What I want to do: read the papal encyclical, eat ice cream on my balcony, see friends, continue reading a 1000 page book on the 1918 flu pandemic What I'm going to have to do: email my MP because this small-minded, petty, cruel government wish to stop trans people being treated as actual humans

3/3. Thinking specifically of that Independent piece designed to drive a wedge between disabled and trans people (ignore the massive intersection) - please don't fall for it. Don't mistake gladiatorial media framings for real world possibilities. The EHRC has repeatedly failed us both. Join forces.

2/3. Your agent gets a message that you've got a booking waiting for you - so long as you're happy to parrot the oppositional argument that the editorial team wants. It's a deliberate game designed to drive engagement, and there are always people happy to play the game for their own personal ends.

1/3. Reminder to anyone who hasn't had the pleasure of dealing with the UK press: there's going to be a lot of divide-and-conquer around new EHRC guidance, and that will be deliberately editorially driven. You get approached to write an article/spout a viewpoint along set oppositional lines.

We will provide analysis and outline what we think needs to happen as soon as possible once the Code of Practice is available. This is going to be a tough and stressful day for all of us, be gentle to yourselves and each other ❤️

New EHRC guidance is due today. Remember: ➡️ Early reports based on unattributed briefings are spin, not facts. ➡️ This is civil law around who can and cannot bring discrimination claims - not criminal law. ➡️ Whatever it says, it is a choice by this government. They can fix it. ➡️ We will keep going.

Thrilled I've got 150 responses to my survey on personal tutoring! I'm aiming for 200 responses, so if you're an academic in UK HE who's had pastoral responsibility for students in the last five years, whatever that's called, with ten minutes spare, I'd love to hear from you. Do share if you can.

Been thoroughly distracted by the @royalholloway.bsky.social peregrine falcon nestcam today. Today the tiercel (male peregrine - called so because he's smaller by a third than the female) has been sheltering the chicks, and both have been bringing them food www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/env...

Went to the Crossness pumping station open day and was pleased at the range of nerd interests on offer. Victorian history! Civil engineering! Public health! Sewage treatment! Narrow gauge railways! Victorian architecture! Also a nice cafe for those who are inexplicably not into any of the above

Watched Helen Macdonald's beautiful, lyrical documentary about training a goshawk, Lupin: about living with grief, about living with the ghosts of your past yous, about loving wild fierce things, about trust and letting things go with the hope that they will come back to you.

If the BBC had focused its report on dodgy immigration advisors exploiting people seeking asylum and providing them with false information that would be one thing, and it is an issue which needs addressing. Instead they have framed this as people seeking asylum pretending to be LGBTQIA+ 5/

This reporting puts LGBTQIA+ as well as migrants' rights, groups at more risk of far-right attacks, undermines safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ individuals, and makes it harder for LGBTQIA+ people seeking asylum, who already face significant barriers, to be recognised, all based on a handful of anecdotes 4/

Disgusting reporting by BBC using a tiny number of cases to suggest widespread abuse of a system which routinely denies LGBTQIA+ individuals asylum and forces them back into environments of persecution. This article massively distorts the reality of the situation. 1/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Something that's changed a lot in Shillong is the sheer amount of tourism from the rest of India. The 7 Sisters have always been geographically, linguistically & culturally distinct. In Meghalaya, the Khasi, Jaintia & Garo tribes are matrilineal - property passes to Ka Khadduh, the youngest daughter

Finally brought my wife to Meghalaya to meet the family, and I can't tell whether she's happier about the sheer variety of pork dishes on offer or that we show affection through brutally roasting each other.

Finally made it - after a 28 hour journey - to my aunt's house in Shillong, Meghalaya. Now doing my marking on my phone's hotspot. Strange how technology collapses the distance and I am both very far away (geographically, culturally, linguistically) and close to the UK

Solidarity with the transgender & intersex communities in India after the Amendment Bill was bulldozed through houses of parliament replacing self-identification with mandatory medical certification. My #KilljoySolidarity with you in this fight. Friends, sign & fight! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Long and intellectually stimulating day at the University of Birmingham discussing trans discourses, media and policy - thank you so much @drcharlottegalpin.bsky.social!

Today I wrote a chunk of an article and wrote one blindingly good sentence. I don't know if that sentence will stay in or get edited out at some point, but it's nice to feel that I can write - and write well - after having a couple of knocks to my confidence

Excellent and comprehensive summary of the perfect storm of genAI, the pressure to produce and publish public academic work, and the ailing system of academic publishing. We should be worried about this - more than we currently are

On Sunday morning I'll be running a free makers workshop for @transunityquilt.bsky.social in Deptford - no experience required - we provide all the equipment, and as much caffeine as you need: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/trans-unit... All trans people and friends welcome - please spread the word?

New #OpenAccess article. This one has been in development for a while, so it is nice to finally see this research published. 'Paths to action: Fantasy, ideology and incitement in an extreme-right narrative'. Language in Society doi.org/10.1017/S004...

Happy International Women’s Day! Please enjoy this article I wrote with Rosie Walters in 2024. We explore the IWD communications from arms manufacturers, arguing that these function as a form of gender washing (whereby discourses of progress obscure violence) doi.org/10.1093/ips/...

I've seen so many rancid takes on the BAFTAs that either seem to assume that disabled people shouldn't be out in public or seem to assume that Black people shouldn't be out in public. I don't have a good answer to this but I do know the organisers chose not to bleep it out of the broadcast.

Every year, two of my best friends and I line up our arms and compare how the endless murk of the British winter has done us dirty. No person should be these colours ☹️

Sometimes academia is great because you get to nerd out about one of your special interests and take an entire class along with you. Anyway today I taught crisis communication and got to talk about some of my very favourite disasters and also introduce Sara Ahmed's writing on making a crisis

@salonidesouza.bsky.social delighted to be your first follower 😊

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