Catherine Baker
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richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker
@richmondbridge.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2.2K following 590 posts

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

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Sociology 24%
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richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 23d
Here’s more about what the book does if you’re new to this feed: bakercatherine.wordpress.com/2025/12/11/p...
‘Performing Queer Nations: the Eurovision Song Contest Since 1990’ is coming in 2027
In 1990, Toto Cutugno won the Eurovision Song Contest celebrating a future Europe integrated under the same sky, stars and ideals from the stage of a Zagreb that hoped for democracy. In 1997, Icela…
bakercatherine.wordpress.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 12h
Ukraine selects its #Eurovision entry tonight, so here’s 🇺🇦’s official digital diplomacy channel, telling its audience about what the selection’s ‘live discussion about taste, values, and how Ukraine presents itself to Europe’ means today m.facebook.com/story.php?st...
Caption reads ‘Ukrainians love good music. And we also love a good quarrel. Vidbir sits perfectly at the intersection of both - part national selection, part live discussion about taste, values, and how Ukraine presents itself to Europe’

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
In 2020, Ghali also spoke out against an 🇮🇹 celebrity impersonation show that put a performer in blackface to sing one of his songs www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/m... - then the highest-profile challenge to how these shows in Europe had represented songs by Black musicians
Ghali contro 'Tale e quale':
Il rapper milanese di origini tunisine protesta contro l'uso del Blackface nello show di Rai 1:
www.repubblica.it

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
In 2024, Ghali came 4th in Sanremo and gave a ‘stop genocide’ message in his final performance www.theguardian.com/world/2024/f...

Appeared with an alien character on stage to signal why society should welcome strangers and refugees www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdcI...
Sanremo Italian song festival criticised after rapper Ghali’s appeal to ‘stop genocide’
Israel’s ambassador to Italy said statement ‘spread hatred and provocation in a superficial, irresponsible way’
www.theguardian.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
Sanremo festival watchers have had a head start on getting to know this guy.

If he’d won and become 🇮🇹’s presumptive #Eurovision rep, would have been very interesting, albeit less likely for the foreseeable.

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
For the first time in a while, have managed to miss an Olympics opening ceremony broadcast. According to this thread, have some catching up to do.
danielsohege.bsky.social Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 1d
I feel bad for the presenters of the BBC Winter Olympics coverage, currently trying to make puffer jackets seem interesting as they grasp for anything to say.

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
Allora!

Reposted by Catherine Baker

alexip718.com
Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 1d
On the other hand, Ghali appears to be the Kendrick Lamar of Italian rappers. Anti-fascist, pro-Palestine, born of Tunisian immigrants. You should support him.

www.aljazeera.com/amp/sports/2...
Why have rapper Ghali’s Israel comments led to Winter Olympics criticism?
The Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics open on Monday, but rapper Ghali's inclusion draws criticism in his native Italy.
www.aljazeera.com

Reposted by Catherine Baker

danielsohege.bsky.social
Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 1d
I feel bad for the presenters of the BBC Winter Olympics coverage, currently trying to make puffer jackets seem interesting as they grasp for anything to say.

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
Meanwhile, since this was on Kenworthy’s personal social media and didn’t refer to Team GB, apparently not a matter for the IOC. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...

With apologies for one more news story about a certain part of the anatomy so far these Games.
Winter Olympics Team GB skier targets ICE with graphic message written in snow
Team GB skier Gus Kenworthy has launched a blistering attack on US Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers including a message written in the snow
www.theguardian.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
‘The IOC ruled that the image violated Olympic rules barring political symbolism, requiring Jean to come up with a creative solution: painting over the nation’s founding father’ 😱
julesboykoff.bsky.social Jules Boykoff @julesboykoff.bsky.social · 1d
‼️At the 2026 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has ruled that an image of Toussaint Louverture—the former slave who led a revolution that created the world’s first Black republic in Haiti in 1804—violated Olympic rules barring political symbolism. What? apnews.com/article/hait...
Haiti's Winter Olympics team shines a positive light even as IOC removes patriot from uniforms
Haiti is making a statement at the Milan Cortina Winter Games with two athletes proudly representing the nation.
apnews.com

Reposted by Catherine Baker, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

julesboykoff.bsky.social
Jules Boykoff @julesboykoff.bsky.social · 1d
‼️At the 2026 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has ruled that an image of Toussaint Louverture—the former slave who led a revolution that created the world’s first Black republic in Haiti in 1804—violated Olympic rules barring political symbolism. What? apnews.com/article/hait...
Haiti's Winter Olympics team shines a positive light even as IOC removes patriot from uniforms
Haiti is making a statement at the Milan Cortina Winter Games with two athletes proudly representing the nation.
apnews.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d
A French caving guide did propose a spring Olympics for the Pyrenees in 1988! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Would have had adventure sports like mountain biking, paragliding etc
The History and Geography of a Forgotten Olympic Project: The Spring Games
This article concerns the project put forward in the late 1980s to create a third type of Olympic Games in the French Pyrenees. The idea consisted of organizing a gathering for new outdoor sports (...
www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Catherine Baker

dennisonshelly.bsky.social
Shelly Dennison @dennisonshelly.bsky.social · 1d
I was beginning to think I was being melodramatic about the lack of sun this year but apparently not.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Most consecutive days of rain since 1908, Reading University says
The only Januarys wetter than this year's were in 1939, 1995 and 2014, meteorologists say.
www.bbc.co.uk

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 2d
And *that’s* your Eurovision/Olympics crossover right there…

Reposted by Catherine Baker

goodlawproject.org
Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 2d
"As co-chair, Beth, now 68, faced down intimidation from anti-trans groups to oversee a vote that cemented the Association’s inclusive ethos in 2024. It was, she says, 'the hardest thing I have ever done, and also the thing I’m the most proud of.'"
The women fighting for trans inclusion at Hampstead ponds
The High Court has rejected a legal challenge attempting to ban trans people from Hampstead Heath’s single-sex ponds. Good Law Project speaks to the activists and regular swimmers behind the movement ...
www.dazeddigital.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 3d
Not to mention which ones used to be in which other ones…

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 4d
…and now I need to go back and watch The Quick and the Dead.

Reposted by Steven French, Catherine Baker, Malcolm MacLean , and 2 more

jaytoddgla.bsky.social
Jay Todd 🏳️‍⚧️ @jaytoddgla.bsky.social · 4d
📣 Today @felicitycallard.bsky.social and I have published the first peer-reviewed response to the 'Sullivan Review' of research and data on sex and gender.

doi.org/10.1111/tran...

The Review could threaten trans rights and inclusion, erode academic freedom, and undermine research quality.
Graphic reading 'the UK Government-commissioned 'Sullivan Review' of sex and gender in data and research collection threatens British research and trans inclusion. Here's why.'

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d
Where were *you* when you first heard Dragostea din tei? Help a student in Toronto trace its spread through Europe and beyond: docs.google.com/forms/d/1SLy...
Dragostea din tei Article Survey
Thank you for participating in this survey! I've always been curious about how this Romanian-language song spread throughout Europe and would love to hear from the people who experienced it firsthand....
docs.google.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d
My go-to in lectures has been www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dIi... (also featuring eye make-up straight from The 100, whether anyone in class will get that now…)
Saltatio Mortis - My mother told me (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by SaltatiomortisVEVO
www.youtube.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 6d
Metal bands parading around in accessories that would be manufacturable in modern but definitely not medieval supply chains. This may just be a hobby horse of mine…

Reposted by Catherine Baker

dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social
Sunny Moraine @dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 6d
Something I picked up pretty early when I started studying sociology is that things that look like grand highly intentional conspiracies are so often just systems of power and incentive structures that connect people who have the same interests

Which isn’t to say there are no conspiracies but

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 7d
*That* was what that chorus was - thank you 😀

Reposted by Catherine Baker

birdguides.bsky.social
BirdGuides @birdguides.bsky.social · 7d
In a remarkable story from Slovenia, a breeding pair of White Wagtails travelled all over the country in a lorry last summer, successfully raising young:
Nesting on the go: incubating White Wagtail travels 2,000 km
A breeding pair of White Wagtails travelled all over Slovenia in a lorry in June 2025.
bit.ly

Reposted by Catherine Baker

nionwomen.bsky.social
Not In Our Name (NION) Women @nionwomen.bsky.social · 8d
We wrote about the positive outcomes yesterday, to thank all those who simply and categorically voted for inclusion.

Although there’s still so much work to be done, and policy decisions to be taken, well done to all who collectively pushed back on exclusion 🙏

notinourname.org.uk/hampstead-po...
Hampstead Ponds Consultation Shows Trans Exclusion Is NOT What Women Want
The results are in, and they're clear: 86% of respondents to the City of London consultation want Hampstead ponds to remain trans inclusive.
notinourname.org.uk

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 8d
They usually aim inspection copies at tutors who are deciding whether to use the book on a course - inter-library loan through a public library as soon as it comes out might be best option? (Happy to share my own chapter with interested parties of course!)

Reposted by Catherine Baker

uclssees.bsky.social
UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies @uclssees.bsky.social · 8d
🔊 Yugo Queer

Join us for this one-day conference, which aims to make area studies more #queer and queer studies more far-reaching. It remaps the #Balkans from a war-torn region into one where new forms of activism, art, and affinity can emerge.

🗓️ 19 February
➡️ www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
Yugo Queer
A project by Natalija Stepanović, with support from UCL FRINGE, IAS & qUCL.
www.ucl.ac.uk

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 8d
There’s a link on the Routledge web page!

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 8d
This volume’s co-edited with theatre expert Amy Skinner, with research chapters plus interviews with 8 creative professionals: www.routledge.com/Designing-Eu...

My own chapter is on ‘the city as a stage’ in Liverpool’s on-the-ground cultural programming, against background of hosting on 🇺🇦’s behalf
Designing Eurovision: Performance Scenography on an International Stage
Designing Eurovision is the first book-length study of the visual and design elements of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). As a unique visual phenomenon and commonly associated with spectacle perform...
www.routledge.com

richmondbridge.bsky.social
Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 8d
New blog post: Designing #Eurovision: the first research volume on Eurovision stage design and how I came to co-edit it in 2023 bakercatherine.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/d...
Designing Eurovision: Performance Scenography on an International Stage
In the build-up to Eurovision 2023, theatre expert Amy Skinner and I started talking about our mutual interest in the production design of Europe’s flagship live televised music event: if creative …
bakercatherine.wordpress.com