Chapter 1 of myself @ruthhoughton.bsky.social & Cher Weixia Chen Research Handbook on Global Governance is available open access 👇 doi.org/10.4337/9781... We set out how we created an alternative & critical take on global governance - on topics sometimes forgotten, lots of different voices & more

Very happy to see this significant new book published, and to have had the opportunity to contribute to it 📖 My chapter examines the concept of equality in NI and Belgium, and explores how lessons from these two cases can help advance intersectional approaches to issues of global governance 🌍

We hope we meet the aim to challenge the promise that #global institutions and frameworks offer solutions to major world challenges such as #climatechange, #pandemics, #war, #democracy, #humanrights and #inequalities, #economiclaw #gender #disabilities #technology #indigenousrights #futurity

There are some excellent chapters here & lots of fantastic work across a range of disciplines 3/4

We've tried to be global in the perspectives, voices, areas that are covered & how things are addressed 2/4

Me @ruthhoughton.bsky.social & Cher Weixia Chen co-edited a Handbook on Global Governance 📔 Some amazing scholars critically think what “global” & “governance” mean in & how ideologies shape institutions & frameworks that claim to address global challenges 1/4 www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/res...

Last week @ncl-congov.bsky.social held an Early Career Researcher workshop @lawresearch-ncluk.bsky.social on Environmental and Digital constitutionalism. @nifemiadesina.bsky.social, Marie and Li presented their fascinating research projects!

So proud to have written a chapter on how utopian ideals descend into dystopian hellscapes with @hashtagstagg.bsky.social We examine Star Trek (OS, TNG, & Picard), Starship Troopers (film version), Dredd (2012 film version), the EU, and the UN to explore this idea

The Research Handbook on Global Governance is now out in the world! Edited with @aoifemod.bsky.social and Cher Weixia Chen this Handbook is 10yrs in the making!

Senior Lecturer/Reader in Public Law (Newcastle University): www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPM199/s...

Coming out later this month, the Research Handbook on Global Governance edited by me, @aoifemod.bsky.social snd Cher Weixia Chen share.google/CVLZ1Cef1jUN...

Coming up later this month @ncl-congov.bsky.social @lawresearch-ncluk.bsky.social an exciting workshop led by ECRs on digital and environmental constitutionalism

🎬Now online: the Durham Cathderal debate on the contemporary resonance of Magna Carta. Thoughtful reflections from our @thombrooks.bsky.social @benedictdouglas.bsky.social @ruthhoughton.bsky.social and Henry Jones (and provocative questions from the pews!) @durhamcathedral.bsky.social @durham.ac.uk

Magna Carta and its influence today: a debate. Had a fantastic time in the Cathedral earlier this month discussing the charter with colleagues Henry Jones, @benedictdouglas.bsky.social and @thombrooks.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS2X...

We've had such fun curating the Utopias Reading Group - @aoifemod.bsky.social. Now you can see the list of utopias we've discussed: blogs.ncl.ac.uk/nu-cusp/utop...

Lovely to see such a big crowd in Durham Cathedral to hear from @thombrooks.bsky.social @benedictdouglas.bsky.social @ruthhoughton.bsky.social and Henry Jones on Magna Carta📜. @durham.ac.uk @durhamcathedral.bsky.social

Great to speak at wonderful Magna Carta event as part of an exhibition of three different issues on display at @durhamcathedral.bsky.social

📢The 2026 ICON•S Annual Conference Call for Submissions is out! Join us in #Dublin from June 29 – July 1, 2026! Read the 🧵for details ⬇️

You can get a sense of what I might be talking about in this blog post on my time in the Bristol Theatre Archives theatrecollection.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2024/08/28/p...

Looking ahead to what's coming up this month, I'll be speaking at Durham Cathedral with my colleagues Henry and @benedictdouglas.bsky.social about Magna Carta (1225) as part of the ongoing exhibition

As #Project2025 's manifesto continues to be implemented by the #Trump Administration Blogs by me & @ruthhoughton.bsky.social verfassungsblog.de/reading-proj... criticallegalthinking.com/2025/06/02/p... on (un)democracy & blueprints to dismantle constitutions newrepublic.com/post/201249/...

so pleased to see these articles by Dan Swain, Flora Renz, Kimberly Hutchings, Martin Coward and Debbie Lisle, and Maša Mrovlje... with more to follow

Articles for the Special Issue on Utopia and Failure are now available on FirstView in the European Journal of Social Theory See Irretrievable failure: Life in the ruins of utopian dreaming by Martin Coward and Debbie Lisle journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

So it's very exciting to stumble across this episode of @lrb.co.uk Close Readings, where the focus is also on Leonora Carrington's "The Hearing Trumpet"

In the Fury Archives (which I reviewed) Richards discusses Leonora Carrington's "The Hearing Trumpet" www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

In November @ncl-congov.bsky.social will host a seminar on digital & environmental constitutionalism. Excited to witness Li, Marie and @nifemiadesina.bsky.social bring their ideas together.

It was fantastic to bring together @whiterxbbit.bsky.social @cristyclark.bsky.social Aislinn Fanning & Nikki Godden-Rasul (shout out to coauthors) to explore questions of utopia as method within law and legal studies. We left with lots of reflections and a stunning reading list of sci-fi novels!

Methodologies Symposium Day 2: Dr. Nikki Godden-Rasul and Dr. Ruth Houghton jointly delivered a presentation on the use of Utopianism and Speculative Visionary Fiction as toolkits and methods for Abolition Feminist research.

Methodologies Symposium Day 2: Dr. Aislinn Fanning, explored the use of Utopian law-making to re-imagine feminist equality law on the island of Ireland.

Methodologies Symposium Day 2: Dr. Cristy Clark delivered an excellent presentation on the politics and methodology of utopian research.

Methodologies Symposium Day 2: Dr. Zoe Tongue took us on a journey as we explored Reproductive Utopias.

...featuring our very own Dr Zoe Tongue! @whiterxbbit.bsky.social

This was such a beautifully curated panel by @ruthhoughton.bsky.social within a beautifully organised two day Methodologies Symposium. I’m so grateful for the experience. Thank you to everyone involved. 🙏🏻

In which I admit I was wrong and @ruthhoughton.bsky.social was right…

Day 2 of our Methodologies Symposium has kicked off here at Newcastle Law School with a panel discussion chaired by Dr. Ruth Houghton. Drawing on their own methodologies, the panelists explore ‘Prefigurative Legalities and Utopia as Method’

Methodologies Symposium Day 1: Our third panel discussion, chaired by Nifemi Adesina, a Doctoral Researcher at Newcastle Law School, explored two key ideas: Law and technology and Law as technology.

NCL Law Methodologies Symposium Day 1: Dr. Matilde Arvidsson curated a fascinating workshop on the use of knitting as a methodology within the Anti-surveillance space.

Kinda really enjoyed reading through the proofs for the chapter I co-wrote with Kavi Abraham on 'Global Democracy' for the Research Handbook on Global Governance share.google/MAlM6E7kpQBc...

Methodologies Symposium Day 1: Dr. Paola Zichi discussed a very timely approach to archival research within International Law in the presentation ‘Dreaming A Global Feminist Archive: Palestine, International Law and Abolitionist Praxis’

Shout-out to @arabellalaw.bsky.social for still fighting this (good) fight more than a decade after she first raised some gentle alarm bells about how outside of the EU we'd have a real (representative democracy/accountability/oversight) problem on this front. She has not been proven wrong (!)

The first panel discussion is under way, chaired by Professor Ian Ward. The panelists draw on their own methodologies, discussing Legal histories, the archive and memory.

Fast approaching! On 15th October, see Henry Jones @durham-university.bsky.social Ruth Houghton @ruthhoughton.bsky.social & Benedict Douglas @benedictdouglas.bsky.social reflect upon Magna Carta, chaired by Thom Brooks @thombrooks.bsky.social. Tickets: durhamcathedral.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...

Delighted to see my article “Fail better: Utopia, Rosa Luxemburg, and learning from failure” published in the European Journal of Social Theory. It‘s available here open access: doi.org/10.1177/1368...

It‘s part of the Utopia and Failure special issue, special thanks to guest editors Mathias Thaler, @davinacooper.bsky.social and @ruthhoughton.bsky.social for including me in this conversation and their helpful comments along the way.

Really excited to be chairing a panel on Utopia as Method next week as part of the Newcastle Law School Methodologies Symposium on 24-25 September 2025

Great to be in London for the final workshop as part of the Utopia and Failure Network. Today we're thinking about the future of Utopian studies.

Our ConGov stars💫 Adam Rowe and @ruthhoughton.bsky.social just published a fascinating article:Rowe, Adam and Houghton, Ruth. "Authoring the Nation: Madame de Staël and the Literary Origins of the State" Pólemos, vol. 19, no. 2, 2025, pp. 281-307. doi.org/10.1515/pol-...

I have a Chapter in the new collection The Contemporary Reader of Feminist International Relations ed by Catherine Goetze & Khushi Singh Rathore It proposes a '#feminist treaty interpretation' as a way of worlding women into #internationalrelations & #law 1/2 www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

New article written with Adam Rowe as part of our studies on Madame de Staël. "Authoring the Nation" in a special issue of Polemos on law and literature www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Great fun today hanging out in the virtual exhibition space Heather McKnight is creating as part of the AHRC Utopia and Failure Network to display the outputs of the Academic Care Cafe we hosted in September 2024.