The Gender and Sexuality Collection is a valuable resource for university librarians, researchers, and teaching staff. This collection delves into themes such as domesticity, education, work, sexuality, representation, religion, mental health, activism and motherhood. By surveying gender identity and sexuality from diverse perspectives, it raises critical questions about gender roles, feminist theory and heteronormativity. Covering a broad historical range from the medieval period to the present day, this collection is indispensable for those engaged in gender and sexuality studies.
| Key series |
| Gender in History |
| Rethinking Art’s Histories |
| Studies in Imperialism |
| Theory for a Global Age |
| Women, Theatre and Performance |
| Collection year | Titles |
| 2025 titles | 7 |
| 2023/4 titles | 12 |
| 2004-2022 titles | 89 |
| Total collection | 128 |
| Keywords |
| Domesticity |
| Education |
| Work |
| Nature |
| Sexuality |
| Heteronormativity |
| Representation |
| Religion |
| Global South |
| Mental health |
| Motherhood |
| Gender roles |
| Activism |
| Feminism |
| Beauty |
| Thema subject categories |
| Colonialism and imperialism |
| History |
| Economics |
| Politics and government |
| The Arts |
| Feminism and feminist theory |
| Film history, theory or criticism |
| Gender studies, gender groups |
| History of religion |
| LGBTQ+ Studies / topics |
SDG coverage
Gender and sexuality collection
This chapter analyses politics and areas of inclusionary/exclusionary practices in reproductive healthcare – in particular assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) experienced by recent Polish migrant women in Berlin and Oslo. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork, conducted among Polish female migrants. First, it discusses reproductive politics in Poland in relation to ARTs and discourses on migration, depopulation, and reproduction. Migration from Poland often leads to improvement in reproductive rights because migrants gain access to programmes which are not (or are less) available in present-day Poland. Second, it analyses whether access to ARTs abroad is easy, what migrating Polish women think about ART reproduction, and whether they are aware of and influenced by the discourse on moral governmentality enforced by the Catholic church and conservative groups in Poland. It argues that increasing mobility and transnational lifestyle may result in challenges over access to local healthcare systems but also create new solutions. The experiences of a few women (and couples) show that there are aspects of power and agency in both inclusionary and exclusionary situations of regulating human bodies in the sphere of reproduction. Therefore, migration leads to dynamic situations, ambiguities, and constraints in gendered reproductive rights and related ideologies.
‘Gender ideology’, an umbrella term covering sex education, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and gender mainstreaming, figures at the heart of various political conflicts in Poland (and throughout Central Europe) and is presented as the major threat to the nation. Political analysts assert that the attack on ‘gender ideology’ contributed significantly to the electoral victory of the radical right in Poland, in 2015. This chapter traces the historical roots of the current attack on ‘gender ideology’ and argues that it had already started by the mid-1980s when the Communist Party, hoping to win the battle over young’s people hearts against the Catholic church, published a progressive sex education handbook to be used in all Polish high schools. The publication ignited a heated debate: reviewers called it ‘the handbook of masturbation and defloration’ and warned about its demoralising effects. Conservative critics explicitly equated sexuality and gender with issues of national belonging, mobilising opposition around these concepts. This chapter argues that it was at this moment in the 1980s when current conservative thinking about gender and sexuality vis-à -vis the nation was born and shows that recent neo-conservative approaches towards gender and sexuality have in fact been forged over the last three decades.
The ultras style of football fandom emerged in 1960s Italy and has spread across Europe and the Mediterranean, to North America and Asia. This is not a history of the ultras, but an analysis of the way history has been used and incorporated into the ultras’ performance. History is an important foundation of ultras groups. It can act as an ‘invented tradition’ where ultras integrate historical narratives of their club, city and nation to present themselves to others. This chapter illustrates some of the many ways in which history has been incorporated into the development of the ultras style.
Football fandom is an important area of research that covers a wide range of activities, people and places around the world. This chapter introduces the ultras style of fandom and situates it within the wider academic literature on football fandom. It highlights how fandom meets in the broader public sphere and engages politically within the wider politico-economic changes in football, and wider social world. Within the football stadium, there is a performance of fans’ identities which helps generate and sustain their emotions. Significantly, fandom is emotionally charged and this fuels the ultras’ engagement in the sport, but also their interactions, relationships and sense of individual and collective self.
Football is an emotional game. Emotions are not restricted to the agony and ecstasy of victory or defeat, but the warmth of friendships and relationships built through engaging with other fans and clubs. Emotions are a primary constituent of social life and how we build relationships, yet they have been absent from the analysis of football fandom. The ultras’ performance helps generate the emotional atmosphere at matches and this sustains the emotional engagement with their club. It builds solidarity, motivates conflict and links individuals to the collective behaviour of the stadium. This emotional engagement also acts as the driver for political mobilisation around issues that affect their club, the sport or the groups.
The ultras’ performance is not restricted to ninety minutes at the weekend. It lives through regular interactions throughout the week through the traditional media, conversations and social media. The last of these has become an important public sphere where the way fans and ultras should act or react are debated and discussed. Social media is an important site of the ultras’ performance as the visual style permits groups to create a lasting image of themselves that extends far beyond the stadium and can be spread across the world.
The ultras reflect a paradox in contemporary football. On the one hand, increasingly commercial clubs enjoy the passion, colour and spectacle that the ultras provide through their performances and this helps market their clubs. On the other, clubs and authorities seek to regulate certain aspects of ultras’ behaviour, including violence, anti-social chanting, use of pyrotechnics and anything that challenges their power. This conflict unifies and emotionally sustains the ultras and provides a critical focus for their activities. These emotions fuel the politics of the social movement of Against Modern Football. In effect, it creates what Albert Camus called a ‘fatal embrace’ where both sides are incapable of uniting and are willing to fight until the end.
Since their emergence in Italy in 1968, ultras have become the most dominant style of football fandom in the world. Since its inception, the ultras style has spread from Southern Europe across North Africa to Northern and Eastern Europe, South East Asia and North America. This book argues that ultras are an important site of enquiry into understanding contemporary society. They are a passionate, politically engaged collective that base their identity around a form of consumption (football) that links to modern notions of identity like masculinity and nationalism. The book seeks to make a clear theoretical shift in studies of football fandom. While it sits in the body of literature focused on political mobilisations, social movements and hooliganism, it emphasises more fundamental sociological questions about group formation, notably collective performances and emotional relationships. By focusing on the common form of expression through the performance of choreographies, chants and sustained support throughout the match, this book shows how members build an emotional attachment to their club that valorises the colours and symbols of that team, whilst mobilising members against opponents. It does this through recognising the importance of gender, politics and violence to the expression of ultras fandom, as well as how this is presented on social media and within the stadium through specular choreographies.
Ultras grew out of a politically turbulent time in Italian history: the politics of the piazza were taken into the stadium. While some ultras groups retain some ideologically political outlooks, many consider themselves apolitical. Despite this, many still see themselves as nationalist, reflecting the normalcy of the nation-state. Often these descend into racism as groups assert the desired image of their club, nation or region. Few ultras groups follow explicitly ideological politics of left or right. Yet all groups are engaged in football politics and challenging the increased regulation, restriction and criminalisation of many of their activities. This is collected under the banner of ‘Against Modern Football’, which acts as a unifying element of the ultras style. Consequently, the ultras can be considered one of the largest social movements in the world.
Football fandom has historically been dominated by men. The ultras style, in particular, becomes a site of hegemonic masculinity where participants perform their understandings of gender. Many performances are explicitly masculine, incorporating defence of territory, status, physical and sexual dominance, and violence. These are symbolised in images of warriors, valorised transgressive acts, or images of fraternal solidarity. Each communicates that there is one type of (hegemonic) masculinity that encapsulates the group, in comparison to their feminised rivals. Yet there is nothing explicitly masculine about fandom. Female ultras participate in the rituals, yet also have to navigate the explicit masculinity on display.