Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by naoise murphy

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 7d

#OtD 2 Oct 1766 the Nottingham Great Cheese Riot began. Angry at the excessive price of cheese, a mob formed who seized it and began wheeling or carrying the cheeses away, bowling over the mayor with a cheese. The army put down rioting 2 days later stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9225...

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · 8d

Use this tool to contact the relevant government officials and foreign offices, demanding they protect their citizens on the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza - it couldn't be easier
globalsumudflotilla.org/contact-offi...

Official Contacts - By Country - Global Movement to Gaza

globalsumudflotilla.org

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Philippa East (Author) @philippaeast.bsky.social · 8d

📣 Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds need your help!
🏊‍♀️ 🏊🏊‍♂️
They’ve always been firmly trans-inclusive, but now this is under threat.
Please respond to their consultation to show how much public support there is for trans-inclusive arrangements.
hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is/en-GB/propos...

Consultation on the future access to the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds:

Executive Summary

This consultation seeks your views on access arrangements at the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds -Highgate Men’s Pond, Kenwood Ladies’ Pond and Hampstead Mixed Pond, with a particular focus on potential changes at the Highgate Men’s Pond and the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond.

Following the recent Supreme Court decision in For Women Scotland, and in line with other service providers, the City of London Corporation is reviewing its policies, including those at the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds. Your feedback will help inform decisions about future arrangements, alongside legal obligations, equality and safeguarding duties, financial constraints, and practical considerations.

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Melanie Richter-Montpetit @mellimo.bsky.social · 8d

Large protests and growing labour strikes across the globe in response to the illegal seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla last night.

Protests tonight starting 5:30pm across London's major train stations.

Solidarity with the people of Gaza! Break the siege!

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Reposted by naoise murphy

Natacha @natacha.bsky.social · Aug 26

@networkgender.bsky.social (FGEN)’s statement about Newnham College excluding trans women from its scholarships.

FGEN Statement on Newnham College Transphobic Fellowship Announcement - Feminist Gender Equality Network

On behalf of our membership, the Feminist Gender Equality Network (FGEN) condemns Newnham College for advertising an explicitly trans-exclusionary Research Fellowship Award. The decision by Newnham Co...

feministgenderequality.network

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Alexandra Lanes @ajlanes.bsky.social · Aug 21

@newnhamcollege.bsky.social has adopted a transphobic policy, excluding trans women from
its research fellowship competition.

Firstly, boycott this competition and tell everyone else to

Secondly, write to them to persuade them to reconsider.

The principal’s address is [email protected]

Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Aug 21

The @newnhamcollege.bsky.social research fellowship competition is now open - if you're a woman looking for a 3-year postdoc in one of this year's subjects (see next post), please apply! Our research fellows bring so much to the life of the college & get great support. newn.cam.ac.uk/research/res...

Research Fellowships

newn.cam.ac.uk

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Jo (unfunded hobbyist) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @hagenilda.bsky.social · Aug 21

Absolutely grim to see Newnham College actively complying in advance with the Supreme Court ruling, but you could tell they were Like This since forever with demanding GRCs from any trans women who applied.

Won't end here.

Carol Atack @carolatack.bsky.social · Aug 21

The @newnhamcollege.bsky.social research fellowship competition is now open - if you're a woman looking for a 3-year postdoc in one of this year's subjects (see next post), please apply! Our research fellows bring so much to the life of the college & get great support. newn.cam.ac.uk/research/res...

Research Fellowships

newn.cam.ac.uk

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Reposted by naoise murphy

saskia papadakis @sazpaps.bsky.social · Aug 5

super happy that my article on Race Today and the Imperial Typewriters strike is out now and open access in @ersjournal.com!

doi.org/10.1080/0141...

Black struggles, black workers? Race Today and the 1974 Imperial Typewriters strike

In May 1974, around 500 ‘Ugandan Asian’ workers walked out of Leicester’s Imperial Typewriters factory. For the recently formed Race Today Collective (RTC), which published the radical journal Race...

doi.org

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Alison Phipps አሊሰን @alisonphipps.bsky.social · Jul 27

An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities

More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...

docs.google.com

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · Jul 3

rest in power leslie, I feel I have disrespected your memory somehow...

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · Jul 2

indexing is boring so here are the most fun/incongruous pairings that the alphabet is throwing up for me (my book is weird)

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End Deportations Belfast @enddbelfast.bsky.social · Nov 16

👉We need to hear from you so we can record incidents of racial profiling by police officers on 'cross-border' public transport within the The Common Travel Area which is an open borders area comprising the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.

👇See thread

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · Jun 16

Celebrating Refugee Week and Pride with a beautiful free festival in Bethnal Green on Sunday - book a ticket here and join us! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈✨🌷https://www.outsavvy.com/event/27411/queer-migrant-pride-fest-2025

Poster for Ice&Fire Theatre presents Queer Migrant Pride Fest 2025. Sunday June 22nd, 12pm to 9pm. St. Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green E2 9PL. Tickets available on Outsavvy or email seb@iceandfire.co.uk

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saskia papadakis @sazpaps.bsky.social · Jun 3

new blog! on why everyone is obsessed with the idea of the white working-class northern man!
this continues to be depressingly relevant with reform in the ascendant, starmer's 'island of strangers' and blue labour's attacks on EDI 🙃🙃🙃
blog.geographydirections.com/2025/06/03/t...

The myth of the white working-class Northern man

By Saskia Papadakis, Royal Holloway, University of London In 1999, Prime Minister Tony Blair dismissed the English North-South divide as a ‘myth’. Calling the North-South divide ‘simplistic’, he po…

blog.geographydirections.com

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Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · May 27

I made a new zine! It's full of advice on how allies can work alongside trans people to take action in the current moment, lovingly cut-and-pasted over the words of my enemies. Plus lots of nice pictures and memes.

Available as a free PDF! Read online or print your own copy! Share with everyone!

PDF zine: But what can I do? How to fight the trans panic

This is the latest version of a zine I have distributed at wormboys gigs over the last couple of years. I’ve recently updated it to address recent events, including the April 2025 Supreme Cou…

ruthpearce.net

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Alexandra Pugh @allypugh.bsky.social · May 28

Oxford's BDS pledge - following the principles of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel - now has nearly 250 signatures. If you work (or are a research student) at Oxford or one of its colleges, you can sign: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

University of Oxford Staff and Research Students Commit to the BDS Movement for Palestine

Published April 2025 As signatories of this pledge, we form a collective of staff and research students at the University of Oxford and its constituent Colleges who individually commit to the terms of...

docs.google.com

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Alex Kirshner @alexkirshner.com · May 16

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first.

One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish.

Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points.

We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.

Anelise Feldman
Freshman, Yarmouth High School
Yarmouth

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · May 15

@hflgbtq.bsky.social @torchoxford2013.bsky.social

naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · May 15

Today! Oxford people, see you there!

naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · May 8

Looking forward to hosting some absolutely brilliant thinkers next week in Oxford, on a topic that only seems to get more and more urgent. All welcome - please share with comrades and friends!
www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/why-cr...

Why Critiques of Gay Imperialism Still Matter

www.torch.ox.ac.uk

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · May 13

want to read something very smart about the North-South divide and some of the many ways in which this country is completely fucked? read this!

saskia papadakis @sazpaps.bsky.social · May 13

It's out! It's here! My first ever journal article 'Postimperial melancholia and the English North–South divide: Reading the life stories of Northern women of colour in London' is out today with @tibg.bsky.social 🤩
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | RGS Journal | Wiley Online Library

The trope of the English North–South divide has come to frame a plethora of national crises in recent years, with the supposedly white working-class North understood as having been ‘left behind’ by L...

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by naoise murphy

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · May 13

#OtD 13 May 2021 local residents in Glasgow won the release of two people who had been detained by immigration officers by surrounding the vehicle and blockading it for several hours stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8509/glasgow-deportat...

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · May 8

Looking forward to hosting some absolutely brilliant thinkers next week in Oxford, on a topic that only seems to get more and more urgent. All welcome - please share with comrades and friends!
www.torch.ox.ac.uk/event/why-cr...

Why Critiques of Gay Imperialism Still Matter

www.torch.ox.ac.uk

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Reposted by naoise murphy

Aine Bennett @ainebennett.bsky.social · Apr 30

I have just signed the open letter "Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia" in response to the recent hateful and harmful Supreme Court ruling
I hope others will too: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia

We call on all trans-inclusive feminist academics and educators to sign this statement: ‘Not In Our Name’ We are non-trans feminist academics and educators. We write in support of trans rights, tran...

docs.google.com

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · Apr 30

"But if the show kept running, and we stayed in its heart-stopping counterfactual, Danny would eventually be replaced by an automated service, an AI. And the AI wouldn’t know to call a friend of a struggling student, or see that a student needed something without the student asking."

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naoise murphy @naoisemurphy.bsky.social · Apr 30

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...

Zara Dinnen | A Sector in Freefall

The Queen Mary University of London branch of the University and College Union, of which I am co-chair, hosts a webpage...

www.lrb.co.uk

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