“I don’t think the government can afford to bury our heads in the sand about the fact that trans people in our country today feel less safe than they did 10 years ago.” Do you think he practiced that in the mirror?

This week is a 5 day strike at University of Edinburgh in response to management decisions and practices around £120m cuts & UCU’s concerns around workloads, teaching, and research quality.

The things we refuse to learn are always reflections of power settlements. Take for example the 'great man' fallacy, repeatedly undermined by so-called great men, and yet just relentless in its persistence. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I'm very excited to share that the next SSAHE webinar will be a celebration of my new book - Borders, Citizenship, and Pregnancy - and of Bordering Social Reproduction by Rachel Rosen and Eve Dickson. Please register and join us online, 9 October, at 5pm #AcademicSky ssahe.net/2025/09/03/n...

Alongside Dr. Ganguli-Mitra, the postholder will develop a project related to epistemic and structural injustice in abortion care, informed by intersectional and transnational feminist approaches, as well as relevant data from practice, governance and activism in relation to care in abortion.

A university's most precious long-term asset (faculty) is the same population of workers that most universities do everything they can to render precarious, anxious, and isolated. I'm a consultant now, give me a million dollars

My dad died last week, and he was - by any objective measure - the very best. You can read about him here: obituaries.startribune.com/obituary/wil...

I wrote a haiku about returning from my sabbatical My diary was empty But now it is full I yearn for the in-between

This is your annual reminder that industrial action is more than a protest, it is a withdrawal of labour with the intention of leveraging that withdrawal for improved working conditions.

This is being retweeted by numerous academics on my feed shocked that the figure is so low. This is unsurprising as the majority of hardworking academics I know (including me) are driven by spite.

Today I became a Senior Lecturer!

This year my child's nursery fees rose by 14% and my pay rose by 1.4%.... that seems a bit on the nose

hey does anyone need a 12ft by 11ft woolen map of Ireland

This week the Department for Work and Pensions explicitly ignored my research findings, instead of implicitly doing so (or being totally unaware of them). REF Impact Case Study?! I think so. questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-ques...

The release of the 2025 two-child limit statistics statement makes for interesting reading, not least because (unlike in previous years) it includes demographic data. Most notable is that 98% of impacted households included at least one female claimant, whilst only 47% contained at least one male.

You have to laugh, really.

oh no someone done a political music call the police

I AM CERTAIN ACADEMICS FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM WILL BE HERE IN JUST A MINUTE TO DEFEND PALESTINE ACTION. certain

"The task that doesn't have to be done but really should be done to secure the emotional and physical well-being of a person or community" is one of the most insidious technologies of gender injustice.

Amen.

Hold yourself with the confidence of a French philosopher from the middle of the twentieth century.

2 things. 1) imagine if the media reported on assessment regulations across HE. What a ride that would be. 2) that resits are controversial at Cambridge is an indictment. What a fantastically dumb commitment to inhumanity & incredulity & randomness. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05...

@beckshewer.bsky.social summarizes her important new report exploring UK health and social care professionals’ thoughts about assessing and certifying eligibility for the two-child limit’s ‘non-consensual conception’ exception, colloquially known as the ‘rape clause’. bit.ly/44WvejT

The recent rise in abortion-related police investigations and prosecutions in the UK is incredibly concerning and should be read in the context of a global assault on reproductive freedom. This story is horrible, this poor woman. Urgent reform is needed. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Report Launch 📣 The Rape Clause: How Health and Social Care Professionals Administer the ‘Non-Consensual Conception Exception’ to the Two-Child Limit by Dr Rebecca Hewer

In 2017 the UK government sparked outrage by enacting a 'non-consensual conception exception' to its two-child limit, but we know very little about how this 'rape clause' has played out in practice. My new research exposes fundamental flaws in the policy (details below)

Reading historical sociology is discovering every one of your faves born in the late 19th century was in fact a eugenicist

A must read piece from Brian @changingrealities.bsky.social in today’s Guardian on these ill conceived cuts to support for those who need it most www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

given that the USAID website has just gone offline, I feel it is profoundly misguided for public health experts to be giving this administration any credit whatsoever

i’m just photoshopping muppets onto the cover of harper’s bazaar: thread

ICYMI (& because the Bluesky algorithm is tough to crack) Ben Collier & I innovated a methodology for utopian, prefigurative policy analysis! We argue that critique is insufficient, & that you should write the unrealistic & desirable policies of your dreams! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Only if you read mine.

UK low- to middle-income families far poorer than OECD counterparts – study Britons 39% worse off than Dutch equivalent due to housing costs 44% higher than western European average www.theguardian.com/business/202...

There are around 10k private school kids in Edinburgh. 51 have moved to state schools in January. As I've repeatedly said the effects of VAT on fees are going to be minimal. www.thetimes.com/article/ab42...

@agoldman.bsky.social on a solitary writing retreat in the Scottish Highlands, and listening to the Reply All back catalog. Anyhow, really enjoy your new and old work #discretion

Grad students! Apply for our *free* weeklong workshop on PPE methods. Join our ever-growing network of scholars engaged in rigorous interdisciplinary study of difficult social problems. June 2-7. Applications due Jan 24.

Sometimes my 3 year old asks me to read her favourite books “in French” by which she means in English but with a frankly offensive French accent reminiscent of Pepe Le Pew. And I do it.

The lovely @susansegfault.bsky.social and I have a new article out in Journal of Social Policy! We propose an innovative elaboration of CPA, harnessing methodologies of hope, play, and utopia to produce critical policy knowledge. Check it out, festively 🎄🤶🎅🏾 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The children in question were 10 & 11. Surely it was time? Also something v Richard Curtis about an English vicar unravelling in this way at Christmas time ❤️ www.theguardian.com/education/20...

There is an oddly significant number of purportedly left wing academics - many of whom are union active - who are absolutely horrible to admin staff. I find this endlessly confusing.

The longer I spend observing doctoral studies from a professional distance, the more astounded I become that anyone ever gets a PhD.

According to my University’s multi-million pound HR systems, if I have 63 hours of leave left this year, and I take a day (7 hours) off, I will have 98 HOURS REMAINING. This is how senior management must feel about institutional mathematics. Warm and fuzzy.

If a bear attacks you, stay calm. Try to see the situation from their point of view

A legal case starts in the UK Supreme Court today to clarify the meaning of 'sex' in the Equality Act. It's the latest in a long line of efforts to change 'who counts' as a woman, to the exclusion of trans women. @bbcphilipsim.bsky.social summarises events so far... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'No recourse to public funds' has been successfully challenged in the UK courts! The UK govt policy breaches a duty of care because long wait times for immigration decisions mean people are left destitute with no means to support themselves or get support.

In the spirit of introducing myself to a newly constituted community, I’d like to share my recent publication in Social Politics, which critically engages with the two-child limit as a form of reproductive governance. academic.oup.com/sp/article/3...

We invite submissions for the second Stuart Hall Essay Prize. The award aims to stimulate a new generation of thinkers who can offer original, lively and topical contributions to the lines of political, cultural and educational inquiry which Hall pursued. www.stuarthallfoundation.org/projects/the...

Genuinely impressed by people cunning enough to practice strategic incompetence. All of my incompetence is entirely authentic. No calculus involved.

Bluesky academics! Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren’t working on but keep thinking about? 1) what are political and material realities/implications of the UKs “rape clause” 2) can mothers and non-mothers build political solidarity and how

The compulsion to write something vaguely meaningful as my first post is making it impossible to conceive of anything vaguely meaningful.