Ms Jessica East

Background

Jessica East is a post-graduate researcher undertaking a PhD in the faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language studies at the Open University. She is a feminist researcher whose academic work is deeply informed by her sustained engagement in abortion rights advocacy. She volunteered for several years as a campaign assistant at Abortion Rights, a pro-choice organisation which campaigns to defend and extend women’s rights and access to safe, legal abortion. She also spent a period on Abortion Rights’ executive committee. Her long-time involvement in frontline abortion activism has shaped a research practice attentive to the lived realities of reproductive health, stigma, and resistance.

Jessica holds an MA in Gender, Society and Representation from UCL, where she was awarded a place on the Dean's List in recognition of academic excellence. Her dissertation examined anti-abortion/pro-life clinic-front activism and protests, with a specific focus on investigating the potential introduction of “buffer zones” around abortion clinics in 2014. Her work explored the legislative and ethical dimensions of buffer zones, contributing original analysis to a debate of significant contemporary policy relevance.

PhD Project

Jessica’s research at the Open University investigates how abortion stigma manifests within workplace contexts. The project employs qualitative, narrative-based research methods. The aim of this is to generate rich, participant-led accounts of experience. Her methodological approach draws on post-structural and intersectional feminist research traditions. The research is committed to advancing understanding of how stigma operates at the intersection of reproductive health and professional life, with implications for policy, workplace culture, and feminist advocacy.

Research Interests

Feminist research methods;  narrative-based research methods; reproductive (in)justice; abortion; abortion stigma; post-structural feminism; intersectionality; qualitative research; reproductive stigmas

Qualifications

• BA English Literature and Cultural Criticism 2009 First Class Honours
• MA Gender, Society and Representation 2015 Distinction