interventions. She is a Board Member of Intersex Human Rights Australia.

Host or Publisher Fae Garland