Sophia Brown
@sophiastories.bsky.social
Writer and academic; mainly thinking about climate change, migration and Loss and Damage.
Currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at Durham University's Geography dept.
See here for my newsletter: https://lossanddamage.substack.com/
Currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at Durham University's Geography dept.
See here for my newsletter: https://lossanddamage.substack.com/
Pinned
The Loss and Damage Newsletter | Sophia Brown | Substack
A fortnightly newsletter on loss and damage: the most significant climate change impacts. Click to read The Loss and Damage Newsletter, by Sophia Brown, a Substack publication. Launched a day ago.
lossanddamage.substack.com
Something I've been thinking about for a while and have finally launched: a newsletter on Loss and Damage - do consider subscribing if you're interested in the topic, or more broadly in climate justice and questions of power, geopolitics and accountability
lossanddamage.substack.com?r=a2qm0&utm_...
lossanddamage.substack.com?r=a2qm0&utm_...
Something I've been thinking about for a while and have finally launched: a newsletter on Loss and Damage - do consider subscribing if you're interested in the topic, or more broadly in climate justice and questions of power, geopolitics and accountability
lossanddamage.substack.com?r=a2qm0&utm_...
lossanddamage.substack.com?r=a2qm0&utm_...
The Loss and Damage Newsletter | Sophia Brown | Substack
A fortnightly newsletter on loss and damage: the most significant climate change impacts. Click to read The Loss and Damage Newsletter, by Sophia Brown, a Substack publication. Launched a day ago.
lossanddamage.substack.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Something I've been thinking about for a while and have finally launched: a newsletter on Loss and Damage - do consider subscribing if you're interested in the topic, or more broadly in climate justice and questions of power, geopolitics and accountability
lossanddamage.substack.com?r=a2qm0&utm_...
lossanddamage.substack.com?r=a2qm0&utm_...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
My god, the sheer relief of reading a piece by someone who knows something about this football match and didn't just learn to spell Maccabi two days ago www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now? | Jonathan Liew
Tommy Robinson is said to be going to Villa Park as a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan. Do the politicians jumping on this bandwagon care what they are doing, asks Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:47 AM
My god, the sheer relief of reading a piece by someone who knows something about this football match and didn't just learn to spell Maccabi two days ago www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
Labour are just all in on the "concede the basic framing to Reform, argue that they are preferable within that framework" approach and in addition to thinking it is bad on merits I also sincerely think it is going to get them absolutely mullered at the polls.
“We welcome those who come to this country, legally, and give more than they take. We believe the right to stay here must not be automatic, but that those who play their part should be able to earn that right."
October 21, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Labour are just all in on the "concede the basic framing to Reform, argue that they are preferable within that framework" approach and in addition to thinking it is bad on merits I also sincerely think it is going to get them absolutely mullered at the polls.
Due to climate change these heatwaves were 100 times more likely.
But sure, let’s spend our days scapegoating refugees and making cringe comments about how much we love flags.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
But sure, let’s spend our days scapegoating refugees and making cringe comments about how much we love flags.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
UK experienced its hottest summer on record in 2025, Met Office says
Mean temperature over June, July and August was 16.1C as country endured four heatwaves
www.theguardian.com
September 1, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Due to climate change these heatwaves were 100 times more likely.
But sure, let’s spend our days scapegoating refugees and making cringe comments about how much we love flags.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
But sure, let’s spend our days scapegoating refugees and making cringe comments about how much we love flags.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
I have a new article out today. It's about an environmental turn in Palestinian arts and activism, and how environmental framings of Palestine and the Palestinian struggle enable different forms of identification and solidarity: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Planting Palestine: Food, environment, and the arts of solidarity - Hannah Boast, 2025
This article identifies an ‘environmental turn’ in contemporary Palestinian arts and activism. It argues that environmentalism, mediated especially through food...
journals.sagepub.com
August 11, 2025 at 10:15 AM
I have a new article out today. It's about an environmental turn in Palestinian arts and activism, and how environmental framings of Palestine and the Palestinian struggle enable different forms of identification and solidarity: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University
- 1 in 4 people will be made redundant
But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action?
Please read 👇
Sign the petition 👇
chng.it/7F52bThYqn
- 1 in 4 people will be made redundant
But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action?
Please read 👇
Sign the petition 👇
chng.it/7F52bThYqn
Sign the Petition
Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable
chng.it
July 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University
- 1 in 4 people will be made redundant
But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action?
Please read 👇
Sign the petition 👇
chng.it/7F52bThYqn
- 1 in 4 people will be made redundant
But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action?
Please read 👇
Sign the petition 👇
chng.it/7F52bThYqn
Reposted by Sophia Brown
This letter is still open for signatures, but may not be for that much longer. If you've signed but your name hasn't appeared on the public list, it will be on the final letter, there are just too many names now to keep transferring them over!
An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities
More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...
docs.google.com
July 29, 2025 at 2:13 PM
This letter is still open for signatures, but may not be for that much longer. If you've signed but your name hasn't appeared on the public list, it will be on the final letter, there are just too many names now to keep transferring them over!
Reposted by Sophia Brown
Really grateful to everyone who's read and shared this, and especially people who've written to their MPs on behalf of the students stuck in Gaza. I hope we will have some good news to share before too long, so these students can get to the UK in time for the new academic year.
Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...
I should be at Cambridge, but I’m trapped in Gaza
Home Office red tape strands dozens of Palestinian scholarship winners in war zone
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 21, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Really grateful to everyone who's read and shared this, and especially people who've written to their MPs on behalf of the students stuck in Gaza. I hope we will have some good news to share before too long, so these students can get to the UK in time for the new academic year.
Reposted by Sophia Brown
The shortlists for the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes 2025 have been announced! There are two prizes, in Fiction and Biography, and it's been a pleasure to judge the Fiction prize. www.ed.ac.uk/news/connect...
May 14, 2025 at 9:55 AM
The shortlists for the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes 2025 have been announced! There are two prizes, in Fiction and Biography, and it's been a pleasure to judge the Fiction prize. www.ed.ac.uk/news/connect...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
People who are still shouting that Israel is not committing genocide must be clapping their hands over their ears every time an Israeli minister steps onto a podium because
May 20, 2025 at 8:39 AM
People who are still shouting that Israel is not committing genocide must be clapping their hands over their ears every time an Israeli minister steps onto a podium because
Finally a news headline I can get on board with
April 3, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Finally a news headline I can get on board with
Reposted by Sophia Brown
Thrilled my book is out in the world!
It's a book about the rise & fall of US hegemony; about the road novel's trafficking in the fantasies of individual freedom and self-making that propel it; and about why we need to shatter those attachments for a more collective vision, narrative and politics.
It's a book about the rise & fall of US hegemony; about the road novel's trafficking in the fantasies of individual freedom and self-making that propel it; and about why we need to shatter those attachments for a more collective vision, narrative and politics.
In Cartographies of Empire, Myka Tucker-Abramson draws from an archive of more than 140 global road novels from over twenty countries, challenging dominant conceptions of the road novel as primarily concerned with American experiences and subjectivities. #ReadUP
www.sup.org/books/cartog...
www.sup.org/books/cartog...
March 27, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Thrilled my book is out in the world!
It's a book about the rise & fall of US hegemony; about the road novel's trafficking in the fantasies of individual freedom and self-making that propel it; and about why we need to shatter those attachments for a more collective vision, narrative and politics.
It's a book about the rise & fall of US hegemony; about the road novel's trafficking in the fantasies of individual freedom and self-making that propel it; and about why we need to shatter those attachments for a more collective vision, narrative and politics.
Reposted by Sophia Brown
Anyone who knows Columbia knows they've wanted to do plenty of this for a long time; it's just not that radical or disruptive for them. We shouldn't pretend otherwise.
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
Exclusive | Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal Funding
Columbia’s agreement is a significant moment in the intensifying battle between Trump and elite universities.
www.wsj.com
March 21, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Anyone who knows Columbia knows they've wanted to do plenty of this for a long time; it's just not that radical or disruptive for them. We shouldn't pretend otherwise.
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
My statement on being denied tenure at the Medill School of Journalism drive.google.com/file/d/1BBBI...
March 20, 2025 at 4:10 PM
My statement on being denied tenure at the Medill School of Journalism drive.google.com/file/d/1BBBI...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
Hard to overstate the gravity of this event, which could very well be the first major shot in a campaign to dismantle US civil society as we know it.
If the appeal fails, this is likely to be the end of Greenpeace USA:
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/c...
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/c...
Greenpeace Is Ordered to Pay Energy Transfer, a Pipeline Company, $660 Million
The environmental group had said the lawsuit, over its role in a protest movement, could mean an end to its operations in the United States.
www.nytimes.com
March 20, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Hard to overstate the gravity of this event, which could very well be the first major shot in a campaign to dismantle US civil society as we know it.
Reposted by Sophia Brown
as kemi badenoch describes the UK's net zero goal as 'impossible', it's worth noting that the country's emissions are the lowest they've been since 1872
March 18, 2025 at 11:06 AM
as kemi badenoch describes the UK's net zero goal as 'impossible', it's worth noting that the country's emissions are the lowest they've been since 1872
Reposted by Sophia Brown
Gaza is under attack, being bombed heavily. Those people. What a horrible fucking world.
March 18, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Gaza is under attack, being bombed heavily. Those people. What a horrible fucking world.
Such a brilliant episode on the backlash against BLM, wokeness, Higher Ed and Palestine. And the many ways in which class and race get weaponised by the right to build their authoritarianism.
Definitely my favourite podcast atm.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Definitely my favourite podcast atm.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Woke Wars w/ Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Mike McCarthy
Podcast Episode · The Dig · 26/02/2025 · 2h 28m
podcasts.apple.com
March 18, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Such a brilliant episode on the backlash against BLM, wokeness, Higher Ed and Palestine. And the many ways in which class and race get weaponised by the right to build their authoritarianism.
Definitely my favourite podcast atm.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Definitely my favourite podcast atm.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
For the @theguardian.com I wrote about the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil & Trump's exploitation of anti-Palestinian racism to descend the nation into authoritarianism, with the full collaboration of academia.
No one is free until Palestine is free.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
No one is free until Palestine is free.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Trump is using Mahmoud Khalil to test his mass deportation plan | Heba Gowayed
The Palestinian student’s arrest at Columbia University is a harbinger of what’s to come on college campuses
www.theguardian.com
March 12, 2025 at 2:26 PM
For the @theguardian.com I wrote about the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil & Trump's exploitation of anti-Palestinian racism to descend the nation into authoritarianism, with the full collaboration of academia.
No one is free until Palestine is free.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
No one is free until Palestine is free.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Sophia Brown
📢📢 Only two weeks left to submit your abstract for the ECMN conference in Bonn (8-10 July 2025)! 86 colleagues have already submitted theirs! Here is a FAQ page and the submission form: www.climatemobilities.network/ecmn25/
Hope to see you along the Rhine River in Bonn this summer!!!
Hope to see you along the Rhine River in Bonn this summer!!!
February 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
📢📢 Only two weeks left to submit your abstract for the ECMN conference in Bonn (8-10 July 2025)! 86 colleagues have already submitted theirs! Here is a FAQ page and the submission form: www.climatemobilities.network/ecmn25/
Hope to see you along the Rhine River in Bonn this summer!!!
Hope to see you along the Rhine River in Bonn this summer!!!
Reposted by Sophia Brown
A new McCarthy era is upon us. Stupid, depressing, and dangerous as ever. I wonder whose name will carry the dunce cap in the history books. Too many are complicit. I’ll need to find upset and action, but for now I’m feeling grief at the dehumanization inherent to all this.
February 26, 2025 at 10:42 AM
A new McCarthy era is upon us. Stupid, depressing, and dangerous as ever. I wonder whose name will carry the dunce cap in the history books. Too many are complicit. I’ll need to find upset and action, but for now I’m feeling grief at the dehumanization inherent to all this.
Reposted by Sophia Brown
I’ve just started a starter pack for ECMN members working on #ClimateChange, #Migration, and (im) #Mobilities. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to be added! go.bsky.app/Dan29j
November 24, 2024 at 2:04 PM
I’ve just started a starter pack for ECMN members working on #ClimateChange, #Migration, and (im) #Mobilities. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to be added! go.bsky.app/Dan29j
Reposted by Sophia Brown
Sport may be a blunt tool of social change, but it’s time to take a stand against Israel | Jonathan Liew
Sport may be a blunt tool of social change, but it’s time to take a stand against Israel | Jonathan Liew
As the bombing continues in Gaza, the inaction of bodies such as Fifa and the IOC becomes a glaring, conscious choice
Probably you already know what this is. Probably before you read a word of it, you decided what it was, where you stand on it, how…
dlvr.it
November 22, 2024 at 8:14 AM
Sport may be a blunt tool of social change, but it’s time to take a stand against Israel | Jonathan Liew
Reposted by Sophia Brown
“We hear that those who are responsible to provide financing do not have enough resources in relation to the needs while worldwide defence spending rose by 9% in 2023 to reach US$ 2.2 trillion with the US at the #1. We can't remain passive whilst death is given priority over life.” Cuba at #COP29
November 19, 2024 at 4:22 PM
“We hear that those who are responsible to provide financing do not have enough resources in relation to the needs while worldwide defence spending rose by 9% in 2023 to reach US$ 2.2 trillion with the US at the #1. We can't remain passive whilst death is given priority over life.” Cuba at #COP29
Reposted by Sophia Brown
This publication, for READ PALESTINE WEEK (Nov 29 - December 5) is now available in digital format, free, at our Gumroad storefront: arablit.gumroad.com
November 17, 2024 at 2:24 PM
This publication, for READ PALESTINE WEEK (Nov 29 - December 5) is now available in digital format, free, at our Gumroad storefront: arablit.gumroad.com