The body, sexuality and gender continue to be subjects of much debate in contemporary culture and within academia. The study of the self is a central concern across disciplines, and as with the Talking Bodies conference, we hope this book demonstrates the value in cross- and inter-disciplinary spaces. In 2019 and early 2020 as the editors and contributors prepared this manuscript we could not have imagined the circumstances in which we would be finalising the text. The coronavirus crisis worsened from a severe, but seemingly distant to many, new disease into a global pandemic which saw swathes of the global population placed into varying degrees of isolation and self-reflection. As we write from the UK and Netherlands in early 2021 this book is more than an abstract academic project. It represents the vitality and inspiration that comes from sharing knowledge with colleagues within our respective disciplines, and without them. Even before our social and professional lives became mediated through video calls, cross-disciplinary and international research offered vital windows into moments of human transformation, movement and expression. This collection of activist-academic essays scrutinises varied questions relating to the way we understand and (re)present ourselves and others, and at its core represents hope and determination that a different world is possible.