Jacqueline Rose discusses Women in Dark Times

Professor Jacqueline Rose, the Diane Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor for Michaelmas 2014, will be discussing her latest book Women in Dark Times at a free event at St John's College on Wednesday 3 December.

Professor Rose will be in conversation with Professor Juliet Mitchell, and the event will be chaired by Professor Ulinka Rublack.

Published in September by Bloomsbury, Women in Dark Times traces the struggles of women, past and present. Rose focuses firstly on three remarkable and influential women who have a shared story to tell: socialist Rosa Luxemburg, painter Charlotte Salomon, persecuted by family tragedy and Nazism, and film icon Marilyn Monroe. Rose then brings the work into the present, where she tackles the reality of honour killings by telling the stories of Shafilea Ahmed, Fadime Sahindal and Heshu Yones. In the final three chapters, Rose celebrates the work of three contemporary artists, Esther Shalev-Gerz, Yael Bartana and Thérèse Oulton, whose work is influenced by the darkness of the modern world.

Described as "pretty amazing" by Irvine Welsh, and by the Independent as providing "a valuable record of the ideologies and achievements of women whom society would rather have kept silent", Women in Dark Times demonstrates that there is still work to be done in the world of feminism, with Rose closing the book with the words "Women have been reasonable for far too long."

The event takes place at 5pm on 3 December in the Palmerston Room in the Fisher Building, and is open to all. There will be a wine reception upon arrival for the audience.