The holidays are a time for love, happiness, and our favourite cheesy #Christmasromcoms 🎄 But they often reinforce questionable ideas about #love and #relationships. So should we stop watching them? Find out here 👇

Time to look back over 2025, which has been a fantastic year for us.

Time to look back over 2025, which has been a fantastic year for us.

Calling all Londoners 📣📣 Catch our very own @rosadluxe.bsky.social at this event next week👇

Yesterday was our Lightning Talk workshop (AKA the ‘Say the thing!’ workshop). The aim of the event is to encourage exploratory work, with 20 minute talks and 10min of questions for each speaker.

Yesterday was our Lightning Talk workshop (AKA the ‘Say the thing!’ workshop). The aim of the event is to encourage exploratory work, with 20 minute talks and 10min of questions for each speaker.

Over the last two days I was at the On Asexualities conference in Berlin. The aim of the meeting was to catalyse research and activism around asexuality and aromanticism. Here are 10 observations from the event.

Tomorrow!

We’re very excited for our upcoming Lightning Talks Workshop⚡️⚡️ We’ll be spending the afternoon with 4 speakers discussing their new research in the philosophy of love, sex and relationships💕 Hope to see some of you there!

Get to know our amazing post-doctoral research fellow Dr Rosa Vince! 🧑‍🏫 @rosadluxe.bsky.social We had a chat about Rosa’s research on sexual objectification, their award-winning paper, and what they’re feeling excited about 🕺 Give it a watch on our Instagram www.instagram.com/reel/DRZc46N...

Natasha McKeever and @lukebrunning.bsky.social have been quoted in this recent @newscientist.com article Give it a read! www.newscientist.com/article/2504...

Happy #worldphilosophyday! 📚💭 Here’s Luke on why philosophy is such a valuable tool in helping us to understand love, intimacy and relationships💕

"Objectification & Sexualisation" is organised by myself and Robbie Morgan, and "Sex, Deception & Consent" is organised by Robbie Arrell - all members of @clsrleeds.bsky.social Both events have incredible speakers lined up, please see the links above for full information, and for how to register.

Registration is open for two events happening 3rd & 4th December at Leeds @idea-leeds.bsky.social! Objectification & Sexualisation: philevents.org/event/show/1... Sex, Deception and Consent: www.eventbrite.ie/e/sex-decept... These events mark the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

Happy publication day to my new textbook with @nmckeever3.bsky.social This has been a long time in the making and @politybooks.bsky.social have been fantastic throughout the whole process. 🥂

A terrific list. Can I humbly add Peter Gabriel's Us. A more heart breaking collection of post relationship soul searching and reflection you won't find. Honest, painful and also beautifully performed, sung and produced.

To mark two weeks since the launch of the @aroaceresearch.bsky.social based at CLSR, @isobellogan.bsky.social sat down with the organiser @kristin-kaeuper.bsky.social to hear more about the network, plans for the future, and how you can get involved! 🧡💛💙 ⬇️Give it a listen⬇️

Hooked on the new Lily Allen album and crave more vicarious heartbreak in your life? Charlotte Curran, one of our a PhD students, has written a fantastic @uk.theconversation.com guide to the best breakup albums: theconversation.com/seven-albums...

What's the ultimate breakup album?💔🎧 Charlotte Curran from @clsrleeds.bsky.social, whose PhD focuses on relationship ethics, has listed the top seven stand-outs for @theconversation.com. Read the article: theconversation.com/seven-albums... Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/playlist/6QI...

Dr Robbie Arrell has organised a one-day workshop on Sex, Deception, and Consent held at @idea-leeds.bsky.social on the 3rd of December. Learn more and sign up for free www.eventbrite.ie/e/sex-decept...

This conference on asexualities at @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social is going to be amazing!

Our PHd student and organiser of @aroaceresearch.bsky.social wrote this blog post on what it means to be asexual or aromantic: www.brook.org.uk/blog/what-do...

At the Lord Roberts, Broad Street, Nottingham

On Wednesday the 29th of October, our Leverhulme Fellow, Dr Rosa Vince, will be talking about feminism, sex work and objectification in Sheffield.

We are thrilled to introduce the Aromanticism & Asexuality Research Network this #AceWeek! The network is based at @clsrleeds.bsky.social in the UK and brings together researchers who are working on #asexuality and #aromanticism. 🔗Find out more at aroaceresearch.com

For the start of ace week 2025 why not listen to this podcast on asexuality featuring @nmckeever3.bsky.social and @lukebrunning.bsky.social goodisinthedetails.libsyn.com/romantic-lov...

Last but certainly not least, please welcome our final new PhD researcher, Charlotte Curran! Charlotte will be looking into the interpretative, communicative and expressive work undertaken in romantic relationships 🏋️‍♀️🤔 Here’s Charlotte on her research and why she’s excited to be joining CLSR⬇️

This week’s reading group pick was a great way to get us thinking about the ethics of relationships endings

Our next new face we’re so excited to introduce… Kristin Kauper! @kristin-kaeuper.bsky.social is embarking on their PhD with us researching asexuality and aromanticism🏳️‍🌈 They’ve got some amazing stuff in the works that we can’t wait to share with you! 👀✨ Over to Kristin to say hi ⤵️

Our next new CLSR member to introduce… Tom Wardell! Tom’s PhD will dive into the fascinating world of AI, exploring the possibility and ethics of human-chatbot relationships🤖❤️ Hear him talk about his research and how he’s found being a distance learner with CLSR so far👇👇

Here’s Isobel discussing her PhD with CLSR 👇👇

The full video of @alex-fisher.bsky.social explaining what he’s working on with CLSR ⬇️⬇️

The next new face to introduce is @isobellogan.bsky.social ! Isobel is starting her PhD project with us on epistemic harm in romantic relationships🧠 Head to our Instagram @leeds_clsr to hear Isobel talk about her research and why she’s loved being a part of the CLSR community💕

This week we’ll be introducing some new faces joining us at CLSR🌻 First up: @alex-fisher.bsky.social Alex joins us as an SAP visiting fellow to explore misrepresentation in romantic life🎭 Head to our Instagram @leeds_clsr to hear Alex talk about his research and why he’s excited to join CLSR💕

New textbook on the philosophy of love, sex and relationships anyone? 👇🏻💕📕

One of our wonderful new PhD researchers Kristin Käuper recently spoke at the University of Manchester's postgraduate philosophy conference, Open Minds XVIII! Kristin's talk looked at how asexuality can help us create a better philosophical account of sexual orientation. Well done Kristin! 🥳🙌

This is becoming a worrying trend as relationship advice is now marketised and monetised by big tech. And difficult to foresee the longer term social impact of increased AI use in dating/relationships on how we trust, talk to, and relate to others. @clsrleeds.bsky.social @ethicaldating.bsky.social

The CLSR Reading Group is back! 📚 We kicked off the academic year with a great discussion on Kevin Richardson’s paper ‘“Just a Little Gay”: How Sexual Orientation Comes in Degrees’ (2023)

In case you missed it, here are all the speakers from our workshop last week. Each exploring the idea of intimate utopia in their own way. 👇🏻

The speakers in action at our MANCEPT workshop Intimate Utopias. Lucy Shanahan talking about consensual non-consent and Laurin Tirpitz discussing asexuality and sexual ethics.

It’s day one of our MANCEPT workshop on Intimate Utopias! This afternoon we’ll be hearing about consensual non-consent from Lucy Shanahan, consent, sexual ethics, and liberation from Laurin Tirpitz, and about the links between intimate relationships and self-esteem in society from Sanat Sogani.

Only a few days to go until our Intimate Utopias workshop!

Excited for this fantastic event! I'll talk about our moral obligations to disclose information about ourselves to potential partners on dating apps Not disclosing that we secretly hate Bake Off - seems OK. Not disclosing that we already have children, or criminal convictions - perhaps not so OK?

Important news, Berlin (and nearby) people! Please join me and the amazing Juliana Gleeson, hosted by the inimitable Ben Mauk, for a free discussion and book signing of "Sex Beyond 'Yes'" at Shakespeare & Sons, evening of September 12! And please share! www.shakespeareandsons.com/pages/sex-be...

Do dating apps perpetuate sexual racism? @nmckeever3.bsky.social and @lukebrunning.bsky.social contribute to this Cosmopolitan article exploring the issue www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/love-sex/...

One month to go until our MANCEPT workshop Intimate Utopias starts.

@nmckeever3.bsky.social and @lukebrunning.bsky.social feature in this Vogue piece on modern dating. www.vogue.co.uk/article/sing...

Huge thanks to Ruby Hornsby, whose time as our research assistant ends today. She’s been amazing!

Huge thanks to Ruby Hornsby, whose time as our research assistant ends today. She’s been amazing!

Just a reminder that we are on Instagram with some different content. Find us: @leeds_clsr