#2 was @briony.bsky.social discussing the fascinating Feminist Fandom: Media Fandom, Digital Feminisms, and Tumblr newbooksnetwork.com/feminist-fan...

I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide. And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft. What does OpenAI offer the world?

#AoIR2026 will be in Mexico City! See my map of all AoIR locations at www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/e... #AoIR2025

oh you’re a nihilist? name zero things that matter

At #aoir2025 I’m presenting on what I term “platformed nostalgia”, which I explore via an analysis of Automattic-era Tumblr’s efforts to commercialise historical social media nostalgia in its marketing (particularly in response to the X-odus). I’m in the Memes panel at 9am tomorrow. Sneak peak 👀

VACANCY: Lecturer in Sociology (13 months, starting Jan 2026) Closing date: 20 Oct 2025 Teaching PG modules on ‘Social Theory: Structure, Relations & Interaction’ & ‘Research Design’. @britsoci.bsky.social @uomsoss.bsky.social www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

It was an absolute pleasure to review @briony.bsky.social's brilliant book on feminist fandom for the EJCS. If you haven't bought her book yet (or forgot to ask your university library to purchase it), please let my review convince you to do so immediately: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

V into this stack rn (/hints at where my politics chapter is maybe going to end up)

📣Applications for the second Reactionary Politics Summer School are open📣 The summer school provides a space to develop key skills for the research of reactionary politics. It will be hosted hybrid and attendance is free. Bursaries are also available. Sign up below! reacpol.net/summer-schoo...

OUT NOW #OnlineFirst: Live Methods Revisited Eight new papers focus on @academicdiary.bsky.social‬ and Nirmal Puwar’s Live Methods and its clarion call for more “artful and crafty” sociological methodologies. Edited by @emmakjackson.bsky.social‬ ‪& @kirsteen-paton.bsky.social‬ buff.ly/sM4Uta3

Really pleased that my paper on what I’m calling “platformed nostalgia” has been accepted to #aoir2025 - this will be my first time presenting at the Association of Internet Researchers conference! V excited.

You can read my findings here. The article is open access so everyone can read it for free.

My article on 'positive effects' of media and social media is out! Borne out of frustration of seeing articles like these, which seemed exceptionally silly to me but colleagues in media studies were occasionally sharing positively. So I went and collected a load and analysed them.

Loughborough bound for a symposium on reactionary politics, women, and feminist critique. Looking forward to lots of fascinating papers and to presenting with @jillybkay.bsky.social on TikTok’s “boysober” trend.

NEW! MCCS are awarding a limited no of 100% fee waivers for 2025–26 for students who are the first in their family to attend university on these MAs: • MA Cultural Studies • MA Gender, Media and Culture • MA Race, Media and Social Justice Full details: www.gold.ac.uk/fees-funding...

My review of Briony Hannell's brilliant book 'Feminist Fandom: Media Fandom, Digital Feminisms, and Tumblr' is now available in Feminist Media Studies ✨ @femmediastudies.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

As a sociologist @emmahcasey.bsky.social studies the rapid return of the housewife, both in real life and across social media - for @StylistMagazine she spells out why our love of cleaning influencers and #tradwife content is much darker than it first appears: www.stylist.co.uk/life/return-...

Our statement on the UK Supreme Court's ruling on the Equality Act. We stand in solidarity with trans and non-binary people and believe that it is the responsibility of researchers to hold our institutions to account to defend trans equality and dignity. reacpol.net/supreme-cour...

Want to learn about a platform that claims to have “old Internet energy”? For the #britsoc25 early birds, I’ll be presenting a paper on historical social media nostalgia in the Culture, Media, Sport and Food session at 9am, Room 4.209.

The UK Supreme Court’s transphobic ruling on the definition of woman last week is a defeat for all women—even, ultimately, the self-described feminists celebrating it, and the women who will gain in the short term from their alliance with the carceral state. my latest for @thenation.com

We’re looking forward to the BSA Sociology Annual Conference at the University of Manchester, starting tomorrow! – hashtag is #britsoc25

My analysis of today's UK Supreme Court judgment. The UK Supreme Court Rules That Trans Women Aren't Women Under the Equality Act 2010 www.wearequeeraf.com/uk-supreme-c...

Love hearing friends and colleagues being cited. @briony.bsky.social's work on feminist fandom is being drawn on to think about anti-fans video essays critiquing true crime fandom (many from a position of true crime consumer to a greater or lesser extent). #murdermedia

Feeling very overwhelmed and lucky after today’s book launch at @sheffielduni.bsky.social 🥹🩷 I couldn’t believe how many lovely people logged in for it and asked such brilliant questions. A million thank yous, especially to @briony.bsky.social for being such a fantastic respondent.

See also cute share-worthy graphic:

Hello Bluesky friends! My first book - The Kids Are Online: Confronting the Myths and Realities of Young Digital Life - hits the shelves this month and I'm having a launch event, hosted by @briony.bsky.social :) 18 MARCH 2025 1500 GMT HYBRID Book your (online) place here: tinyurl.com/ydrep6fh

How the Girlboss Lost: @reproutopia.bsky.social on the Rise and Fall of a Feminist Moment

I'll be giving a research seminar in JOMEC at Cardiff University next Wednesday titled "Pathways to understanding and identifying with feminism: Media reception, critical paratextuality and feminist identity development". It will be chaired by the excellent @hannahhamad.bsky.social. Join if you can!

A shameless plug for all the season one episodes of my podcast, Ill Effects. All retweets appreciated as I was building this in a year when I wasn't on Twitter! If you're unsure where to start the Beatles episode is my fave!

Weekend listening! @briony.bsky.social talks to @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about “Feminist Fandom: Media Fandom, Digital Feminisms, and Tumblr” newbooksnetwork.com/feminist-fan...

This Valentine's Day, I spoke to The Big Issue about Gen Z, dating, and political homophily in the era of toxic gender politics. More here ➡️ www.bigissue.com/life/how-to-...

I'll be giving a research seminar in JOMEC at Cardiff University next Wednesday titled "Pathways to understanding and identifying with feminism: Media reception, critical paratextuality and feminist identity development". It will be chaired by the excellent @hannahhamad.bsky.social. Join if you can!

For people interested in discussing Enemy Feminisms, here are some dates for you. It'll be an enifemomenon 🐉 *Check lasophielle.org/events for event registration links, more info, & updates.

Join me online/in person 29th Jan 2-4pm UK time for a talk from the iconic Angela McRobbie! I’ll be responding + sharing insights from my arts-based research w/ disabled, girls celebrating Angela’s work + the legacy of the CCCS sign up ⬇️ www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/soci... @uofglasgow.bsky.social

New podcast! @profafinlayson.bsky.social and I spend 3 hours discussing reactionary digital politics, the history of the online right and the politics of the platform economy. We also have a row about Bitcoin. It's all here, and in the feeds: culturepowerpolitics.org/2025/01/15/h....

Call for 12 Bicentenary Postdoc Research Fellowships (3-years) at UoM. Fellows will need a mentor and address the Faculty of Humanities priority research themes of Digital Futures; Sustainable Futures; Creativity; Global Inequalities; and Adaptive Societies. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

It's hard to imagine a more brutal illustration of climate injustice and a failed society than indentured teenage slaves being used to protect the homes of wealthy Americans.

In this @rachaelhealy.bsky.social piece, @jillybkay.bsky.social: “Liberal feminism has been rejected for good reason .. it makes sense you’d want to find an alternative. But just because something is the enemy of liberal feminism does not mean it’s good for women” www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

Enjoyed my first visit to a very wintery Brighton to examine a Gender Studies PhD at Sussex this week. The viva went really well and I left Brighton with some v cute Christmas baubles in tow!

Just a little reminder that the South Korean president who just declared martial law was elected two years ago on a wave of anti-feminist backlash. Misogyny is routinely part of the authoritarian package. www.bbc.com/news/world-a...

Northern addition: “you’re not wrong” (instead of saying “you’re 100% correct”)

I'm really pleased to share that my abstract (on Tumblr, platform crisis, and the commercialisation of historical social media nostalgia) has been accepted for the next British Sociological Association Conference in 2025. My first BSA and one hosted by Manchester, no less! 📍

TERF Island: There Have Always Been Enemies Inside the Feminist Camp - By Sophie Lewis lux-magazine.com/article/terf...

🗓️ This is tomorrow! Looking forward to joining my colleagues to celebrate 60 years of the department and host a roundtable on the 'Global Social Challenges' (2026, w/ @brisunipress.bsky.social) edited collection we're working on. I'm contributing a chapter on gender and the anti-gender movement.

In the #research article "From femcels to ‘femcelcore'’", @jacobjohanssen.bsky.social and @jillybkay.bsky.social introduce a new theoretical lens for analysing the politics of gender, sexuality and popular media. Read the full article here: https://buff.ly/4fATbzE

This is tomorrow morning ⬇️

This is also a long-term strategy of elite right-wing organizations to help push public discourse to the right. The concept of “diversity of opinion” was part of this strategy. The goal was always, include more right-wing voices

Bluesky now has over 20M people!! 🎉 We've been adding over a million users per day for the last few days. To celebrate, here are 20 fun facts about Bluesky:

Seeing as though Bluesky has experienced some renewed interest recently, I’m reposting my CfP as I’m still interested in interviewing folks that have made the leap from X to BlueSky!