Sometimes you're having a kind of crappy week and then the guys at the campus falafel van remember you and give you extra falafel and that's how you end up with eleven (11) hot fresh falafel with your chips #blessed

Meet Cheese. Today he hung out on this sofa for a solid four hours while a gaggle of adoring students cooed over every twitch of his whiskers and took an absurd number of photos of him. Tough life being a @royalholloway.bsky.social campus cat

I'm deeply interested in disaster documentaries which my wife hates, so today we compromised on Titanic (1997) and now, in the year of our Lord 2026, my wife is crying over Titanic

The same Palantir that Keir Starmer's Labour have embedded in our NHS and Ministry of Defence. The level of authoritarian surveillance and data gathering/selling already happening in the UK is deeply frightening.

If you are also horrified by ICE's actions in Minnesota, here's a great resource for finding organisations, communities and individuals who need donations. Everything from mutual aid to help people cover their rent and fund emergency food packages to organisations offering legal defence.

Nine years and a day since top surgery. Nine years and a day since I woke up and something that had constantly been buzzing - constantly there, a noise I had almost learnt to ignore - went blessedly, blissfully silent. It's a blessing and a privilege and almost certainly saved my life.

"Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, or Alice in Chains" cba to add album covers but: Pulp - Different Class Radiohead - OK Computer Tricky - Maxinquaye Portishead - Dummy Honourable mentions to the Manics (Holy Bible) and Tori Amos (Under the Pink)

My mum is attempting to teach me to knit and I am being thoroughly humbled. Please compare my knitting with my crochet

First bizarre observation of the day from my dad has resulted in a discussion of the etymology of Christmas and my wife singing (loudly, enthusiastically, slightly off-key) "happy birthday to you" to the tune of Gaudete. Happy Christmas if you celebrate, and a peaceful winter's day if you don't

One of the most delightful of Christmas traditions

The BMA has come out swinging for the rights of all trans people in healthcare settings and beyond - both patients and healthcare providers. Genuinely brilliant news amongst the bad - please read it and share, and remember that we are NOT alone. Not by a long stretch.

Out now with @adamsharris.bsky.social in @bjpols.bsky.social : We test “rooted” activist frames for LGBTQI tolerance—grounded in local history & national narratives—in Zimbabwe. Biggest thanks to the many people who helped get this off the ground. (1/3) Read here:

Pessimistic belief that one of the main reasons trans people are being attacked is to create a false 'need' to quit ECHR, in addition to attacks on migrants and disabled people. For more on what it took to finally get legal recognition in the UK, read Christine Burns' 'Trans Britain'

Breaking news

Devastating realisation

Some interesting - and troubling - reading on student loneliness at university. It's important that we set students up for success - and that means building spaces to connect in our programmes, in our buildings and on our campuses wonkhe.com/blogs/the-on...

The difference between the parrots is that Kira will stand by your bowl and just look like she is contemplating flinging herself into the contents. Leia will march up and not only will she unhesitatingly stick her beak into your dinner, she will rifle through looking for the best bits.

For @teenvogue.com I wrote about the death of trans athlete Lia Smith and how trans youth kind themselves with central pillars of their lives being constantly ripped away from them because of politics. www.teenvogue.com/story/politi...

Sitting down with a lot of highlighters, a notebook, and text data from a recent LGBTQIA+ staff survey. It's always exciting to see themes emerging from data, but I think the university should be worried about what LGBTQIA+ staff have to say about their workplace

Was similarly delighted to mark a first year research report on Turnitin with the filename "can't" Mood, as the kids would say.

"hey Kat, what are you up to this Saturday night?"

🚨 One more week to apply to the PhD position at the London Social Media Observatory. If you are interested in empirical, quantitative, and/or computational approaches to studying social media and politics, apply! 😊

large language model perfec t size for put classified military information in to pl\an! inside very Secure and Reliable put classified information in chatGPT. Alarge language model yes a place for a classified military information can trust chatbot for giveing good love to military. friend llm

Today one of my students took it upon herself to explain the lesbian taxonomy to me, including such terms as "femme", futch" and "chapstick lesbian". According to her, the kids are using "masc" instead of "butch", and "stone top" instead of "stone butch"

I'm on the side of the shark btw

To be specific, at the point when spouse and I got together I am pretty sure they had seen a maximum of twelve films in their life that weren’t a Jurassic Park, a Star War or a Die Hard.

Breaking Bad Downton Abbey The Crown Mad Men Peaky Blinders Love Island (but I've read a lot of transcripts thanks to sociolx of gender students) James Bond (any) The Godfather Lord of the Rings Any Tarantino Any Cary Grant film My wife says it would be faster to list the films I have seen

My brilliant friend Ruth wrote this incredible essay about grief and the ways that trans people are failed by institutions and the ways in which we must - must! - resist doom to create something better. We find solace and solidarity and help and hope in community 🏳️‍⚧️

Delighted to announce (ugh, can't believe I'm saying that) that Alon Lischinsky and my bibliography of Trans Media Studies is out with Oxford Bibliographies! It's basically the equivalent of a compilation tape - key works, deep cuts and things we like www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/docu...

I feel weird about sharing photos of people with whom I'm no longer in touch, but please enjoy this photo of me from Dec 2006 in a houseshare somewhere off Liverpool's Smithdown Road. The sofa! The belt! The Ikea storage crate that we tried to disguise! I can smell this photo...

Back on my sourdough bullshit. Didn't get as much rise as I hoped but not bad from a resurrected dried starter and my first time baking with it in a couple of years. Probably going to be the first of many...

Preparing to write to my MP about the EHRC guidance and just. What do I have to do and say to convince people that I, and all trans people, deserve to live with dignity and peace and safety? How do I persuade someone that we deserve to live?

It's physically unsafe for people like me to go into the centre of our home city this Saturday on account of the colour of our skin. Most politicians are either failing to stand up to this or actively contributing to the situation. We don't owe any of those politicians our votes. Not one of them.

✨ New Report Out Now ✨ GIRES, in partnership with @hospiceuk.bsky.social and @stonewalluk.bsky.social has published the Being Ready Survey Report – looking at trans and gender diverse people’s experiences of death, dying, and bereavement care. 👉 Download here: www.gires.org.uk/wp-content/u...

I have just submitted a new article on the language(ability) of the collective trauma of witnessing Gaza and the role of language in pedagogy and anticolonial struggles. Here is the closing paragraph: #GazaGenocide #Trauma #Language #Pedagogy #Education #KeepTellingofGaza

A week in the hills with 17 friends, hiking and boats and trailing wetly into a pub for a huge lunch. Today we went to Coniston Water to say goodbye to it, and watched the bats swooping over the still, gleaming water

I love #LavLang31. I'm so honoured to have been an invited speaker at a conference that's so kind, supportive and welcoming to postgraduates and early career researchers 🥰

Giving a keynote at @lavlang.bsky.social and this genuinely might be my look

The Vatican is one of the very few major voices challenging the dominant narratives of AI. There's a clear line from Laudato Sì to this stance: placing humanity, the environment, care, respect, and what we owe each other and our shared world at the heart of all we think and say and do.

Pulled a girl in a gay club whose first words to me were "do you speak English?"

🏳️‍⚧️ Can anyone help my MA dissertation student? He wants to interview trans (especially non-binary and gender non-conforming) people aged 18+ who are seeking or have sought transition-related medical care in the south of England. Has gone through ethics review. Please DM me for his contact info 🏳️‍⚧️

It's impossible to know what to say about Gaza. Words fail me in the face of such an atrocity. I cook and I think about Gaza; I donate and I think about Gaza; I live my comfortable, urban life and the sheer horror and injustice makes something ugly twist in my guts ella.substack.com/p/fattoush

The puns in the last few days have been eggscruciating but I need to eggspress myself. (Egg 2 arrived overnight, birdo is still to all appearances totally fine but getting calcium supplements until she gets over this eggstravaganza, obsteggrician aka eggxotic vet is on speed dial)

so I know that correlation is not causation but consider: India beat England in the test match to win at Edgbaston for the first time and Norman Tebbit died the next day 🤔

Today's drama was that Leia laid her first egg! Dummy eggs are en route in case she decides to get it into her head that she wants to make more of them. Threatening to turn them into omelettes does not seem to have put her off.

Got home from a conference and there's a real difference in the parrots' reactions. Leia is giving me the coldest of shoulders and has refused all offers of a headscratch. She didn't refuse the pistachio I offered though... Kira is just happy to see me and has been all but glued to me all evening.

Corpus Linguistics 2025 #cl2025 is Glastonbury for nerds: change my mind. Great atmosphere on the first day - so lovely to catch up with old friends and see so many new faces!

I bought these shorts in 2012 and at the time, they made me look like a hot butch. I'm not sure when "butch" crossed into "lesbian dad" territory but it's definitely happened 😞

I've added FOUR new peer-reviewed academic articles to my round-up post, "What's wrong with the Cass Review?" Together, these highlight serious ethical issues with the Cass Review's design, recommendations, and implementations. It's important to keep this story live! ruthpearce.net/2024/04/16/w...

Leia is protective of her cage and doesn't love my hands being in there. When I'm cleaning the cage out, she likes to creep up behind me and bonk my ankles, hard, with her beak. Just letting me know that she could murder my Achilles tendon but she's chosen not to. A gracious and benevolent parrot 🙄