This volume brings together scholars from across disciplines and continents in order to continue to analyse, query, and deconstruct the complexities of bodily existence in the modern world. Comprising nine essays by leading and emerging scholars, and spanning issues ranging from literature, history, sociology, medicine, law and justice and beyond, Talking Bodies vol. II is a timely and prescient addition to the vital discussion of what bodies are, how we perceive them, and what they mean. As the essays of this volume demonstrate, it is imperative to question numerous established presumptions about both the manner by which our bodies perform their identities, and the processes by which their ownership can be impinged upon.

Bodie A. Ashton is a historian, lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Law at the Universität Passau in southern Bavaria, Germany. He is the author of The Kingdom of Württemberg and the Making of Germany, 1815-1871 (2017).

Amy Bonsall is a theatre director and academic. She is co-artistic director of Bilimankhwe, an intercultural theatre company, and a researcher at the University of Manchester's Science and Engineering Education Research and Innovation Hub. She is the founder and director of The Women in Academia Support Network #WIASN.

Jonathan Hay is completing a PhD at the University of Chester, UK. Their work has been published in a number of academic journals. Jonathan has presented conference papers internationally, and was shortlisted for the University of Cambridge’s Jane Martin Poetry Prize in 2017.