The History of Mermaids, Sea Spirits & Women

The History of Mermaids, Sea Spirits & Women comes to the Sheffield Students' Union on Monday 14 December, a talk that looks at mermaid lore and what it says about the society that built it. The whole thing is about why water spirits and sea creatures are so often female, and how those figures reflect fears, desires and ideas about gender, sexuality and our relationship with nature. It's less a collection of myths and more a look at the patterns behind them.

Leading the session is Dr Deidre Nuttall, a folklorist and ethnologist who works in oral history, folk religion and narrative. She holds a Master's in Social Anthropology from Durham and a PhD in folklore from University College Dublin, with field research that's taken her to Ireland, Newfoundland and Guatemala. Her book A Folk History of the Protestants of Independent Ireland was one of the Irish Independent's Books of the Year in 2020, and she co-authored Swimming Upstream: One Man's Fight to Save the Atlantic Wild Salmon.

The talk takes place in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium, part of the Students' Union on Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TG. Doors open at 19:00 and the talk starts at 19:30, so you've got half an hour to get settled before it kicks off. Tickets range from £13.50 to £32.00, and the session is for ages 16 and over. It won't be recorded, so if you want to hear it, you'll need to be there in person.