David Eichert

Sen Raj presenting his new book

Sen Raj and me at dinner

Michael Stambolis presenting his book

Us all at dinner, with Hugo Bouvard

A highlight of being at Oxford is inviting smart friends to present their new books, then taking them to dinner to celebrate!

(I also get dinner, so win-win scenario) @senthorun.bsky.social @mstambolis.bsky.social

📚Announcing a few events where I'll be talking about my book this Spring. More details to follow, but save the dates! Get in touch if you'd like to arrange a time for me to visit your bookstore, policy event or campus to talk about the legacy and importance of queer feminist solidarity against war.

Come do an event in Oxford plz! Congrats!

Umbrella bent at an almost 90 degree angle

New conspiracy theory: British weather is actually funded by Big Umbrella so we keep buying new ones every few months 💦💦💦

Lucy Dacus - Bread and Roses @ Zohran Mamdani’s Inauguration 1/1/26 YouTube video by boygenius source

Our lives shall not be sweated
from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies;
give us Bread, but give us Roses 🌹

youtu.be/ftVpyoSUpt8?...

🔈Join us for "21st-Century US: A Historical Assessment" U Paris Cité, Nov 20&21! Organized by @tamaraboussac.bsky.social @hbouvard.bsky.social & Anne Légier, supported by @echelles-umr8264.bsky.social @chcscuvsq.bsky.social @institutdesameriques.fr @mondesamericains.ehess.fr @parissaclay.bsky.social

Obligatory "first week of work" post:

I'm settled into my new role teaching at Oxford, and it's just as lovely as it sounds 🍂

Council of Europe adopts landmark Recommendation on equal rights for intersex persons <p>Historic milestone calls for prohibition of non-consensual medical interventions and for full equality and non-discrimination against intersex persons across all areas of life</p>

The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has adopted a groundbreaking recommendation to the organisation’s 46 member states on equal rights for intersex persons👇

🔗 www.coe.int/en/web/porta...

@coe.int #Consent #Equality #NoDiscrimination

Flyer for the event with registration link at tinyurl.com/ParisFemICC

If you're in Paris next month, please come to our book event at Sciences Po!

We have an amazing international panel of editors, authors, and civil society reps who will discuss what feminist theory can offer the International Criminal Court 👩‍⚖️

“This, today, is not the end” 10 September 2025: Confirmation of Charges Hearing for an Absent Kony, Day 2

“This, today, is not the end”

Are these in absentia hearings against #Kony a new beginning? An end? Something else entirely?

Yesterday these long-awaited, unprecedented hearings were adjourned. I watched & reflected on time, audience, #history, & #justice.

lucygaynor.substack.com/p/this-today...

I've been doing a lot of immigration stuff recently & my small act of resistance has been trying to smile despite the "no smiling" rule. Here's my latest success:

I'm literally hosting a karaoké soirée here in Paris later this month -- you're all welcome to join! 🌈

Anyway all this is to say that we should hold people accountable for the bad things they do. If accountability means replacing the ICC prosecutor, then hopefully it happens quickly!

An optimistic person would think of this hypocrisy as part of a cycle -- intl actors condemn SV, and when their actions don't match their words, we can wave their words in front of them to call them out

A more pessimistic person would maybe just say that intl orgs were never meant to end SV...

Screenshot from a recent UN debate on conflict-related sexual violence, showing the Russian diplomat reading a statement about SV in Ukraine

To give another example, Russia at the UN is always condemning SV (esp. SV allegedly committed by Ukrainian troops). Obvious hypocrisy, yes, but also politics.

What was once a feminist tool (naming and shaming) becomes a weapon of patriarchy for keeping toxic men in positions of moral supremacy

Thanks to feminist activism, "sexual violence" is now an indisputably "bad thing" in international politics. So political actors can gain a lot by condemning it -- those condemnations make one a "good person"

So much of diplomacy is about moral high ground, and condemning SV is an easy path to that

If allegations are true, then it means that Khan was publicly condemning workplace SV while at the same time engaging in sexual harrassment & worse

Which is horrible, but also not terribly surprising in the context of SV in international organizations...

Lawyers listening to a speaker at the ICC, next to tables with weird sweet potato chips in glass bottles

In 2022 I attended an ICC meeting where, among other things, they launched a new Strategy on Gender Equality and Workplace Culture. Khan attended & spoke about the importance of having a safe gender-sensitive workplace (you can see his bald head in this pic)...

A few thoughts about the SV allegations at the Intl Criminal Court:

Ad for "grandpacore" clothing

Ad for "sardines" as a search category

I logged onto Etsy for the first time in a while & their "recommended for you" algorithm seems to have a very specific idea about my interests...

Quaint mountain valley

Quick weekend trip to the French Alps. Beautiful views & a lot of hills to climb! ⛰️

Today, in the databases of #justice:

Ah, the "much-awaited [REDACTED]" which "confirm [REDACTED] particularly in the [REDACTED].

The life of trial (half)observation(?)

Also I was pretty confused by the book's subtitle ("the Necessity of Violence") until I got to the final section and the author just straight up cites Fanon. Then it ties together very poetically 💣

A picture of the book copy, displaying the title "Babel: On the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution"

I just finished "Babel" by RF Kuang and cannot recommend it enough. Get yourself a copy! Assign it in your politics classes!

"We should reject this consensus. A closer look at the experiences of immigrants should lead us to the conclusion that First World nations have no right to exclude Third World migrants, including the unauthorized economic migrants that dominate contemporary political debates. This claim, that countries like the United States have no right to exclude migrants like those from Central America, will seem radical to many. But it is a corollary of the past and present relationship between, on the one hand, powerful nations like the United States, which advance their national interests extraterritorially, and, on the other, the peoples in the Third World that they subordinate. Third and First World peoples are not political strangers. Due to neocolonial and other forms of imperial interconnection, they are bound in a relationship of co-sovereignty that makes Third World peoples political insiders to First World nation-states."

Really vibing with this article from E. Tendayi Achiume: "The Postcolonial Case for Rethinking Borders"

www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

Pride crowd next to the Louvre

Cardboard sign saying "Decolonize queerness, resist pinkwashing"

I'm a big fan of Pride here in France. There's basically no corporate sponsorship & you can join the parade for as long as you want, wave signs, then go cool off in a café with lovely people. Happy Pride! 🌈🥰✊

These States Are Debating Castration for Sex Crimes. Experts Call It Cruel and Pointless. Critics say there’s no evidence that castration prevents future sex offenses. Yet several states are weighing such measures.

Castration — both reversible and permanent — does lead to the reduction of testosterone and a diminished libido.

But “there is literally no evidence that testosterone is the driving factor of individuals committing crimes of a sexual nature,” said a senior analyst with the Sentencing Project.

This is the ultimate "you had to be there" moment... I made a joke about the windows during class once and got *zero* laughs!

Part of a poem by Anzaldúa: This is my home this thin edge of barbwire. But the skin of the earth is seamless. The sea cannot be fenced. el mar does not stop at borders. To show the white man what she thought of his arrogance, Yemaya blew that wire fence down. This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is. And will be again.

Gloria Anzaldúa, "Borderlands"

(re: Los Angeles protests) ✊