As I sit in the library of the Schwules Museum about to have gone through the full run of the gay magazine Du & Ich (1969–2000), I confirm that the demise of gay culture and sexual politics is inversely proportional to the growth of “health” and “fitness” discourse, and ads for tacky underwear.

The world's most famous medical NGO concludes Israel is committing genocide. It joins a consensus of genocide scholars, including in Israel, and NGOs like Amnesty International. No politician or journalist can claim "I did not know at the time!" to evade future justice.

“My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” writes Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. “I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.”

Envision a world where the writings of #KarlHeinrichUlrichs and Magnus Hirschfeld are available in your language. English translations give us access to their works. #LGBTQhistory #MagnusHirschfeld #TransgenderStudies of the Early #GermanGayMovement www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBG5BRSD

I had a lovely time to chatting to @franziskalamp.bsky.social about my work. Listen here to me talking about Anglo-Polish relations, teaching Polish history to undergrads, and researching queer histories of displacement 😊

Had to go to a bank to verify my ID yesterday. They hadn't asked for proof of doctorate, and my passport/DL say "miss" (because, cba to change it/money). Banker: "don't you have your PhD with you??" Me: "... the scroll?" Banker: "yes! Don't you just have it in your pocket?" Pocket. POCKET!

It’s here!

CfP for conferencing on refugees /migrants in the always-fabulous Prague. Dates: 19-20 Nov. 2025.

This is fantastic.

It’s been a really busy week but *what* a week! Days of queer history, including spending time with some of my fave people (pictured here: the outrageously brilliant @lgmsam.bsky.social). Farvel til København. Indtil næste gang!

What's the collective noun for a bunch of academics? A fabulousness? @manwithoutatan.bsky.social @queerstorian.bsky.social

I had such a great time at the Queer Pasts conference in Copenhagen. Wonderful papers. Excellent city. Thanks to the organisers and every participant 💜

Ok, it’s time to settle this 1st c. SHORT 2nd c. LONG 3rd c. SHORT 4th c. SHORT 5th c. LONG 6th c. SHORT 7th c. LONG 8th c. SHORT 9th c. SHORT 10th c. LONG 11th c. SHORT 12th c. LONG 13th c. LONG 14th c. SHORT 15th c. SHORT 16th c. LONG 17th c. LONG 18th c. SHORT 19th c. LONG 20th c. SHORT

GSA graduate student essay prize for an article-length 2024 manuscript written with a focus on German, Austrian, + Swiss history, literature, culture studies, political science, + economics). Share! More details here: www.thegsa.org/prizes/gradu... @ceuropeanhistory.bsky.social @thegsa.bsky.social

A timely essay by Prof. Wendy Webster on Polish perspectives around VE Day: theconversation.com/by-ve-day-in...

Welcome to my customary and super-random report from my hometown’s biannual antique market. It’s that time of the year various old and less-old objects almost come alive and swarm the city in a symphony of idiosyncrasies. Let’s see what was there this year. 🧵

A useful reminder that understanding verifiable sources, building plausible arguments and interpreting varied information about human experiences - the bread and butter of the Humanities, and certainly of History - is more necessary than ever.

When your bff is in town, you MUST have an obligatory selfie in front of the ugliest building in Warsaw! @lgmsam.bsky.social #historianBFFs #Warsaw #StalinsPenis #PalaceOfScienceandCulture

Delighted to announce an exciting collaborative PhD studentship at @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social and the Imperial War Museum in London. The project is entitled "Lithographs of the First World War: printmaking, propaganda and mobilisation" and funded by the AHRC. 👇👇👇 warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/his... 🗃️

Excellent conference on counter-hegemonic internationalisms at @northumbriauni.bsky.social thanks to the whole team on the AHRC curiosity project @riakapoor.bsky.social @drmargottudor.bsky.social @jessicareinisch.bsky.social, and particularly Daniel Laqua for allowing me to attend w/out a paper! 🥳

this looks fantastic @globalhistjnl.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Join me and Jennifer Shearman, the curator of #QueerBritain, as we talk about #Queer and/or #Refugee histories as "hidden histories". The highlights, challenges, and hopes for future research and curating practices as part of our #AHRC work. You can listen here ⬇️⬇️ and share wherever 💜

Big announcement! POLIN Museum is hosting a Summer School for Early Career Scholars in Jewish studies. We’ll combine seminars, workshops and field visits over a week (Jul 21-28). POLIN is offering very generous financial support. More details below. Please share! polin.pl/en/event/sum...

Lovely roundtable talk for LGBTQ+ History Month at the @uniofnottingham.bsky.social. Excited to talk with @abikaras.bsky.social and @siobhanhearne.bsky.social about queer histories of central and eastern Europe 🥳 Join us (if you're about in Nottingham, of course) - all are welcome!

Funded PhD project on AIDS, care, and the Salvation Army. Examines the Army's little-known AIDs initiatives through ethnographic interviews & archival work. Really cool project supervised by Julie-Marie Strange and David Minto. Deadline Friday- tell your MA students! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DLJ476/p...

Call for proposals for a new Handbook of the Histories of Internationalism, deadline 1 March 2025. Looking forward to your proposals! More info here: csi.bbk.ac.uk/blog/call-fo...

“maybe I’ll do some writing between christmas and new year” Between christmas and new year:

My favourite part of my relaxing break was missing 11 deadlines

Welcome to the public domain, THE SKELETON DANCE (1929). 🎞️ 🎶👻 Walt Disney Studios' first Silly Symphony cartoon is a wordless masterpiece of synchronized animation & music featuring dancing skeletons in a graveyard. ➡️ https://blog.archive.org/2025/01/01/welcome-to-the-public-domain-in-2025⁠

Term is still happening. Teaching is still happening. Research is... like... "happening". But brain has ceased function. E R R O R. Which obviously means it's now time to mark over 100 pieces of coursework. Perfect.

back in 1982, the Czechoslovak visionary cartoonist Zdenek Miler gave my generation of children a recipe for solving the future CO2 crisis

Two stages of writing: 1) This shouldn't take too long 2) Oh no

"Socialism and International Law: The Cold War and Its Legacies" is now available electronically from OUP and the hardback should be out on December 19! global.oup.com/academic/pro... Here is a thread on what we have put together:

I wrote this a while ago on how categories of migration can obscure hierarchies, and how these inequities explain why ‘managing’ mobility entrenches inequities

Difficult to describe what a dangerous moment we are in. The owner of Twitter/richest man in the world/closest adviser to the next US president is promoting a far-right Tommy Robinson (!) documentary to his 200 million followers. This is the mainstreaming of violent, Islamophobic fascism.

Posted on the other place by my publisher - '@LgmSam's notable study advances our understanding of ethnicity, nationality, and identity in periods of postwar occupation and displacement. This work is a significant addition to existing literature' Review bit.ly/48VZnQf Book bit.ly/3UYxzox

Yesterday was the start of UK Disability History Month - but how can we think about disabled voices in the past in a way that recognises their agency? Our new series does just that! @beckierutherford.bsky.social introduces the idea that we can historicise disability as more than a medical identity.

🎉🎉🎉 Our new book 'United Nations Peacekeeping and the Politics of Authoritarianism' with @oisintansey.bsky.social, @kseniyaoksamytna.bsky.social, and Sarah von Billerbeck is now available for pre-order and will be open access with Oxford University Press from February 2025 🎉🎉🎉 (1/5)

Room for one more starter pack? Here's the (very) beginning of a list of people, journals, institutions etc, working in or adjacent to contemporary European History. Comment if you'd like to be added! go.bsky.app/SU3jCJb

Illustration from Baba Yaga’s Cat - a story in My Big Book of Cat Stories, written by various authors and illustrated by Adrienne Ségur. 1965.

Just goes to show that no #university, no matter how prestigious, is insulated from financial crisis in British higher education right now.

I made a starter pack for German History!!! Please repost, and comment if you'd like to be added! :) go.bsky.app/QMHzmog

This is Bao. Bao likes to relax. Little bothers Bao. Bao's brain "Bao Bao Bao, Meow Bao Bao. Snacks?" Be more like Bao.

every academic you meet is fighting their own battle. Make it worse by asking them how the writing is going

Twitter

📢 New Call for Papers! The 8th Beyond Camps & Forced Labour Conference, taking place in January 2026, is now accepting applications. The aim is to bring together scholars engaged in research on all groups of survivors of Nazi persecution Find out more: wienerholocaustlibrary.org/what-we-do/r...

New favourite mug ☕️ courtesy of DEAG (delicate emails advice group... if you work in academia, you know one of those is essential)