Claire Williams – författare

This is not a theology of neurodiversity. It is a theology from neurodiversity. In her ground-breaking and daring theological exploration, Claire Williams considers how the experience of God for an autistic person challenges and interrogates our normal theologies about knowing God. Demonstrating how her autistic perspective offers a distinct and fresh hermeneutical lens, Williams shows that a liberation theology of neurodiversity can gift the church a new way of understanding worship, practice, ethics and even the nature of Christian hope itself.

Pregnancy is a period of time that institutes great change in the lives of those who are pregnant. Regardless of whether a pregnancy concludes with the birth of a live child or not, there are experiences that are common for many people who are pregnant. Yet as a site of theological reflection pregnancy is underrepresented. This landmark book seeks to begin the conversation within theology about pregnancy, the positive and negative experiences, and the potential for pregnancy to be understood theologically. Chapters consider a number of avenues in this exploration, from early pregnancy loss to trauma in labour, from adoption to the end of reproductive years at the onset of menopause. Throughout, this book seeks to understand the resources that theology brings to the experiences of pregnancy as well as the situations of oppression and underrepresentation that currently exist. Allowing for intersections of race, parenting, childlessness, and disability, this book approaches pregnancy from different theological perspectives in order to complexify the theological response and engagement as well as produce constructive resources for both the academy and the church.Contributors include Chine McDonald, Julie Gittoes, Margaret Kamitsuka and Rachel Muers.

This volume brings together scholars, students and writers as well as artists from around the world. By choosing a thematic focus on "transition" in women’s lives, we present research on women who have crossed biological, geopolitical and political borders as well as emotional, sexual, cultural and linguistic boundaries. The international approach brings together different cultures and genres in order to emphasize the links and connections that bind women together, rather than those which separate them. The chapters consider the ways in which the changes and transitions women undergo influence the world we live in. We are particularly interested in the idea of crossing borders and how this influences identity and belonging, and the theme of crossing boundaries in the context of motherhood as well as sexual orientation. The topic is timely given the waves of migration all around the world in recent times. The contributors deal with issues central to contemporary life, such as gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as understanding women’s identities and being sensitive to fluid concepts of gender and sexuality.

This volume brings together scholars, students and writers as well as artists from around the world. By choosing a thematic focus on "transition" in women’s lives, we present research on women who have crossed biological, geopolitical and political borders as well as emotional, sexual, cultural and linguistic boundaries. The international approach brings together different cultures and genres in order to emphasize the links and connections that bind women together, rather than those which separate them. The chapters consider the ways in which the changes and transitions women undergo influence the world we live in. We are particularly interested in the idea of crossing borders and how this influences identity and belonging, and the theme of crossing boundaries in the context of motherhood as well as sexual orientation. The topic is timely given the waves of migration all around the world in recent times. The contributors deal with issues central to contemporary life, such as gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as understanding women’s identities and being sensitive to fluid concepts of gender and sexuality.

Love choices but hate choosing? Welcome to the club. The Choice Effect is for young women who have all the opportunities in the world and no idea how to decide among them. It's one thing to have lots of options when it comes to fulfilling careers or traveling the world- but what does it mean for our love lives? How can you know whether you're with the right person- or if the time is right- when you haven't vetted the other possibilities? With hard-won insight, plus interviews with a whole host of other women who are living it, the twentysomething friends and authors of The Choice Effect explain why their generation is sidestepping traditional timelines. They look at the question of choice in the twenty-first century as they give voice to their generation's dilemma: How do you choose when you've been taught you can have it all?

Blessed are the Anxious offers a deeply personal exploration of chronic anxiety within the framework of Christian spirituality. Claire Williams draws on her own experience to navigate the complexities of the anxious life, and provide insights into the potential for hope found in the regular rhythms of Christian faith and practice. Avoiding offering simplistic and easy answers, the book confronts the reality of chronic anxiety and demonstrates the ways in which, throughout the year, the Christian story offers solidarity and hope for those suffering from it. In these pages, readers will discover tangible reminders of the divine presence amidst distress, offering comfort and reassurance in times of turmoil. Blessed are the Anxious will offer hope for those seeking spiritual guidance in the midst of anxiety, and a vital resource for those who care for them.

Transnational Portuguese Studies offers a radical rethinking of the role played by the concepts of ‘nationhood’ and ‘the nation’ in the epistemologies that underpin Portuguese Studies as an academic discipline. Portuguese Studies offers a particularly rich and enlightening challenge to methodological nationalism in Modern Languages, not least because the teaching of Portuguese has always extended beyond the study of the single western European country from which the language takes its name. However, this has rarely been analysed with explicit, or critical, reference to the ‘transnational turn’ in Arts and Humanities. This volume of essays from leading scholars in Portugal, Brazil, the USA and the UK, explores how the histories, cultures and ideas constituted in and through Portuguese language resist borders and produce encounters, from the manoeuvres of 15th century ‘globalization’ and cartography to present-day mega events such as the Rio Olympics. The result is a timely counter-narrative to the workings of linguistic and cultural nationalism, demonstrating how texts, paintings and photobooks, musical forms, political ideas, cinematic representations, gender identities, digital communications and lexical forms, may travel, translate and embody transcultural contact in ways which only become readable through the optics of transnationalism.Contributors: Ana Margarida Dias Martins, Anna M. Klobucka, Christopher Larkosh, Claire Williams, Cláudia Pazos Alonso, Edward King, Ellen W. Sapega, Fernando Arenas, Hilary Owen, José Lingna Nafafé, Kimberly DaCosta Holton, Maria Luísa Coelho, Paulo de Medeiros, Sara Ramos Pinto, Sheila Moura Hue, Simon Park, Susana Afonso, Tatiana Heise, Toby Green, Tori Holmes, Vivien Kogut Lessa de Sá and Zoltán Biedermann.

Transnational Portuguese Studies offers a radical rethinking of the role played by the concepts of ‘nationhood’ and ‘the nation’ in the epistemologies that underpin Portuguese Studies as an academic discipline. Portuguese Studies offers a particularly rich and enlightening challenge to methodological nationalism in Modern Languages, not least because the teaching of Portuguese has always extended beyond the study of the single western European country from which the language takes its name. However, this has rarely been analysed with explicit, or critical, reference to the ‘transnational turn’ in Arts and Humanities. This volume of essays from leading scholars in Portugal, Brazil, the USA and the UK, explores how the histories, cultures and ideas constituted in and through Portuguese language resist borders and produce encounters, from the manoeuvres of 15th century ‘globalization’ and cartography to present-day mega events such as the Rio Olympics. The result is a timely counter-narrative to the workings of linguistic and cultural nationalism, demonstrating how texts, paintings and photobooks, musical forms, political ideas, cinematic representations, gender identities, digital communications and lexical forms, may travel, translate and embody transcultural contact in ways which only become readable through the optics of transnationalism.Contributors: Ana Margarida Dias Martins, Anna M. Klobucka, Christopher Larkosh, Claire Williams, Cláudia Pazos Alonso, Edward King, Ellen W. Sapega, Fernando Arenas, Hilary Owen, José Lingna Nafafé, Kimberly DaCosta Holton, Maria Luísa Coelho, Paulo de Medeiros, Sara Ramos Pinto, Sheila Moura Hue, Simon Park, Susana Afonso, Tatiana Heise, Toby Green, Tori Holmes, Vivien Kogut Lessa de Sá and Zoltán Biedermann.

‘Feminine Plural shows that a revolution is taking place in literature written in Portuguese and Spanish. After many years of being silenced by dictatorships, colonial injustice, and systemic problems of access to education, women from the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America are not only making their voices heard, but also, in the process, creating previously unseen literary forms in order to be able to tell their previously untold stories. I had not known how important it was to examine recent life-writing by women in my own language until I had this book in my hands. And if I needed proof that a personal story is more than a small cog in the mechanics of the world, this is it.’ – Susana Moreira Marques, writer ‘For several decades now, women’s autobiographical writing has been flourishing. Many women writers narrate their personal experience, marked out by their condition of womanhood, by experiences such as their relationship with their mothers, migration, adoption, racism, motherhood, the rural world, infertility, sexuality, exile … In this well-documented and entertaining book, two great experts in Luso-Hispanic women’s literature, Maria-José Blanco and Claire Williams, introduce and guide the reader through this vast new field of writing.’ – Laura Freixas, writer In the short period since our volume Feminine Singular came out, life-writing by women in the Luso-Hispanic world has proliferated, justifying another book of essays on the topic. Not only are more women choosing to write (about) themselves, they are doing so in innovative ways that cross conventional generic boundaries. They openly discuss previously taboo subjects, speak out against injustice and provoke changes in policy and attitudes. Furthermore, they embrace plurality, by recognising the achievements of their foremothers and celebrating their peers; expressing themselves through fragmentation and collage; and, ultimately, working and reading and writing together. These essays introduce an Anglophone readership to some of the most exciting and audacious Luso-Hispanic women writing and making art today. They bring together a mixture of personal essays and short fiction, alongside more traditional literary critical research, to show what women’s life-writing can do.

This book explores the relationship between creativity, creative people, and creative industries in regional Australia through examining lived experience. The authors draw on more than 100 qualitative interviews with creative workers, and contextualise this creative work within the broader social and cultural structures of Australia’s Hunter region (located north of Sydney, in New South Wales).An invaluable resource for anyone interested in creative ecosystems as well as creativity and innovation, this book is an ethnographic study using the Hunter region as a case connected to the national and global networks that typify the creative industry. This timely addition to the Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture series gives a unique insight into creativity and cultural production.

This book explores the relationship between creativity, creative people, and creative industries in regional Australia through examining lived experience. The authors draw on more than 100 qualitative interviews with creative workers, and contextualise this creative work within the broader social and cultural structures of Australia’s Hunter region (located north of Sydney, in New South Wales).An invaluable resource for anyone interested in creative ecosystems as well as creativity and innovation, this book is an ethnographic study using the Hunter region as a case connected to the national and global networks that typify the creative industry. This timely addition to the Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture series gives a unique insight into creativity and cultural production.