It was my birthday last week… this wonderful record was the best of gifts marking BB King’s centenary. Derek Trucks says in the liner notes that BB was a ‘real life Santa Claus’.

🚨Thrilled [email protected] Big Ideas Talk just dropped www.youtube.com/watch?v=jykO... 🎙️MANUFACTURING CARE: WHAT CAN WE LEARN ABOUT CARE FROM AI It was such an inspiring experience sharing a stage & delivering this alongside my super idols Ellen Galinsky & Rosabeth Moss Kanter in Montreal (1/5)

Resonating with @academicdiary.bsky.social's wonderful annual lecture on "The Paradox of Home" @uclsociology.bsky.social last week.

Update on this. A friend who does anti fascist work found this posted on social media. The SS flag is clearly visible and they also seem to claim affiliation with @raithroversfc.bsky.social

This is an extraordinary film - weaponising water in Gaza. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfpx...

Here’s the details off Ben Carrington’s talk next week. Ben gave our Frisby Lecture at the University of Glasgow a couple of years ago. His award is really well deserved.

The inaugural Stuart Hall Award lecture is next week December 10th 2025, 6pm UK time and given Dr. Ben Carrington (University of Southern California), the first winner of the award. Please register and attend the meeting via this zoom link: emory.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Sad to hear of Steve Cropper’s passing today. He made such a contribution to the music of the civil rights era. I interviewed him for this piece in 1999. Rest in soul…

Something new on ‘The Unloved Curriculum’ and teaching research methods with Michaela Benson and Maisie Tomlinson journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Enjoyed writing this for Everything Jazz - my album of the year Jon Batiste’s Big Money www.everythingjazz.com/the-14-best-...

This is wonderful, Jimmy Reid and Billy Connolly on Parkinson in 1979. I have finished my first piece of writing set in Glasgow called ‘In the Big Yin’s Footsteps’, which retraces Glasgow’s social history through Billy’s favourite streets today. youtu.be/KApI5kksOuM?...

Annual Lecture: The Paradox of Home by Les Back (11.12.25) Home is a knife-edge word. Competing forces balance on its edge that either control or open the terms of belonging. It is why home is paradoxical tinyurl.com/3493r8e6

This coming Black History Month's edition of the JMS Network series will see Dr Shantel George in conversation with JMS PhD Scholar in History, Taylar Carty. Join us from 6-8pm on Thursday 30 October in Kelvin Hall. @uofgartshums.bsky.social

Paul Gordon has just joined his son Montel as a UofG PhD scholar. Both are part of the James McCune Smith PhD Scholarship programme, pursuing research shaped by lived experience and cultural insight. More: gla.ac/4hzMvne Photo: Martin Shields

We’re excited to launch the 5th round of applications for the JMS Scholarship. 12 scholarships are available in any research area which can be supervised at the University. Register your interest here: forms.office.com/e/k2bkPz4ekB #PhDScholarship #Scholarships2026 #UKScholarships

Really looking forward to this lecture with @academicdiary.bsky.social. Register now before all the tickets are gone!

Beautiful night in South London looking north x

This is a beautiful story that will warm your heart. Congrats to Paul, and Montel is already doing important work. Wonderful people and meaningful change www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/2556955...

@jenniewren.bsky.social I love you profile picture Jennie

I really loved being interviewed for this edition, Spare a Thought on Stuart Hall and the historic Open Door episode It Ain’t Half Racist Mum spareathought.podbean.com/e/it-aint-ha...

In the Taybridge Bar, Dundee watching the old firm game and making a little musical pilgrimage for the late great Michael Marra… 💔

We're hiring an outstanding Assistant Professor whose core research is in the field of cultural sociology with demonstrable expertise in the sociology of #culture and #technology. 📅 Applications close Sunday 30 November 2025. ➡️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

With dear friend Professor Lez Henry (aka Lesley Lyrics) at the farewell for Dj and world builder June Reid.

Saying goodbye today to Queen June Reid who wore the ‘crown of righteousness’. June chose a poem by David Harkins to be read as a farewell -“smile, open your eyes (and ears), love and go on.” A beautiful generous soul gone but not forgotten.

@darkpublisher.bsky.social I’m working on the book idea Tom. I really like your punk anniversary series idea… really tempted to put something in on punk and reggae!!

A important new talk from Gargi Bhattacharyya

I met her when we were both studying the Linguistics MLitt in 1988-9 at Strathclyde and we were friends ever since. Brilliant writer and undervalued in the UK but not elsewhere. A truly wonderful friend

@patthomson.bsky.social I stumbled on the review you wrote of Academic Diary, Pat. Thanks for such a thoughtful take. I have been thinking again about form working on a new project. Feels like the world of HE is a very different place now. Be great to be in touch again. Warm best wishes.

Latest post on writer voice and identity complete with exercises patthomson.net/2025/07/30/w...

Use little windows of time to progress your academic writing patthomson.net/2025/08/30/f...

Dealing with a toxic review? Write a Dear Reviewer letter… patthomson.net/2025/09/27/d...

This is such a thoughtful review by Pat Thomson - have been a huge admirer of Patter for a long time. patthomson.net/2016/07/21/o...

@kirsteen-paton.bsky.social amazing tips as always, Kirsteen.

Mustering a lexicon for the world from the heartbreak of Gaza #GazaGenocide‌

History faculty at Columbia & Barnard decrying the harassment of @mark-bray.bsky.social: "This is the first case in recent memory of a historian who has fled the country after receiving death threats on account of the history that they teach."

Call for book proposals! Are you passionate about punk? 🤘 Do you have an idea for a book? 📖 Send us your idea for a fresh take on punk to mark the 50th anniversary, that could be the next instalment our acclaimed British Pop Archive series. 🎶 More details below 👇 #booksky #punk

OUT NOW: The Sociological Review journal 73.5, featuring 13 new papers (11 #openaccess). 💡 Includes a Special Section on the legacy of @academicdiary.bsky.social and Nirmal Puwar’s Live Methods, published in 2012 as part of our monograph series. buff.ly/bJQXWs6 @journals.sagepub.com

Lovey piece from Stephanie and George on filming as sociological practice. thesociologicalreview.org/image-maker-...

Great sociological listening - thesociologicalreview.org/magazine/sep...

The province of tyrants” - paramilitary policing of black and brown Us communities as America turns on itself.

‘Life-saving’ Gaza student evacuations need ‘collective effort’: Gazan students due to begin studies in Ireland and Italy but efforts in other countries remain blocked https://ow.ly/zzqE50X5Inu

Tragic scenes at Heaton Park Synagogue and loss of life there, and the need in our time for vigilance against all forms of racism and violence www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Just about to record a conversation with Tom Spare about this extraordinary programme. Stuart Hall was 47 when he made it in 1979 with Maggie Steed It Ain’t Half Racist Mum for Open Door www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Abir Al-Sahlani in impressive action 👇

Our latest #Identities issue is now published! Vol 32 No 5, including a #Symposium on Michèle Lamont's 'Seeing Others' Explore the issue: www.tandfonline.com/...#Identities#Symposium@nasarmeer.bsky.social @aaronwinter.bsky.social @mlamont.bsky.social @tandfresearch.bsky.social @uofgsps.bsky.social #LatestIssue

Last call for abstract submissions to next year's @britsoci.bsky.social conference in Edinburgh...

Have you read our latest symposium? 'The Asian Gang Revisited: Changing Muslim Masculinities' by Claire Alexander, with contributions from Natasha Warikoo, Shamim Miah & Marcus Anthony Hunter Published in issue 32.4: www.tandfonline.com/...

How are racially minoritised children central to the bordering of Britain? @alasirriyeh.bsky.social @lancasteruni.bsky.social reflects on theories of migratisation, the work of Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian and the erasure of belonging. #OpenAccess @journals.sagepub.com buff.ly/vkEHpXp

Key takeaways: “Morley’s functions as an essential ‘third space’: an informal, community-driven place existing between home and work, offering a kind of urban intimacy.” In our new issue, Safia Banharally looks beyond a London chicken shop’s menu to its underexamined social role. buff.ly/u7edt4y