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Pippa Sterk

@pippasterk.bsky.social
59 followers 69 following 47 posts

Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol. Interested in queer/LGBT+ pedagogies 🌈 Occasional creative writer, podcaster, film curator, and events producer.

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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
If you have studied Sociology for 10+ years and can't name more than 3 women who have influenced the field, then you are bad at your job. You've spent your time indulging in a smartest-boy-in-the-room fantasy instead of learning about your subject and you shouldn't be in a position to teach.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I just wish we could be honest about what these male-dominated lists are. They are not just 'offensive' or 'problematic' in an abstract way. They communicate blatant disdain for the majority of people who actually engage with these fields, and they make you a shit teacher.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
And even when women's texts are discussed, they are usually relegated to later weeks, when the 'specialist' and 'niche' readings come up. Men write theory about PEOPLE and SOCIETY, women only write theory about...idk women's stuff???
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Every SocSci course I've taught has tended to be over 80% female students. SocSci departments tend to have largely female staff (although ofc when you start looking at more senior positions this changes...). Are we saying that none of these people have anything interesting to say about society?
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Like, sure, most people who construct these lists probably don't intentionally set out to erase women from the study of society. But what does this say about their lack of basic respect for their colleagues and students?
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We're in the big 2026 and I'm still seeing reading lists for social science courses that only feature one or two texts by women (out of 30+ mandatory and recommended texts), and it makes me feel like I'm banging my head against a wall.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Transphobic lobbyists rely on people being too uninformed about the law to assert the rights of trans people. Their scaremongering tactics work by making pre-emptive compliance the 'easy' option. Don't let them get away with this! Not within your workplace, not within your communities, not anywhere.
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Ash @queerash.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
not now kitten, Daddy has to lock in and come up with a joke about Wes Streeting that will get 5 likes on a third-tier social media app
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
academic group chats are so funny because there'll be someone on there whose monograph completely changed the way you look at life, and once in a while you'll get a text from them like 'there's extra sandwiches in the staff fridge for whoever wants them :)'
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
It has been really lovely to work with the re:wave team and work in a register that is slightly more creative, playful, and colloquial than I'm used to - it really helps in drawing out trains of thought that wouldn't have happened in more traditional academic writing🌈 📚
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
The things we think of as 'marginalised' epistemologies and methodologies are complex!! As such, they should be open to critique! Pretending that they are always already flawless by virtue of coming from a marginalised standpoint is really patronising, because it simplifies what's actually going on!
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Proud to share my article for the inaugural issue of re:wave! In it, I discuss how tempting it is to present 'marginalised' knowledge as a solution to the flaws of the academic status quo, but how we nevertheless should resist this temptation towards simplicity 📚 rewave.press/eating-epist...
rewave.press
Eating epistemologies and tending to tension: against the romance of intellectual ease - Pippa Sterk — re:wave press
re:wave press' main website.
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Lincoln Michel @thelincoln.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Agree. This is the rub. Students want to skip work with AI but hate when profs use AI to skip work (and vice versa). People want to sell LLM art but don't want to pay money to read other people's LLM art. You want to use AI to write boring work emails, but not receive AI work emails. Etc.
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Charlotte “Chuck” Planet, Local Internet Celebrity @charlotteplanet.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
like with the invention of dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, and dryers: technology doesn’t save us labor, it only raises the standards by which our labor is judged. if AI makes you more productive, you will simply be expected to produce more!! with a smile!!
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Rose Schmits @roseschmits.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
In the uk giving your child a haircut they want not approved by the government is considered child abuse. Also calling them what they want to be called, you need a license for that
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jonathan w. y. gray @jwyg.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
how to support care in group learning? @lboungr.bsky.social @pippasterk.bsky.social and I co-organised a project on “growing group care” and cocreated a zine with our students Abi Abosejo, Adja Seck, cong fu, Ellie Jennings, Kesara Ariyapongpairoj & Louis Saha 🌱✨ jonathangray.org/2025/11/25/g...
jonathangray.org
zine on growing group care
Liliana Bounegru, Pippa Sterk and I recently organised a project on “growing group care”. As part of the project we cocreated a zine with our students - Abi Abosejo, Adja Seck, Cong Fu, Ellie Jennings...
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Same tactics all the way down: -complain that there's no evidence base to prescribe young people puberty blockers. -get puberty blockers banned until evidence is available. -argue that any puberty blocker study would be inherently unethical. It's not about 'evidence' and it never was.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
It put the burden of proving innocence onto the person who is deemed aberrant, while also making any 'proof' impossible or highly degrading to obtain. It's criminalisation by the back door, for the crime of simply existing in a public space as a member of a marginalised group. Truly ASBOs for terfs.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Gonna need the general public + journos to properly reckon with how much of the social/legal policing of space is done purely on vibes. Invoking a 'common sense' approach to who deserves to be in a space, only serves to reinforce who is thought of as the 'common' body and who is seen as aberrant.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
If we want students to make informed decisions, we need to actually INFORM them of the consequences of their decisions and the context in which they make their decisions. Not just go with what's popular and easy now, because the alternative would be too difficult.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Students are understandably confused about what AI is and how they can/can't/should/shouldn't use it. It doesn't help them to tell half the story, give definitions that misrepresent what AI does, and ignore all the inequalities that are fundamental to these technologies.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Nobody can ever give me a good answer to how 'ethical' use of AI takes into account environmental and labour concerns. It's always 'something to consider' but nobody ever genuinely considers it! Nobody is willing to admit that they just don't CARE enough about these concerns to reject convenience.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
If you think that extraction is worth the convenience it brings, you can make that decision. Everyone makes these decisions all the time, that's what happens under capitalism. But don't dress it up as 'ethical' use, when it's just a matter of choosing convenience.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Furthermore, these technologies are made by for-profit companies. Striving towards ethical AI use is like striving towards ethical coca cola consumption, or ethical iphone ownership. These are products that are created within systems of EXTRACTION. This extraction has material consequences!
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
AI doesn't autonomously 'reason' or 'think' or 'make decisions', it responds to input in the way that it is programmed to. Those responses may change over time, or be so complex that it is difficult to trace how and why these changes occur, but they still change through HUMAN decision-making.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
one of the most difficult things about teaching in a world of AI is getting students (but also fellow scholars!!) to understand that AI is firstly an entirely poorly-defined 'field', and secondly have profoundly human input in the form of datasets and codes.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Calling a decision 'informed' or 'ethical' doesn't make it so! You have to consider why you are making your decision, what its impact is, and what alternatives exist, AND THEN re-evaluate your decision in light of this information. You can't just do what you wanted to do anyway and call it a day.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
It is so frustrating to see so many alleged initiatives for AI 'literacy' / ethical AI use in academia essentially equate to 'the robot is your trusted friend/pet/servant who's here to help you 😀 talk to it, and see what it says 😀'
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
KCL AI policy defines AI as "any technology or system that can reason and/or adapt, sometimes on its own" which is kind of like saying that airplanes can fly 'on their own' because the pilots are not physically pushing the vehicle forward flintstones-style.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
'ESEA' events with only people from one country / the Sinosphere / East Asia / your buddies / light skinned people / people who were part of the upper class in their home coutries, moved in their 20s, and are now shocked to find that structural oppression exists.... It's embarrassing!!
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Nobody is forcing you to call something ESEA when it isn't! If your panel is 5 people from China just say it's about China! If your event presumes that nobody Asian was raised in Europe, don't say it includes the diaspora! Just say what you're actually doing 🙏🏽
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
This ESEA History Month, let's all do a fun little thing where we're honest and realistic about who events / scholarship / communities are actually for! I know calling something ESEA looks nice on funding applications but some of you are absolutely kidding yourselves
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
What is desirable about an interaction that you can turn on or off at will, with not long term consequences? What is interesting about an entity that you can continue accessing no matter how badly you treat it? Who will always tell you what you want to hear? Is this not just a desire for control?
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
People having 'real' connections with AI use does not mean that these connections are healthy or outside of politics. If anything it should cause us to think twice about the way we think about human connections.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
'people were truly sad when ChatGPT updated, we need to take this grief seriously' yeah and I feel uneasy when Sainsbury's changes the layout of the aisles. That doesn't mean the bok choi basket is actually sentient. How I feel about something is unrelated to whether the thing itself has feelings.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
When people talk about the 'sentience' of AI, it just sounds to me like they're admitting that they think of other people as controllable entities that they can feed an input in order to gain a predictable output. Real pickup artist mentality, very gross!
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Tania de St Croix @tania-dsc.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
Our first podcast - defending the spirit of youth work. Thanks to "It's Just Research" team for lovely conversation on youth work, policy, social haunting, and creative collaborative research. www.kcl.ac.uk/its-just-res... @kingsecs.bsky.social @pippasterk.bsky.social @liamciniodwyer.bsky.social
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School of Education, Communication and Society at King's @kingsecs.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
📢 NEW PODCAST EPISODE 📢 We talk to Dr Tania de St Croix and Louise Doherty about their collaborative research project that sought to address the impact of rising evaluation of youth work and how policy threatens the spirit of youth work. www.kcl.ac.uk/its-just-res...
kcl.ac.uk
It's Just Research, Season 2 Ep 6: Defending the spirit of youth work
In this episode, hosts Sara and Pippa interview Dr Tania de St Croix and Louise Doherty about their research on measuring the impact of youth work.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Queer Pages is back for Pride month!! In this episode we discuss the joys of reading work by independent publishers, through the novella Andrion. We're getting back on the podcasting horse, so subscribe to hear about new episodes! @knighterrantpress.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/6iDL...
open.spotify.com
Andrion - Queer Ancient Greece and Small Press Publishing #16
Queer Pages · Episode
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
If you enjoyed my presentation, I literally JUST had an article out about my research with LGBT+ volunteers in Higher Education, and how the rise of academic transphobia lays bare the unjust foundations of Higher Ed altogether Please have a read here: www.emerald.com/insight/cont...
emerald.com
“We just can’t afford to be separated on that” – affective solidarities among university-based lesbian, gay, bi and trans volunteers | Emerald Insight
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Had a great time presenting at the UCU LGBT+ research conference last Friday, catching up with colleagues I hadn't seen in-person for a long time, and meeting new scholars doing LGBT+ related research 🌈 📚
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
And as educators, is 'realistic' really the best we can do?
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
Many students are disappointed by fellow coursemates using genAI to write their assignments for them. Many students WANT to learn the skills that genAI supposedly makes redundant. Students WANT to learn how to engage with and create complex texts. Acknowledging this drive is also being 'realistic'.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
absolutely wiiiild how often pro-genAI positions within pedagogy are framed as just being 'realistic'. It speaks to such a lack of imagination, trust, and accountability, when it seems a foregone conclusion that students WILL use genAI and there is no way we can put up even the slightest boundary.
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Dr Dyi D. Huijg @drdyidhuijg.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
STATEMENT: 'Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia' Read the statement online here: tinyurl.com/mud7va29 Co-sign the statement, fill in this form: forms.gle/oDYgnobrMiSc...
forms.gle
Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia
We call on all trans-inclusive feminist academics and educators to sign this statement: ‘Not In Our Name’ We are non-trans feminist academics and educators. We write in support of trans rights, tran...
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School of Education, Communication and Society at King's @kingsecs.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
📣 NEW PODCAST EPISODE 📣 How do we deconstruct military identity in the UK psyche? 💭🪖 This is the question that Dr Antonia Dawes interrogates in her research. Listen to the latest episode of the 'It's Just Research' podcast. ➡️ bit.ly/4jPoHLT
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
When it 'just' happens to incarcerated people. When it 'just' happens to people on ~weak~ passports. When it 'just' happens to people who ~look suspicious~ It's ALWAYS security theatre that allows some bodies to be disproportionately violated.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
It is sexual violence when it 'just' happens to trans women. It is sexual violence when female officers 'just' strip seach other women. It is sexual violence when it 'just' happens disproportionately to Black women and girls.
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Pippa Sterk @pippasterk.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
The worry that now cis male police officers are going to use the new regulations to strip search cis women (and then claim he thought she was trans) overlooks the fact that strip searching is and has ALWAYS been a way of legalising and legitimising sexual violence.
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Tania de St Croix @tania-dsc.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Young people won't let youth work disappear! Thanks It's Just Research podcast @kingsecs.bsky.social for inviting me and Louise Doherty to discuss our recent article "Embers, and Fragments: Social Haunting in Youth Work, Impact Measurement and Policy Networks" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
People and microphones- recording a podcastTania and Louise smiling
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