🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
banner
rossbrooks.co.uk
🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
@rossbrooks.co.uk
Historian. #histsci. #queerhistory. First book, Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life, to be published by Yale University Press in August. Trekkie. Classical music. Seaside living (near Brighton). He/him. rossbrooks.co.uk. Agent: www.philippasitters.co.uk.
Pinned
@bsky.app now has over 40M users! 🦋💙

To celebrate, I thought I'd repost the cover image of The Science of Life (August 1929) from which the beautiful butterflies on my profile banner are taken. The central specimens are all gynandromorphs (simultaneously female and male). #histsci #queerhistory 🌈🗃️
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
I couldn't agree more with @mirror.co.uk that it's a good time to investigate Agatha Christie's London.

Especially because there's 40% off Songs of Seven Dials in the @manchesterup.bsky.social sale.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526181954/

#sevendials #20s30s
January 6, 2026 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
I am pleased to announce the release of my latest article in the Observatory. I believe the findings and discussions presented here contribute meaningfully to our understanding of queer ecology.

#academia #science #education #queer
How Queer Ecology Reveals the Diversity of Nature and Human Experience
observatory.wiki
January 5, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Mermaids, unicorns, vampires are an empowering part of our queer folk heritage, author @sachacoward.bsky.social tells @lgbtqnation.com in a recent interview here: www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/12/merm...

'Queer as Folklore' is out now in paperback!
Mermaids, unicorns, vampires are an empowering part of our queer folk heritage - LGBTQ Nation
Queer people have existed in folklore throughout history. Realizing that gives us magical powers, Sacha Coward says.
www.lgbtqnation.com
January 5, 2026 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Weekly #LGBTQ #Trans update on Daily Kos

www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...

Btw @rossbrooks.co.uk , this borrowed your cheery Bluesky post about the Globe Theater. Thanks for sharing that.
LGBTQ+ update: Shakespeare; further dispatches from the war on trans youth; pansy craze; more
Big updates on RFK Jr.'s proposal to shut down essentially all gender-affirming care for trans youth, as reported here 2 weeks ago. There is an opportunity to file comments, open until Feb. 17. ALSO, ...
www.dailykos.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
EU pals - shipping is restored!
For the first time since Brexit you can now get my rainbow Science and Science Fiction pin badges across Europe.

Tell your pals!
proudscience.etsy.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Applications are also invited for a new RHS programme for 2026, co-hosted with @ihr.bsky.social and @chalkefestival.bsky.social.

'Pitch my Project' is for early career historians to present their research at the Chalke History Festival in June bit.ly/44kfUMM. Closing date: 6 February. #Skystorians
Pitch my Project: an opportunity for early career historians to present their work at the Chalke History Festival 2026 - RHS
Have you ever wanted to share your research with a wide audience? Would you like to gain experience in public speaking, and be supported to develop imaginative ways to communicate your research to the...
bit.ly
January 5, 2026 at 9:53 AM
Mood ('cos it's a bit nippy out):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8K8...

'See'st thou not how stiff
And wondrous old
Far unfit to bear the bitter cold'
Jakub Jósef Orlinski - Purcell - King Arthur - The Cold Song
YouTube video by Classical HD Live
www.youtube.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:41 AM
Incidentally, the Globe has regular LGBTQ-themed guided tours. There are also excellent learning resources in their free guide 'Finding Queerness in Our Records': cdn.shakespearesglobe.com/uploads/2025... 🌈🎭🏳️‍⚧️🗃️

www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/gui... #queer #history #theatre #drama
January 4, 2026 at 10:18 AM
Annual New Year cocktails up the Shard with the brilliant @djberry.bsky.social. Then we went to see a wonderfully wintry production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe (actually the Globe's indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, so not *too* wintry!). Great day! #London 🍸🎭
January 3, 2026 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks tonight! Let us know if you catch a shooting star 🌠
Watch the First Meteor Shower of 2026 Light Up the Sky This Weekend
The new year has arrived, and the Quadrantid meteor shower is coming in hot. Here’s how to see this often-spectacular shower at its peak
www.scientificamerican.com
January 3, 2026 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Transgressors closes Sunday, January 4! This exhibit, originally presented at Chachalu Tribal Museum and Cultural Center, showcases nine artists exploring the past, present, and future of Indigenous queer identity and is curated by Anthony Hudson and Felix Furby. #indigenousart #pnw
January 1, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Very excited to share that on the last day of this year, my 1st peer-reviewed article (co-created with artist Jesse Blanchard) about #trans actress Valerie Wilson was published! Read it here
viewjournal.eu/articles/10.... #cinema #valeriewilson #transfilm #frenchcinema #transhistory #archive #memory
“They Lack Imagination…” ─ Valérie Wilson and Trans Life in the Audiovisual Archive | VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture
viewjournal.eu
December 31, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Happy New Year from us at the Linnean Society! Enjoy this print of an advertisement for Pain's Fireworks for Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887.

You can even get a print of it here: buff.ly/OYLcWDQ
January 1, 2026 at 10:01 AM
Lots of promising queer history books to look forward to in 2026. Here are just a few coming soon . . . 🌈📚🗃️

www.beacon.org/A-Black-Quee...

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/queer-inh...

www.dukeupress.edu/gay-print-cu...

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526165312/

utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....
January 1, 2026 at 10:37 AM
Happy New Year! 🎉🥂

Wishing everyone love and happiness in 2026 . . .

#HappyNewYear #HappyNewYear2026
a blonde woman is singing with the words happy new year below her
ALT: a blonde woman is singing with the words happy new year below her
media.tenor.com
January 1, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Give me your best recent British & Irish LGBTQI+ history recommendations! I'm updating the reading list for my queer & trans history module. Looking for things published in the last 2-3 years. 🌈🎓 ‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ #queerhistory
December 29, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
Paul Delvaux's painting The Awakening of the Forest (1939) was inspired by the subterranean forest in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth. As far as I know (not much), we don't have a wide-ranging study of Surrealism's relationship with Earth's history (www.artic.edu/artworks/111...)
December 30, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
'Deviant Ornaments' at the National Museum of Norway examines the far-reaching history of Queer art www.wallpaper.com/art/exhibiti...
In Norway, discover 1000 years of Queer expression in Islamic Art
'Deviant Ornaments' at the National Museum of Norway examines the far-reaching history of Queer art
www.wallpaper.com
December 26, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Did someone say 'boxing'?

'The Boxer' (1933) by Russian artist Konstantin Somov. 🥊🌈🎨

Happy Boxing Day!

#BoxingDay #Christmas #queer #lgbtq #art #arthistory #1930s 🗃️
December 26, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
This Christmas Day, we're sharing a festive favourite with a scientific past.

This illustration of Poinsettia pulcherrima comes from Fleurs de Java (1742), created during the Linnean age of botanical discovery.

From science to Christmas tradition, season’s greetings from us at the Society!
December 25, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Happy Christmas! 🎄🎅

'Christmas day is one of great importance to the men: the whole of it has been given up to revelry, at present there is not a sober man in the ship' - Charles Darwin, 25 December 1831. 🍾

thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/c... #Christmas #histsci #histbio 🗃️
Christmas on HMS Beagle
Charles Darwin spent Christmas day of 1831 in Devonport awaiting favourable weather for the departure of HMS Beagle. Darwin wrote in his diary for the voyage: Christmas day is one of great importan…
thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com
December 25, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by 🌈 Dr Ross Brooks
I'll be looking out for Rudolph and her friends tonight! 🔴🦌🦌🛷🎁🎅

Same-sex sexual behaviours are well documented for reindeer, female and male. Read about it in Bruce Bagemihl's Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (1999). #queer #lgbtq #science #nature #Christmas 🌈
December 24, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Just to add, if you miss Rudolph tonight, there's another great spot to be made as the International Space Station follows in Santa's path early tomorrow morning. 🦌🛷🎅🛰️👩‍🚀

Here are some timings: www.space.com/stargazing/s...

Here's another great piece: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/art... #space #Christmas
December 24, 2025 at 11:26 AM
I'll be looking out for Rudolph and her friends tonight! 🔴🦌🦌🛷🎁🎅

Same-sex sexual behaviours are well documented for reindeer, female and male. Read about it in Bruce Bagemihl's Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (1999). #queer #lgbtq #science #nature #Christmas 🌈
December 24, 2025 at 8:26 AM