And another petition, sadly 😪 You might be aware that the Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies (LINCS) at Heriot-Watt University is under threat. More information and to sign the petition: heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/2026/02/05/s...

Book sale klaxon 🚨 Including my own book, but lots of other great titles in their film paperbacks @berghahnbooks.bsky.social

This is very very well written and meticulously researched. Well worth reading (and available open access).

It's out!🍾 I am delighted to announce the publication of our "Germany's History Wars. Contesting Memory and Identity Today" It is Open Access! 👇 You can download it here for free. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Interesting reporting on the damage the Republicans are wreaking in my own home turf in Trump country. The piece for the most part surprisingly humane (if you get past sneering descriptions by East Coast journalist who obviously didn't see the beauty of the place..) www.politico.com/news/2025/11...

Wir gedenken heute Bahide Arslan, Yeliz Arslan und Ayşe Yılmaz. Sie wurden vor 33 Jahren, in der Nacht vom 22. auf den 23. November 1992, bei den rassistischen Brandanschlägen von #Mölln ermordet. Weitere Mitglieder der Familie wurden zum Teil schwer verletzt. #KeinVergessen

Germany never even made it as far as "bad apples" theories, so dunno why I bother, but this is wild: "Diese Erklärung hinterfragt allerdings nicht, inwieweit Strukturen und der Corpsgeist in Polizei, Bundeswehr und anderen staatlichen Behörden rechte Einstellungen begünstigen" 👀

In response to recent news of the University of Nottingham's devastating plan to cut modern languages degrees, the AGS President (@pdavies.bsky.social) has sent a joint letter of protest to the UoN VC and the Chair of University Council on behalf of the AGS, W+IGS and the GLA. Link to the letter 👇

"Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball" Languages graduates are in high demand and have a lot to offer the economy and society www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late...

Modern Languages students at the University of Nottingham have started a petition to save languages degrees. Please sign and share www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...

Busy @ducuuo.bsky.social picket lines on day two of their week long strike to save jobs and oppose compulsory redundancies #SaveHE #SaveDundeeUni #NoCompulsoryRedundancies

Read about the traditional ‘Altar de muertos’ in the foyer of Buchanan Building, commemorating the Day of the Dead, largely celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries, especially in Mexico, 2 Nov. The Altar will be displayed from until 5 Nov: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/modern-langu...

May Ayim was key to the Black German civil rights movement. But what about her creative, feminist anti-racist work across Europe? How did this exemplify 'cosmopolitanism from below'? Prof. Tiffany N. Florvil on Ayim's life and vision: 🧵5/5 www.historyworkshop.org.uk/feminism/may...

"Für Jüdinnen und Juden kann es aus der Geschichte nur eine Lehre geben: Die Einteilung in jene, die aus dem #Stadtbild entfernt gehören, und in jene, die in das Stadtbild passen und deshalb verschont bleiben, ist nicht hinnehmbar" ~ Sasha Marianna Salzmann @taz.de

@brangwenstone.bsky.social and I are giving a talk next week in the Aus German Studies seminar online at 3.30pm AEDT - "Bad Feelings to Utopian Promises: Non-Binary Dissociative Poetics in Strubel’s Blaue Frau and Salzmann’s Außer sich" - trans studies/German lit, DM for a zoom link

Happy to announce that a recording of the "President's Guest" event at the AGS 2025 conference in Oxford last month is now available to stream on the AGS website. The event saw writer, academic, artist & activist Prof Natasha A. Kelly in conversation with Dr Kirstin Gwyer. Link below👇

Gunzert House, Bismarck Rock, Old Boma, Lugalo, Serengeti & Co.: Ein dekolonialer Reiseführer für Tanzania - dreisprachig, fundiert recherchiert und von Amani Abeid großartig illustriert! Als kostenfreier pdf-Download hier: decolonial-travel-guide-tanzania.com

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...

Spotted in the Vatican Museum: From 480BCE, an Attic vase in which same-sex desire is symbolised through the gift of a hare.

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.

Delighted to share this news from our 'Affective Experience Lab' collaborattor Dr Fusako Innami @durhamimh.bsky.social https://buff.ly/4ib40du