Dr Zoe Tongue

Profile

I joined the School of Law in August 2022 as a Lecturer in Law.

I completed my LLB at Durham University, with a study abroad year at the University of Western Australia, and my LLM at the University of Warwick. I returned to Durham University in 2019 for my PhD, funded by the Durham Law School Studentship, and graduated in 2023.

Before joining the University of Leeds, I worked as a part-time tutor at Durham University and a research assistant for the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law. I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research interests

My main research interests are around abortion, reproductive rights and justice, feminist theory, and international human rights. My PhD thesis set out an argument for recognising a human right to abortion in the international framework, underpinned by a feminist approach to moral philosophy.

I am also interested in abortion and foetal disability, in particular thinking about the challenges of upholding access to abortion without perpetuating discriminatory attitudes towards people with disabilities. Beyond this, my work also looks at representations of reproductive rights issues in science fiction, how social justice movements have achieved abortion law reform, and reproductive rights beyond abortion.

Some of my current ongoing work looks at creative and non-traditional approaches to feminist legal research, including through art and science fiction creative writing, and I participated in the Leeds Creative Labs programme in 2023.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Law and Social Justice