Biography: 

Born in South Africa during the brutal years of apartheid, Stein’s world view was shaped by the resistance to that regime and her family’s chosen exile to the UK. She is a writer; an independent scholar of the social psychology of cults and totalitarianism; and an activist and international expert on coercive control in groups. She has lectured at universities internationally and is frequently consulted by major media outlets. Stein’s publications include a memoir: Inside Out, and a non-fiction book: Terror, Love and Brainwashing, along with numerous non-fiction pieces. Recently she was invited to submit a statement to the US Senate’s Jan 6th Committee on the cultic nature of Trumpism.

Project: "Après Soixante-huit: An exploration of political mourning, love and history through a girl's eyes"

In 1969, Stein was a teenager from an anti-racist and politically progressive family in London when she fell in love with a soixante-huitard, Pierre Aroutcheff, close friend of Dany Cohn-Bendit and other activists. She lived with him and his friends in Paris for two years. Her project is to build around this lived experience a fresh look at the post-68 period. These were the first years of what writer Annie Mignard referred to as “ten years of mourning”. This investigation will include who those activists were, who they became and their impact on French culture and on Stein’s own trajectory.