Silphium was a plant much loved by the ancient Greeks due to its reported contraceptive, aphrodisiac, and abortive properties. It only grew in Cyrenica, now Libya, and was a valuable resource to the ancient Greeks who had settled in the area. It's thought that Silphium went extinct in the 1st or 2nd century CE, probably due to overharvesting and changes in the local climate. However in 2021 researchers working in Turkey thought they may have found the long lost plant.

Happy Valentines Day!

Cover image: A silver Attic drachm 510–470 BC. Found in the excavation of the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone at Cyrene. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cyrenecoin.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

See the show notes on the website⁠ ⁠amoroushistories.co.uk⁠⁠

Find me on social media;⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Twitter ⁠⁠and⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

Drop me an email on amoroushistories@gmail.com

⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠

Shop:⁠ ⁠amoroushistories.bigcartel.com⁠⁠

Track: No Saint, Music by: https://slip.stream/

Please note this episode was recorded in August 2023.

Today I’m joined by Alexandra Collinson, a third year PhD student at Newcastle University studying eighteenth-century literature. We’ll be talking about her project, The Sex Workers’ Revolution: Prostitution and Feminism in Women’s writing, 1787-1801, and more broadly about women, sex work, virtue and motherhood in eighteeth century England and Ireland.

Alex’s PhD project asserts that revolutionary feminists such as Marie-Madeleine Jodin and Mary Wollstonecraft, were not the only female writers to intervene in the patriarchal domain of late eighteenth-century politics. Her research shows that sex workers like Margaret Leeson and Ann Sheldon also made important contributions to feminist discourses on women’s nature and social roles in memoirs and legal testimonies published throughout the period.

Alex’s other research interests include women’s life writing, and representations of sexuality, maternity, and prostitution in eighteenth-century literature. Her PhD project is funded by a Arts and Humanities Research Council Northern Bridge Studentship.

Alex's twitter: https://x.com/AlexCollinson7?t=68q4W_AWb6zzH3BzegysNA&s=09 Alex's Newcastle Uni profile: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/elll/research/literature/literature-pgr-students/current-students/alex-collinson/

See the show notes on the website⁠ ⁠amoroushistories.co.uk⁠⁠

Find me on social media;⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Twitter ⁠⁠and⁠ ⁠YouTube⁠⁠.

Drop me an email on ⁠amoroushistories@gmail.com⁠

⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠ UK⁠ | ⁠Bookshop.org USA⁠

Shop:⁠ ⁠amoroushistories.bigcartel.com⁠⁠

Donate: ⁠buymeacoffee.com/amoroushistpod⁠

Track: No Saint, Music by: https://slip.stream/

Content warning: rape discussed at 14-16mins

In today's episode I have the absolute honour of talking to Dr Kathleen Lubey about her new book What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest since the Eighteenth Century.

Kathleen is a lecturer at St John’s University in Queen’s, New York, USA. She specilises in the literature and culture of eighteenth-century Britain, sexuality and gender studies, the history of pornography, and literature of the British slave trade.

Her current book, What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest since the Eighteenth Century, examines archival texts to trace currents of feminism and social justice in British pornography from the 1740s to the present.

Buy What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest since the Eighteenth Century. Use the code “Lubey20” to get 20% off the paperback: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31053

See the show notes on the website ⁠amoroushistories.co.uk⁠

Find me on social media; ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠Twitter ⁠and ⁠YouTube⁠.

Drop me an email on amoroushistories@gmail.com

⁠Bookshop.org⁠ UK | Bookshop.org USA

Shop: ⁠amoroushistories.bigcartel.com⁠

Donate: buymeacoffee.com/amoroushistpod

Track: No Saint, Music by: https://slip.stream/