iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

I’ve been to the @historians.org once, the year that motion was tabled and PASSED. What unfolded right before and afterwards was unbelievable. I don’t plan to return (most US historians care fuck all about researchers from other countries and the collaborationist aftertaste is one that lingers)

030

Reposted by João Florêncio

John Angus Spencer-Barnes 🏳️‍🌈 @johnbarnes.org · 31/08/2026

Today is the 29th anniversary of the greatest apology in the history of journalism.

212135

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I’ll be in Innsbruck 🇦🇹 later this month. I heard it’s pretty. You can come say hi. diebaeckerei.at/programm/202...

diebaeckerei.at

Take my Breath Away: Queer World-Making and this Mess that is Desire by João Florêncio and Liz Rosenfeld

030

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

They have a local music act at the opening of the 8Th European Geographies of Sexuality Conference in Maribor!

080

Reposted by João Florêncio

Ben Miller @benwritesthings.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Just submitted to @wwnorton.com and @pushkinpress.com for June 2027 publication: my biography, the first, of Rudi Gernreich, who was one of the two degrees of separation between Karl Marx and Cher.

3203

Reposted by João Florêncio

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

🚨CFP🚨 “Visual Cultures of Sexuality in Postwar Europe” (Birmingham City University, 19-20 May, 2027)

11911

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

The peak, which is reminiscing of “Sir” Steve Smith’s performance of you’ve-hurt-my-VC-feelings one VC ago comes in the form of a demand for an apology from @exeterucu.bsky.social for daring to—within the law—send an email to colleagues beyond its membership. Is there a nastier UK uni management?

171

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

New day, new insights from what’s going on at @exeter.ac.uk. It doesn’t cease to amaze me how uni management patronises its workers while deploying the most obscene kind of “caring management” attitude by offering free mental health support to those whose lives it wants to destroy. #DefendExeterUni

1123

Reposted by João Florêncio

MNG - University Presses @mngupbooks.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Crossings offers an exploration of queer sex and sex cultures, exploring cruising as a mode of thinking with the body and communicating through sexuality 📍Lenbachhaus Garden, Munich 🗓️ 17th July 2026 🔗 buff.ly/LbQM74q @rutgersupress.bsky.social @lizrosenfeld.bsky.social @noisybits.bsky.social

041

Reposted by João Florêncio

Exeter UCU @exeterucu.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Missed the VC’s speech? Lucky you. Here’s the financial highlights! 1/ Confirmed Exeter uni is STILL IN SURPLUS for 25/26 2/ The top 16 execs at Exeter have a combined pay packet of nearly £4m 3/ The VC has a pay packet of nearly £400k a year 4/ Our cash reserves are going up, year on year [1/2]

Greg and Tom from the HBO show succession, with text saying "you can't do anything with five million"

13430

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I wonder what Club 68 did end up thinking about Viking, especially its regular porn content, given that in their original reporting—and in true homophile tradition—they presented Viking as an alternative to a Scandinavian gay press scene totally “infested with pornography.” Little did they know. 🤣

010

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

“Viking was the subject of a widely publicised, positive article in the German Saarbrücker Zeitung in December. Excerpts from the article were later published in the Swiss gay magazine Club 68 and let to an agreement for closer cooperation between Club 68 and Viking.”

110

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Two months later, in March 1970, and having learnt about the news story in the regional German newspaper thanks to the Swiss magazine Club 68 having approached them to establish contact, Viking reported on the German article to its Swedish readers. ⬇️

110

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Having learnt about Viking through the news story in that regional German newspaper, Club 68 “immediately contacted Viking…in the hope of becoming good friends.” ⬇️

110

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

One month later, in January 1970, the Swiss homophile magazine Club 68 reported on the Saarbrücker Zeitung’s news about of the launch of Viking, and reproduced the text in full. ⬇️

110

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

“Not throughout the whole of the North, but in Sweden and Denmark, taboos—especially erotic and sexual ones—are being broken down, step by step and bit by bit […]. The first issue of Viking has just been published—a new, ‘progressive’ newspaper for homosexuals” […] ⬇️

110

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The launch of Viking would be picked up by the Saarbrücker Zeitung, a regional German newspaper, the following month, on the 4th of December 1969, in a short news story titled “More Enlightenment and Information.” ⬇️

110

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

November 1969 saw the publication of the first issue of Viking—the Swedish gay magazine published in Denmark, which would then start being published in Sweden after 1971 under the title Revolt. (1969 had been the year when Denmark decriminalised porn; 1971, the year the same happened in Sweden). ⬇️

131

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I went to the StaBi in Berlin to finally fill the blanks on this little story about the serendipitous transnational connections that forged “The Europe that Gay Porn Built, 1945–2000” (just in case the UK far-right pundits are interested in keeping up with the project they’re so outraged about. ⬇️

120

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

I can’t believe I’ve just heard about the University of Exeter campus being built in Egypt while, in Devon, 500+ staff are at risk of redundancy. It’s giving farce this time around.

0143

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Ok tell me more about this research of your and shall we write an article together? 😉😈

120

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Fun facts about the University of Exeter: when I accepted my job at Linköping, i was told by senior management of the HASS faculty “you’ve just made a huge hole in our research budget!” That hole, dear reader, was money from a large AHRC grant—my grant!—that would move elsewhere due to my new job.

1111

Reposted by João Florêncio

Exeter UCU @exeterucu.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

We just had a meeting with over 700 (!!) of our members and OVERWHELMINGLY voted in favour of a motion to calling for a strike ballot! 🩷 We're doing this together. We are the University! #DefendExeterUni.

EXETER UCU VOTES IN FAVOUR OF MOTION CALLING FOR STRIKE BALLOT

04629

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

We were truly lucky and I really feel for the comrades we left behind

110

Reposted by João Florêncio

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Something deeply troubling & shocking is happening at Exeter University*, where a mass cull of staff is planned, even though it's in surplus. No good justifications given. @jamesgdyke.info provides the details: www.technosphere.earth/the-bonfire-... *Disclosure: I have a Visiting Fellowship here. +🧵

technosphere.earth

The bonfire of the humanities

150 academic posts at the University of Exeter are to be cut, most in the humanities but also in social sciences, engineering and environmental sciences

381042507

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Delighted to hear @exeterucu.bsky.social has just voted no confidence in the senior management of the faculty of humanities and social sciences. @exeter.ac.uk once again leading in the destruction of UKHE in the most obscene, despicable, and patronising way. “Our university,” “our community” my ass.

160

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Can someone explain to me how come does an employer start a redundancies process while at the same time acknowledging that those redundancies will likely lead to insufficient staffing? And how does this play out with staff on leave funded by grants that require timely completion? @ucu.org.uk

130

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Things I hear through the grapevine: The University of Exeter, which has just put most of its HASS academics at risk of redundancy, has just announced that, while no 2026/27 research leaves will be cancelled during consultation, staff on leave may need to be recalled to teach after September. 🤯

140

Reposted by João Florêncio

Exeter UCU @exeterucu.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Hey Bluesky crowd! You also should be signing our petition opposing the announced redundancies at the University of Exeter. 📢 We're 17k and growing! Redundancies ARE NOT necessary and we must #DefendExeterUni 🩷 c.org/RFqMvrKb6z

c.org

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

13743

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Back to my postwar gay magazine archive, where dick picks used to share space with political education and consciousness raising.

082

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

UK universities: we’re introducing all these digital workload, publication management, and funding application pipeline platforms to make your work easier! Also UK universities: we’re using those platforms to score and rank you, and decide who stays and who’s going to be made redundant.

082

Reposted by João Florêncio

Natalie Hempel @nataliehempel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

500 academics are threatened with compulsory redundancy at the University of Exeter, most in Humanities, and also in the Sciences arbitrarily targeting diverse research groups. The university is in a strong financial position. Support us, sign this petition c.org/yKcx6Zr29H

c.org

This campaign needs you now

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

094

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I believe there were (will be?) separate votes on each

010

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

I’ve just heard through the grapevine that Exeter UCU has just passed a vote of no confidence in the Vice-Chancellor.

141

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The way in which @exeter.ac.uk is hosting this year’s @forarthistory.org.uk conference having just announced a cull of academics that puts 80% of all its humanities, arts and social sciences staff at risk.

Reposted by João Florêncio

Exeter Green Party @exetergreens.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

The Green Party is committed to rebalancing the scales of our workplaces and ensuring every student has access to higher education without the burden of debt by restoring maintenance grants and scrapping undergraduate tuition fees. 4/4

0123

Reposted by João Florêncio

Exeter Green Party @exetergreens.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Exeter Green Party stands in solidarity with the Exeter University and College Union in condemning the University of Exeter’s announcement of sweeping job cuts. These plans will recklessly imperil the University’s vital contributions to the social, cultural, and economic life of the city. 1/4

Graphic which reads: Statement of solidarity with Exeter University and College Union.

111051

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

These are the people UK universities choose to managed their strategic financial planning. Despicable.

031

João Florêncio @noisybits.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

The Chair of the Council at Exeter “spent most of his career as a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company.” You know McKinsey, famed for its role in the 2008 financial crisis, in helping pharma “turbocharge” sales of opioids, leading to the ongoing opioid crisis in the US, corruption, etc.

032