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The body, sexuality and gender continue to be subjects of much debate in contemporary culture and within academia. The study of the self is a central concern across disciplines, and as with Talking Bodies conference, we hope this book shows the value in cross- and inter-disciplinary spaces. In 2019 and early 2020 as this manuscript was being prepared we could not have imagined the circumstances in which we would be finalising the text. The coronavirus crisis worsened from a severe, but seemingly distant to many, new disease into a global pandemic which saw swathes of the global population placed into varying degrees of isolation and self-reflection. This collection of activist-academic essays scrutinises varied questions relating to the way we understand and (re)present ourselves and others, and at its core represents hope and determination that a different world is possible.