Cynthia Cockburn and women building bridges

Join us to explore the life and work of Cynthia Cockburn and celebrate the 100th Anniversary of The Women's Library.

This event explores the life and work of Cynthia Cockburn (1934–2019), a pioneering British feminist researcher, writer, photographer, and peace activist whose work transformed thinking on gender, militarism, and conflict. Bridging research and activism, Cockburn spent decades working alongside women in zones of polarised conflict, examining how peace is built not through institutions alone, but through everyday feminist practice.

We will screen three films connected to Cockburn’s landmark action-research project Women Building Bridges (1995–1999), which focused on how women from divided ethno-national communities work to foster cooperation and peace. The project brought together three women’s groups: The Women’s Support Network in Belfast, Medica Women’s Association in Zenica, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and Bat Shalom, a network of Israeli Jewish and Palestinian women in northern Israel.

Two of the films were made by Cockburn herself during exchange visits between the groups in 1998, documenting meetings, conversations, and shared strategies. The third film, made in 2012 by Dvora Liberman, features a reflective interview with Cockburn, drawing on her photographs (now held at LSE) and revisiting the project’s lasting significance.

Together, the films offer a powerful, prescient account of feminism as a practical, collective force capable of bridging divides of class, religion, ethnicity, and nationality in contexts shaped by war and violence against women. The screenings will be followed by a facilitated discussion reflecting on Cockburn’s legacy and the relevance of her work to contemporary conflicts and peace movements.

Films screened:

• Here and There. Mapping the Space Between Us (1999, 36 mins) – Cynthia Cockburn
• Which Way To Peace. Women’s Strategies in Israel and Northern Ireland (1999, 33 mins) – Cynthia Cockburn
• The Space Between Us (2012, 22 mins) – Dvora Liberman

LSE chair

Joanna Lewis of the Department of International History is a historian of Africa, empire, and world history explored through imperialism, colonialism and inequality. She takes a multi-disciplinary approach and applies historical research to the present. Joanna's love of history also intersects with a lifelong commitment to feminism and her current research for women, peace and security focuses on women in leadership in some of the world’s most hostile spaces for that. She is Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at LSE.

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