Lovely few days at the British Sociological Association's medical sociology conference. Wonderful range of presentations and such a supportive space. I shared some recent work about experiences of care and bordering, based on interviews with immigrant mothers in Catalonia (Spain). #MedSoc25

The Anthropology Brown Bag Calendar is up! Join us this fall semester and listen to our favorite anthropologists in our favorite room, Sewall 570. Links and descriptions will be provided before each meeting. Stay tuned! ✨

I got my mum a wildlife camera for her 60th, and now I get to enjoy a live feed of our local hedgehogs crunching kibble.

Some wisdom from a diss' interviewee: "I don't know, at the moment, like, just be nice or something. Because recently, I've been feeling like, being kind is really important. Even when somebody's mean towards you. I feel like the energy that being kind radiates is better. And, like, more positive."

Call for applications: 12-month postdoctoral contract (Sciences Po - INED, TIERED Project) for a research project studying the mediating role of environmental risks in the relationship between migration status and health at birth in France (e.g., heat, pollution). www.sciencespo.fr/cris/files/P...

I <3 library - "walk around the stacks and grab whatever looks good" is a valid literature review strategy.

Writing in the library atm, a new student and his grandma were looking around the reading room I'm in. They had got a bit lost and thought this was everything. I showed them to the central stacks and grandma's face lit up at the sight of all the books. I love libraries so much, they're magical.

🚨 Call for Papers for the 2026 IMISCOE Spring Conference “Governing and Experiencing Migration in Contentious Times” 📅 16-18 March 2026 @ Liège, Belgium & Online 📢 Deadline: 5 September 2025, 23:59 CEST. 📍 More info & submission: www.imiscoe.org/events/2393-...

🏆 SKAT #ASA2025 Awards! Congratulations to the following recipients: Hacker-Mullins Student Paper Award Xiaogao Zhou: “Care in transition: Global norms, transnational adaptation, and family-centered gender-affirming care in China” 🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

I committed to not overfilling my single underseat bag with hoarded books at the conference this year. I failed in that commitment. So here are the six books I picked up in Chicago, from #ASA2025 and @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social

At the most elite roundtable at this conference rn #ASA2025

#ASA2025 Four(!) regular sessions on reproduction. Starting at 8am and going all day. Hope to see you there!

If you're at the @asanews.bsky.social conference in Chicago and wondering what to do bright and early tomorrow, join us for this wonderful session! Five papers by a fantastic collection of scholars, all about food systems and inequality. #sociology #ASA2025 #food

The Onion giving an unironically legit teardown of much food insecurity / obesity panic research.

The decimation of life in Gaza is a reproductive genocide. It was a privilege to work with Hala Shoman on our commentary 'No justice in a genocide: sexual and reproductive health and rights in Gaza' in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I am working on 'The Asian Mother and Baby Campaign' which ran from 1984-1986. I would love to interview any linkworkers who were employed by the campaign or any women who were supported by linkworkers. Please spread the word or get in touch if this is you! My email is [email protected]

My brother, @samfern.bsky.social , visited my medical sociology class to talk about his new children's book ('Where The Dead Live') about death and burial traditions across cultures. Great time chatting about writing, translating research for kids, + the importance of talking & learning about death.

chips & writing by the lake 😎

📑 New paper is out! We are excited to announce the publication of our research in the European Journal of Public Health, on social patterns of #miscarriage reporting and risk in #France by @mccompans.bsky.social and @heinivaisanen.bsky.social 🔗 academic.oup.com/eurpub/advan... 1/4

Just registered for this year's conferences. It is Wild expecting PhD students to fork out in advance for hotels, flights, membership, and registration and then await reimbursement months later. It's a bizarrely imposed form of financial hardship just to participate in basic professional events.

Is me sending my dissertating bestie Very Good TikToks an act of care and the provision of relief, or am I sabotaging them and setting up additional barriers to success? Big questions as I hit the 'send' button on the dopamine app.

This little owl appeared right outside my window during my advisor meeting and I had to ask for a brief pause to snap it. I hear him at night and this was like a celeb spotting for me. So exciting.

Excited to be sharing another dissertation paper at the @britsoci.bsky.social Medical Sociology conference this September. Had so much fun last year, it was such a positive + supportive space. Now to actually finish writing it...

As an international student, I LOVE greedily taking up all the opportunities and resources that should have gone to homegrown Americans. Every time I get my stipend cheque I giggle about taking $$$ from deserving USians. Already plotting to fly the Union Jack at commencement to really rub it in.

The flowers outside of the library.

Bourdieu moment where he claims that a particular logic is "no doubt [...] as true in Japan as in France" before bracketing "(this remains to be verified)". Everyone should just *assert stuff* in this formula. "Yeah, this is a universal truth worldwide (I haven't actually checked that yet lol)"

Call for Participants - Abortion Care in Ireland (Please share widely)

I'm excited to share that SSAHE will be holding a joint book launch for myself and Rachel Rosen and Eve Dickson on 5 June at 5pm online, with Umut Erel as discussant! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/borderingm....

Sharing on behalf of my @cunygcsociology.bsky.social friend/colleague Ruth Milkman who isn't on social media. Here's her statement re a problematic censoring of an obituary for Michael Burawoy to appear in ASA Footnotes #soctwitter #socsky #sociology docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Drafting my first syllabus right now for medical sociology. It's a seven week summer course for 300 level students. If you've published anything cool recently, please drop it in the comments!! Do we think it's realistic to expect students to read one academic journal article per class session?

Recieved an honorable mention for my dissertation chapter "Immigrant experiences of harm in sexual and reproductive healthcare in Spain", now out in Social Science & Medicine (link below). Very grateful to my department.

Re-reading Pope Francis' homily at the U.S-Mexico border. Hoping the next pope continues his work of standing for immigrants, refugees, and prisoners. ignatiansolidarity.net/blog/2017/02...

Today in dissertation data collection

First imposter participant. I was already suspicious of the 4 consecutive Zoom interviews booked last night with odd email addresses. He panicked as he realised it was about motherhood and used a dreadful fake voice that kept cracking. He swore and rage quit when I asked him to turn on his camera.

Call for papers by 28 April for ‘Academia Across Borders: Experiences and Challenges of International Academics in the UK’ a @bsaecr.bsky.social event, 13 May, Newcastle University tinyurl.com/3kazv628 #cfp

Could you do with £10k for some humanities or social science research? We’ve opened the call for our small grants. These are assessed using partial randomisation - after applications meet our quality threshold awards are allocated at random, reducing bias www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/ba-l...

Want to write an ethnography on multi species kinship (sitting in the paddock with this gang and chronicling their gentle antics)

The way the "3.5% rule" has permeated social media/popular analyses of protests as this magical claim is such a case study in how poorly we talk about complex and varied social processes. The dismal wave of "this one secret rule explains society!" clickbait facilitated by TEDx and new social media.

Just hit 12 years volunteering & 10,000 contributions to Wikipedia. Probably more reach and impact than anything else I've done. Free, mostly reliable, and democratically produced knowledge for the masses. Never a better time to join in than now!

Last push for participants for this study on #ADHD and #PMDD!

A 1st year in my PhD program is going through a difficult time. Her father is on hospice care, and we want to make sure they can focus on their time together without financial worries. We're raising funds for her family, and I'd be deeply grateful for help sharing this GoFundMe. gofund.me/201612e9

The termination of 850 Indian Health Service physicians, nurses, and dentists will have a grave impact on access to care for millions of Native Americans. Upholding our treaty obligations is not optional.

I keep getting spammed with requests from predatory journals. Decided to reply, now the editors at "Insights in Veterinary Science" are eagerly anticipating my papers on the combat performance of Pidgeotto and Dodrio vs. water types. These are Pokémon.

My bestie Alex Priest and I were interviewed about research we've been doing on community responses to environmental devastation and the role of social media in circulating conspiracy theories. It's now a classroom resource published in the SAGE: Social Justice video series. doi.org/10.4135/9781...

The first article from my dissertation is out now in Social Science and Medicine. It's about immigrant patients' experiences with gynaecology and obstetrics in Spain. It's also my first solo-authored piece. Deeply grateful to the people whose testimonies inform this work. doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

Loading up the little free library with some good books today

Inbox is overflowing with invitations to submit to suspicious/predatory journals, wonder if there's some kind of annual quota they're rushing to reach?

My new piece in @time.com on why people still believe in the disproven vaccine-autism link. Vaccine “injury” suggests autism “recovery” is possible. It’s misinformation that gives families hope. The real problem: being disabled in the US fucking sucks. time.com/7203351/trum...

Semester is over so I have more time for crafts again. Today featured repairing a beaded bracelet and cutting fabric to sew a new jacket.

Thinking the RFK/raw milk nonsense could be a great way to go through Bruno Latour's "The Pasteurization of France" with undergrads.