Bluesky is owned by musicology now, I don’t make the rules

Junior scholars and late-stage graduate students in popular music studies! The AMS Popular Music Study Group is now accepting applications for our biannual Junior Scholar Symposium in Cleveland this summer! Read our full call here and please share widely. amspop.wordpress.com/2026/01/19/2...

I've begun to use my social media—Bsky, Insta, FB—on my laptop more so than my phone, to the point where I'm considering deleting at least the latter two apps from my phone. Wondering if this is a sign of A. good mental health and boundaries; B. my approaching 30s; or C. all of the above.

Conchita Wurst steps back from #Eurovision, the year 🇦🇹 is hosting again: ‘My connection to the ESC remains - as part of my history, not as the place for my next steps.’ The singer who dedicated her 2014 win to ‘everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom’ has left the contest behind.

Meanwhile, at the Rochester NY #DragRace viewing party

Anna Delvey #DragRace guest judge when

Next week’s #DragRace maxi challenge is “QPop” girl groups and idk what that means in Drag Race terms but I really hope they’re referring to real life QPop—Qazaq/Kazakh Pop 🇰🇿 youtu.be/TkNfDWm0hhc?...

*screams in my JPMS article on Afro-Swedishness and the surveillance of (sonic) Blackness in Europe* online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article...

Word incoming #9LC

We brought Stewie (our 16yo beauty) with us to my partner’s family’s house for the holiday. She has a whole new house to explore but she just wants to loaf on the carpet floor.

Cloudbusting Wuthering Heights Wow This Woman’s Work Running Up That Hill The Big Sky
 Sat In Your Lap Babooshka Hounds of Love Suspended in Gaffa

Finished Expedition 33 a few days ago and Maelle’s ending is for ppl who think that inanimate objects have feelings (it’s me I’m ppl)

Now under contract from @manchesterup.bsky.social: PERFORMING QUEER NATIONS on #Eurovision and its narratives of queer, national, European belonging in post-Cold-War Europe bakercatherine.wordpress.com/2025/12/11/p... The history and memory behind where we now are.

“1990–2024” has been doing some beautiful work for me over the past few days

Just submitted the fair copy of my dissertation! “‘United By Music’: Europeanism, Migration, and Belonging through the Eurovision Song Contest, 1990–2024.”

🇳🇱 TV general director: ‘Culture unites, but not at any price.’ 🇪🇸, 🇮🇪, 🇸🇮 also out of #Eurovision 2026, as they said before last delegations’ meeting (🇸🇮 taking that stand first). 🇧🇪, 🇮🇸 to decide in coming days.

Submitting my Ph.D. dissertation on #Eurovision to my committee tomorrow morning. Surely nothing major will happen between now and then...right?

Today is International Day of People with Disability so again I beg that you use Alt Text for all your photos, videos, and GIFs. Not only does it make social media more accessible for folks who use screen readers, it also provides added context to your posts. ❤️

Huge news for Albanian, Canadian, and Albanian-Canadian pop girlies in my top songs of 2025.

My partner and I just watched Pan-Arcticvision (Eurovision for the circumpolar Arctic) and 1. wow I can't wait to teach this and 2. The victorious Sakha Republic's representative Saina's 1998 hit "Hello, Yakutsk" is about to go platinum in our apartment I fear www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rj7...

Get into it #ESC250

Subbed for Honey Meconi’s “Exploring Classical Music” class at the UofR this morning, teaching Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Stellar engagement from the students! Very grateful for so many opportunities to keep my teaching chops up while I’m on fellowship.

I got a little bit too into the Anna Nicole Smith opera in undergrad

Selfie of a lil guy who 1. just got a haircut; and 2. finished writing his dissertation!!!! 15 days until I submit the fair copy and 123 days until my defense. (I know, my institution's conferral deadlines are wonky). In the meantime, catch me in revision hell.

EBU’s “modernising” the fan experience is their attempt to control the fan experience rather than let the fans curate it themselves (as they’ve done for years). More control from above = centralized regulation of which bodies and ideologies are welcome and which are deemed “too political” for ESC.

Hillary Duff’s new single came out ten days ago and it only has 4 million streams on Spotify — gays what are you DOING, lock in

Had lots of fun reprising this lecture for Peter and his students at UC this afternoon! These students (no music majors!) were especially keen to discuss the political possibilities and shortcomings of generic hybridity in/and global popular music markets.

Happy AMS Week! I'll be presenting some dissertation(/future book project?) material on the Race, Nation, and Identity panel on Friday at 4pm. My talk will be of particular interest to folks thinking between popular music studies, global music history, and Afro-diasporic studies.

This *doesn’t* necessarily mean the song contest - could mean the EBU’s wider Eurovision Network of programming and live link-ups. Still interesting in a media space where policy debates have usually just been about protecting the future of ‘Canadian content’ when US media are so popular.

Gaymer posting hours: I finished Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter last night and Wowowowow it was great. Need the 2nd Chapter immediately. Can’t believe I’m just supposed to drop it and start playing the new Pokemon like my whole world wasn’t just rocked by a new (to me) JRPG (which happens often tbf)

Happy AMS Week! I'll be presenting some dissertation(/future book project?) material on the Race, Nation, and Identity panel on Friday at 4pm. My talk will be of particular interest to folks thinking between popular music studies, global music history, and Afro-diasporic studies.

This is my third time on campus this semester and I think that’s beautiful

Delighted to share that my paper at last year's virtual SEM “Crying at the EuroClub: Rainbow Europe, Queer Diasporas, and the Politics of Escapism at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest” was named the Honorable Mention for SEM's Gender and Sexuality Studies Section's Conference Presentation Prize!

That’s my advisor!!

Remember when North Macedonia tried to send the late great Romani singer Esma Redžepova to Eurovision with a song that glorified the ruling nationalist party’s controversial urban development project? If not (or even if you do for some reason), come hear my paper at SEM on Friday morning!

Got to hang out with @iamdylanlewis.bsky.social in Atlanta!

Remember when North Macedonia tried to send the late great Romani singer Esma Redžepova to Eurovision with a song that glorified the ruling nationalist party’s controversial urban development project? If not (or even if you do for some reason), come hear my paper at SEM on Friday morning!

I have a dissertation defense date. Things are really happening!

Exciting news: I’m joining the Journal of Popular Music Studies editorial team as the Journal’s new Web Editor. The Journal's priorities, outlined in the Editors' Introduction below, completely align with my vision for the future of popular music studies. Stay tuned for updates on JPMS socials!

Spent my morning with some excellent students at Roberts Wesleyan University! I gave a guest lecture on one of my diss chapters, and the students were eager to critique notions of representation, sameness, and "world music." Thanks to my brilliant colleague Dr. Eleanor Price for the invite.

My article “’Everybody Wanna Move Like Us!’: Performing Afro-Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest” has just been published in the September 2025 issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies! online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article...

I finished writing the last remaining chapter of my dissertation this afternoon 🥲

Roc and Buf folks: Come celebrate Palestrina’s 500th with Voices this weekend AND at NY ACDA next month! Also feat. Bach, Brahms, Bruckner, Pearsall, Poulenc, and Witt. Friday Sep. 26 at Holy Trinity in Buffalo, 7pm. Sunday Sep. 28 at Incarnate Word in Rochester, 4pm. Friday Oct. 17 at NY ACDA.

Another great way to mark the Eurovision new year is to start writing an abstract for a fabulous conference to be held in Paris next year. Proposal submission deadline: 15 October 2025 See website for more details: encore-network.org #Eurovision #cfp #AcademicSky

📢 Call for Proposals CES is pleased to invite submissions for its 32nd International Conference of Europeanists, to be held in Dublin, June 16–18, 2025. For more information about the Conference Theme and how to apply visit: councilforeuropeanstudies.org/conferences/...

Music studies besties! Celebrating our dear friend @queertrumpeter.bsky.social’s wedding this evening 🥹🥲💖 @alejandrinammedina.bsky.social

Googling yourself is wild because apparently you’ll find photos of yourself that you didn’t even know existed! Here’s me chairing a panel at IASPM-US/PopCon 2025 in LA this past March. Thank god my thinking/listening face lowkey serves. (📸 Joe Mabel)

Proofs are in! Catch my article on Afro-Swedishness in/and Eurovision in next month’s issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies. If you’re prepping a syllabus on popular music, European culture and politics, Black transnationalisms, or something related, please consider assigning this!

Academic pals: I'm starting a shared doc to collect info on exactly why/how AI is indefensible—specifically in humanities classrooms, but also across the board. Please share/add as you see fit. I plan to lecture from this in the first week; many students don't know. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

North Macedonia’s response to the Spice Girls in Eurovision 2000 was iconic—for all the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, this hit platinum in my household.