Homelessness Discussion at Edinburgh International Book Festival

Queen Margaret University’s Dr Geetha Marcus, Senior Lecturer, Psychology, Sociology and Education, will join Val McDermid and guests on stage at The Edinburgh International Book Festival on August 15th to explore the many forms of homelessness including sleeping rough, sofa surfing, living in cars and temporary accommodation.

Author of myth-busting book ‘Gypsy and Traveller Girls’ which presents the untold stories of Gypsy and Traveller girls living in Scotland, Dr Marcus will address contemporary and traditional stereotypes and racialised misconceptions of young women in Scotland’s traveller community.

She will be joined on the panel by geographer Danny Dorling and award-winning poet and playwright Joelle Taylor.

Dr Marcus said:

“There is relatively little research on Gypsies and Travellers, who have lived in Scotland since the twelfth century, making them one of Britain’s oldest nomadic communities. Sometimes referred to as the ‘mist people’ Gypsy and Traveller lives are cloaked in invisibility for complex reasons. Government’s Race Equality Statement accepts that Gypsies and Travellers are ‘a particularly discriminated against and marginalised group’.

“This book is important because it centres the voices of Gypsy and Traveller girls for the first time and explores how their racialised experiences are misrecognised and erased through non-recognition. It offers space for their gendered voices to be heard, but also invites us to reflect on how the experiences of Gypsy and Traveller girls compares with young women from other social backgrounds, and questions if there is more that binds us than divides us as girls and women in the 21st century.”

Tickets for the event, which takes place on August 15th 2019 from 11.45 until 12.45 in the Main Theatre at Charlotte Square are available from the Edinburgh International Book Festival website.