Did someone say 'boxing'? 'The Boxer' (1933) by Russian artist Konstantin Somov. 🥊🌈🎨 Happy Boxing Day! #BoxingDay #Christmas #queer #lgbtq #art #arthistory #1930s 🗃️

This Christmas Day, we're sharing a festive favourite with a scientific past. This illustration of Poinsettia pulcherrima comes from Fleurs de Java (1742), created during the Linnean age of botanical discovery. From science to Christmas tradition, season’s greetings from us at the Society!

Happy Christmas! 🎄🎅 'Christmas day is one of great importance to the men: the whole of it has been given up to revelry, at present there is not a sober man in the ship' - Charles Darwin, 25 December 1831. 🍾 thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/c... #Christmas #histsci #histbio 🗃️

I'll be looking out for Rudolph and her friends tonight! 🔴🦌🦌🛷🎁🎅 Same-sex sexual behaviours are well documented for reindeer, female and male. Read about it in Bruce Bagemihl's Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (1999). #queer #lgbtq #science #nature #Christmas 🌈

Just to add, if you miss Rudolph tonight, there's another great spot to be made as the International Space Station follows in Santa's path early tomorrow morning. 🦌🛷🎅🛰️👩‍🚀 Here are some timings: www.space.com/stargazing/s... Here's another great piece: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/art... #space #Christmas

I'll be looking out for Rudolph and her friends tonight! 🔴🦌🦌🛷🎁🎅 Same-sex sexual behaviours are well documented for reindeer, female and male. Read about it in Bruce Bagemihl's Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (1999). #queer #lgbtq #science #nature #Christmas 🌈

On Friday 13 Feb I’ll be at the perfect place to talk about extinction in natural history museums: Oxford University Museum of Natural History @morethanadodo.bsky.social. Free tickets available for “Dead as a Dodo: The Haunted Heritage of Extinction” oumnh.ox.ac.uk/event/dead-a... #extinction

Was at a Christmas party with a load of clergy last night and as some people were leaving they found a person collapsed on the street outside so the Verger took over and called an ambulance and sent all the clergy away because "if they wake up surrounded by priests that'll just make things worse"

📍 Online Lecture 📆 Jan 23, 12:30 -1:30 ✨ Join Simon Pooley as he discusses the okapi, a rainforest giraffid which has become a symbol of scientific curiosity, colonial power, and conservation challenges. Grab your free tickets here: buff.ly/CGq6rfy

'Figures from the Office for Students (OfS) show that about 130,000 full-time undergraduate students identified as LGB in English universities in 2023-24. This was 11 per cent of the total student cohort, which was up from 8 per cent in 2020-21.' 1/3

This February, prepare for A Queer Night at the Museum, taking place from 7:30pm at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. 📆 Friday 6thFebruary ⏰ 7:30pm - 11:00pm 🎟️ From £12 👉 Find out more: www.queerheritagesouth.co.uk/s/queer-heri...

Waitrose Christmas food delivery service isn't what it used to be. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

IT'S✨OFFICIAL✨ Kylie Minogue's XMAS is 2025's Official Christmas Number 1🤩Kylie, the festive throne is all yours! Now, everybody go X-M-A-S 🕺🪩 https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/christmas-number-1-2025-kylie-minogue-xmas/

Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it

Quakers in Britain are continuing to work to ensure that all Quaker communities are inclusive of gender diversity, following a decision in 2021. A new document provides both theological background for this, rooted in the commandment to love one another, and practical guidance. 1/4

People without History are Dust. Drawing on extensive archival research, this groundbreaking book uncovers the overlooked stories of Queer Jews in the Holocaust, deepening our understanding of identity, survival, and memory. Read more: bit.ly/483yOtz #QueerStudies @ankahajkova.bsky.social

An exciting early Christmas present has just arrived !! The New Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology - featuring a chapter I co-authored on queer political ecology - is out in 2026. Can’t wait to read through all the other chapters…

Another entirely normal Victorian Christmas for today's #ArchiveAdventCalendar The Cyclist in 1888/9 shouts 'Festive' with its vision of Professor Gorilla, dressed only in red pants, painting the #ChristmasColours of a swampy St Paul's Cathedral through an arch decorated with bicycling pharaohs

Discounts end 23rd December! Doing any last-minute gift shopping or just looking to treat yourself to some end-of-year reading? Browse our Christmas Sale on our website now. #booksky #giftideas #christmas

Don't steal pies this Christmas.

Just 10 trans Christmas tree pins remaining! It would be amazing if they sold out before Christmas 🥰

🌷 Uncover how global voyages, rare specimens and vital Indigenous knowledge reshaped the making of British natural history. Join Dr Edwin Rose as he discusses his recent book, Reading the World: British Practices of Natural History 1760-1820. 📆 4 Feb 2026 Tickets here: buff.ly/eNIDzHM

🎉It's here!🎉 This year's annual roundup of new species described by @nhm-london.bsky.social's curators, researchers and scientific associates! We've got butterflies! We've got wasps! We've even got the odd dinosaur as I know people like those. Check it out! 🐝🧪🦕

There have been some wonderful queer-themed books published this year which would make *FABULOUS* Christmas presents. Here are my top picks (history first, then science below) . . . 📚 #booksky 🌈🗃️ #lgbtqhistory 🏳️‍⚧️🎄 #queerhistory 🎁

It’s lovely to see that Songs of Seven Dials is one of the @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk recommended Christmas gifts. Thank you for the kind words (in the alt-text): they have got me in the festive spirit now. www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/collections/... #London #history #20s30s

Tomorrow's the day! I will be doing the first public launch event for my book at the University of Exeter. If you are free, please come along or join online! 📚 www.exeter.ac.uk/events/detai...

#FrogFriday 🐸: J. Martin Pollock “I AM AT THE ZOO BRING ME A FLY.” 1923 Lithograph in colours, backed on linen, 40 x 25 in. (102 x 64 cm) London Underground / London Zoo www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5...

Cover reveal time! Announcing ALOCASIA: 99 Queer Writers on Plants and Nature, coming in early 2026 🌱💚 Cover design by @alban-fischer.bsky.social, illustrations by @lichenritual.bsky.social

Just a fleeting visit to Manchester this time, but I was sure to say hello to Alan Turing . . . 🖥️🏳️‍🌈🍏 #lgbtqhistory #queerhistory

So happy being back in the great city of Manchester! 🌈🐝 Looking forward to chatting with Yuki and Tamsin at the Whitworth this evening . . .

Charles Darwin's Address Book published for the first time! Full of surprises and new information. One of Darwin's water-cure doctors was charged with manslaughter!? The fireworks manufacturer he ordered from later blew himself up? darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialInt...

Now on Bluesky: @darwin-online.bsky.social. Give 'em a follow! #HPS #histsci

Don't miss out on our Symposium: Exploring Queerness in Natural History, where we explore topics such as how we uncover and research LGBTQ+ and queer ecological histories and identities. 📆 February 05, 10:00 - 19:00 📍 Linnean Society of London Book your tickets here:

'Searching for community in queer Cambridge' 'An estimated 6.52% of the city’s population now identifies as LGBTQ+, the highest proportion in the East of England, according to the most recent census.' 🌈🎓🏳️‍⚧️ www.varsity.co.uk/features/30805

'Jack Gann, the curator at Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds, which is hosting the Beneath the Sheets: Anatomy, Art and Power exhibition, says Joseph Maclise’s work also broke new ground by centring black bodies and focusing on queer desire.'

New calls for research funding: bit.ly/44d2mTb Today we open calls for the Society's next rounds of 'Early Career Fellowship Grants' and 'Open Research Grants'. These schemes offer support for post-doc and later career historians to pursue research. Closing dates: 6 March 2026 #Skystorians 1/2

A detail from Levi Walter Yaggy's chromolithographic 1887 chart, Physical Geography: a classic mid-century Iguanodon dominates the 'Pre-Adamite' Mesozoic, dwarfing the timid-looking bipedal dinosaur half-heartedly added above. Whole image viewable on the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.

🚨We have a SUPER exciting announcement!🚨 Our next Summer Meeting will be at @zslofficial.bsky.social on the theme of The Zoological Society of London at 200: Science, Society, and the Natural World 🥳 📅1-3 July 2026 🗺️Zoological Society of London Find out how to submit 👇🏻 shnh.org.uk/all-events/c...

It’s small business Saturday. Buy quirky, different, unusual and unique. My little offering dozens of pride themes science and Sci Fi pins. proudscience.etsy.com Also, what should I make in 2026?!

LGBT survivors tell of 'barbaric' NHS shock therapy

The artist Niki Simpson pioneered the use of #digital techniques that were developing in the early 2000s for the purpose of botanical illustration, as shown here in her piece on the Poinsettia. #christmas #EYADigital

Don't forget, look up! 🔭🌕 'Tonight's full Moon is your last chance to see a supermoon in 2025. Here's how to make the most of it.' www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/last-su... #sky #nightsky

Today I opened a box... of me!!! ☠️👽👻👹🧜‍♂️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Queer As Folklore is back in shops and available online from @manchesterup.bsky.social!

If you're after a festive gift or want to treat yourself @manchesterup.bsky.social are offering a 40% discount on Songs of Seven Dials at the moment. A new history of London and the 1920s and 1930s for the knockdown price of £12: what's not to like? manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526181954/

Another £1k sent to AKT from pin badge sales. [over £46k in total] 24% or young homeless people are LGBTQ+ and AKT offers dedicated and informed support. So valuable, especially in winter. 🥰Thanks for continued support 🥰 AKT: www.akt.org.uk Pin badges: www.jamiebgall.co.uk/shop Recent purchases:

"Queer Allusion" uncovers the crucial but underexamined role played by literary allusion in shaping queer poetry on both sides of the Atlantic, from the trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895 to the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Happy #pubday to Florian Gargaillo! https://bit.ly/queerallusion

A highlight of my year has been Yuki Kihara's brilliant exhibition Darwin in Paradise Camp. It's currently at the Whitworth in Manchester and next Thursday (11th) I'll be there chatting to Yuki and curator Tamsin Hong. Come along! Free, but do book . . . 🌊🏳️‍🌈🐠🏳️‍⚧️🗃️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/yuki-kihar...

Our 2025 Christmas Gift Guide is now live! Shop selected titles with 40% OFF as part of our Christmas Sale promotion for a limited time only. Whether it's sport, folklore, music or Jane Austen you're after there's a book here for everyone on your list: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/11...

It's always a thrill returning to Oxford where I lived, studied, and worked for so long. I'm giving a talk at the stunning new Life and Mind Building . . . 🏳️‍🌈🐵🏳️‍⚧️🧬 #Oxford #QueerBiology #lgbtq @oxfordbiologylgbtq.bsky.social

IT'S BLACK FRIDAY!!  Get an extra 15% off everything at proud-geek.co.uk this weekend. Just enter code BLACKFRIDAY25 at checkout and get LGBTQ+ books, graphic novels and manga delivered to your door. Runs from 28-11-25 to 01-12-25