Establishing the Network

Bettina is the lead researcher on the RSE Ending Period Poverty project, looking into the gendered conceptions of bodies underlying the current campaign. She has researched medical, artistic and social views of menstruation in the Middle Ages and has published on this at length in her monograph Medieval Blood (2006/2009), in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2013) in Menstruation: A Cultural History (ed. Andrew Shail and Gillian Howie, 2005) and elsewhere. Her core argument is that menstruation was often seen as polluting and uncontrollable, marking women’s bodies and identities as less coherent and integral than men’s. She also works on modern conceptions of the Middle Ages (especially on film), and on material things in medieval literature. Her research has won the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2009 and the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Prize in 2020.

Lara has been writing and researching on menstruation for over 25 years, studying women’s lived experience in a range of contexts. An early advocate for destigmatised reframing of the menstrual cycle, she is the author of Her Blood is Gold (1993, 2008). 

Lara has worked in the non-profit sector and for universities and major international institutions as a consultant and researcher on menstruation, menopause, and women’s health and rights more broadly. Her PhD (Monash Business School) explored the uptake of the menstrual cup and the menstrual workplace policy from a feminist socioeconomic perspective.

She has been a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews investigating menstrual stigma and sustainability, and her research has been published in journals including Gender, Work and Organization, and Women’s Reproductive Health. She currently consults for a variety of organizations on menstruation in the workplace, and teaches a year-long course in Contemporary Menstrual Studies through her website.

Lara’s Website (including for her lecturing/event schedule) and Academia.edu profile.

Camilla works on the visual culture and institutional power structures of menstruation from 1970s to the present day. Her PhD is from the University of Manchester.

Camilla’s St Andrews University profile

Carrie is a medical sociologist who specialises in qualitative and mixed-method research on sexual and reproductive health and health inequalities. She is currently at the planning stages of a new qualitative study of menstruation-related stigma and menstrual equity in Scotland (2020-23). As part of a programme of abortion research on which she leads, Carrie is also PI on the Wellcome-funded Sexuality and Abortion Stigma Study (SASS, 2018-20), which is exploring the potential for qualitative secondary analysis of a range of recent abortion-related datasets to inform understanding of abortion stigma. She is current co-chair of the Interdisciplinary Research on Sexual Health Network (IReSH), and a collaborator on the My Body, My Life project  Carrie’s research takes an interdisciplinary approach, with interests including menstrual health and equality; abortion and reproductive justice; stigma; gender; embodiment; and evaluation of health interventions.
View Carrie’s university profile, Google Scholar and ResearchGate  pages.

Chella Quint coined the phrase ‘period positive’ in 2006 and developed the concept into a well-known campaign to improve menstrual literacy. The project began in 2005 with her print zine Adventures in Menstruating, and evolved into a 5-star Edinburgh Fringe comedy show. Her spoof fashion line, STAINS™, was featured in the highly acclaimed BLOOD exhibition at Science Gallery, Dublin. A former head of PSHE, Chella completed a Master’s Degree in Education focusing on using humour, co-design and interactive activities to improve menstruation education in schools, which formed the basis of Period Positive.
She is piloting her Period Positive charter with UK universities and city councils, has advised the Welsh Assembly, the APPG on Women’s Health, and drafted an Early Day Motion in 2019. Chella has consulted for a number of national and global organisations and brands including The Body Shop, YouTube, Google, WaterAid and the International Girlguiding Association and has just published the Period Positive Pledge as a roadmap for other organisations wishing to develop best practice in this growing field of research, charity and enterprise. She provided social and historical commentary on Radio 4’s A Bleeding Shame and Woman’s Hour, is a regular guest on BBC Radio Scotland and frequently writes for national print media. Her zines are held in a number of zine libraries, and she has a chapter Down the Pan: New Directions in the Sociology of Dirt, a monograph from the The Sociological Review.

Chella has recently joined Sheffield Hallam University Lab4Living’s 100 Year Life Project as a doctoral researcher exploring the impact of shame on product design and consumer agency.
View Chella’s website
Follow Chella on Instagram

Bee’s interdisciplinary work explores nonbinary approaches to menstruation, menstrual art history, materiality, and performativity. They completed their PhD ‘Performing Periods: Challenging Menstrual Normativity through Art Practice’ in 2020, and is currently Artist in Residence at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Instituted for Gender Studies & School of Art History at University of St Andrews. Bee is a Lecturer in Media, Culture & Communication at Liverpool John Moores University, and also contributes to the Education Studies programme.

Bee’s Website

Kate’s research and teaching explore the sociology of work with a particular interest in gender, and disability at work. Most recently Kate has been working on disability inclusive science careers (funded by the EPSRC), and menstruation and gynaecological health conditions and academic careers. Kate is the former chair of the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK & Ireland. Kate is passionate about improving the working conditions of academics, particularly those who continue to experience marginalisation and discrimination. A member of the Heriot Watt branch of UCU, Kate is the equality officer and committee member.

View Kate’s blog
Kate’s profile at Herriot Watt University

Tania is co-founder of Women’s Adventure Expo CIC and project lead for Managing Menstruation in Extreme Environments Project (MMiEEP) is an initiative which aims to identify and explore issues around menstruation in extreme or challenging environments around the world, looking at many different factors including types of environment, activities, stage of life, contraceptive use, cultural considerations, and practicalities in the field such as environmentally responsible waste management. The project seeks to encourage solidarity between women, promote their health and wellbeing, including participation in adventure and outdoor activities, and ultimately to produce useful, practical, evidence-based information and guidance for women and organisations.

Pam’s research career began in the MRC Centre for Reproductive Biology, encompassing research on sexual health, contraception, and health conditions related to the menstrual cycle. She subsequently moved to the University of Edinburgh to set up an MSc in Epidemiology, and once there developed her own programme of research in women’s and reproductive health, in particular heavy menstrual bleeding. While Pam’s background is medical statistics, her interest in women’s health has steered her towards mixed-methods and qualitative research. Pam is a member of the FIGO international Menstrual Disorders Working Group, a Co-Director of the Centre for Families and Relationships. She has recently had great pleasure in developing, for the Institute’s online MPH programme, an interdisciplinary course titled Societies Reproduction and Health, which of course includes consideration of menstruation from the perspectives of public health, reproductive rights, and gender equality.

View Pam’s university profile