Looking for Silences – Sexuality and Inheritance
Episode Description
In this episode of Talking about Methods, Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to Professor Daniel Monk about researching sexuality and inheritance. Wills, he argues, are important affective and material moments of kinship, friendship, and meaning-making, as well as a source of social inequalities. Using archives, biographies, case law and empirical research, he shows how one should not be constrained by one method when asking the crucial question, “What is going on here?”. Daniel tells us how he came to look for the silences and the importance of questioning common sense and critiquing critiques.
Readings recommended by Daniel Monk
Finch, Janet & Mason, Jennifer (2000) Passing On: Kinship and Inheritance in England, (Routledge)
Frank, Catherine O. (2010) Law, Literature and the Transmission of Culture in England 1837-1925 (Routledge)
Leslie, Melanie B. (1996) ‘The Myth of Testamentary Freedom’ 38 Arizona Law Review 235
Daniel Monk’s Work:
Daniel Monk (2016) ‘’Inheritance Families of Choice? Lawyers’ reflections on gay and lesbian wills’ 43(2) Journal of Law and Society 167-194
Daniel Monk (2013) ‘EM Forster’s will: an overlooked posthumous publication’ 33(4) Legal Studies 572-597.
Daniel Monk (2011) ‘Sexuality and succession law: beyond formal equality’ 19(3) Feminist Legal Studies 231-250.
About the Speaker
Daniel Monk
Daniel Monk is Professor of Law at Birkbeck, University of London. His work has explored a wide range of issues relating to children, families, sexuality and education, ranging from home education, school exclusions, and siblings in the public care system, to royal divorces, friendship and visual representations of the family. His work on sexuality and inheritance adopted doctrinal, literary, biographical and empirical methods. He is a co-editor of Child and Family Law Quarterly, an editorial board member of the International Journal of Law in Context, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.