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Gemma Bird

@gemmabird.bsky.social
983 followers 1.1K following 89 posts

Reader in Politics & IR at the University of Liverpool. Activist scholar working on the politics of migration and solidarity in the EU & African political theory. Views my own. She/her

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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is tomorrow! Very much looking forward to it!
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
As part of our University of Sanctuary work we are very excited to welcome award winning journalist @sallyhayd.bsky.social to the @liverpooluni.bsky.social to discuss her new book This is Also a Love Story: Searching for Good in a Divided World with Dr Seán Columb www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/event...
liverpool.ac.uk
In conversation with award-winning international correspondent, Sally Hayden
Doors: 5.45pm Event: 6.00pm Drinks Reception: 7.15pm-8.00pm This is a free event with limited capacity; early booking is advised. Hosted by Dr Seán Columb from School of Law and Social Justice, a...
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Liv Uni Politics @livunipol.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The Department of Politics and Europe in the World Centre📚🇪🇺🗣️ invites you to join us to celebrate the launch of Professor Harris’ newest book, The Dilemma of Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...
eventbrite.co.uk
Book launch with Professor Erika Harris
The Dilemma of Nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe
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Liv Uni Politics @livunipol.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
🚨 Our Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool is currently looking to appoint up to 7(!) new colleagues. This includes 2 permanent T&R positions: lnkd.in/eVabnhrP And up to 5 fixed-term T&S positions: lnkd.in/eyYX9tN5 The deadline for applications to both tracks is 28 June!
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Sofia Lampropoulou @sofialampro.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
It was a pleasure to host @proftaylor.bsky.social at @livunihss.bsky.social and bring our research projects in conversation as part of the 'Transgressive border dialogue' series. We really enjoyed the dialogic format. Thank you Stefania Tufi, Anna Saunders & @gemmabird.bsky.social for organising it!
Charlotte Taylor and I in conversation @ Wallbank lecture theatre at Uni of Liverpool
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
If you’re looking for something to do in the #BISA2026 coffee breaks today exhibition A Place Along the Way Stories from the Island of Samos is in the East Bar. You can also listen to the audio here open.spotify.com/show/0MZwQ1f... This is a collaboration with Simone van den Akker & Andrew Foreman.
open.spotify.com
a place along the way
Podcast · stories from the island of samos · Samos is a beautiful Greek island in the Aegean that, at its closest point, is situated less than 2 kilometres from the coastline of Türkiye. It is describ...
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Liv Uni Politics @livunipol.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
New research alert 🚨📚❗: Dr Amal Abu-Bakare has co-authored/edited an article and special issue with the @universitypress.cambridge.org Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. This special issue also features the research of lecturers Dr Gemma Bird and Professor Andrew Russell
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Liv Uni Politics @livunipol.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
New research alert 📚📰🚨 See the latest blog post from our Senior Lecturer in Politics and IR and expert in Migration Studies, Dr Gemma Bird ( @gemmabird.bsky.social) via @bordercrim.bsky.social: blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/border-crimi...
blogs.law.ox.ac.uk
Systemic violence in Greek waters: No border security
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Border Criminologies @bordercrim.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
A recent lethal collision off the island of Chios raises serious concerns about practices at EU borders, as well as Greece’s ability to provide independent monitoring. Read the latest post by @gemmabird.bsky.social and Emma Musty of @ihaverights.bsky.social 👇 blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/border-crimi...
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Project Armonia does fantastic work challenging food insecurity in Athens and also providing free training and qualifications for people on the move looking to become qualified commis-chefs. If you can, please support this fantastic organisation to keep changing lives www.paypal.com/donate/?host...
paypal.com
Donate to Project Armonia
Help support Project Armonia by donating or sharing with your friends.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Lovely to be back at the @livuninews.bsky.social VG&M for British Science Week. I’m continuing to collect recipes as a response to the Project Armonia cook book. Food brings people together, tells stories and builds community. If you are in the area come and share a recipe!
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
This year we are really pleased to be able to offer a new humanitarian scholarship at @liverpooluni.bsky.social, the Humanitarian Scholarship in Irish Studies, which offers tuition fees and maintenance support to a Palestinian student on the MRes in Irish Studies. www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/fees-a...
liverpool.ac.uk
University of Liverpool Humanitarian Scholarship in Irish Studies | Study | University of Liverpool
Learn about our University of Liverpool Humanitarian Scholarship in Irish Studies.
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Asylum Matters @asylummatters.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Today is a dark day for anyone who believes in sanctuary in the UK. People who've fled war and torture should be able to rebuild their lives in peace and security - not live under a constant threat of removal. We must not stop fighting these appalling anti-refugee laws.
theguardian.com
Refugee status to be temporary as Shabana Mahmood rips up rules on UK asylum
Home secretary announces 30-month protection limit, with refugees required to leave if their home countries are later judged safe
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 27/02/2026
Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection, pushing Labour to third place in blow to Keir Starmer
theguardian.com
Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection, pushing Labour to third place in blow to Keir Starmer
Hannah Spencer elected as party’s first MP in northern England, as Labour sees a 25.3% drop in vote compared to 2024 The Green party has pulled off a landmark victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection in a significant blow to Keir Starmer. Hannah Spencer, a local plumber and Green party councillor, was elected as the party’s first MP in northern England after overturning Labour’s 13,000-vote majority. Continue reading...
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Trump’s Davos speech is just one racist, colonial, misogynistic stereotype after another! Rambling and offensive throughout!
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Chris Bertram @crookedfootball.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
There ought to be consequences for the abusive use of meritless prosecutions to harass activists.
theguardian.com
Rights groups hail acquittal after seven years of aid workers prosecuted during Greece refugee crisis
Lesbos court clears aid workers of people smuggling, a move Human Rights Watch called a vindication of their lifesaving activities at sea
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
Wrote a piece with @davideschmid.bsky.social on the “new” Guest Worker schemes in Europe and how they borrow from practices of the past!
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Heading to the The University of Leeds for the day as the lovely people of the political theory seminar series kindly invited me to speak. Looking forward to testing out some of the ideas from the book I have been working on for the last eight years and that I am now in the final stages of editing!
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Sofia Lampropoulou @sofialampro.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
See below EOI for AHRC-funded PhDs at UoL. Keen to supervise a project on critical approaches to migration.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Really excited to be spending the day in the @liverpooluni.bsky.social VG&M with the exhibition “A Place Along the Way: Stories from the Island of Samos” as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science where we are also collecting your recipes as a response to the wonderful work of Project Armonia.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Really excited to be involved in a pop up exhibition Migration, Refuge & Solidarity‘ on 7th & 8th Nov at @victoriagallery.bsky.social. I will be sharing audio-visual exhibition ‘A Place Along the Way: Stories from the Island of Samos’ as a part of it. vgm.liverpool.ac.uk/whats-on/exh...
vgm.liverpool.ac.uk
Migration, Refuge & Solidarity - Victoria Gallery & Museum - University of Liverpool
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Liv Uni Politics @livunipol.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Congratulations to Dr Sarah Elmammeri, our former PhD candidate and the winner of the Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of ExcellenceDoctoral Thesis Prize.Her lecture titled ‘Between Layers of Borders: Reflecting on EU Policies and Asylum Seekers’ reflects the very best of our PhD student scholarship.
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Giorgos Christides @giorgoschristides.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
1️⃣ Reporting on migration & accountability can often feel futile Not today The ECHR ruled Greece violated the right to life in the 2018 Agathonisi shipwreck: 16 dead, incl. 7 children & 2 babies @rsaegean.org fought for the families; We had investigated w/ former @spiegel.de colleagues Decision ⬇️
hudoc.echr.coe.int
HUDOC - European Court of Human Rights
The HUDOC database provides access to the case-law of the Court (Grand Chamber, Chamber and Committee judgments and decisions, communicated cases, advisory opinions and legal summaries from the Case-L...
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Lea Ypi @leaypi.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
no words
theguardian.com
Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead
Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Pleased to share our new article in which we critically engage with the role that the “categories of migration” play in determining who does and does not “belong” in Europe and how they are changing.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
“Cinema is a friend for life”. Never a truer word spoken from @markcousinsfilm.bsky.social at the @cinemaforall.bsky.social #100YearsGala
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Loved attending the opening of Lightbulb Moments at the The University of Liverpool yesterday and sharing an object in it. It’s a privilege to work with the amazing Project Armonia and to be able to bring their cook book sharing the power of food and stories to a whole new audience is very special.
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UNRWA @unrwa.org · 09/09/2025
“#Gaza is being obliterated, reduced to a wasteland. Gaza is being emptied from its starving population forced to move into the so called “humanitarian” area of Mawasi.” Full statement by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini: www.unrwa.org/newsroom/off...
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Some great summer reads!
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Praxis, for migrants and refugees @praxisprojects.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
“I had to break the news to my wife. She hasn’t been able to stop crying since she heard the news. What is the value of this life if you have to be separated from the people you love? Both of us are completely shattered by this." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
theguardian.com
‘It kept me going’: halt to refugee reunion scheme in UK shatters hopes
Afghan man seeking asylum and permission to bring wife to Britain describes shock at home secretary’s announcement
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Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
They tried students and they tried care workers, but that wasn't enough. Now they're coming for families. My impassioned thoughts on today's sickening family reunion announcement. open.substack.com/pub/notanoth...
open.substack.com
Now they're coming after families
If today’s announcement felt like another crossing of the Rubicon, that's because it is.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
This is appalling! People flea unimaginable horrors, claim asylum and will then face another awful challenge of fighting to be back with their family. This is just an added layer of cruelty in a broken system that no longer truly gives the refuge it should! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
theguardian.com
UK to make it harder for refugees to bring family members to country
Home secretary to announce overhaul of family reunion policy in attempt to quell fractious immigration debate
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UNRWA @unrwa.org · 26/08/2025
“All of those who have influence must use it with determination and a sense of moral duty. Every hour counts," says UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. The amount of aid entering the #Gaza Strip is insufficient to meet the scale of humanitarian need. This can be reversed. Let aid in.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
Condemnation and words are not enough. Political figures worldwide need to do so much more in the face of these constant atrocities! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
theguardian.com
Israel bombed Gaza hospital a second time, killing rescuers, say health officials
At least 20 people, including five journalists, died as they rushed to help those wounded in the first strike
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
“In Gaza, to be an academic today is to refuse to be reduced to a statistic.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
‘Too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright. Concentration slips away’: the struggle to stay focused as an academic in Gaza
It is hard to keep the mind sharp when the body is thin and dehydrated, but solidarity is teaching starving students their thoughts still matter
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
The British media keeps calling the situation in Gaza a hunger crisis, but this underplays the reality. What we are witnessing is a starvation crisis, this is an active choice not to deliver aid, not a passive outcome with an unknown cause!
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Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) @msf.ca · 24/07/2025
Doctors Without Borders joins more than 100 organizations to sounding the alarm that lifesaving aid must enter #Gaza. www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/palestine-as...
doctorswithoutborders.ca
Palestine: As mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and communities we work with are wasting away | Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF ...
Over 100 humanitarian groups, including MSF, urge governments to act as starvation spreads in Gaza.
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Sky News @news.sky.com · 19/07/2025
Gaza: More than 30 people killed 'as Israeli troops open fire towards Palestinians waiting for aid'
news.sky.com
Gaza: More than 30 people killed 'as Israeli troops open fire towards Palestinians waiting for aid'
More than 30 people have been killed after Israeli troops opened fire towards crowds of Palestinians waiting for aid, according to witnesses and hospital officials.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
What more will it take for the world’s leaders to respond than the killing of children waiting for water! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
theguardian.com
Israeli airstrike kills at least 10, including six children, at Gaza water station, say health officials
Nine killed in separate bombing of a home on Sunday and 31 others shot dead near aid distribution site on Saturday
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RSA - Refugee Support Aegean @rsaegean.org · 09/07/2025
Suspension of processing of #asylum applications just announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is illegal! #Greece The Greek government announced today that emergency legislation will be tabled in Parliament tomorrow, Thursday, 10 July, for the suspension of asylum processing of (1/6)
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Border Violence Monitoring Network @borderviolence.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
10 years after the so-called long summer of migration, the deadliness of the European border regime is back in full swing. @alraven.bsky.social from our Research and Investigations team tries to put a figure on the extent of the suffering this regime has brought. borderviolence.eu/blog/tallyin...
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Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Me for Metro: The crucial point is deterrence & border violence has never & will never work We need safe routes & the right to work legally for asylum seekers - IT IS SCREAMINGLY OBVIOUS But pressure might be working, we must press harder than ever for a humane policy💪 metro.co.uk/2025/07/02/a...
metro.co.uk
Almost 20,000 asylum seekers in 6 months proves a crucial point
Despite the latest big scary number, this is not a new phenomenon.
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
theguardian.com
Global firms ‘profiting from genocide’ in Gaza, says UN rapporteur
Report by Francesca Albanese singles out companies such as Palantir and calls for prosecutions
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
theguardian.com
Twelve days in Gaza: what happened while the world looked away?
One of the consequences of Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran was a drop-off in attention paid to the war in Gaza, where a terrible humanitarian situation deteriorated even further. This is a timeline...
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Claire Pierson @clairepierson.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
I did an interview with the @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social about my new book. We talked about contemporary feminism, masculinities, gender-based violence and abortion rights in northern Ireland. @manchesterup.bsky.social @livunipol.bsky.social Recording here - newbooksnetwork.com/womens-troub...
newbooksnetwork.com
Claire Pierson, "Women's Troubles: Gender and Feminist Politics in Post-Agreement Northern Ireland" (Manchester University Press, 2025) - New Books Network
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
A great listen, and a pleasure to be included in this conversation. Thanks for having me!
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Very proud to know and have had the pleasure to engage with Dr Sarah Elmammeri’s excellent thesis “Trapped between Borders” who is now the very deserving winner of the Manchester Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence thesis prize for 2025! @sarahelm.bsky.social www.liverpool.ac.uk/politics/new...
liverpool.ac.uk
Dr Sarah Elmammeri wins Doctoral Thesis Prize for 2025 | Stories | Department of Politics | University of Liverpool youtubeThe Original RedbrickUniversity of Liverpool on FacebookLivUni on Insta...
news articles created in terminal 4
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Gemma Bird @gemmabird.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
People starving and waiting for food aid are being killed as they wait! This is horrific! The world cannot keep ignoring what we are witnessing. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
theguardian.com
Witnesses describe ‘horror’ after Israeli forces fire at Palestinians waiting for aid trucks
At least 59 people killed and hundreds wounded in Khan Younis as they sought food supplies, says Gaza health ministry
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BISA South East Europe @bisasee.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
🎓 Are you heading to #BISA2025? Don't miss what the South East Europe Working Group has in store!
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