The renowned historian is the 8th distinguished speaker in the Annual Edmund Burke Lecture series, which is hosted by the Trinity Long Room Hub and celebrates Trinity’s strong connection to the 18th-century philosopher, historian and politician Edmund Burke.
Burke’s “dedication to the moral codes that underpin social order and inform behaviour remain as central to our world today as they did in his time”, said Professor Bourke, who joins the ranks of previous speakers in the series including Michael Ignatieff, Mary McAleese, Roy Foster, and Robert Fisk.
In a captivating and provocative talk, Professor Bourke addressed the subject of her forthcoming book Evil Women. “I hope to convince you that viewing women through the lens of history, law, medicine and politics can reveal interesting things about the very nature of evil itself in post-religious and a post-revolutionary age.”
The history of evil can be traced back to the very beginnings of human cultures, but a “special place” is reserved for women in this “circle of hell”, said Professor Bourke.
Her lecture featured several criminal cases “of huge notoriety” throughout modern history, including that of Aileen Wuornos (portrayed by Charlize Theron in the 2003 film Monster), English serial killer Rose West, and Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. She highlighted how the medical field, the legal profession, and the wider political system sought to interpret these acts of proclaimed “evil”, particularly in cases of sexual violence perpetrated by women.
Speaking to the Irish Times columnist Joe Humphreys in advance of her lecture, Professor Bourke said “If women do these particularly horrendous crimes it’s seen as somehow much worse than when men do it, that it’s much more difficult to explain.”
In her lecture, she suggested that “evil men somehow are more easily understood than their female counterparts”, while attendees heard how “considerable intellectual energy was invested in trying to explain why female offenders had been invisible for so long.”
Professor Joanna Bourke is Professor Emerita of History at Birkbeck, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy. She is also the Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College. She is the prize-winning author of fifteen books, as well as over 120 articles in academic journals. In 2022, Reaktion Books published Disgrace: Global Reflections on Sexual Violence and some earlier works include An Intimate History of Killing, The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers and Fear: A Cultural History
Director of the Trinity Long Room Hub, Professor Eve Patten spoke about the significance and impact of Professor Bourke’s scholarship across literature, ethics, philosophy, language and psychology but described her above all as “a historian distinguished by her ability to give voice to others”.
Professor Bourke’s earlier work also focused on the history of women in Ireland. In 1993 she published Housewifery: Women, Economic Change and Housework in Ireland, 1890-1914. During her talk, she remembered fondly her experience at Trinity College as a visiting scholar which she said was “transformative” for her career.
More about the annual the Annual Edmund Burke Lectures:
Edmund Burke (1729-1797) graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1748. As a student he founded what would later become the College Historical Society, the oldest student society in the world. Burke entered Parliament in 1765 and quickly became a champion for political emancipation. After 1789, he directed his attention to the French Revolution and its immediate ramifications for political stability in England.
One of Burke’s central and life-long concerns was what moral codes should underpin the social order, constrain the use of power and inform our behaviour as responsible citizens. The Edmund Burke lectures provide a prominent forum for contributing in his spirit to the wider discourse about what society we want to live in and what traditions, perspectives and values we need to draw on in the shaping of our future.
Previous lectures in the series were delivered by historian and author Professor Michael Ignatieff; former President of Ireland, Professor Mary McAleese; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon; distinguished historian Margaret MacMillan; award winning writer and journalist, Robert Fisk; Professor Roy Foster, Chair of Irish History, University of Oxford and Baroness Onora O’Neill, former chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The lecture series is supported the Fallon family in honour of Trinity graduate Padraic Fallon (1946-2012).