iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I am nostalgic for the 2010s because I could login to my university library account *once* and access all the journals. Now, my phone buzzes with a two factor authentication request whenever I even dare look at a journal website. Pls make it stop.

Meme showing Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill. The boulder has text on it saying: Duo mobile two factor authentication push message

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Current post-doc position: swineherd & chicken wrangler. The market is tough but AI hasn't automated this yet...

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

My diss looked at immigrants' care experiences through varied contexts and positionalities. The positive story I tell in JHSB is counterpointed by work where I attend to the SNS' shortcomings. The first paper from my diss centered harm in sexual and reproductive health care: doi-org/10.1016/j.so...

screenshot showing abstract of the paper "Immigrant experiences of harm in sexual and reproductive healthcare in Spain" in the journal "Social Science & Medicine". The full text is linked in the body of this post.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I saw this infamous graph in a population health seminar while studying for my PhD in Texas. Americans know their system isn't working. This paper was a way to move from fantasies of doing things differently to lived experience. How do people accustomed to a broken system react to a functioning one?

Graph showing life expectancy Vs health care expenditure for a range of wealthier countries.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

A second paper from my dissertation just published in @jofhsb.bsky.social. It's about the health care experiences of Americans who have migrated to Spain and how their movement reveals insights into the practice and politics of (health/)care. Open access here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Image shows screenshot of journal abstract and title. Title: "“I Get to Be a Person Here”: American Immigrants in Spain and the Practice of (Health) Care". Abstract: "Studies of immigrant health care routinely center less-advantaged persons in Global North contexts; U.S. scholarship frequently examines Latin American immigrants navigating the U.S. health landscape. Little work considers the health care experiences of U.S. citizens as immigrants as they are rarely labeled, analyzed, and debated comparably to less-advantaged immigrants.
Instead of naturalizing the American experience as the point of comparison for immigrants, we can invert that dynamic by attending to Americans’ experiences as immigrant patients abroad. This inversion generates insight into leaving behind familiar health practices, configurations, and ideologies. Americans in Spain move from an advantaged sending country to a less-wealthy context with superior health care access and outcomes. Through interviews with 41 U.S. citizens in Spain, I explore how Americans unlearn health care avoidance, experience novel possibilities, question internalized logics, and interpret doing care differently. Through studying Americans as immigrants, we see how migration facilitates the reexamination of health-related values, behaviors, and practices.". Article is published in "Journal of Health and Social Behavior".

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Reading Foucault's "Of Other Spaces" today, love this chunk about relationality.

The space in which we live, which draws us out of ourselves, in which the erosion of our lives. our time and our history occurs, the space that claws and gnaws at us, is also, in itself, a heterogeneous space. In other words, we do not live in a kind of void, inside of which we could place individuals and things. We do not live inside a void that could be colored with diverse shades of light, we live inside a set of relations that delineates sites which are irreducible to one another and absolutely not superimposable on one another.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Can't wait for them to ask if there's a doctor on the flight so that I can get my comically large PhD diploma out of the tube 😎

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

No mention of his infamous role in sinking Derby County Football Club? He's not exactly the person I'd be rushing to for wisdom and advice.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Got a conditional acceptance on the second paper from my dissertation. It's about US citizens experiencing public healthcare abroad & elite migration. Looking forward to sharing when it's out. Celebrating with some morels from the market.

Image shows four small plastic boxes of fresh morel mushrooms for sale in a market. The morel mushrooms are brown with a web-like texture. They are priced at €10/box. The boxes of mushrooms are on a red tablecloth.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Just sent out my first post-phd job application. Went down to see & feed the beautiful lambs.

photo of Valais Blacknose lambs in a grassy field.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Barncat enjoying spring in the garden.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

If you've written a book proposal for an academic press in #sociology or #anthropology, I'd really appreciate reading it. I'm (tentatively) thinking of projects and how to phrase them. Thank you! (to grab your attention as you scroll, here's a pic of the feral kitten that lives in my parents' bar)

Photograph of a black kitten on a white blanket under the red light of a heat lamp.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 28/12/2025

Just got home to this exciting little stack of books I ordered from @argonautbooks.bsky.social (using up what was left of my research funds 😎). I haven't lived in Edinburgh for a while now, but the magic of the internet means you can still support your "local" independent stores at a distance!

Image shows a stack of books. The books are the following list. The Arcana of Reproduction by Leopoldina Fortunati; One-way Street by Walter Benjamin; An Anthology by Simone Weil; The Storyteller by Walter Benjamin; Poetics of Relation by Édouard Glissant; Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag; Pirate Enlightenment by David Graeber; Society Must be Defended by Michel Foucault; A Grammar of Multitudes by Paolo Virno.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

I passed my defense yesterday, no corrections/revisions. My PhD was about immigrant experiences with healthcare and medical practice in Spain, as approached through different angles/positions, and rooted in medical #sociology / #STS work. Grateful to the *many* people who've helped along the way.

Image shows a cake and pictures of people's faces looking happy. Center of image shows a dissertation front page, the title reads: "Immigrant experiences of healthcare and medical practice in Spain: concerning harm in sexual and reproductive healthcare, the accumulation of advantage and reinterpretation of care, and coloniality as a determinant of health".

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

Revisiting some Foucault atm. Crazy how YouTube explainer videos used to be useful for getting an intro or refresher for complicated ideas and now it's just endless AI slop being generated for easy views/ad revenue.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

A local chapter of Food Not Bombs in Bacolod City (Negros island, Philippines) is providing relief through a community kitchen, medicine, and hygiene kits following the devastating impact of typhoon Tino. You can donate via PayPal at: foodnotbombsasia@myyahoo.com

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Lovely few days at the British Sociological Association's medical sociology conference. Wonderful range of presentations and such a supportive space. I shared some recent work about experiences of care and bordering, based on interviews with immigrant mothers in Catalonia (Spain). #MedSoc25

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

I got my mum a wildlife camera for her 60th, and now I get to enjoy a live feed of our local hedgehogs crunching kibble.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

I <3 library - "walk around the stacks and grab whatever looks good" is a valid literature review strategy.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

I committed to not overfilling my single underseat bag with hoarded books at the conference this year. I failed in that commitment. So here are the six books I picked up in Chicago, from #ASA2025 and @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

This store in Chinatown also has some premium alternative lanyards available if you're bored of the standard issue ASA black string + transparent wallet.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

At the most elite roundtable at this conference rn #ASA2025

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

And finally, -Lola Loustaunau (University of Wisconsin-Madison) presenting work on the endemic precarity of food processing for migrant workers. #ASA2025

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Michaela Hoffelmeyer (University of Wisconsin-Madison) introducing us to worker safety and legal accountability in small-scale meet processing, framed through scalar irresponsibility. #ASA2025

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Sarah Bowen (North Carolina State University) now presenting on the relationship between the pandemic and how people felt about and experienced food assistance #ASA2025

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Alana Haynes Stein (Creighton University) is sharing work understanding how nonprofit food banks measure and determine success - and the disconnect with systemic issues #ASA2025

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

We just heard Aya Shirayama (University of Hawai'i) present on Okinawan food and gastronationalism. #ASA2025

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

If you're at the @asanews.bsky.social conference in Chicago and wondering what to do bright and early tomorrow, join us for this wonderful session! Five papers by a fantastic collection of scholars, all about food systems and inequality. #sociology #ASA2025 #food

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

My brother, @samfern.bsky.social , visited my medical sociology class to talk about his new children's book ('Where The Dead Live') about death and burial traditions across cultures. Great time chatting about writing, translating research for kids, + the importance of talking & learning about death.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

chips & writing by the lake 😎

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

This little owl appeared right outside my window during my advisor meeting and I had to ask for a brief pause to snap it. I hear him at night and this was like a celeb spotting for me. So exciting.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Excited to be sharing another dissertation paper at the @britsoci.bsky.social Medical Sociology conference this September. Had so much fun last year, it was such a positive + supportive space. Now to actually finish writing it...

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

The flowers outside of the library.

Lower half of the image shows a bush of pink flowers in the sun. Upper half of the image shows a building with ivy growing over church-like lead lined glass windows.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Drafting my first syllabus right now for medical sociology. It's a seven week summer course for 300 level students. If you've published anything cool recently, please drop it in the comments!! Do we think it's realistic to expect students to read one academic journal article per class session?

Image shows a screenshot of a course outline. The outline shows calendar dates and the topics for class sessions. Topics include medical sociology, diagnosis, pregnancy, hormones, terminal conditions, Indigineity, disability, death, and ecology.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

Recieved an honorable mention for my dissertation chapter "Immigrant experiences of harm in sexual and reproductive healthcare in Spain", now out in Social Science & Medicine (link below). Very grateful to my department.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Today in dissertation data collection

Image is a meme showing Fred from Scooby Doo unmasking a captured villain. Top image shows masked man captioned as "four spontaneous dissertation interviewees", bottom image shows Fred unmasking the man as "one South African bloke trying to scam me out of 4x€20".

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Want to write an ethnography on multi species kinship (sitting in the paddock with this gang and chronicling their gentle antics)

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

Just hit 12 years volunteering & 10,000 contributions to Wikipedia. Probably more reach and impact than anything else I've done. Free, mostly reliable, and democratically produced knowledge for the masses. Never a better time to join in than now!

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

I keep getting spammed with requests from predatory journals. Decided to reply, now the editors at "Insights in Veterinary Science" are eagerly anticipating my papers on the combat performance of Pidgeotto and Dodrio vs. water types. These are Pokémon.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

My bestie Alex Priest and I were interviewed about research we've been doing on community responses to environmental devastation and the role of social media in circulating conspiracy theories. It's now a classroom resource published in the SAGE: Social Justice video series. doi.org/10.4135/9781...

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

The first article from my dissertation is out now in Social Science and Medicine. It's about immigrant patients' experiences with gynaecology and obstetrics in Spain. It's also my first solo-authored piece. Deeply grateful to the people whose testimonies inform this work. doi.org/10.1016/j.so...

Screenshot showing article title and abstract, full text accessible in link.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Loading up the little free library with some good books today

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Inbox is overflowing with invitations to submit to suspicious/predatory journals, wonder if there's some kind of annual quota they're rushing to reach?

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Semester is over so I have more time for crafts again. Today featured repairing a beaded bracelet and cutting fabric to sew a new jacket.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Do you think the journal editor will grant an extension if the dog won't let me work (and keeps stealing my seat)?

Dog curled up in chair in front of laptop.

Image of dog pushing her nose into camera. Laptop in background.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Havenly (New Haven, CT) is such a wonderful place. Food, sanctuary, and supporting people seeking refuge from colonized and occupied lands. I always love coming here, it fills me with so much joy whenever I'm in a place like this.

Text reading: "Havenly's mission is to build the community power of women seeking refuge from colonized or occupied lands." Along with translations in Arabic and Spanish.

Photographs framed on wall of women smiling in the restaurant. Also, news cuttings.

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Reading through Foucault's ''Birth of The Clinic'' for this r&r, really liked this chunk. Think it'd be a fun essay prompt for students in a #medicalsociology / pre-med sociology class.

"The first task of the doctor is therefore political: the struggle against disease must begin with a war against bad government. Man will be totally and definitively cured only if he is first liberated: 'Who, then, should denounce tyrants to mankind if not the doctors, who make man their sole study, and who, each day, in the homes of poor and rich, among ordinary citizens and among the highest in a the land, in cottage and mansion, contemplate the human miseries that have no other origin but tyranny and slavery?"

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

unique Foucault edition (the cover was *so ugly*)

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Simon Fern @simonfern.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Working at the library and there's desk graffiti from a student that's really going through it: "What do you do when you're not sure your boyfriend loves you as much as you love him?"

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