Camilla Fitzsimons: Spectacle of Defiance & Hope, Repeal, and Academics for Palestine

Irish Left Archive Podcast

In this episode we speak to activist and academic Camilla Fitzsimons. Camilla’s academic work focuses in particular on education and social movements, and she is an Associate Professor in Maynooth University School of Education. Her publications include two books – Community education and neoliberalism: Philosophies, practices and policies in Ireland (2017) and Repealed: Ireland’s Unfinished Fight for Reproductive Rights (2021).

We discuss Camilla’s early political experience; her involvement in forming the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope in response to service cuts and austerity, which organised marches and workshops with a central focus on political education; her work on abortion rights and the Repeal referendum, and her book Repealed; feminism, and differentiating Left feminism from the right and liberalism; and Palestine solidarity activism in light of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, and Camilla’s work with Academics for Palestine, which seeks to build the campaign for an academic boycott of Israel and help create awareness in the higher education sector.

Camilla’s website is at camillafitzsimons.com.

You’ll find a video of the Spectacle of Defiance and Hope in 2011 on Youtube, and it also continues to have an active Facebook group. Other material mentioned in the discussion is linked below:

• The Irish Debt Crisis Community Workshop (2015)
• Camilla’s research on safe access zones, which generated complaints to her university: Irish healthcare workers experiences of anti-abortion protesters and the case for safe access zones
• Research included in the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), including a chapter of Repealed.