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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

In London today @alex-fisher.bsky.social set out our progress in reviewing the dating app industry ethical standards for the Online Dating and Discovery Association.

Alex with a slide depicting other members of the Leeds project to look at the ethical standards for the dating app industry.

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Luke Brunning @lukebrunning.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It’s sexual health week 2026 and @brookcharity.bsky.social asked me to write about AI companions. They might be seductive, but what do we stand to loose in putting chatbots before messy human conversations? www.brook.org.uk/blog/ai-and-...

brook.org.uk

AI and connection: do we still need analogue intimacy? - Brook

For #SHW26, we’re exploring how we can champion connection in an increasingly individualised world. In this blog, Dr Luke Brunning, Lecturer in Applied Ethics

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Giulia Basile & Vittoria Campisi: “Sex where we don’t matter”: navigating the erosion of agency in grey sex Giulia and Vittoria proposed that in ‘grey sex’, agency is distorted and its normalisation fails to satisfy desire. This recalibrates what desire and agency are expected to look like.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Paloma Morales: Love and Leniency. Paloma discussed the idea of intentional leniency, why this is a part of loving relationships and why this makes love unequally risky.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Nia Large: Domination and Close Relationships Nia explored equality and equalisation of power as a solution to the conflict of closeness and domination in interpersonal relationships.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Isobel Logan: Gaslighting or confronting implicit bias? Distinguishing gaslighting from mere criticism CLSR PhD @isobellogan.bsky.social argued that gaslighting can be distinguished from good criticism, especially criticism that confronts implicit bias, by thinking about justification.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Jonas Zorn: The Economisation of Personal Relationships as Collective Jonas discussed how conceptualising and conducting intimate relationships through an economic interpretive framework causes epistemic and material harms.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Giannis Vassilopoulos: The Oppressive Force of Intimate Secrets Giannis argues that secret-keepers may be “illocutionarily entrapped”, when speaking out is technically possible but carries excessive and unfair personal costs.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting our workshop Intimate (In)Justices at the MANCEPT workshops on political theory! Scroll for a breakdown of our amazing talks👇

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Not long to go until our MANCEPT workshop on intimate injustice!

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

In case you missed our fantastic line up for the breakup workshop 👇🏻

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Amazing to have 3000 followers on here! Stick around for more about all things philosophy and intimacy and share with people who need this in their life.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Breakups hurt, upend our lives, and change how we relate to each other but have been curiously neglected by philosophers. Our workshop next month aims to look closer at this often messy part of life. Here is the fantastic line up.

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Luke Brunning @lukebrunning.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Tomorrow is the final day for PhDs and post-docs to express interest for this workshop on breakups.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Huge congratulations to Dr Ruby Hornsby, who graduated from Leeds last week after passing her PhD at the end of last year! She was supervised by Chris Megone and Natasha McKeever. 🥂

Ruby Hornsby in graduation gown with her supervisor Chris Megone

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

That is a shame you’d be great to have with us!

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

One week for post-grad and post-docs to express interest in presenting at our Breakup Workshop 💔👇🏻

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

We have a swanky new website! As part of our website update, we asked @lukebrunning.bsky.social to explain who CLSR are, what we do, and why you should get involved⚡️ Follow the link in our bio to see an updated list of all our old and upcoming events, exciting news, publications, members and more💕

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Congratulations to Rosa Vince, our Leverhulme research fellow, for signing a contract for their book ‘The Ethics of Objectification’ with @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

A picture of Rosa Vince (they/them) with awesome blue/purple hair.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Want a @britishacademy.bsky.social post-doctoral fellowship with us? We'd love to mentor philosophers with projects on intimacy, love, and relationships. More information here: ahc.leeds.ac.uk/news/article...

ahc.leeds.ac.uk

PRHS Opens Call for 2026 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships

Prospective candidates must submit their initial proposals by 12 noon (UK time) on Tuesday 4 August 2026 to be considered for department sponsorship

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Aromanticism & Asexuality Research Network @aroaceresearch.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Working on intimacy in all its forms? Apply for a post-doc at @clsrleeds.bsky.social, home of the aro/ace research network!

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

We’re buzzing to share with you the programme for our upcoming workshop at MANCEPT, Intimate (In)Justices. Looking forward to a great few days of varied and important discussions of political and ethical issues in the intimate sphere ❤️

Intimate (In)Justices - MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory 2026
Programme

Wednesday 2nd September
Hannah Woolf-Jull: Epistemic injustice and parental authority: are the limits different for benevolent nondisabled parents of disabled children?
Jonas Zorn: The economisation of personal relationships as collective epistemic oppression.
Hannah Lee & Ruby Schofield: Affective uptake, deference and critical respect: Intomacy and the conditions of self-understanding.

Thursday 3rd September
Gina is Vassilopoulos: The oppressive force of intimate secrets.
Jinyu Sun: The long battle between radicalism and feminism: A philosophical investigation of the East Asian 6B4T feminist campaign.
Nia Large: Domination and close relationships.
Paloma Morales: Love and leniency.
Caroline Von Klemperer: Dangerous loving attention.

Friday 4th September
Giulia Basile & Vittoria Campisi: “Sex where we don’t matter”: Navigating the erosion of agency in grey sex.
Roxy Alexander: Diverging bodyminds and access intimacy: Fatness, ableism and the limits of social value.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Philosophers have mostly neglected breakups, despite their impact on our lives. Our next workshop aims to catalyse more research into the ethics of breakups.

Poster for breakup workshop on the 17-18th of September at the University of Leeds

A list of confirmed speakers at the breakups workshop including Monika Betzler, Pilar Lopez-Cantero, Giulia Cavaliere, Christopher Cowley, Richard Healey, Becky Millar, and Katy Wells.

Thanks to the Society for Applied Philosophy for funding the event.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

If you would be interested in participating, please send an abstract of 300 words or less to l.brunning1@leeds.ac.uk along with your current affiliation by July 31st.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

We also have several slots available for PhD and post-doctoral researchers working in on breakups and can support travel and accommodation.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Philosophers have mostly neglected breakups, despite their impact on our lives. Our next workshop aims to catalyse more research into the ethics of breakups.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Two of our PhDs are speaking at the White Rose Practical Philosophy Network this week. Lots of great talks on the programme - we’re looking forward to it!

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IDEA: The Ethics Centre @idea-leeds.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Our blog is now on Substack - come find us if you’re interested in applied ethics: open.substack.com/pub/ethicsun...

open.substack.com

Ethics Untangled | Substack

Click to read Ethics Untangled, a Substack publication. Launched 11 minutes ago.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Natasha McKeever’s article ‘Is the Requirement of Sexual Exclusivity Consistent with Romantic Love’ (2017) is discussed in this chapter of the Overthink podcast’s recent episode on cheating Check it out! open.spotify.com/podcast-chap...

open.spotify.com

Why Infidelity is a Dealbreaker: Exploring Micro-Cheating and Relationship Rules

Overthink · Chapter · 19m

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Rosa Vince is speaking at this fantastic conference on the power structures embedded in gendered, romantic, and sexual relations. At @univie.ac.at on Friday and Saturday.

A poster for ‘who gave you permission’ a conference about norms and agency at the University of Vienna

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Luke Brunning @lukebrunning.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

My latest article in @theconversation.com explores some of the ways using AI may undermine intimacy. AI might promise to make things easier but I suggest there is value in being curious, figuring things out, and failing, especially in intimate life. theconversation.com/as-ai-plays-...

theconversation.com

As AI plays a bigger role in relationships, true intimacy is getting lost

The normalisation of AI to mediate and shape intimacy arguably erodes self-curiosity.

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Alex Fisher @alex-fisher.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

I spoke to @lukebrunning.bsky.social about my research on deepfakes and online authenticity for the new Ethics Untangled blog by @idea-leeds.bsky.social: ethics-untangled.ghost.io/deepfakes-an... Sign up to the blog above for more interviews and insights from my fantastic colleagues at IDEA.

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Basis Yorkshire @basisyorkshire.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Today, on International Sex Workers’ Day, we stand in solidarity with sex workers worldwide. Allyship means listening, challenging stigma, and advocating. Here are some ways you can be an active ally every day! #sexworkersday #standwithsexworkers #supportsexwork #decrimnow #allyship

Graphic: Gradient blue and red background. Large white bold text on top.
Text reads: The History. On the 2nd of June 1975, over 100 sex workers began an 8-day occupation of Saint-Nizier Church in Lyon, France.
They demanded an end to stigma, police harassment and child removal. They demanded justice for those who had experienced violence and expressed anger about their criminalised and exploitative living conditions.
This day marked the start of an international movement.

Graphic: Gradient blue and red background. Large white bold text on top.
Text reads: How can you help?

1. Uplift the voices of sex workers, follow:
@decrimnow
@scotland4decrim
@ecp_org
@sexworkhive
@nationaluglymugs
@leedssxworkercollective

2. Email your MP to decriminalise sex work:
DecrimNow have an excellent guide on their website of questions to ask your local MP, find it under VOTE4DECRIM.

3. Follow us!
Basis Yorkshire supports sex workers directly, campaigns for better working conditions, and conducts key research to influence policy.

Graphic: Gradient blue and red background. Large white bold text on top. Basis Yorkshire log in bottom left corner.
Text reads: Be an Active Ally. International sex workers day 2nd June 2026.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Is it time to move on from the ideal of the nuclear family?

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Sophie Goddard on why we should reimagine the family. 👇🏻

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Please get in touch with us informally if you want to discuss a potential application.

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Next Wednesday, @elsakugelberg.bsky.social will be talking to use about institutional power and the sexual sphere!

Wednesday the 13th May, 3-5pm

A joint CAMP and CLSR talk from Elsa
Kugelberg (University of Oxford).

'Institutional Power and the Sexual Sphere.

Botany House, room
1.03

Talk abstract: 'When institutions exercise power over individuals, liberals argue this power must be justified to them.
In important domains of social life, liberals have taken this to entail the claims to noninterference, to equal standing, and to choice improvement.
However, even though sexuality and intimate relationships are shaped by, and bound up with, formal and informal institutions, liberals have treated the sexual sphere as separated from public life. In this domain, therefore, liberals have endorsed only one structural claim - to noninterference. To show that this asymmetry is unwarranted, I present four arguments from within liberal egalitarianism for going beyond mere noninterference: from self-respect, from fair equality of opportunity, from conditions for entry, and from adequacy. From these arguments, 1 derive a framework on which justice in the sexual sphere includes claims to opportunities to develop sexual standing and to pursue sexual life plans, in addition to noninterference.'

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Had a very interesting discussion in today’s reading group! 📚 This week’s pick was Michael Milona & Lauren Weindling’s ‘The Story of Romantic Love and Polyamory’ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships @clsrleeds.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Discussion on the whole module has been fantastic. So many interesting ideas and perspectives from students. Clearly there is a lot more to think about when it comes to modern intimacy, and our tangled mess of social norms and expectations, moral considerations, laws, and technology.

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