Elena Loizidou
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Elena joined the School of Law in January 2000 and was promoted to Reader in Law and Political theory in 2014. From 1995-1999 she was a lecturer at Lancaster University. She holds a PhD from Lancaster University. She has recently been elected to the role of Academic Governor for the period 2020-23. She is one of the founding members of the Association of Critical Legal Scholars.
She has been a member of the steering committee of Birkbeck Institute of Gender and Sexuality since 2009 and a member of the steering committee Birkbeck Institute of Humanities (20010-14 and 2018-to present).
She was the School's REF lead until September 2023 and is the Chair of School's REF Working Group and the School's REF Panel and a member of the School's Research Committee. She was a member of the College's REF working Party and School Research Committee. From May 2022- July 2023 she was Assistant Dean for Law.
Her research holds a sustain interest in critical theory and more particularly in the inter-relation between law, ethics and politics . In Judith Butler:Ethics, Law, Politics (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2007) she explored the legal ethical and political dimensions in Judith Butler's philosophical writings. Her current research focuses of anarchism and her forthcoming book Anarchism the art of living without law (forthcoming Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2021) explores how self-managed associations can exist without legal frameworks. She is on the editorial board of the critical legal journal Law and Critique and Counterpress served on the editorial board of Australian Feminist Law Journal. She serves as a certified expert for the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I).
Highlights
<top>https://www.routledge.com/Judith-Butler-Ethics-Law-Politics/Loizidou/p/book/9780415420419
The first to use Judith Butler’s work as a reading of how the legal subject is formed, this book traces how Butler comes to the themes of ethics, law and politics analyzing their interrelation and explaining how they relate to Butler’s question of how people can have more liveable and viable lives.
Anarchism an Art of Living without Law
The book draws on archival material that records the life and actions of the anarchist Emma Goldman and her associates, legal documents and writings by classical (Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Peter Krotopkin) and contemporary anarchists (David Graeber, Saul Newman, Ciarra Bottici), as well as contemporary groups such as the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army and Occupy Wall Street. By studying the idiosyncrasies of this art of life, it argues, we are better able to appreciate how anarchism is not some future utopian oriented project, waiting to come into existence after a revolution, but rather exists in parallel to the life and politics offered by the State.
<bottom>https://www.routledge.com/Disobedience-Concept-and-Practice/Loizidou/p/book/9781138924598
An edited collection that explores the concept and practice of disobedience through the prism of contemporary ideas and events.
Office hours
Wednesday 5-6 or by appointment through email: e.loizidou@bbk.ac.uk .
Qualifications
- BA Law and Politics, University of Keele, 1991
- LLM Legal Discourse, Lancaster University, 1992
- PhD 'The Legal Regulation of In-sanity', Lancaster University, 1996
Web profiles
Administrative responsibilities
- School REF2021 Lead
- Assistant Dean for Law (2022-23)
- Chair of School's REF2021 Panel and School's REF2021 Working Group
- Member of the School's Research Committee
- Member of College REF2021 Working Group Committee
- Member of College Research Committee
- School Representative to Birkbeck Institute of Humanities Steering Committee
Visiting posts
- Visiting Fellow, Centre for the study of Social Difference Columbia University, 08-2013
Professional activities
Elena is a member of the editorial board critical legal journal Law and Critique and Counterpress. She regularly reviews articles for the following journals:Law and Critique, Law Culture and Humanities,Feminist Legal Studies, Australian Feminist Law Journal and Law and Humanities and book proposals for Routledge and Polity Press. She examined doctorates at the LSE, Queens Belfast University, Kent University, the University of Pretoria, Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths College. She assessed promotions applications for Goldsmiths College and acted as grants assessor for the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation.
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Research
Research
Research interests
- Anarchism and Law
- Judith Butler studies
- Political theory and law
- Gender & Sexuality theory and Criminal law
- Critica Legal Theory
Research overview
Elena has a sustain interest in critical theory, critical legal theory and political theory. Whether she is writing about law and film as in Law's Moving Image, about the philosophy of Judith Butler or anarchist political thought, she is committed in thinking about how we can address current legal and political inequalities, and whether it is possible to have societies at a distance of the state and without being framed by law and they could deliver to us the worlds that we deserve. In her recent book on Anarchism she explores some of the ways that his may be possible. Some of her ideas about anarchism appeared in episode 1 of Jeffrey Grossman's (NYT journalist) serialisation of the life of the anarchist Emma Goldman. She is currently thinking about
Elena is an elected member of the organizing committee of the Law Culture and Humanities Association (2023-6).
Research Centres and Institutes
- Member of the steering committee, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities
- Steering Committee Member, Birkbeck Institute for Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Member, Centre for Law and the Humanities
- Visiting Fellow, Centre for the study of Social Difference Columbia University
Research clusters and groups
- Member , Law and Humanities
- Member, Critical Legal and Criminological Theory
- Member, Race, Gender and Culture
- Member, Regulation, Risk and Surveillance
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I welcome supervisions from prospective PhD students who are interested in Critical Legal Studies, Anarchism and law, the work of Judith Butler and Criminal law and Gender.
Current doctoral researchers
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ABDALGABER MOHAMED
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ATHENA MICHALAKEA
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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CEYLAN YILDIZ
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CLAIRE HORN
Teaching
I have been convening and teaching the undergraduate core module of Criminal Law since 2000. I am currently co-convening the module with Dr Craig Reeves and Dr Susy Menis. I teach the course from a critical perspective, drawing on the historical and gendered aspects of criminal law.
My LLM/MA core module Criminal Law Theory and History looks at the formation of modern criminal law through the writings of the 19th jurist, lawyer and writer James Fitzjames Stephen and its effects on contemporary criminal law. In doing so I attend to the colonial aspects of criminal law.
I co-teach with Professor Adam Gearey the post graduate module, Law, Solidarity and Alternative Economies. Here I focus on the way in which mutual aid project open us up to different economic models, and different economies of exchange.
Teaching modules
- Criminal Law Theory and History (LADD058S7)
- Law, Solidarity and Alternative Economies (LALW087S7)
- Criminal Law (GDL) (LALW114H6)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Loizidou, Elena (2024) Judith Butler: life, philosophy, politics, ethics- Editorial Introduction. Theory, Culture & Society ISSN 0263-2764. (In Press)
- Loizidou, Elena (2023) Destituent power, disobedience and mutual aid. Free Berlin (10), pp. 2-10.
- Loizidou, Elena (2021) Planetary confinement: bio-politics and mutual aid. Law and Critique 32, pp. 133-138. ISSN 0957-8536.
- Loizidou, Elena (2017) A break?. Law and Critique 28 (3), pp. 307-322. ISSN 0957-8536.
- Loizidou, Elena (2016) Refugees and the borders of Europe: a minor contribution - Introduction. Law and Critique 27 (1), pp. 1-4. ISSN 0957-8536.
- Loizidou, Elena (2013) Parallel lives. Law, Culture and the Humanities 9 (2), pp. 206-212. ISSN 1743-8721.
- Loizidou, Elena Barbour, C. and Pavlich, G., eds. (2013) Lauren Berlant as cynical philosopher: an introduction. Critical Legal Thinking
- Loizidou, Elena (2010) Misreading split decisions. International Journal of Law in Context 6 (1), pp. 106-109. ISSN 1744-5523.
- Loizidou, Elena and Ramshaw, Sara (2008) Flesh, bones and other matters. Australian Feminist Law Journal 29, ISSN 1320-0968.
- Loizidou, Elena (2008) The body figural and material in the work of Judith Butler. Australian Feminist Law Journal 28, pp. 29-51. ISSN 1320-0968.
- Loizidou, Elena (2004) Criminal law and punishment: indexical permission. Punishment and Society 6 (3), pp. 303-318. ISSN 1462-4745.
- Loizidou, Elena (2004) The love bug and the melancholic drag queen or a reflection on the cultural/political 'grounds' of subjects as sexual. Journal for Cultural Research 8 (4), pp. 447-465. ISSN 1479-7585.
- Loizidou, Elena (2001) Learning pain: poetry in emotion. Liverpool Law Review: A Journal of Contemporary Legal and Social Policy 23 (2), pp. 179-185. ISSN 0144-932X.
- Loizidou, Elena and Tyler, I. (2000) The promise of Lauren Berlant: an interview. Journal for Cultural Research 4 (4), pp. 497-511. ISSN 1479-7585.
- Loizidou, Elena (1999) Sex @ the end of the twentieth century: some re-marks on a minor jurisprudence. Law and Critique 10 (1), pp. 71-86. ISSN 0957-8536.
- Loizidou, Elena (1999) The trouble with rape: gender matters and legal 'transformations'. Feminist Legal Studies 7 (3), pp. 275-297. ISSN 0966-3622.
- Loizidou, Elena (1997) A phantasmatic moment: the defense of in-sanity. Law and Critique 8 (1), pp. 115-140. ISSN 0957-8536.
Book
- Loizidou, Elena (2022) Anarchism: an art of living without law. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138593008.
- Loizidou, Elena, ed. (2013) Disobedience: concept and practice. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415657242.
- Loizidou, Elena (2007) Judith Butler: ethics, law, politics. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415420419.
- Moran, Leslie J. and Loizidou, Elena and Christie, Ian and Sandon, Emma, eds. (2004) Law's moving image. London, UK: Cavendish. ISBN 9781904385011.
Book Review
- Loizidou, Elena (2021) Subjects and (Dis)obedience.
- Loizidou, Elena (2005) Romancing the tomes: popular culture, law and feminism.
- Loizidou, Elena (2003) Publics and counter-publics.
- Loizidou, Elena (2001) Jeffrey R. Benedict, 'Athletes and Acquaintance Rape', Peggy Reeves Sanday, 'A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial'.
- Loizidou, Elena (1997) Urban excess and the law.
Book Section
- Loizidou, Elena (2022) Utopia. In: Goodrich, P. and Gandorfer, D. and Gebruers, C. (eds.) Research Handbook in Law and Literature. Research Handbooks in Legal Theory. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 128-146. ISBN 9781839102257.
- Loizidou, Elena (2021) Dance, anarchism, mutual aid. In: Paramana,, K. and Gonzalez, A. (eds.) Performance, Dance and Political Economy Bodies at the End of the World. Dance in Dialogue. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 1-12. ISBN 9781350188693.
- Loizidou, Elena (2021) From exchange to freedom and back. No guarantees. In: Paramana, K. and Gonzalez, A. (eds.) Performance, Dance and Political Economy: Bodies at the End of the World. Dance in Dialogue. Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 1-6. ISBN 9781350188693.
- Loizidou, Elena (2020) A parallel art of living. In: Hesselberth, P. and de Bloois, J. (eds.) Politics of Withdrawal: Media, Arts, Theory. London, UK: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781786616333. (In Press)
- Loizidou, Elena (2019) What is law?. In: Levy, C. and Newman, S. (eds.) The Anarchist Imagination: Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and Social Sciences. Interventions. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138781184.
- Loizidou, Elena (2018) Sequences on law and the body. In: Philipopoulos-Mihalopoulos, A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Law and Theory. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138956469.
- Loizidou, Elena (2017) What is law?. In: Levy, C. and Newman, S. (eds.) The Anarchist Imagination: Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and Social Sciences (Interventions). Interventions. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138781184.
- Loizidou, Elena (2016) Dreams and the political subject. In: Butler, J. and Gambetti, Z. and Sabsay, L. (eds.) Vulnerability in Resistance. Durham, U.S.: Duke University Press. pp. 122-145. ISBN 9780822362791.
- Loizidou, Elena (2013) Disobedience subjectively speaking. In: Loizidou, Elena (ed.) Disobedience: Concept and Practice. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 108-124. ISBN 9780415657242.
- Hanafin, Patrick (2013) Insubordinate voices: contestation and the right to politics. In: Loizidou, Elena (ed.) Disobedience: Concept and Practice. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 48-59. ISBN 9780415657242.
- Aristodemou, Maria (2013) Disobedience and atheism. In: Loizidou, Elena (ed.) Disobedience: Concept and Practice. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138924598.
- Loizidou, Elena (2012) Before the law, encounters at the borderline. In: Stone, M. and Wall, I. and Douzinas, Costas (eds.) New Critical Legal Thinking: Law and the Political. Birkbeck Law Press. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780415619578.
- Loizidou, Elena (2012) Lauren Berlant the Americanist, comparative literary theorist and cynical philosopher. In: Groden, M. and Kreiswirth, M. and Szeman, I. (eds.) Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. The Johns Hopkins Guide. Baltimore, USA: John Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9781421406398.
- Loizidou, Elena (2010) This is what democracy looks like. In: Martel, J. and Casas Klausen, J. (eds.) How Not To Be Governed: Reading and Interpretations from a Postanarchist Left. New York, U.S.: Lexington Press. ISBN 9780739150344.
- Loizidou, Elena (2008) Butler and life: law, sovereignty, power. In: Carver, T. and Chambers, S.A. (eds.) Judith Butler's Precarious Politics: Critical Encounters. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 145-156. ISBN 978-0-415-38442-1.
- Loizidou, Elena (2005) Rebellion and citizenship: Hannah Arendt, Jim Stark and American public life in the 1950s. In: Slocum, J.D. (ed.) Rebel without a cause: Approaches to a Maverick Masterwork. New York, USA: State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791466469.
- Loizidou, Elena (2004) Rebel without a cause?. In: Moran, Leslie J. and Sandon, Emma and Loizidou, Elena and Christie, Ian (eds.) Law's Moving Image. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781904385011.
- Macmillan, Fiona (2004) How the movie moguls learned to stop worrying and love the new technology. In: Moran, Leslie J. and Loizidou, Elena and Christie, Ian and Sandon, Emma (eds.) Law's Moving Image: Law and Film. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781904385011.
- Moran, Leslie (2004) On realism and the law film: the case of Oscar Wilde. In: Moran, Leslie and Sandon, Emma and Loizidou, Elena and Christie, Ian (eds.) Law’s Moving Image. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781904385011.
- Loizidou, Elena (2000) Of feminism, children and pornography. In: Heinze, E. (ed.) Of Innocence and autonomy: Children, sex and human rights. London, UK: Ashgate. ISBN 9781138728295.
- Loizidou, Elena (1999) Heavenly creatures, matricide and criminal law's obsession with confessions. In: Moran, Leslie J. and Monk, Daniel and Beresford, S. (eds.) Legal Queeries: Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Legal Studies. London, UK: Cassell. ISBN 9780304338641.
Conference Item
- Loizidou, Elena (2007) Anarchism in America. Legal Theory Discussion Group, 2007, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2007) Butler and life: law, governmentality, sovereignty. Butler and life: law, governmentality, sovereignty, 2007, Gender Institute, Panteion University, Athens
- Loizidou, Elena (2007) Misreading split decisions. Misreading split decisions, 2007, SOAS, University of London, London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2007) Walls: re-approaching structural divides in critical legal theory. Walls: re-approaching structural divides in critical legal theory, 2007, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2006) Commentator to the plenary address of Professor Wendy Brown. Critical International Law Conference, 2006, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2006) Ethics in Judith Butler's critical theory. Ethics in Judith Butler's critical theory, 2006, Center for the Study of Law and Culture, Columbia University Law School, New York, USA
- Loizidou, Elena (2006) My body, this paper, this fire. Text and Terrain Colloquium, 2006, AHRC Centre for the Study of Law, Gender and Sexuality, School of Law, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2005) Double Law. Double Law, 2005, AHRC Centre for the Study of Law, Gender and Sexuality, School of Law, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2004) Rebel without a cause. Law, Culture and the Humanities Annual Conference, 2004, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
- Loizidou, Elena (2003) Rebel without a cause?. Staff Seminar, 2003, University of Westminster, London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2002) Fantasies of freedom future tense. Critical Legal Studies Conference, 2002, London Metropolitan University, London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2002) Fantasies of freedom future tense. Imagining Communities International Conference, 2002, Lancaster, UK
- Loizidou, Elena and Smith, M. (2002) Fantasies of Childhood. Fantasies of Childhood, 2002, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2001) Post-Oedipal subjects: reading Oedipus otherwise. SLSA Conference, 2001, Bristol, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2001) Rebel without a cause?. Law and Criminology Seminar, 2001, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2000) Ethics and politics in Judith Butler's work. SLSA Conference, 2000, Liverpool University, Liverpool, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2000) Rebel(s) without a cause?. Rebel(s) without a cause?, 2000, School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (2000) Subject formations and civil subjection. Subject formations and civil subjection, 2000, International Institute of Sociology of Law, Oniati, Spain
- Loizidou, Elena (1999) The maternal in Lolita. Law and Society Association Annual Meeting, 1999, Chicago, USA
- Loizidou, Elena (1998) Of feminism, children and pornography. Of feminism, children and pornography, 1998, The Institute for Women’s Studies, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (1998) Of feminism, children and pornography. Of Innocence and Autonomy: Children, Sex and Human Rights Conference, 1998, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, UK
- Loizidou, Elena (1996) Heavenly creatures, matricide and criminal law. Critical Legal Studies Conference, 1996, University of East London, London, UK
Video
- loizidou, Elena (2021) Waste/d / No event.
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Business and community
Business and community
Media
I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:
- Anarchism and Law
- Criminal Law and Sexual Offences
- Critical Theory and Judith Butler