In case anyone with a UK passport is watching Farage thinking "what he's saying won't apply to me", pay attention to what the far right is proposing in Germany, because where do you think British fascists are getting their ideas from?

This is a brilliant exhibition of some amazing contemporary art inspired by Lafcadio Hearn - and if you haven't explored Ushaw College (I hadn't) it's a very cool site. Lots of good Victoriana. Congrats to Fraser (@durhamimh.bsky.social), Claire, Steven, Kieran and the Kwaidan exhibition team!

I have had both colleagues and students dismiss my work as my "hobby and interest". To translate for anyone for whom it isn't obvious: it's because I'm queer and my research is queer. And that is called homophobia. I've said it before but it's been a while: Fuck UUK.

Went to the launch of Kwaidan, an exhibition of prints by Irish and Japanese artists inspired by Lafcadio Hearn's ghost stories. Curated by Claire Marsland at Ushaw College, brought to Durham by Fraser Riddell @durham-university.bsky.social and conceived by Stephen Lawlor and Kieran Owens.

A genuine joy to share our shortlist for the Kurt-Tucholsky-Preis 2025. Congratulations to Maryam Aras, Christiane Frohmann, Miedya Mahmod, Manja Präkels, and Ruth-Maria Thomas! tucholsky-gesellschaft.de/kurt-tuchols...

#Berlin Wir feiern trotzdem! 🥳 Morgen (Samstag, 23.08) ab 14:00Uhr am Hausvogteiplatz Kommt zahlreich! 🫶🏾 #AntonWilhelmAmoStraße #Amofest

Die ersten Schilder hängen schon….

V late bc summer, but am excited my article "Desire, Sex and Surveillance" is out in the fab volume Socialist Subjectivities @uofmpress.bsky.social. It's a queer methods piece from my archival work on East German queer soldiers in the Stasi files. Open access: press.umich.edu/Books/S/Soci...

Solidarity with trans friends and colleagues around today's ruling. This judicial activism has ignored the principal function of laws in Scotland and England created to protect minorities. A real blow to human rights in the UK and we now have to push the government to legislate better. 🏳️‍⚧️

And once again we see ow, when a formerly centre right party adopts the language & ideas of the far right, it doesn’t “win back” those voters, but rather strengthens the far right. In voters’ minds, doing so legitimises their position: why vote for an imitation when you can vote for the “real” thing

Wir sind drin! Die Linke wird in der kommenden Legislaturperiode wieder in Fraktionsstärke im Bundestag vertreten sein! Wir danken euch für euer Vertrauen, eure Stimmen und das unglaubliche Engagement in den letzten Wochen!

A coalition between CDU and AFD is an extreme, undesired event even for CDU voters. 81% of CDU voters, above the overall 70% of voters, are opposed to seeing the AFD take any form of state power. It is important to remember that.

Preliminary thoughts on the German election results so far: 1) Chasing the far right vote by demagoguing on migration has brought the CDU/CSU it's second worst performance in history. It's in first place, but it's a weaker result than anything Merkel posted.

Genau, Schwester!

Wir gedenken: Gökhan Gültekin Sedat Gürbüz Said Nesar Hashemi Mercedes Kierpacz Hamza Kurtović Vili Viorel Păun Fatih Saraçoğlu Ferhat Unvar Kaloyan Velkov Sie wurden vor fünf Jahren, am 19. Februar 2020, bei dem rassistischen Anschlag von Hanau ermordet. #KeinVergessen

In a world of diverse cultures and languages you cannot do global humanities with integrity in English only. As the chair of @englishassociation.bsky.social l stand with colleagues in Modern Languages @cardiffuniversity.bsky.social and across the UK.

Did you know that we offer a funded scholarship for Sep 2025 entry to one of our two full-time Masters degrees, open to UK-domiciled applicants from groups under-represented in the School and who can demonstrate academic excellence? Read more here: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/modern-langu...

The planned MFL cuts placed the university in “direct contradiction” with Welsh govt policy and international strategy. The cuts undermine Cardiff’s role in supporting the linguistic diversity that is critical for the regional economy, the teacher pipeline, and for international partnerships.

Please help support our colleagues in languages at Cardiff by challenging the decision to exclude them from the category of ‘global humanities’ @ucflangs.bsky.social @artsandhums.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/card...

Job klaxons! We are recruiting three postdoc Fellows to work on the global histories of #HIV and #AIDS #activism in #India; #South #Africa; #Turkey and the Middle East. Thanks to generous funding from the UKRI. You may find the links in the comments below.

Stopped off at St Athernase's Church in Leuchars on way home after a lovely first day back after the break - really remarkable Norman apse and also important family connection for me. 😊

OK, I'll bite. Points to anyone who can guess this one.

ich habe für die @taz.de einen text über das transfeindliche US-dekret geschrieben (und warum der queerfeindliche rollback auch in deutschland in vollem gange ist) taz.de/Trumps-Dekre...

Kein Raum für Erinnerungskultur Fünf Jahre erinnerte die „Dekoloniale“ an den deutschen Kolonialismus aus Betroffenen-Perspektive. Nun müssen die Initiativen ihre Räume aufgeben. taz.de/Modellprojek...

Submit a proposal in Queer Studies - calling all emerging scholars and especially Germanists! The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Group at Peter Lang Publishing is delighted to announce the 2025 Peter Lang Emerging Scholars Competition in Queer Studies. www.peterlang.com/2025-emergin...

As one of those submitting a response to this "consultation" I am, quite frankly, outraged that despite 30 of us opposing the puberty blocker ban against only 14 (which included a number of hate-groups) supporting it (in other words a supermajority) @teamlabouruk.bsky.social decided to impose it.

With the UK Parliament reportedly considering a longer-term ban on puberty blockers, here is the evidence against the ban I provided to the UK Government and Commission on Human Medicines. I have no doubt that Parliament will ignore that evidence today. But this is a long fight we intend to win.

As in Tennessee, this ban does not apply to cis children, because the drugs themselves are not a safety hazard. The only thing at risk is a society’s discomfort with allowing young people to make their own decisions about their own bodies.

Ned Blackhawk considers the best books on Native American history published (so far) in the 21st century. https://buff.ly/3BgYzZP

Did you know? Black Friday is named in honor of Rebecca Black, who invented Friday in 2011.

🏳️‍⚧️ Thinking of fabulous trans friends, family, colleagues and students on this year's Trans Day of Remembrance. Trans rights are human rights! 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵

Wee North Sea coast escape 🥰

You may have noticed a lot of hot air being blown about inheritance tax and farmland. This article does a great job explaining why it's all nonsense. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

@ervinmalakaj.bsky.social und ich organisieren die nächste DDGC Konferenz, die im April 2025 online stattfindet. Den CfP findet ihr unten. Teilt den Post gerne auch mit anderen interessierten Menschen. Konferenzsprachen sind Deutsch und Englisch.

Autumn in Edinburgh 😊

Some interesting detail on JDV and TW here in the Guardian, but *why* do we have to generalise about the Midwest (region the size of W Europe) in this anthropological way? I grew up with no cornfields in sight and not sure I-696 is ever a "wide-open highway"... www.theguardian.com/us-news/arti...

Ich mag die Vorstellung, mit einem (wissenschaftlichen) Text in ein Gespräch einzusteigen und dieses mit eigenen Perspektiven zu erweitern. Mein Buch ist erschienenen und ich bin gespannt, welche Gespräche sich darüber (hinaus) ergeben. www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-7...

Art by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell in Berwick Church in Sussex 🌈⛪️🌄 #BloomsburyGroup

Excited this is out! Such a joy to share a section with @elizabethward.bsky.social and @kyfrack.bsky.social, and to be able to tag them both here, unlike on Tw*tter(!) My chapter uses trans theory to explore the army's 'binary panic' around women soldiers. www.berghahnbooks.com/title/AllanD...

Trying to recommit to this place as the other place gets worse and worse. Sorry to have been rubbish on here so far. Here's a rainbow over Berlin to make up for it 🥰

Fabulous to catch @benwritesthings.bsky.social and Elif Saydam at the Gropius Bau in Berlin talking around the General Idea exhibition. As Ben says, this may be the best GI retrospective ever, so get over to see it if you can!

So Friday evening hive mind question for #GermanStudies folks: For my new course I'm looking for recent-ish German films that are good depictions of straightness. Bonus points if it's even a positive, feminist depiction - these seem harder to find? Ideas?

Posting a picture of the castle in the autumn sun because I can't post about the latest thing my work has done to make me upset and despairing...

It was such a pleasure to be invited to Scripps College to talk about my work on queer of colour art in Germany's club scene. It's a difficult time to be talking about the politics of dance music, and I'm so grateful to everyone for a reflective, generative discussion. #techno #Berlin #queerstudies

Tfw you've arrived in SoCal and woken up in a Hockney painting 🤩

In the third paper of the #TheGSA2023 “Streaming Television and German Studies. Challenges and Opportunities” panel, Tom Smith @tomsmithgerman.bsky.social discusses how queer dynamics obstruct and disrupt the circulation of tropes in the streaming series Beat, Loving Her and All You Need.