Belgian philosopher, writer and teacher Luce Irigaray was BOTD in 1930. Born in Bernissart, she studied at the Catholic University of Louvin and later at the University of Paris, completing a doctorate in linguistics. In the 1960s, she trained as a psychoanalyst at the École Freudienne, completing a second doctorate in philosophy. Her thesis, published in 1974 as Speculum de l’autre femme (Speculum of the Other Woman), critiqued Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory for favouring the interests and perspectives of men and assigning women to the role of Other. The resulting scandal led to her dismissal from her teaching positions. She extended her thesis in her second book (Ce sexe qui n’en est pas un) This Sex Which is Not One, arguing for a new cultural and ethical framework with separate female and male sexed subjects, in which women are able to develop their own forms of speech, desire, and representation. She also critiqued the commodification of female identity and sexuality, arguing that a woman’s self is divided between her “use” and “exchange” values. In her later books, she considered new models of male-female relationships centred around bonds other than sex and reproduction. Her work was hugely influential on feminist philosophy, particularly radical feminism and lesbian feminist movements, though has also been criticised for her essentialist view of gender and sexuality. Irigaray lives in Paris, where she continues to run post-graduate seminars at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Her most recent book The Mediation of Touch, published in 2024, explores the role of touch as a means of communing with the self, others and the world, in the light of the COVID-19 epidemic.