Nancy K. Miller and Margaretta Jolly in conversation; with Hope Wolf as respondent

Wed 12 February 2020
4-6 pm, followed by drinks and nibbles
Free, all welcome, no need to book
University of Sussex
Room: Fulton G15

What can we learn from the history of women’s friendship in and outside women’s movements and how should we listen to the intimate voices of feminist activists? Join us for reading and debate with Margaretta Jolly, drawing on her new book Sisterhood and After: An Oral History of the UK Women’s Liberation Movement, 1968-present, in conversation with Nancy K. Miller, author of My Brilliant Friends: Our Lives in Feminism, the story of three friendships with women that changed her life, beginning in the 1970s: Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor. Dr Hope Wolf, life writing critic, will respond. 

Speaker biographies:

Professor Nancy K. Miller is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including Breathless: An American Girl in Paris (2013), a memoir of her years living an expatriate dream in 1960s Paris. Miller lectures widely, both nationally and internationally, and her work is anthologized in popular volumes on feminism and life writing. In 1983 she co-founded the Gender and Culture Series at Columbia University Press with the late Carolyn Heilbrun, and since 2004 coedits the series with Victoria Rosner. 

Professor Margaretta Jolly, from the School of Media, Film and Music at the University of Sussex, is  also director of the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research. She is author of In Love and  Struggle: Letters in Contemporary Feminism (2008). Working with the British Library, Margaretta  directed Sisterhood and After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project. She currently leads The  Business of Women’s Words: Purpose and Profit in Feminist Publishing, again partnered with the  British Library.

Dr Hope Wolf, from the School of English at the University of Sussex, is Associate Director of the  Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research. She is a specialist in autobiography and biography as forms of critical and creative practice, and is researching the joint-biography of the surrealist and psychoanalytic couple Grace Pailthorpe and Reuben Mednikoff.