Catherine Baker
LightNews LightNews
richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker
@richmondbridge.bsky.social
2.3K followers 2.2K following 520 posts

PERFORMING QUEER NATIONS: THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST SINCE 1990 due from Manchester University Press in 2027. She/her.

Videos
Political science 30%
Sociology 24%
Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Catherine Baker

bylinesnetwork.co.uk
Bylines Network @bylinesnetwork.co.uk · 1d
David Bowie once described the internet as "exhilarating and terrifying".

On the 10th anniversary of his death here's what's changed: politics has turned upside down – post-truth, division and nationalism replacing optimism, all driven by algorithms ⤵️

@eastangliabylines.co.uk
The decayed decade: how Britain fell apart after Bowie died
If it’s generally accepted that the last 10 years have been dreadful, is there any science behind that? A look back, probably in anger, at the last decade
eastangliabylines.co.uk

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
Also how I found this.
sotsogm.bsky.social R. Eric VanNewkirk @sotsogm.bsky.social · 4d
"Éowyn is, in the Houses of Healing, trapped between a pre-modern relationship to war, which offers her only death in battle, and a modern relationship to war, which offers escape."

Oh, this is excellent. Many thanks to @kierongillen.bsky.social for recommending it in a recent newsletter.
New Acquisitions: Tolkien and Éowyn Between Two Wars (PPP Moot Keynote)
Hey folks! I am working on finishing up some things this week, so I thought I would post the text of the keynote I gave at the Prancing Pony Podcast Moot earlier this December. I’ve made some…
acoup.blog

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
From a country where the #Eurovision grand final had a 97.8% viewing share in 2025.
escdiscord.com ESC Discord @escdiscord.com · 1d
🇮🇸 RÚV has cancelled the 2026 edition of Söngvakeppnin.

RÚV Program Director Eva Georgs Ásudóttir has stated that "the prerequisites for a traditional Söngvakeppnin no longer exist given [RÚV's] non-participation in Eurovision. What will happen next has not yet been decided".

Reposted by Catherine Baker

escdiscord.com
ESC Discord @escdiscord.com · 1d
🇮🇸 RÚV has cancelled the 2026 edition of Söngvakeppnin.

RÚV Program Director Eva Georgs Ásudóttir has stated that "the prerequisites for a traditional Söngvakeppnin no longer exist given [RÚV's] non-participation in Eurovision. What will happen next has not yet been decided".

Reposted by Catherine Baker

crexuio.bsky.social
C-REX @crexuio.bsky.social · 1d
New blog post! Joshua Farrell-Molloy explains how Irish #far-right groups use #masculinity and republican symbols to frame themselves as defenders of #Ireland. www.sv.uio.no/c-rex/englis...
Masculinity and Militant Traditions: The Shaping of a Home-Grown Irish Far-Right - C-REX – Center for Research on Extremism
Joshua Farrell-Molloy elucidates how masculinity helps explain performances of militant republican aesthetics by Irish far-right actors, who bind a revolutionary past to contemporary opposition to imm...
www.sv.uio.no

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 2d
Was also working in retail by then, and never need to hear Don’t Call Me Baby by Madison Avenue again as long as I live 😬

(See also, a year or two later: DO YOU REALLY LIKE IT IS IT IS IT WICKED)

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, Catherine Baker

lollardfish.bsky.social
David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 2d
"Invasion is not an event, it is a structure. In Minneapolis, the federal monopoly of violence takes literal structural form in Fort Snelling."

Reposted by Catherine Baker

swordsjew.bsky.social
Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 2d
i wrote about dissociation, reading as comfort, vice and self obliteration during times of horror, and also about reading exclusively about gay love for like. a year
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
My Own Inner Elba
Let me start by saying that the news is incredibly awful. I’m very aware of this, in the way you’re aware of, say, a ninety-seven degree day with one hundred...
buttondown.com

Reposted by Catherine Baker, Katrina Navickas

folukeifejola.bsky.social
folukeifejola @folukeifejola.bsky.social · 2d
Here, I reflect on my experiences of trying to get African food catered for university events that I have organised. I also explain why providing edible Jollof (or other international food) in UK HE is a vital decolonising matter in an educational setting.

folukeafrica.com/decolonising...
Decolonising Catering in UK Universities: An often elusive quest for good Jollof and Dodo
Why we are not alone when we find the taste of home
folukeafrica.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 2d
‘The Trump administration is flooding our senses without regard for coherence, in the hope we exhaust ourselves trying to make sense of something that’s completely contradictory or willfully absurd. At which point we become numb to it all, which is the ultimate goal’
colborne.bsky.social Michael Colborne @colborne.bsky.social · 2d
Yeah, so Trump’s use of CCR's anti-war song “Fortunate Son” in his TruthSocial video of the military raid in Venezuela wasn't a mistake — it’s part of a very deliberate far-right approach to aesthetics. A short thinkpiece I did for @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/2049...
The End Goal of Trump’s Cringey, Nonsensical Videos
Trump’s use of the anti-war song “Fortunate Son” in a video of the military raid in Venezuela was no mistake. It’s part of a very deliberate far-right aesthetic.
newrepublic.com

Reposted by Catherine Baker, David Murakami Wood

colborne.bsky.social
Michael Colborne @colborne.bsky.social · 2d
Yeah, so Trump’s use of CCR's anti-war song “Fortunate Son” in his TruthSocial video of the military raid in Venezuela wasn't a mistake — it’s part of a very deliberate far-right approach to aesthetics. A short thinkpiece I did for @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/2049...
The End Goal of Trump’s Cringey, Nonsensical Videos
Trump’s use of the anti-war song “Fortunate Son” in a video of the military raid in Venezuela was no mistake. It’s part of a very deliberate far-right aesthetic.
newrepublic.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 2d
The pasta dryer we never used, for the pasta maker we never used, given to us by a neighbour who had never used either and almost certain to be passed on in the same way.

Reposted by Catherine Baker

jwcsjournal.bsky.social
Journal of War and Culture Studies @jwcsjournal.bsky.social · 2d
New Year, New AIMS and SCOPE. Check it out.....

Our Editorial Team have reflected on submissions received in 2025 and have reviewed the journal's aims and scope to provide greater guidance and encouragement for potential contributing authors.

Read more here: www.tandfonline.com/journals/ywa...

Reposted by Catherine Baker, Laura Kelly

notrightruth.bsky.social
Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · 3d
Incredibly important new study from Cal Horton @fiercemum.bsky.social - the first to look at England's post-Cass child/adolescent gender clinics. Dr Horton found patients and families are being actively harmed, with one young person describing appointments as "the worst thing I’ve ever experienced”.
“The worst thing I’ve ever experienced” – comparing experiences of affirmative and non-affirmative healthcare provision for trans adolescents in the UK
Within trans youth healthcare two fundamentally different models of care persist, with a significant difference between affirmative and non-affirmative healthcare services. To date there has been l...
doi.org

Reposted by Catherine Baker

sotsogm.bsky.social
R. Eric VanNewkirk @sotsogm.bsky.social · 4d
"Éowyn is, in the Houses of Healing, trapped between a pre-modern relationship to war, which offers her only death in battle, and a modern relationship to war, which offers escape."

Oh, this is excellent. Many thanks to @kierongillen.bsky.social for recommending it in a recent newsletter.
New Acquisitions: Tolkien and Éowyn Between Two Wars (PPP Moot Keynote)
Hey folks! I am working on finishing up some things this week, so I thought I would post the text of the keynote I gave at the Prancing Pony Podcast Moot earlier this December. I’ve made some…
acoup.blog

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Norbert Schwarz, Brendan Nyhan , and 19 more

donmoyn.bsky.social
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4d
New, from me: The Trump administration isn’t just using social media to shape a narrative. They view the world through a social media lens in a way that is plausibly corrupting their judgment and undermining their performance.
Welcome to the clicktatorship. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/life-under...
Life Under a Clicktatorship
What happens to government when everything is content?
donmoynihan.substack.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 4d
My favourite thing about this isn’t even the plausible (for once) links to Boudicca but how excited they are that the boar still has its ears 🐗

Reposted by Catherine Baker, Lesley A. Hall

nionwomen.bsky.social
Not In Our Name (NION) Women @nionwomen.bsky.social · 5d
Useful reporting from Translucent. When we’ve suggested that trans women don’t pose a risk, people have argued that’s because of under reporting. These FOI requests suggest that might not be the case

www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/01/almo...
Almost no one is complaining about trans women in women's spaces, study finds - LGBTQ Nation
“This is a manufactured controversy, not a documented crisis.”
www.lgbtqnation.com

Reposted by Catherine Baker

richardosgood.bsky.social
Richard Osgood @richardosgood.bsky.social · 5d
The news of the discovery of a carnyx in Norfolk by PCA archaeology is thrilling. The find will feature on #diggingforbritain - @profaliceroberts.bsky.social you kept that quiet!! www.theguardian.com/science/2026... #archaeology #celts
‘Extraordinary’ iron age war trumpet find in Britain may have Boudicca links
Bronze instrument or carnyx dug up in Norfolk in area inhabited by Celtic tribe led by warrior who fought Romans
www.theguardian.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d
And obviously one of them is carrying a tablet about some copper from Ea-nasir.
ergative-abs.bsky.social Ergative Absolutive @ergative-abs.bsky.social · 5d
Somehow I'm just reading everything as prompts for romance novels these days.

E.g., in 'Weavers, Scribes, and Kings', by Amanda H Podany, about ancient Mesopotamia, I learn that it was common in the 3rd century BCE for emissaries between city-states to travel together.

Reposted by Catherine Baker

ergative-abs.bsky.social
Ergative Absolutive @ergative-abs.bsky.social · 5d
Somehow I'm just reading everything as prompts for romance novels these days.

E.g., in 'Weavers, Scribes, and Kings', by Amanda H Podany, about ancient Mesopotamia, I learn that it was common in the 3rd century BCE for emissaries between city-states to travel together.

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d
The last week of our History of Freedom module isn’t *quite* ‘the @historyworkshop.org.uk week’, but it’s getting there, thanks to so many articles that help teach ♀️/ 🏳️‍🌈/ ♿ activism in late c20 🇬🇧…
historyworkshop.org.uk History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 5d
How have History Workshop Journal articles been used to teach history over the past 50 years?

From the French Revolution, to policing in early modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight the HWJ archive as a valuable resource within many different classrooms.
HWJ in the Classroom
From histories of the French Revolution, to policing in Early Modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight HWJ as a valuable resource across many different classrooms.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk

Reposted by Charles West, Catherine Baker

historyworkshop.org.uk
History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 5d
How have History Workshop Journal articles been used to teach history over the past 50 years?

From the French Revolution, to policing in early modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight the HWJ archive as a valuable resource within many different classrooms.
HWJ in the Classroom
From histories of the French Revolution, to policing in Early Modern England, to LGBTQ+ histories, these reflections highlight HWJ as a valuable resource across many different classrooms.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 6d
Though it does explain who they think they’re calibrating their sense of the average household towards…

(Who on earth gave them that data, though? Can’t imagine that being true even in Peak Livetweet times…)

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 7d
And that someone in Danish secret services is, or should be, red-teaming what you do to secure Marienborg if everything suddenly goes 24 February.
tbenner.bsky.social Thorsten Benner @tbenner.bsky.social · 7d
It's wild that the PM of a NATO member feels compelled to put out a statement like this vis-à-vis the US government.

Reposted by Kori Schake, Martin McKee, Elizabeth Saunders , and 20 more

tbenner.bsky.social
Thorsten Benner @tbenner.bsky.social · 7d
It's wild that the PM of a NATO member feels compelled to put out a statement like this vis-à-vis the US government.

Reposted by Tim Bale, Catherine Baker, Lesley A. Hall , and 1 more

joncg.bsky.social
Jon Courtenay Grimwood @joncg.bsky.social · 9d
File under, we never quite know what's coming next.

One of my favourite embassy reports. The UK ambassador in East Berlin reporting in after the fall of the Wall...
A photocopy of a letter that reads.. British Embassy EAST BERLIN The Rt Hon Douglas Hurd CBE MP Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs London SWl Sir, GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC : ANNUAL REVIEW 1989 1. I ended my last year's Review With the remark that "Accidents apart, I expect no substantive change of course in 1989"...

Reposted by Catherine Baker

wearequeeraf.com
QueerAF @wearequeeraf.com · 10d
"I first stumbled into Ballroom as a queer teenager who’d spent years being bullied.

"The scene in Wales was the first place where I didn’t have to hide."

www.wearequeeraf.com/lessons-from...
Lessons from the Cardiff catwalk, where Welsh Ballroom respects its history
"The Welsh Ballroom scene in Cardiff was the first place where I didn’t have to hide"
www.wearequeeraf.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 11d
Pula and Kotor were the main military ports (plus Rijeka and Trieste for trade) - big naval mutiny in Kotor was part of the beginning of the end for A-H in 1918…

Reposted by Catherine Baker

threadinburgh.scot
Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 11d
In stepped the marketing and events types, buoyed by the success of the 1992 closing celebration of the city's European Council Summit to mark the end of the UK's presidency and start of the Single Market. This culminated in lighting a chain of beacons across the continent from Edinburgh Castle 🏰🔥