In this powerful and moving memoir, Roxane Gay shares her story with brutal honesty and rare sensitivity. Hunger is an intimate account of body, trauma, survival, and identity. The author explores how experiences of childhood sexual violence profoundly influenced her relationship with food, her body, and the world around her.

More than a narrative about weight or appearance, Hunger is a manifesto about what it means to live in a body that defies social norms — a large, black, female body — in a society that insists on controlling it. With her courageous and incisive prose, Gay invites us to reflect on acceptance, vulnerability, and the complex journey of regaining self-love.

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This series is a joint initiative of the Doctoral Programme in Feminist Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC) and the Centre for Social Studies (CES), aiming to promote critical readings of literary works by female and gender-dissident authors from diverse geographical and cultural contexts. The discussions will be guided by theoretical contributions from feminist, gender, and queer studies in their multiple aspects.

This second series will be coordinated by Fabrina Souza and Iuri Lopes, PhD candidates in Feminist Studies. The sessions will take place monthly, preferably on the first Wednesday of each month, at 17:00, lasting approximately two hours, at the CES | Alta facilities.

In this second edition, we will have online meetings in December (2025), January, and June (2026).

Participation is free and open to the entire community, upon prior registration [here].

The series’ coordinators or participants will initially suggest the works to be read, which will later be announced both during the meetings and on the initiative's official website. Whenever possible, the selected texts will be sent by email to those who have registered. The discussion will be conducted in Portuguese, and if necessary, in English and Spanish, with each participant being allowed to use the edition and translation of their choice.

Subsequent readings will be decided collaboratively, based on the interests expressed by the group members.

For further information, please contact: fabrinasouza@ces.uc.pt or iurilopes@ces.uc.pt