Dr Rachel Garfield, ‘Jewish Women, Punk Feminism, and Art in the 1970s and 1980s’

Dr Rachel Garfield

‘Jewish Women, Punk Feminism, and Art in the 1970s and 1980s’

The Vera Fine-Grodzinski Programme for Jewish Women’s Voices Seminar

Join Dr Rachel Garfield, artist, Professor of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, and author of Experimental Filmmaking and Punk: Feminist Audio-Visual Culture of the 1970s and 1980s, for a discussion of Jewish women, punk and art.

This seminar by Dr Rachel Garfield focuses on a selection of Jewish women whose artwork emerged from the punk ethos. Punk is so often identified as a boy thing: a nihilistic outcrop of rock, with Johnny Rotten as the poster boy.

However, from Poly Styrene to The Slits and Siouxsie Sioux, women were at the centre of punk. While the artists Garfield focuses on were not prominent musicians, many of them were part of the punk scene or in lesser-known bands. What, then, was the attraction for women? Why would a woman eschew the tenets of beauty and femininity that were the bedrock of what constituted success?

What did punk offer Jewish women?

What of Jewishness? Many of the punks and artists whose work focused on punk were Jewish women. Although these women did not speak to their Jewishness in their work for the most part, there remain undercurrents that can be traced to the trauma of diasporic lives. Focusing mainly on artists from, or operating in, the UK and US, Rachel will draw on film excerpts and key themes within punk and art of the 1970s and 1980s to respond to questions including:

• Why were these women attracted to this expressive approach in their work?
• What impact did punk have on them and their work?
• How can we ascertain ‘Jewishness’ as an undercurrent — or not?
• What relevance might this have to young people today?

This conversation will appeal to readers and writers of life-writing, and to anyone interested in punk, music, art, and feminism as they relate to Jewish women’s lives and histories. No prior specialist knowledge or preparation is required.

This event will be introduced and moderated by Dr Aviva Dautch.

Speaker Details:

Dr Rachel Garfield is an artist who makes films informed by the histories and practices of experimental film. Her films have won numerous awards at film festivals and have been exhibited in galleries across the UK, the US and Ireland. She also regularly curates experimental film screenings in New York, Frankfurt, London, Bristol, Dublin, Los Angeles and Denver. Rachel is Professor of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art and publishes extensively on art, feminism, diasporic communities and film. She is commissioning editor of the peer-reviewed journal MIRAJ (Moving Image Review and Art Journal). Her monographs include Experimental Filmmaking and Punk: Feminist Audio-Visual Culture of the 1970s and 1980s (2022) and Dwoskin: The Gaze of Stephen Dwoskin (2023), which were shortlisted for the Kraszna-Krausz Award in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Rachel contributed substantially to the Women in Revolt! exhibition at Tate Britain, The Whitworth and the National Galleries of Scotland (2023–25), through her contribution to the catalogue, screenings and conference.

Dr Aviva Dautch is the Executive Director of Jewish Renaissance, the UK's Jewish arts and culture quarterly. She lectures on modern Jewish literature at the London School of Jewish Studies and JW3 and contributes to programmes on BBC Radio 4. She is an award-winning poet whose residencies and commissions have included The British Museum, The National Gallery, and Bradford and Hay Literature Festivals. Aviva is the Jewish Women’s Voices OCLW Visiting Scholar for 2025-7.

About The Vera-Fine Grodzinski Programme for Jewish Women's Voices:

The Vera-Fine Grodzinski Programme for Jewish Women's Voices is a collaborative initiative by Dr Kate Kennedy, Director of the ‘Oxford Centre for Life-Writing’, and Dr Vera Fine-Grodzinski, a scholar of Jewish social and cultural history.

The Programme is the first of its kind at any UK academic institution. Launched in October 2023, the Programme celebrates the life-writing of Jewish women, who are often underrepresented in mainstream historical accounts. The Programme is a three-term seminar series dedicated to exploring the diverse experiences of Jewish women across centuries, countries, and cultures.

Further information about the Programme can be found here.

Further Details and Contacts:

This event is free and open to all. If you are able, please consider donating £5, £10, £20, or more to support OCLW’s free events, outreach activities, and programmes, helping us to keep life-writing open to all.

Donations can be made when booking your place or via our online donations portal. Every gift makes a difference. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

This is a hybrid event. Registration is recommended for in-person attendance and required for online attendance. Registration will close at 10:30 on 01/12/2026.

The event will be recorded and made available on the OCLW website soon after. Registration is not required to access the recording.

Queries regarding this event should be addressed to OCLW Events Manager, Dr Eleri Anona Watson.