Forthcoming books

Building a feminist nation: Scotland in the era of polycrisis

Edited by Kim Barker, Helen O’Shea and Talat Yaqoob

Building a feminist nation examines structural gender inequalities in Scotland, combining academic analysis with activist insight to inform policy, public debate and social change.

This edited collection brings together leading academics, activists and practitioners to set out a clear, evidence-based roadmap for building a feminist Scotland in an era of intersecting crises.

This book will be published open access under a CC BY-NC Licence.

Publication date: 27th August 2026

  • Kim Barker is Professor of Law at the University of Lincoln (UK). She is an internationally recognised expert on technology-facilitated violence against women (TFVAWG), and her work has informed parliamentary debates, international reports, policymaking, and legal developments in the UK, Europe, and internationally. She has advised a range of organisations including the Council of Europe, governments, tech companies and NGOs internationally on issues relating to TFVAWG, online violence, and platform regulation. Her research has been funded by RAi, ESRC, EPSRC and UKRI. Kim is an award-winning academic (Zero Tolerance 2020, AI Impact Awards 2026).   

    Helen O’Shea is a Senior Lecturer in History at the Open University in Scotland. Her research spans modern Irish, British and imperial history, including women’s workplace struggles. She has contributed to BBC–Open University productions and her work has been funded by major research councils. She is also interested in higher education policy, particularly access and support for under-represented learners. 

    Talat Yaqoob FRSE is an award-winning campaigner, writer and consultant working on women’s rights, anti-racism and intersectionality. She co-founded Women 50:50 and founded Pass the Mic. She has held leadership roles in equality organisations and served as co-chair of the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls. She is a frequent media commentator. 

  • Introduction – Building A Feminist Nation: Scotland in the Era of Polycrisis 

    Part I: Power, Inequality and the Limits of the Current System 

     1. The Unmet Potential of Devolution, Talat Yaqoob and Angela O’Hagan 

    2. Poverty and the Economy, Catherine Murphy 

    3. It’s Time to Create a Criminal Justice System Capable of Giving Justice to Women in Scotland, Miss M and Sandy Brindley

    4. Women InJustice, Toni Groundwater 

    Part II: Bodies, Care and the Everyday Feminist Struggle 

    5. Invisible Labour, Visible Consequences: Scotland’s Care Economy in Crisis, Carole Erskine, Helen O’Shea and Lynn Williams 

    6. Women, Social Spaces and the Built Environment, Thea Chambers

    7. Dismantling Gender Norms and Stereotypes, Jenni Snell and Muminah Koleoso 

    8. Healthcare: Fit for Purpose for Us All, Sigi Joseph, Kizanne James, Gwenetta Curry and Isioma Okolo 

    9. Women’s Reproductive Justice and Support, Lucy Grieve 

    Part III: Made in Scotland – Local, Global, Planetary, Digital Futures 

    10. Delivering Locally, Ruth Lightbody and Diane Delaney 

    11. Fighting Climate Change and the Patriarchy Together, Katie Swan-Nelson and Zarina Ahmad 

    12. Race, Migration and the Hostile Environment, Talat Yaqoob, Jen Ang and Fatma Elaraby 

    13. AI and Women in Scotland’s Future, Steph Wright 

    14. An Equally Digitally Safe Scotland, Kim Barker 

    Conclusion: Where Crises Meet Courage 

    Feminist Nation Checklist 

    Beyond The Book 

    Scotland in the Era of Polycrisis Book Club Questions 

Archaeological housework: Excavating the avocational archaeological atelier of Fiona Gorman, Isle of Arran, Scotland 

Nyree Finlay

Part excavation and part house clearance, this contemporary archaeological collection study documents the recovery of an unusual heritage assemblage. It involved the recording of domestic workrooms on the Isle of Arran, Scotland. Central to the analysis is the stratigraphy of a forgotten worktable and repurposed containers.

Belonging to Fiona Gorman, avocational archaeologist and former art teacher, the collection comprises an extensive assemblage of found objects. Along with friends she discovered significant new prehistoric sites on Arran through systematic field-walking and landscape reconnaissance. Other items in the collection reveal the convivial and inter-generational attraction of stone gathering with close friends and family and creation of museum displays.

A celebration of recreational heritage participation, it documents domestic curation and repeat cataloguing practices. A unique collection of later dementia works prompts exploration of earlier embodied traces in creative display practices alongside the art and archaeology of assemblage making. 

Archaeological housework promotes archaeology as affective care and explores the wider disciplinary neglect of its materialities and indoor practices through one woman’s passion for art, archaeology and the ancient landscapes of her island home.

This book will be published open access under a CC BY-NC Licence.

Publication date: Winter 2026/27

  • Nyree Finlay is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and convenor of the MSc Material Culture and Artefact Studies.

    Drawing on a background in Scottish and European prehistory, her research practice centres around lithics using experimental and recursive sensorial assemblage analysis to expose enduring engagements with lithic technologies, craft skill, and stone as mnemonic media.

    Other areas of research include gender, personhood, age, the lifecourse, gatherer-hunter archaeological sites and work realising various legacy excavation and collection projects. Current writing, exhibition and installation works includes new directions in the archaeologies of dementia, embodied care, creative knowledge practices and relational (re)collections.  

  • Acknowledgements 

    1. Introduction 

    2. Beginnings, people and place 

    3. Homework: recording an avocational atelier 

    4. Housework: Alt Beag

    5. Housework: Burnbank 

    6. The table

    7. Creative display

    8. Reassembling stone practices 

    9. The materiality of dementia 

    10. Coda: an ending of sorts 

    Glossary 

    References