About Dr. Gemma McKenzie

I grew up in Liverpool, not far from Anfield football stadium, and attended – what was at the time – the largest all girls’ Comprehensive school in the city.  In 2002 I completed my undergraduate degree in English and German Laws and was called to the Bar in 2005.  Still keen on further study, I gained distinctions in postgraduate degrees in International Human Rights Laws (2006) and Public Health (2018) and in a post graduate certificate in Bioethics (2016).  In 2022, I completed my ESRC funded PhD at King’s College London, which explored women’s experiences of freebirthing in the UK.

I have worked in a range of roles and in a variety of sectors.  I have for example, worked for the police, given law lectures and seminars in universities in the UK and abroad, volunteered on Louisiana’s death row, taught English to children in Italy and written reports on strangulation and suffocation homicides for the national charity IFAS.  I have lived in both Warsaw and Berlin and now currently reside in Formby, just outside of Liverpool. In between all of this, I have had three children and co-founded an architectural practice in Cambridgeshire called Devlin Architects.

I am the founder of Threads of Protest, a touring public engagement crochet exhibition which promotes human rights in childbirth. The exhibition includes work from artists and charities and also donated granny squares from members of the public. It aims to start tough conversations about issues in maternity care both in the UK and globally.

I write about women’s human rights both in the maternity system and outside of it. I am currently writing a book called ‘Unravelled: How women unstitch patriarchy,’ which will be published by Icon in Autumn 2027. It explores contemporary and ‘herstory’ topics related to women, human rights and textiles.

As with the websites of all writers, these pages will grow and change as I publish more work.  I hope you find something here that resonates with you.