Briony Hannell

I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.

And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.

What does OpenAI offer the world?

AoIR Annual Conference Locations - Google My Maps AoIR Internet Research Conference Host Cities

#AoIR2026 will be in Mexico City!

See my map of all AoIR locations at www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/e...
#AoIR2025

oh you’re a nihilist? name zero things that matter

Presentation slide defining platformed nostalgia as a social media platform branding strategy that commercialises historical social media nostalgia in an attempt to (re)gain legitimacy and social acceptance in a landscape marked by controversy, crisis, and distrust.

At #aoir2025 I’m presenting on what I term “platformed nostalgia”, which I explore via an analysis of Automattic-era Tumblr’s efforts to commercialise historical social media nostalgia in its marketing (particularly in response to the X-odus). I’m in the Memes panel at 9am tomorrow. Sneak peak 👀

VACANCY: Lecturer in Sociology (13 months, starting Jan 2026)
Closing date: 20 Oct 2025

Teaching PG modules on ‘Social Theory: Structure, Relations & Interaction’ & ‘Research Design’.
@britsoci.bsky.social @uomsoss.bsky.social
www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

It was an absolute pleasure to review @briony.bsky.social's brilliant book on feminist fandom for the EJCS. If you haven't bought her book yet (or forgot to ask your university library to purchase it), please let my review convince you to do so immediately: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

A photo of multiple books on Ava’s desk. Feminist Fandom by Briony Hannell is in the center, with some pink pens below it. To the right is a small notebook with classic literature book spines as its cover design, and above it is a stack of three books: Fandom is Ugly by Mel Stanfill; Gender, Metal and the Media by Rosemary Lucy Hill; Participatory Culture Wars, edited by Simone Driessen, Bethan Jones, and Ben Litherland.

V into this stack rn (/hints at where my politics chapter is maybe going to end up)

Thank you 🥹🥹🥹🥹

Summer School - Reactionary Politics Research Network

📣Applications for the second Reactionary Politics Summer School are open📣

The summer school provides a space to develop key skills for the research of reactionary politics. It will be hosted hybrid and attendance is free. Bursaries are also available. Sign up below!

reacpol.net/summer-schoo...

OUT NOW #OnlineFirst: Live Methods Revisited

Eight new papers focus on @academicdiary.bsky.social‬ and Nirmal Puwar’s Live Methods and its clarion call for more “artful and crafty” sociological methodologies. Edited by @emmakjackson.bsky.social‬ ‪& @kirsteen-paton.bsky.social‬

buff.ly/sM4Uta3

Likewise! ☀️💚

Thanks, Alison! Looking forward to seeing you again ☺️

V interested in the Bluesky migration paper! Might chime well with the stuff I’m thinking about re: social media nostalgia atm. Looking forward to seeing you there 💖

Conference paper abstract titled “Platformed nostalgia: Automattic-era Tumblr and the commercialisation of historical social media nostalgia”.

Really pleased that my paper on what I’m calling “platformed nostalgia” has been accepted to #aoir2025 - this will be my first time presenting at the Association of Internet Researchers conference! V excited.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

You can read my findings here. The article is open access so everyone can read it for free.

Yes, TV Can Make You a Better Person

5 Ways Music Can Make you a better person

Playing violent video games makes you a better person

6 reasons why your porn habit might actually be good for you

My article on 'positive effects' of media and social media is out!

Borne out of frustration of seeing articles like these, which seemed exceptionally silly to me but colleagues in media studies were occasionally sharing positively.

So I went and collected a load and analysed them.

Poster for an academic event on reactionary politics, feminist critique, and women at Loughborough University.

Screenshot of PPT. Title slide for paper called “Heteropessimism on TikTok: #boysober and the reactionary feminised digital media ecology”

Decorative. Series of headlines about “boy sober”

Screenshot of PPT detailing the methods and sample of the study.

Loughborough bound for a symposium on reactionary politics, women, and feminist critique. Looking forward to lots of fascinating papers and to presenting with @jillybkay.bsky.social on TikTok’s “boysober” trend.

NEW! MCCS are awarding a limited no of 100% fee waivers for 2025–26 for students who are the first in their family to attend university on these MAs:

• MA Cultural Studies

• MA Gender, Media and Culture

• MA Race, Media and Social Justice

Full details: www.gold.ac.uk/fees-funding...

Thank you for engaging so generously with my work! I’m really pleased you found it useful for your own research as well.

Feminist fandom: media fandom, digital feminisms, and tumblr Published in Feminist Media Studies (Ahead of Print, 2025)

My review of Briony Hannell's brilliant book 'Feminist Fandom: Media Fandom, Digital Feminisms, and Tumblr' is now available in Feminist Media Studies ✨ @femmediastudies.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

“I am a sociologist who studies the return of the housewife – here's why it's dangerous” "Cleanfluencing is notable for the absence of mess."

As a sociologist @emmahcasey.bsky.social studies the rapid return of the housewife, both in real life and across social media - for @StylistMagazine she spells out why our love of cleaning influencers and #tradwife content is much darker than it first appears:
www.stylist.co.uk/life/return-...

RPRN statement on the Supreme Court ruling on the Equality Act - Reactionary Politics Research Network The RPRN stands in solidarity with trans and non-binary people and believes that it is the responsibility of researchers and academics to hold our institutions to account to defend trans equality and ...

Our statement on the UK Supreme Court's ruling on the Equality Act. We stand in solidarity with trans and non-binary people and believe that it is the responsibility of researchers to hold our institutions to account to defend trans equality and dignity.

reacpol.net/supreme-cour...

Thank you! I really enjoyed your paper. Really looking forward to seeing how your research develops. Do you have any outputs planned?

This is an image of an academic abstract for a paper titled “From Personal to Platformed Nostgka: Tumblr Nostalgia, Crisis, and the Commercialisation of Historical Social Media Nostalgia”.

Want to learn about a platform that claims to have “old Internet energy”? For the #britsoc25 early birds, I’ll be presenting a paper on historical social media nostalgia in the Culture, Media, Sport and Food session at 9am, Room 4.209.

The UK's Anti-Trans Ruling Is a Defeat for All Women Even the self-described feminists celebrating the Supreme Court's attempt to banish trans people from womanhood will pay a heavy price.

The UK Supreme Court’s transphobic ruling on the definition of woman last week is a defeat for all women—even, ultimately, the self-described feminists celebrating it, and the women who will gain in the short term from their alliance with the carceral state.

my latest for @thenation.com

We’re looking forward to the BSA Sociology Annual Conference at the University of Manchester, starting tomorrow! – hashtag is #britsoc25

UK Supreme Court Rules That Trans Women Aren’t Women under the Equality Act 2010 The legal definition of a woman in the UK now excludes trans people: This is what it means for Trans+ rights in the country

My analysis of today's UK Supreme Court judgment.

The UK Supreme Court Rules That Trans Women Aren't Women Under the Equality Act 2010

www.wearequeeraf.com/uk-supreme-c...

Love hearing friends and colleagues being cited. @briony.bsky.social's work on feminist fandom is being drawn on to think about anti-fans video essays critiquing true crime fandom (many from a position of true crime consumer to a greater or lesser extent). #murdermedia

I love to hear it! Thanks for sharing, Bethan!

Feeling very overwhelmed and lucky after today’s book launch at @sheffielduni.bsky.social 🥹🩷 I couldn’t believe how many lovely people logged in for it and asked such brilliant questions.

A million thank yous, especially to @briony.bsky.social for being such a fantastic respondent.