Projects

Visualising Menstruation podcast

SAGE Encyclopedia of Menstruation & Society

Lead Editors: Dr Bee Hughes & Prof Kay Standing

Associate Editors: Dr Marybec Griffin & Dr Noelle Spencer

Editorial Board: Dr Sally King, Dr Puleng Letsie, Prof M. Sivakami & Dr Inga Winkler

Publication in 2026

Critical menstrual studies is a disciplinary field “premised upon menstruation as a category of analysis: asking how systems of power and knowledge are built upon its understanding and, furthermore, who benefits from these social constructions” (Bobel, 2020, p. 4). The global menstruation movement addresses issues ranging from research and policies about barriers to accessing products and education, to initiatives fighting the ongoing stigma experienced by girls, women, and people who can, or have, experienced periods. Understanding the social context of menstruation is key for both health benefits and social justice. This one-volume encyclopedia will cover the personal and the political, the intimate and the public, the physiological and the sociocultural. It shifts away from the discourse of health and hygiene to structural issues of gender inequality, politics, and human rights.

Comprising over 150 entries, this will be a unique reference text for anyone studying or researching the social construction of menstruation.

menstruation research network

Follow the link to visit the Menstruation Research Network website, the UK-based network for researchers studying menstruation.

Bee co-organised the 2024 annual conference with Prof Kay Standing and Harriet Fuest.

periodical exhibition

Periodical, curated by Bee Hughes, presented period stigma smashing and celebratory artworks in the Atrium Gallery at Liverpool School of Art & Design. It featured menstrual artworks by Bee Hughes, Poloumi Basu, Amanda Atkinson, Sasha Spyrou and Chella Quint, displays from the Dignity without Danger project, and material from the Femorabilia Collection, Liverpool John Moores University’s Special Collections and Archives.

The exhibition also hosted a period pack packing party with Period Project Merseyside, and an afternoon of period craft activities.

Read more here.

blood lines: exploring the history of menstruation at the University of st andrews

Bee will be working at University of St Andrews as Artist-In-Residence between January and September 2020 following a successful collaborative funding application with Dr Camilla Mørk Røstvik and Dr Catherine Spencer. The project is supported by the University of St Andrews’ Gender, Diversity and Inclusion Research Fund.

Bee will visit St Andrews three times as an Artist-In-Residence at the Centre for Contemporary Art in the School of Art History and in the St Andrews Institute of Gender Studies, and, together with Røstvik and Spencer, explore various aspects of menstrual history in St Andrews at a time when Scotland is leading the world on menstrual policies via its Period Poverty initiative. The project will engage with a number of organisations and groups within and outside the University of St Andrews.

Read more at the St Andrews Centre for Contemporary Art website.

BEE’S WORK COLLECTED BY UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

Two digital prints of Bee’s artworks were recently collected by the University of St Andrews Museums and Collections (MUSA).

blog

Bee has kept a blog since 2011 which documents their evolving artistic practice. The blog contains an archive of older works, exhibitions, and works in progress, and is updated occasionally.