Dr Susanna (Susy) Menis
-
Overview
Overview
Biography
I joined the School of Law at Birkbeck as a PhD student in 2006; since then I taught on several law and criminology programmes and modules as an associated lecturer. In 2018 I was appointed as the Programme Director for the Certificate HE Legal Studies. My external examiner role for South Devon College on behalf of Plymouth University and my visiting lectureship at St. Mary’s University contributed to my teaching growth. However, fundamental for the development of my blended/online teaching expertise has been my long-term teaching with the Open University and Essex University Online.
I was an honorary researcher for 2017/18 as part of a research project on legal education. In 2019 I was shortlisted for the Birkbeck Public Engagement Award, and in 2020 I was shortlisted by Birkbeck as a candidate for the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Birkbeck Advisory Board for the Research Excellence Award.
I believe that hands on experience is the best way to develop expertise and meet great people; hence my wide volunteering engagements. I worked with several organisations and charities such as the Prison Advice and Care Trust, Women in Prison and Prisoners’ Families and Friends’ Services. My most recent engagement was with the Independent Monitoring Board of Prisons.
I love my academic career, but I was destined to follow my father’s profession- equine veterinary surgeon. Life plans change! But I still nurse foals and assist in field-surgeries when I am around.
Highlights
A History of Women’s Prisons: an artwork exhibition. The Crypt Gallery, London. 24 May – 2 June 2019. In collaboration with artists: Noriko Hisazumi and Fabiana Vigna
A History of Women’s Prisons in England: The Myth of Prisoner Reformation (2020)
Video lecture: Eliza Orme, the first English female law graduate.
Video lecture: history and the (in)visibility of the female prisoners
Office hours
Office hours Mon-Fri 9am-6pm. Meetings and catching up with students are by prior arrangement, and may be taken via Teams or phone.
Qualifications
- MA Historical Research, Birkbeck University of London, 2018
- PhD in law/Criminology, Birkbeck University of London, 2016
- Msc in Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of Surrey, 2005
- Dottore in Giurisprudenza (BA Hon), University of Bologna, Italy, 2004
Administrative responsibilities
- Admissions Tutor Criminology
- Programme Director Certificate HE Legal Studies
- Sub-Exam Board Chair Certificate HE Legal Studies
- Certificate HE Legal Studies modules’ convener
ORCID
0000-0003-4556-1744 -
Research
Research
Research interests
- criminal law doctrine
- social history
- legal history
- emotions and the law
- psychology, literature and the law
- prison history
- cultural and critical criminology
- artwork representation of history and the critical analysis of popular culture
- critical legal education
- non-traditional law students
- microhistory
Research overview
Criminal Law: I have conducted several projects addressing criminal law doctrine within the context of social history, legal history, emotions, psychology and literature.
Criminology: My writing focuses on prison history, cultural and critical criminology. I am interested in artwork representation of history and the critical analysis of popular culture.
Legal education: I have written on critical legal education and she is currently researching non-traditional law students’ perceptions of their learning experiences. I am also writing a microhistory of Eliza Orme, the first English female law student who was awarded a degree by University of London in 1888. -
Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Teaching
Teaching modules
- Undergraduate Dissertation (LADD049S6)
- Criminal Law (Senior Status) (LADD062S7)
- Criminal Evidence (Level 6) (LALA199H6)
- English Legal System (LALW045S4)
- The Administration of Justice (LALW046S4)
- Criminal Law (LALW056S4)
-
Publications
Publications
Article
- Menis, Susanna (2023) Reality check: Russel Brand, survivors of rape and the criminal justice system. History & Policy
- Menis, Susanna (2023) The untold story of the first Italian-Turinese female lawyer: reviewing Netflix’s The Law According to Lidia Poet. Law and Humanities ISSN 1752-1483.
- Menis, Susanna (2023) Adultery as a defence: the construction of a legally permissible violence, England 1810. Histories 3 (2), pp. 76-97. ISSN 2409-9252.
- Menis, Susanna (2021) How to write a positivist legal history: lessons from Blackstone and J.F. Stephen. Histories 1 (3), pp. 169-183. ISSN 2409-9252.
- Menis, Susanna (2021) Covid and the penal system. British Society of Criminology Blog articles
- Menis, Susanna (2020) The liberal, the vocational and legal education: a legal history review–from Blackstone to a Law Degree (1972). Law Teacher 54 (2), pp. 285-299. ISSN 0306-9400.
- Menis, Susanna (2018) The crisis of penal populism: prison legitimacy and its effects on women’s prisons in the UK. Forensic Research & Criminology International Journal 6 (6), pp. 484-489. ISSN 2469-2794.
- Menis, Susanna (2018) Trial by media, deceased defendants and the victim as a commodity. Forensic Research & Criminology International Journal 6 (6), pp. 437-443. ISSN 2469-2794.
- Menis, Susanna (2017) The fiction of the criminalisation of corporate killing. Journal of Criminal Law 81 (6), pp. 467-477. ISSN 0022-0183.
- Menis, Susanna (2017) Non-traditional students and critical pedagogy: transformative practice and the teaching of criminal law. Teaching in Higher Education 22 (2), pp. 193-206. ISSN 1356-2517.
Book
- Menis, Susanna (2020) A history of women’s prisons in England: the myth of prisoner reformation. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars. ISBN 9781527541832.
Book Review
- Menis, Susanna (2021) TANYA SERISIER, Speaking Out: Feminism, rape and narrative politics. Palgrave Macmillan, 1st edn 2018 (2020), pp. 272, ISBN 978-3030404253. (In Press)
- Menis, Susanna (2020) Stewart Motha: Archiving Sovereignty: Law, History, Violence University of Michigan Press, USA, 2018, 224 pp, £19.95 (pbk), ISBN: 978-0472053865.
- Menis, Susanna (2018) Public History and the study of Law: reviewing The Limehouse Golem (2017). Directed by Juan Carlos Medina [film]. 109 min. UK. Production: Lipsync Post, Number 9 Films..
- Menis, Susanna (2017) Book review: Triple 9 (2016) Directed by John Hillcoat [film].
Book Section
- Menis, Susanna (2021) The deceased-accused and the victim as a commodity: Jimmy Savile as a case study to examine the role of real-crime documentary in reproducing violence as entertainment. In: Mellins, M. and Moore, S. (eds.) Critiquing Violent Crime in the Media. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783030837570. (In Press)
Conference Item
- Menis, Susanna Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and the myth of reformation: literature as discourse and an exercise in New Historicism. The Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, Newcastle, UK
Other
- Menis, Susanna (2020) Women, history, invisibility and prisons: a contribution to the Women’s History Month. The British Society of Criminology Blog The British Society of Criminology.
Teaching Resource
- Menis, Susanna (2020) The administration of justice.
- Menis, Susanna (2019) English legal system.
Video
- Menis, Susanna (2021) The story of Eliza Orme, the first English female law graduate.
-
Business and community
Business and community
Outreach
Public lecture
Women, History, Invisibility and Prisons. Stratford Public Library, London. 13 March 2020, http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=11569
Exhibitions
A History of Women’s Prisons: an artwork project. Stratford Library, London. 13 – 31 March 2020. In collaboration with the artist Noriko Hisazumi (exhibition).
A History of Women’s Prisons: an artwork project. Idea Store Whitechapel, London. 6 – 31 January 2020. In collaboration with the artist Noriko Hisazumi (exhibition).
A History of Women’s Prisons: an artwork exhibition. The Crypt Gallery, London. 24 May – 2 June 2019. In collaboration with artists: Noriko Hisazumi and Fabiana Vigna (exhibition), http://www.bbk.ac.uk/news/exploring-women2019s-imprisonment-through-art