“A Necessary Monster” – Times Higher Education 
18 October 2012
“As long as Ian Brady lives, he serves a useful function for society, argues Lisa Downing – as a convenient cultural repository for evil….”

Review of Danielle Lindemann’s Dominatrix: Gender, Eroticism, and Control in the Dungeon – Times Higher Education
13 December 2012

“Identity Crisis” – Times Higher Education
20 June 2013
“Lisa Downing on why the erosion of women’s, gender and sexuality studies in UK universities is cause for concern…”

“Eros and Thanatos”
A commissioned 1000-word piece for an art book, Death, A Graveside Companion, edited by photographer and curator of the Morbid Anatomy Museum, Joanna Ebenstein, (Thames Hudson, 2018).

“Shoot The Women First: A Reflection on the Gender Politics of Targeting”
An essay written to accompany artist Navine G. Khan-Dossos’s exhibition “Shoot the Women First”, first shown at the Breeder Gallery, Athens, in 2018. (The essay downloads as a PDF.)

“‘She’s Not Likeable’: Shamima Begum, Sex Stereotypes, and the Scourge of Emotionalism in Public Discourse” – for the Birmingham Prospect
26 February 2019
“A toxic nexus of misogyny and xenophobia is at play in discourses about Begum. As a figure perceived to be unemotional and unapologetic, she is illegible as a “proper” female subject…”

“Still Comparing May to Thatcher Shows We Don’t See Women as Individuals” – for Huffington Post
7 June 2019
“May’s premiership was haunted by comparisons to Thatcher – it’s difficult to see how any future female PM, particularly a Conservative one, will escape the same expectations…”