Helen Bowes-Catton (she/her)

The Open Day runs from 10.30-15.30 UK time, and will cover our different research degree programmes, funding etc. Come along and meet academics and current students. To register, email WELS-PGRS@open.ac.uk

The Open University Work in this theme ranges from research into experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood to the experiences of men who pay for sex. Key themes include the relationship between the body, ...

Research areas are quite broadly defined - my work on bisexuality identity and politics sits under 'Health and Wellbeing' for example! wels.open.ac.uk/research/pro...

Research within WELS is grouped into eight thematic research areas:

• Children and families

• Education and learning

• Global development

• Health and wellbeing

• Languages and literacies

• Social care

Thinking of doing a PhD at @openuniversity.bsky.social? The Faculty of Wellbeing Education and Language Studies is having a virtual open day on 16th October. Details ⬇️🧵

This is important.

The Government is introducing a new "Section 28 2.0" for trans kids and is listening to anti-trans groups, including representative of a group whose members actively support and encourage torturing children (through conversion therapy) to try and make them cis.

Black History month book recs- Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston In The Ditch by Buchi Emecheta Half Of A Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Long Song by Andrea Levy

Black History Month book recs Hidden histories: Black in Psychology by Parise Carmichael-Murphy and Dr Adam Danquah Mental Health and Otherness: Intersections between Gender, Race, Class and Age by Ilana Mountian The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House by Audre Lorde.

Black History Month book recs Integrating Multiculturalism and Intersectionality Into the Psychology Curriculum: Strategies for Instructors by Jasmine A Mena and Kathryn Quina Towards an Aesthetics of the Epistemologies of the South: Manifesto in Twenty-Two Theses by Boaventura de Sousa Santos Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex by Incite! Women, Gender Non-Conforming, and Trans People of Color Against Violence.

October is #BlackHistoryMonth 🖤💜 We asked our Committee to share books that inspire them to keep learning about Black history & reflecting on how we can amplify Black voices, challenge inequities & dismantle barriers. Here are their recommendations- Let us know what’s on your reading list ⬇️

This is spot on from @zackpolanski.bsky.social, who is himself Jewish and comes from Manchester.

Shabana Mahmoud is being deeply dishonest, disingenuous and dangerous by conflating protests against genocide with this antisemitic attack. It is not antisemitic to protest against the horror in Gaza.

Picture of documents with NHS branding, with title: The Gender Clinic Files and text that reads: A new investigative series that exposes deep structural issues with the UK’s approach to Transgender healthcare in the QueerAF newsletter with What The Trans!? every Saturday this month. QueerAF and What The Trans logos all on a blue background showing a blurred out medical setting.

This Saturday after painstaking research and FOIs by @clairestranstalks.bsky.social with @whatthetrans.com, we'll publish 'The Gender Clinic Files' in our newsletter:

A new investigative series exposing deep structural issues with UK Transgender healthcare

Sign up 👉 www.wearequeeraf.com/subscribe/

Teachers say trans pupils 'limiting food and drink' to avoid school toilets The new guidance said students will be asked to use toilet facilities which correspond to their biological sex.

The UK 'just protecting children'

"Teachers say trans pupils 'limiting food and drink' to avoid school toilets"

news.stv.tv/politics/tea...

Appalling news on Yom Kippur. Thinking of everyone affected and all Jewish communities.

Live: Gaza aid flotilla says military has boarded vessels Israeli's foreign ministry says the Israeli navy asked the flotilla to change course. The mission is the latest sea-borne attempt to break Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave to deliver food and medicine.

I'm hearing that FCO phonelines have been closed. Please email fcdocorrespondence@fcdo.gov.uk *now* with your concerns for the flotilla, mentioning the 13 British nationals on board.

Live: Gaza aid flotilla says military has boarded vessels | Reuters share.google/0yOnmXRAYT2a...

Live: Gaza aid flotilla says military has boarded vessels Israeli's foreign ministry says the Israeli navy asked the flotilla to change course. The mission is the latest sea-borne attempt to break Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave to deliver food and medicine.

Live: Gaza aid flotilla says military has boarded vessels | Reuters share.google/0yOnmXRAYT2a...

BREAKING: Israel Begins Intercepting 44-Ship Global Sumud Flotilla The massive flotilla, which Italian and Spanish ships shadowed until it approached Gaza, is the fourth one attacked in the last year.

BREAKING: Israel Begins Intercepting 44-Ship Global Sumud Flotilla: zeteo.com/p/global-sum...

Logo with the words 'GLINTS: Glasgow Lab for Intersex, Non-binary and Trans Studies' in coral text on a purple background.

We're starting a new 'ArtsLab' (research network) in trans studies at Glasgow! It's very exciting and I hope that in time we can become a real centre for research in this field. Find out more - including details of our upcoming launch event - on our website: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/art...

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer.

This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Future access to the Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds Inviting feedback from pond users, the local community, and stakeholders on how the Kenwood Ladies’, and Highgate Men’s ponds should operate in the future.

If you have swum in the Hampstead Heath bathing ponds please respond to this consultation on changing their current #trans-inclusive policy.

hampstead-heath-bathing-ponds.commonplace.is

Lucy Powell calls for MPs to vote on single sex space guidance The Labour deputy leadership candidate calls for a debate and vote on guidance which is expected to say that trans people should be excluded from single sex spaces.

Lucy Powell has warned that Labour should not wave through a devastating trans bathroom ban 👇

Ripping up trans rights would be a disaster for Labour, for business, for women, and for the wider LGBT+ community.

It's wrong. Labour needs to stop aping Trump and Farage, and protect our human rights.

#UK #TransRights An FOI has just confirmed what all of us have feared: for the Youth gender services, since July 2024, not a single patient has been referred to commence HRT. And 22 have been moved from youth to adult services , also without treatment. This is scandalous.

This!

This!

This petition was at over half a million when I signed it last night, and growing by about a thousand a minute.

Reject Trans Doom-Posting This week I took the long train down to the south of England for my friend Robyn’s funeral. She died very suddenly three weeks ago, aged just 32. Robyn gave so much love to the world, and was so lo…

New essay: REJECT TRANS DOOM-POSTING.

It's about grief, loss, institutional failures, and the horror of the current moment.

It's also a love letter to trans community, and the things we do with and for one another.

Seriously how hard is it to say “This is an outrageous attack on our friends and neighbours who are in this country legally and have followed all the rules to get settled status, who are valued members of our communities, get to fuck frog-face”?

Update: the EHRC has completed its internal review and upheld its blanket refusal of our FOI requests under Section 14(1). They admit some requests were “well focussed, purposeful and of public interest,” but still refused them all. 1/

It's RESEARCH week here on #PhDYr1 !

Have a designated landing spot for research ideas. Could be a digital note in Google Keep or similar, a tabbed page in your Everything Notebook/bullet journal, or any other thing you won't lose and can easily get to.

A safety manual for academics visiting America - Research Professional News Petra Boynton looks at what advice UK universities should give US-bound researchers and students

A safety manual for academics visiting America.

Petra Boynton looks at what advice UK universities should give US-bound researchers and students.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...

We’ve uncovered through FOI that Sex Matters were in direct contact with ONS this year. They attended a Government Statistical Service harmonisation event in April/May 2025 and followed up with their own recommendations on data.

www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/tran...

The poster reads: "We need you! Do you care for a young person who identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, transgender or non-binary? We are interested in understanding possible experiences of stigma that caregivers of LGBTQ+ young people may go through, and their relationship with their young person. Requirements: To take part you must: Be a parent or caregiver of someone under 18 years identifying as LGBTQIA+, Be willing to share your experiences and help us contribute to research, Have 20 minutes to complete an online questionnaire Be based in the UK. All responses will be anonymised. For more information contact: emily.morley@hmc.ox.ac.uk To take part in the survey, scan the QR code or click this link: ttps://psychiatryoxford.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eQaJ0En1EJtNxAi" The poster has the University of Oxford logo and a QR code. The footer of the poster reads "Caregiver Associative stigma and relationship to acceptance of child gender identity V1.0, May 2025"

Researchers at Oxford University are recruiting caregivers of LGBT+ youth for a study on stigma & family relationships. It is an online survey that takes 20-30 minutes, and all answers are anonymised. Please visit : psychiatryoxford.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

#TransResearch #LGBTQResearch

Have plugged to our PGRs - will let you know if I get any feedback!

Equality and Human Rights Commission response The BPS response urged the Equality and Human Rights Commission to adopt a clearer and more coherent approach that protects the dignity, privacy, and rights of trans people, while supporting service providers in meeting their legal responsibilities. 09 September 2025

My governing body, the British Psychological Society (@bpsofficial.bsky.social) is also highly critical of the EHRC Code of Practice.
Thank you, BPS, for making this public statement.

www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

🚨 The UN is considering downgrading Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

👉 If the downgrade happens, the UK would no longer have a fully recognised national human rights institution at the UN.

Who’s watching the watchdog? 👀

#humanrights #ehrc #law