Flora Renz
@florarenz.bsky.social
Academic law person at King’s College. Working on feminist, disability & gender things, also in case my employer is reading this: lots of criminal law. Held hostage by my beagle. All views my own & not peer reviewed.
Hard to disagree with this
Initial thoughts on a HE car-crash: first proper post on my Substack. Part 1 of a million, probably, where I get very annoyed about bad decisions taken by UCU.
Initial thoughts on a HE car-crash
Part 1 of a million, probably
open.substack.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Hard to disagree with this
Already lost Whamaggedon with two weeks still to go
December 12, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Already lost Whamaggedon with two weeks still to go
Reposted by Flora Renz
As a review is announced into who counts as disabled, I offer some reflections on disability and UK employment policies over the twentieth century
historyandpolicy.org/policy-paper...
historyandpolicy.org/policy-paper...
Stigma, trust and the history of UK disability policy - History & Policy
The numbers of people who are physically impaired, neurodivergent, chronically sick or experiencing mental distress have increased to around one in four of the UK population. Government ministers have...
historyandpolicy.org
December 12, 2025 at 2:51 PM
As a review is announced into who counts as disabled, I offer some reflections on disability and UK employment policies over the twentieth century
historyandpolicy.org/policy-paper...
historyandpolicy.org/policy-paper...
Reposted by Flora Renz
An insight into the process happening at Essex: My brilliant colleague Lucy Noakes is*President of the Royal Historical Society* and is still, like me, officially "at risk" of redundancy.
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.
Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
December 12, 2025 at 10:24 AM
An insight into the process happening at Essex: My brilliant colleague Lucy Noakes is*President of the Royal Historical Society* and is still, like me, officially "at risk" of redundancy.
Reposted by Flora Renz
Glad I finally got to publish with Kurt on a topic we have chatted about for ages - how the anti-gender movement has found its way to the centre of far-right political mobilisation in Australia 🌈🎓
🌈 Very excited to share my new article with @barrieshannon.com in the Australian Journal of Political Science
‘Mainstreaming LGBTQIA+ hate: the far right’s anti-gender countermovement in Australia’
url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/q4GHCROND2...
‘Mainstreaming LGBTQIA+ hate: the far right’s anti-gender countermovement in Australia’
url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/q4GHCROND2...
December 11, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Glad I finally got to publish with Kurt on a topic we have chatted about for ages - how the anti-gender movement has found its way to the centre of far-right political mobilisation in Australia 🌈🎓
Reposted by Flora Renz
Merger update: the VC has confirmed that current Greenwich employees can remain in their current pension schemes (TPS & Local Govt) and the post-92 academic contract. Kent employees will keep their terms & conditions through TUPE: www.acas.org.uk/tupe/advice-...
What a TUPE transfer is - TUPE - Acas
What employee rights and employer responsibilities are in a TUPE transfer.
www.acas.org.uk
December 12, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Merger update: the VC has confirmed that current Greenwich employees can remain in their current pension schemes (TPS & Local Govt) and the post-92 academic contract. Kent employees will keep their terms & conditions through TUPE: www.acas.org.uk/tupe/advice-...
Reposted by Flora Renz
The ad for the second postdoctoral position on our @leverhulme.ac.uk Britain’s Early Medieval Letters project is now live. We’re looking for an Old English specialist (who also works with Latin). 32-month FT post. Deadline for apps is 16 Jan 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Job Opportunity at the University of Kent: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Are you passionate about early medieval Britain? Do you have advanced knowledge of Old English and proficiency in Medieval Latin? If yes, then you may be interested in this fixed term full time post...
jobs.kent.ac.uk
December 11, 2025 at 10:49 AM
The ad for the second postdoctoral position on our @leverhulme.ac.uk Britain’s Early Medieval Letters project is now live. We’re looking for an Old English specialist (who also works with Latin). 32-month FT post. Deadline for apps is 16 Jan 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Reposted by Flora Renz
🚨🚨 Call for papers!!! 🚨🚨
Together with @jenhendry.bsky.social, I am excited to ask for contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Comparative Law, dedicated to the legacy of the late and wonderful William Twining. Full details to follow:
Together with @jenhendry.bsky.social, I am excited to ask for contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Comparative Law, dedicated to the legacy of the late and wonderful William Twining. Full details to follow:
December 11, 2025 at 9:03 AM
🚨🚨 Call for papers!!! 🚨🚨
Together with @jenhendry.bsky.social, I am excited to ask for contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Comparative Law, dedicated to the legacy of the late and wonderful William Twining. Full details to follow:
Together with @jenhendry.bsky.social, I am excited to ask for contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Comparative Law, dedicated to the legacy of the late and wonderful William Twining. Full details to follow:
Reposted by Flora Renz
Then there are the (sadly shrinking) admin teams that support teaching, and the teaching staff (many of them research active), whose labour enables research staff to conduct research. Basically, don't all staff employed at a research university perform labour that enables research, impact etc? 3/4
December 11, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Then there are the (sadly shrinking) admin teams that support teaching, and the teaching staff (many of them research active), whose labour enables research staff to conduct research. Basically, don't all staff employed at a research university perform labour that enables research, impact etc? 3/4
Reposted by Flora Renz
💥 On Friday, we had the privilege of hearing from @paralympicsgb.bsky.social’s incredible Krysten Coombs, who shared some amazing moments from his badminton career so far. 🏸
Missed our 'Meet the Paralympian' event?
Here are 3 pearls of Coombs wisdom especially for you...
🏛️🎓♿
Missed our 'Meet the Paralympian' event?
Here are 3 pearls of Coombs wisdom especially for you...
🏛️🎓♿
December 10, 2025 at 3:07 PM
💥 On Friday, we had the privilege of hearing from @paralympicsgb.bsky.social’s incredible Krysten Coombs, who shared some amazing moments from his badminton career so far. 🏸
Missed our 'Meet the Paralympian' event?
Here are 3 pearls of Coombs wisdom especially for you...
🏛️🎓♿
Missed our 'Meet the Paralympian' event?
Here are 3 pearls of Coombs wisdom especially for you...
🏛️🎓♿
Reposted by Flora Renz
**TOMORROW**
Please join us @qmul.bsky.social on December 11th to hear Prof. Kathryn McNeilly discuss 'Intergenerational Equity, Climate Change Litigation and Time in the ECtHR'
Register here
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/intergener...
Register here
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/intergener...
Intergenerational Equity, Climate Change Litigation and Time in the ECtHR
Co-hosted by Centre for the Critique of Law and Society and Time and Temporality Research Network
www.eventbrite.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 6:11 AM
**TOMORROW**
Reposted by Flora Renz
Essex students found out their campus was closing from a link in a WhatsApp chat.
800 students uprooted.
400 jobs cut.
One university in crisis.
Students and staff deserve better.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
800 students uprooted.
400 jobs cut.
One university in crisis.
Students and staff deserve better.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
University of Essex student 'devastated' by campus closure
Four hundred staff jobs are also being axed in cost-cutting measures by the University of Essex.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Essex students found out their campus was closing from a link in a WhatsApp chat.
800 students uprooted.
400 jobs cut.
One university in crisis.
Students and staff deserve better.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
800 students uprooted.
400 jobs cut.
One university in crisis.
Students and staff deserve better.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Flora Renz
Portability will be introduced for longform/extended process outputs for 5 years. Hurray!!!
Minimum number of Impact Case Studies per UoA confirmed at 1 not 2. Hurray!
Small & specialist HEIs value REF and did not wish to be 2-tracked. So they won't be. Hurray!
Now the Q&A is on. 8/9
Minimum number of Impact Case Studies per UoA confirmed at 1 not 2. Hurray!
Small & specialist HEIs value REF and did not wish to be 2-tracked. So they won't be. Hurray!
Now the Q&A is on. 8/9
December 10, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Portability will be introduced for longform/extended process outputs for 5 years. Hurray!!!
Minimum number of Impact Case Studies per UoA confirmed at 1 not 2. Hurray!
Small & specialist HEIs value REF and did not wish to be 2-tracked. So they won't be. Hurray!
Now the Q&A is on. 8/9
Minimum number of Impact Case Studies per UoA confirmed at 1 not 2. Hurray!
Small & specialist HEIs value REF and did not wish to be 2-tracked. So they won't be. Hurray!
Now the Q&A is on. 8/9
Reposted by Flora Renz
Appreciation today for the late great Dr Vicky Conway who did so much of the groundwork to get this to happen. She is always loved and remembered by the many, many people she helped 💚
Attended Fiosrú's launch this morning of its first research report on Incidents of Death and Serious Harm around Garda contact in 2024
The first time this body or its predecessor has done this kind of report – very welcome
Some observations about the launch:
The first time this body or its predecessor has done this kind of report – very welcome
Some observations about the launch:
December 10, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Appreciation today for the late great Dr Vicky Conway who did so much of the groundwork to get this to happen. She is always loved and remembered by the many, many people she helped 💚
Confession time: It is me. I have personally broken the welfare state by booking passenger assistance for my next flight. I take full responsibility for my actions and promise to mend my ways (magically fix my dodgy collagen and borked hip joints).
In America it’s a deliberately dumb cartoon satirising the spiteful idiocy of a certain kind of middle aged reactionary; in Britain, it’s a newspaper column in the top selling paper, written by a former Prime Minister.
December 9, 2025 at 5:21 PM
Confession time: It is me. I have personally broken the welfare state by booking passenger assistance for my next flight. I take full responsibility for my actions and promise to mend my ways (magically fix my dodgy collagen and borked hip joints).
Reposted by Flora Renz
It's awful how Labour have picked this and ran with it giving the bullshit substance.
The enhanced bit of PIP which unlocked Motability is bloody hard to get, needs medical evidence and is often demeaning.
The enhanced bit of PIP which unlocked Motability is bloody hard to get, needs medical evidence and is often demeaning.
Over the last year, myths about the Motability scheme have spread online and in the right wing media. Now, some of it is government policy.
In today’s Guardian, I set about finding the facts and why the idea of “free cars for the disabled” has taken hold. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
In today’s Guardian, I set about finding the facts and why the idea of “free cars for the disabled” has taken hold. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Disabled people driving luxury cars on your dime? Just the latest rightwing lie peddled by Labour | Frances Ryan
Starmer’s ailing government is happy to pursue ideas like cutting Motability, but all ministers will do is damage lives and themselves, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan
www.theguardian.com
December 9, 2025 at 11:22 AM
It's awful how Labour have picked this and ran with it giving the bullshit substance.
The enhanced bit of PIP which unlocked Motability is bloody hard to get, needs medical evidence and is often demeaning.
The enhanced bit of PIP which unlocked Motability is bloody hard to get, needs medical evidence and is often demeaning.
Lovely end of term present from my body: contact dermatitis from the ankle braces I've used for the last five years. Apologies to everyone who sees me furiously scratching my ankles in work meetings this week.
December 9, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Lovely end of term present from my body: contact dermatitis from the ankle braces I've used for the last five years. Apologies to everyone who sees me furiously scratching my ankles in work meetings this week.
Reposted by Flora Renz
Disabled people driving luxury cars on your dime? Just the latest rightwing lie peddled by Labour.
Govts stigmatize people claiming benefits as scroungers, claim fraud is rife.
Silence on corporate welfare, tax abuse by corporations/rich. HMRC failed to collect over £500bn tax since 2010.
Govts stigmatize people claiming benefits as scroungers, claim fraud is rife.
Silence on corporate welfare, tax abuse by corporations/rich. HMRC failed to collect over £500bn tax since 2010.
Disabled people driving luxury cars on your dime? Just the latest rightwing lie peddled by Labour | Frances Ryan
Starmer’s ailing government is happy to pursue ideas like cutting Motability, but all ministers will do is damage lives and themselves, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan
www.theguardian.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Disabled people driving luxury cars on your dime? Just the latest rightwing lie peddled by Labour.
Govts stigmatize people claiming benefits as scroungers, claim fraud is rife.
Silence on corporate welfare, tax abuse by corporations/rich. HMRC failed to collect over £500bn tax since 2010.
Govts stigmatize people claiming benefits as scroungers, claim fraud is rife.
Silence on corporate welfare, tax abuse by corporations/rich. HMRC failed to collect over £500bn tax since 2010.
Reposted by Flora Renz
Just a reminder to managers that #CeasefireNOW remains a ucu policy and that, yet again, taking down posters about it is taking down union materials.
@qmul.bsky.social, get your (middle & senior) managers under control, they're not exactly acting within the law.
@qmul.bsky.social, get your (middle & senior) managers under control, they're not exactly acting within the law.
Today (Tuesday 20th February) management ordered security to break into the Queen Mary UCU office behind the Queens Building in order to remove posters expressing solidarity with Palestine.
December 8, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Just a reminder to managers that #CeasefireNOW remains a ucu policy and that, yet again, taking down posters about it is taking down union materials.
@qmul.bsky.social, get your (middle & senior) managers under control, they're not exactly acting within the law.
@qmul.bsky.social, get your (middle & senior) managers under control, they're not exactly acting within the law.
I mean this is just appalling behaviour from a barrister
Some robust criticism is made of the way in which Naomi Cunningham conducted herself. Query whether this is going to come before her professional regulator.
December 8, 2025 at 5:19 PM
I mean this is just appalling behaviour from a barrister
Reposted by Flora Renz
Decision in the Sandie Peggie case.
She was not directly or indirectly discriminated against, her claim of victimisation fails entirely, her claim of harassment fails largely and her claim against Beth Upton fails entirely. www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sa...
She was not directly or indirectly discriminated against, her claim of victimisation fails entirely, her claim of harassment fails largely and her claim against Beth Upton fails entirely. www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sa...
Sandie Peggie -v- Fife Health Board and another (judgment and summary) - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
Case number: 4104864/2024 Employment Tribunal, Scotland 8 December 2025 Before: Employment Judge A KempTribunal Member L BrownTribunal Member C Russell Between: Mrs Sandie Peggie -v- Fife Health Board...
www.judiciary.uk
December 8, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Decision in the Sandie Peggie case.
She was not directly or indirectly discriminated against, her claim of victimisation fails entirely, her claim of harassment fails largely and her claim against Beth Upton fails entirely. www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sa...
She was not directly or indirectly discriminated against, her claim of victimisation fails entirely, her claim of harassment fails largely and her claim against Beth Upton fails entirely. www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sa...
Reposted by Flora Renz
Here, I wrote something.
"It is incumbent on the Irish government and the Irish public to fulfil the promise of the nation and to continue to fight any transphobic and neocolonial encroachment on Irish shores."
dflw.ie/trans-rights...
"It is incumbent on the Irish government and the Irish public to fulfil the promise of the nation and to continue to fight any transphobic and neocolonial encroachment on Irish shores."
dflw.ie/trans-rights...
Trans-rights, neocolonialism & condemning transphobia - Doing Feminist Legal Work
Fine Gael Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill spoke in the Dáil on December 3rd on the subject of transphobia, which she definitively and
dflw.ie
December 5, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Here, I wrote something.
"It is incumbent on the Irish government and the Irish public to fulfil the promise of the nation and to continue to fight any transphobic and neocolonial encroachment on Irish shores."
dflw.ie/trans-rights...
"It is incumbent on the Irish government and the Irish public to fulfil the promise of the nation and to continue to fight any transphobic and neocolonial encroachment on Irish shores."
dflw.ie/trans-rights...
Reposted by Flora Renz
I’m disgusted that some senior DWP people have learned nothing about the scale of the misery their policies inflicted.
It’s high time the DWP showed some respect to carers and some awareness of their own gross errors.
It’s high time the DWP showed some respect to carers and some awareness of their own gross errors.
December 7, 2025 at 10:17 AM
I’m disgusted that some senior DWP people have learned nothing about the scale of the misery their policies inflicted.
It’s high time the DWP showed some respect to carers and some awareness of their own gross errors.
It’s high time the DWP showed some respect to carers and some awareness of their own gross errors.
That’s our girl!
"The Liz Truss Show review – hapless ravings from a cupboard"
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
The Liz Truss Show review – hapless ravings from a cupboard
Britain’s briefest PM kept her fans waiting before launching her latest plea for Maga attention in the form of a ham-fisted YouTube talk show
www.theguardian.com
December 7, 2025 at 10:16 AM
That’s our girl!