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Laura Kelly

@tortietabby.bsky.social

9.7K followers 1.1K following 210 posts

Historian of medicine and gender in modern Ireland. Professor at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. I work on #histmed, reproductive health, and activism. Cat lover. 🐈 she/her. Personal views. 🇮🇪🇵🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ https://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/proflaurakelly/ .. more

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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · Nov 12

Hello new followers! For those of you who don’t know me, I work on the history of medicine and gender in modern Ireland. My most recent book ‘Contraception and Modern Ireland’ came out last year and is free to read via this link: www.cambridge.org/core/books/c... (Cover image by Evelyn Hofer)

Contraception and Modern Ireland

Cambridge Core - History of Medicine - Contraception and Modern Ireland

www.cambridge.org

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Reposted by Laura Kelly

Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 1d

Please acknowledge what is happening to American professors right now.

We do not deserve this.

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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · 2d

Please consider emailing your government’s department of foreign affairs to demand the release of activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla Coalition ships.

🇮🇪 Irish friends: it takes two mins to email Tánaiste/Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Harris at [email protected]

Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition @freedomflotilla.bsky.social · 2d

Footage from the Israeli Occupation Forces assault on #Conscience, shortly before dawn. In international waters, close to Palestinian territorial waters. Another act of state piracy by the rogue, lawless Israeli occupation.
www.youtube.com/live/PSQcbIw...

Live from Conscience Boat to Gaza, FFC & TMTG (Live 3)

YouTube video by Freedom Flotilla Coalition

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Carme Borrell, Laura Kelly

Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition @freedomflotilla.bsky.social · 2d

Live from Conscience Boat to Gaza, FFC & TMTG (Live 3)

YouTube video by Freedom Flotilla Coalition

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Juliet B. Schor, Iain Davidson, Laura Kelly , and 1 more Juliet B. Schor, Iain Davidson, Laura Kelly, Nelson Flores

StrictlyChristo 🦋🇺🇦🌻❌👑 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 4d

Greta Thunberg speaks to the press after being released from illegal detainment in Israel: "I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment. Trust me, but that is not the story.”

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Reposted by Cas Mudde, Éric Verdeil, Juan Cole , and 9 more Cas Mudde, Éric Verdeil, Juan Cole, Renaud Le Goix, Smith, Gerald Roche, Michael D. McDonald, Laura Kelly, Aurélien Mondon, Mark Rice, Aviel Roshwald, Constance Bantman

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 6d

I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.

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Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Lesley A. Hall, Anne Norton , and 1 more Jonathan Portes, Lesley A. Hall, Anne Norton, Laura Kelly

Roz Kaveney @rozkaveney.bsky.social · 15d

Even back in the 70s and 80s when I could be hassled by the police for walking while trans, no one ever tried to stop me pissing in the Ladies or tried to make me change into my swimsuit among men.

There is no dignity or respect involved in taking away rights I have exercised freely for forty years

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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · Aug 25

Great piece, Emer!

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Reposted by Lucy Munro, Laura Kelly

halloweemer @emer.bsky.social · Aug 25

me on @cmatbaby.bsky.social’s EURO-COUNTRY and why it gives voice to a distressingly normalised post-recession malaise. i hope you read!

The emblem of modern Ireland? Not fiddles and Guinness but a soulless shopping plaza | Emer McHugh

The singer CMAT dances around a retail centre in a video for her new album. It is the elegy those of us who grew up in the post-Celtic tiger recession have been craving, says Irish writer Emer McHugh

www.theguardian.com

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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · Aug 22

Such an important piece. Thank you, @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social.

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Reposted by Laura Kelly

Nursing Clio @nursingclio.bsky.social · Aug 22

This week @larafreidenfelds.bsky.social argues that in a post Roe vs Wade world “Women who lose pregnancies, even before viability, are targeted in ways that strongly resemble early modern infanticide investigations.” nursingclio.org/2025/08/20/m...

Miscarriage is a Crime Again

In 1650, a young, single English servant named Anne Greene miscarried into the privy and did not tell anyone. We know her story because she was arrested for infanticide, convicted despite exonerati…

nursingclio.org

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Reposted by Patrick Walsh, Laura Kelly

Niamh Cullen @niamhcullen.bsky.social · Aug 20

I have a new article in Modern Italy on mothers, children in 1970s Italian feminist magazine Effe - a lot familiar in their discussions of emotions, expectations and experience of mothering although I especially like their ideas about the radical potential of maternal love

doi.org/10.1017/mit....

Feminism and the family: mothers and children, between love, rights and duties, in Effe magazine 1973–82 | Modern Italy | Cambridge Core

Feminism and the family: mothers and children, between love, rights and duties, in Effe magazine 1973–82

doi.org

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Reposted by Rebecca Solnit, Rosemary A. Joyce, Michael Kevane , and 8 more Rebecca Solnit, Rosemary A. Joyce, Michael Kevane, Rebecca Tushnet, Laura Kelly, Paul Fisher, Greg O’Brien, Nathan Richardson, Kathleen Kennedy, Nicole Guenther Discenza, Southern Africa

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Aug 19

from chandra manning's wonderful book "what this cruel war was over"

Nothing made slavery’s toxicity more obvious to Union troops than its effect on the fundamental unit of society, the family. For one thing, slave sales separated families. In the Upper South, where many Union soldiers were stationed in 1861, about one in three first marriages was broken by sale, and about half of all slave children were separated from at least one parent. 129 With their own eyes, soldiers saw slavery snap bonds between parents and children. The men of the Seventh Wisconsin were awakened by gunshots one November night. The following day, soldiers “learned, and saw the cause of the alarm in the form of two negro women—a mother and a daughter.” The pair had fled to Union lines to avoid the proposed sale of the “goodlooking” daughter into the so-called fancy trade, which soldiers viewed as a form of concubinage. Outraged by the plight and moved by the vulnerability of the mother and daughter, “every private in the ranks” cursed “that system which tramples on the honor of man, and makes merchandise of the virtue of women,” according to one member of the regiment. 130 When an Iowan encountered a young child about to be sold by her own father, who was also her master, he vowed, “By G–d I’ll fight till hell freezes over and then I’ll cut the ice and fight on.” 131

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Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Michael Kevane, Laura Kelly

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · Aug 19

much easier to understand the sheer bloody intensity of the civil war when you have a good grasp on just how terrible slavery was.

Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · Aug 19

"How bad slavery was" is worse. Much worse. Much worse than you think, much worse than you're taught, much worse than museums depict. Worse.

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Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Mark A. Lemley, Steve Peers , and 12 more Ben H. Ansell, Mark A. Lemley, Steve Peers, Diane Ravitch, Jacob Montgomery, Joseph Schafer, Michael Kevane, Robert Wolfe, Andrew L. Whitehead, Laura Kelly, Daryl Adair, Christina Pagel, Rebecca Zorach, Dan Immergluck, Virginia Sapiro

Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · Aug 19

If you want to put back statues and memorials and names of Confederate traitors while tearing down museum exhibitions on slavery because they don't show the greatness of the nation... the nation whose history you're celebrating is whiteness. The kind of nationalist you are is a white nationalist.

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Reposted by Richard Price, Rebecca Tushnet, Laura Kelly

Noah Berlatsky @nberlat.bsky.social · Aug 19

one extremely horrific aspect of slavery was systematic, vicious, constant rape and sexual abuse. there remain major taboos about talking about that, especially in schools or museums for all ages.

Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · Aug 19

"How bad slavery was" is worse. Much worse. Much worse than you think, much worse than you're taught, much worse than museums depict. Worse.

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Thomas Lecaque @tlecaque.bsky.social · Aug 19

"How bad slavery was" is worse. Much worse. Much worse than you think, much worse than you're taught, much worse than museums depict. Worse.

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Laura Kelly

Women's History Scotland @womenshistscot.bsky.social · Aug 13

📢 Women’s History Scotland Conference Registration open!

Join us for New Directions in Women’s and Gender History in Scotland and the Sue Innes Memorial Lecture given by @vawright10.bsky.social

🗓 Saturday 13 Sept 2025, Kinning Park Complex

Book here 🔗 www.tickettailor.com/events/women...

Buy tickets – Women’s History Scotland Conference: New Directions in Women’s and Gender History in Scotland – Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow

Women’s History Scotland are delighted to announce their one-day conference is taking place on Saturday 13 September 2025 at th...

www.tickettailor.com

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Reposted by Stefanie Walter, Robert Wolfe, Laura Kelly , and 1 more Stefanie Walter, Robert Wolfe, Laura Kelly, James Cameron

Stephen Walt @stephenwalt.bsky.social · Aug 14

The purpose of academic freedom is not to allow faculty to live cushy lives free from criticism or constraint. Its purpose is to allow them to investigate widely and report (or criticize) the results openly, instead of allowing politicians to decide what is true and what is not.

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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · Aug 10

Look forward to reading this too! Thanks for the thread, Evan.

Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · Aug 10

This is a disgrace. People have the right to protest against genocide.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Police arrest 474 people at protest over Palestine Action ban in London

Number of arrests was highest recorded in relation to single operation in at least past decade, according to Met police

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Laura Kelly

Rose Ruane @regretteruane.bsky.social · Feb 18

The Worship of Cats, created by Janet Parker, c.1966 in the art therapy studio at Netherne hospital, Surrey, where she was compelled to live.
This is the only surviving work by her & no biographical information is currently known to us

Painting in an untaught style of a giant black cat with green eyes and pink nose seated on a blue and turquoise podium being worshipped by a white woman with long black hair in a pale blue dress under a yellow sky

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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · Aug 8

I've emailed, Lindsey. I'm so sorry this is happening to you, it's absolutely shocking and I can't imagine the stress you must be under. I hope you get home soon.

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Felicity Callard, Laura Kelly

Vikki Patis @vikkipatis.bsky.social · Aug 8

Open letter on the Polari Prize longlist and the inclusion of John Boyne, who openly expresses his transphobic and misogynistic views.

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

Author statement on the Polari Prize longlist

We are writers, editors, publishers and booksellers who stand in solidarity with the trans community. We are profoundly disappointed by the Polari Prize’s decision to include John Boyne on the longlis...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Laura Kelly

Saoirse McHugh @saoirsemc.bsky.social · Aug 8

Brilliant reporting by the galway advertiser. Absolutely perfect www.advertiser.ie/galway/artic...

Visitors stage anti-migrant march in Galway

Galway city centre was especially busy last Saturday, with racegoers, summer tourists and the unusual addition of a march by far-right agitators, met by an anti-fascist counter demonstration, causing ...

www.advertiser.ie

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Reposted by Mark Petticrew, Helen King, Lesley A. Hall , and 1 more Mark Petticrew, Helen King, Lesley A. Hall, Laura Kelly

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · Aug 7

The brilliant @lmbd1418.bsky.social has suggested people write to the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper re: my case. If you could spare five minutes, she's created a draft letter which you can use to send to [email protected]. I appreciate everyone's support. ❤️

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Aileen Fyfe, Laura Kelly

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · Jul 29

For those who missed it: I tried to fly back from Chicago to London last week and was prevented from doing so because a UK border agent said they have no record of my citizenship. This reminds me that an immigrant's place is precarious, even with all the legal paperwork. Anyway, I miss home.

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Laura Kelly @tortietabby.bsky.social · Aug 6

Lindsey, this is awful! I’m so sorry. I hope it gets resolved soon, it’s absolutely terrible.

Reposted by Daniel S. Goldberg, Laura Kelly

Kylie M. Smith @drkyliesmith.bsky.social · Aug 5

Today is official publication day of @cethompson.bsky.social and my little collection “Do Less Harm: Ethical Questions for Health Historians”. It has 28 essays on names, images, museum and archival practices, teaching, reparations, positionality, citation and more. www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

Do Less Harm

Ethical Questions for Health Historians

www.press.jhu.edu

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Reposted by Laura Kelly

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · Aug 4

People need to stop imagining that eugenics is just about Nazis, Hitler and Nazi Germany. Eugenics was born in the UK, and rapidly imported to the US, where both positive and negative eugenics made rapid inroads into law and policy on disability, medicine, marriage, immigration and more.

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Reposted by Laura Kelly

Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · Aug 2

Read this passage, please, about trying to provide therapy for trauma in Gaza, even though it should make you feel like you are stabbing needles into your eyes.

www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Akhras, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, lost his home to an Israeli strike, in early 2024. He and his family have been displaced multiple times, living in tents where the canvas sweats from too many bodies pressed into too little space. He no longer sits in a white-walled office or wears a badge. But he continues to work, seeing some fifty patients a day, most of them children. One of his regular patients is a young girl, no older than fourteen, who survived a strike that killed her entire family. She woke up in an I.C.U., alone, unable to understand where everyone had gone. Now she sits in front of Akhras in silence, until she asks, again and again, if he can bring them back. He has no answer, only a pencil stub and a coloring book, which he hopes she can use to express and process her emotions.

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