balayannis.bsky.social
@balayannis.bsky.social
Associate Professor at Wageningen University & Research | Guest Professor at Leuphana University Lüneburg | geographer, feminist STS-er, interdisciplinarian | chemicals, pollution, waste | they/she
Reminder of our abstract deadline of 18 February for our session on Queering Environmental Justice at the RGS-IBG 2026! Check it out:
balayannis.bsky.social@balayannis.bsky.social · 9mo ago🔉Call for Papers! This September Jay Todd @jaytoddgla.bsky.social & I will be organising a session on "Queering Environmental Justice" at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference @rgsibg.bsky.social ⏰ Abstract deadline: 18 February 2026 🔗 Conference website: www.rgs.org/research/ann...
![This session aims to bring environmental justice praxis into conversations around queer and trans liberation and subjugation. Anti-gender politics and the transnational eliminationist movements against trans and gender diverse people (Holvikivi et al. 2024) are increasingly affecting environmental policy and advocacy, and gender has become hotly contested in global environmental governance processes (Balayannis 2026). In response, this session asks: how do queer and trans liberation matter for environmental justice?
The exclusion and regulation of trans and queer bodies from and within public spaces is now routinely making headlines in the UK and well beyond (Butler 2025; Faye 2022). Meanwhile, the environmental sciences also have a long history of eco-normativity and structurally pathologising queer lives; often characterising transness, intersex bodies, and same-sex sexual behaviours, as the adverse effects of pollution exposure (Di Chiro 2010; Zabalegui 2024). Despite its focus on power and difference (Schlosberg et al. 2025), environmental justice praxis has yet to address these enduring epistemic harms and (up until recently) has lacked engagement with queer and trans politics.
Recent calls to queer environmental justice are configured as an “inclusion” issue (e.g. Goldsmith and Bell 2022), and overlook the more fundamental structural harms of dominant science (Liboiron 2021). Geographical research has tended to reinforce the boundaries between environmental politics, and queer and trans politics, suggesting that existing work in queer and trans geographies holds limited relevance for expanding on environmental justice. This session confronts this assumption and considers the potentialities of queer and trans studies, beyond making sense of gender, sexuality, and heteronormativity. [continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kgdfqnolcmjydc3uu34kgets/bafkreia2pszeu4qoyxhjk4bt4h3tmy2jm2uhvrdbkvjcnqr3wmtile26he)
We would love for @jaytoddgla.bsky.social’s and my critical response to be read widely, given the Sullivan Review’s potential for far-reaching implications across the social and health sciences — and indeed well beyond the academy
TIBG@tibg.bsky.social · 8mo agoNew Intervention in TIBG: 'A critical response to the UK's "Sullivan Review" into sex and gender in research and data' by @jaytoddgla.bsky.social & @felicitycallard.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/tran...
📣 Today @felicitycallard.bsky.social and I have published the first peer-reviewed response to the 'Sullivan Review' of research and data on sex and gender. doi.org/10.1111/tran... The Review could threaten trans rights and inclusion, erode academic freedom, and undermine research quality.
‘We regularly call the cops on our students. Now we’ve sold them to Microsoft’.
Andrew Porter@retropz.bsky.social · 9mo agoBig announcement from @manchester.ac.uk today: "The University of Manchester has announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft, becoming the first university in the world to give Microsoft 365 Copilot access and training to every student and colleague." #GenerativeAI #Research #Manchester
It has been exactly one year since launch of #ForeverLobbying Project & our own Chemical Reaction report. Together we exposed access, strategies, & misleading messaging of prominent parts of #PFAS industry against proposed ban. ➡️ corporateeurope.org/en/chemical-... ➡️ foreverpollution.eu/lobbying/
🔉Call for Papers! This September Jay Todd @jaytoddgla.bsky.social & I will be organising a session on "Queering Environmental Justice" at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference @rgsibg.bsky.social ⏰ Abstract deadline: 18 February 2026 🔗 Conference website: www.rgs.org/research/ann...
"In the few months since the second Trump administration began, the federal government’s efforts to control silicosis have been destroyed," David Michaels and Gregory Wagner write:
DOGE Is Bringing Back a Deadly Disease
Cuts to agencies that protect workers’ lungs are going to result in the resurgence of a preventable illness.
bit.ly
The EPA IRIS database specifies the cancer + noncancer risk of > 500 chemicals. It's the rosetta stone to calculating the relationship between exposure and risk. It powered our tox map and formaldehyde map. Killing it would destroy the ability to regulate or even show how harmful toxic chems are.
Sharon Lerner@fastlerner.bsky.social · 2y agoNEW: While all eyes are on Trump and DOGE, a bill recently introduced in both the House and Senate would cripple the EPA's ability to regulate. It's a very serious threat and experts told me it could pass www.propublica.org/article/legi...
📣 Upcoming event with Prof. @jennypickerill.bsky.social "'How do we carry on?’ Political activism in an era of uncertainty" | Thursday 20 March 2025 | 12:30 - 17:30 | Location: Thuis Wageningen (Stationsstraat 32, Wageningen, the Netherlands. Info ⬇️ centreforspaceplacesociety.com/2025/03/03/e...
Event | ‘How do we carry on?’ Political Activism in an Era of Uncertainty – with prof. Pickerill
We are excited to invite you to the PhD defence activities of Tom Rowe, exploring hope, privilege, and prefiguration in climate activism, art, and academia. The two-day programme includes an intera…
centreforspaceplacesociety.com
NEW: While all eyes are on Trump and DOGE, a bill recently introduced in both the House and Senate would cripple the EPA's ability to regulate. It's a very serious threat and experts told me it could pass www.propublica.org/article/legi...
Industry-Backed Legislation Would Bar the Use of Science Behind Hundreds of Environmental Protections
Two bills in Congress would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from using hundreds of chemical assessments completed by its IRIS program in environmental regulations or enforcement.
propublica.org
One week left to submit your abstracts!
balayannis.bsky.social@balayannis.bsky.social · 2y agoCFP! At the Nordic STS conference this June in Stockholm @emmapdc.bsky.social & I are organising "Towards just pollution interventions: public experiments beyond the lab" We welcome abstracts from any discipline or practice. Deadline March 1. Reach out for questions www.nordicsts.se/call-for-abs...
A new analysis confirms links between early life #PFAS exposure and stunted “cognitive, motor, and language development” as well as “behavioral issues like hyperactivity.” #foreverchemicals appear to be damaging children’s brains, and not only highly exposed kids. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39888511/
Effects of Early-life PFAS Exposure on Child Neurodevelopment: A Review of the Evidence and Research gaps - PubMed
Sixty-one studies in total were published from 2008 to March 2024, with 35 in the last five years. Findings primarily link early life PFAS exposure to reduced cognitive, motor, and language developmen...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Excited to see this is out - and with an expanded online edition alongside! Congratulations and thank you @erindurban.bsky.social and team for all the work that went into it
erin l. durban@erindurban.bsky.social · 2y agoTSQ Trans* Ecologies Print Issue read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/issue/11/4
📼 For those who missed todays Ways of Repair : Loss and Damage online symposium session with @farhanasultana.com, Gabriela de Matos and Amali Tower on “Decolonising #ClimateColoniality and Re-Centering Marginalised Voices and Knowledges” the video is now online! 🥳 🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrqZ...
Decolonising Climate Coloniality and Re-Centering Marginalised Voices and Knowledges
YouTube video by Ways of Repair : Loss and Damage
youtube.com
Making Asbestos Great Again www.propublica.org/article/davi...
Donald Trump’s No. 2 Pick for the EPA Represented Companies Accused of Pollution Harm
David Fotouhi, a lawyer who recently challenged a ban on asbestos, worked to roll back climate regulations and water protections while serving in the Environmental Protection Agency during Trump’s fir...
propublica.org
@4sweb.bsky.social and fellow STSers invested in projects of liberation! We invite folks to submit to our open panel, Reverberations of Power and Justice in Critical Science and Technology Studies. #207 findable here: www.4sonline.org/accepted_ope...
Accepted Open PanelsSearchMobile Menu
4sonline.org
⚠️#PFAS are ubiquitous to our environment and a new #ForeverLobbying Project has estimated they will cost billions to clean up! 🚫CHEM Trust calls on the UK Government to act now to #BanPFAS. Read more here: https://buff.ly/40imRLz Find the project here: https://buff.ly/3Z6DNCq
Cost to clean up toxic PFAS pollution could top £1.6tn in UK and Europe
Exclusive: Costs of UK cleanup will reach £9.9bn a year in UK if emissions of ‘forever chemicals’ remain uncontrolled
buff.ly
CFP! At the Nordic STS conference this June in Stockholm @emmapdc.bsky.social & I are organising "Towards just pollution interventions: public experiments beyond the lab" We welcome abstracts from any discipline or practice. Deadline March 1. Reach out for questions www.nordicsts.se/call-for-abs...
‘High-risk sites’: where are the UK’s ‘forever chemical’ hotspots? What you need to know. #ForeverLobbying www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘High-risk sites’: where are the UK’s ‘forever chemical’ hotspots?
An Environment Agency report has identified more than 10,000 ‘high-risk sites’ contaminated with PFAS
theguardian.com
The #ForeverLobbying Project exposes the real cost of #PFAS pollution on the environment, science, and politics. 46 journalists teamed up with 18 experts to investigate the worst pollution crisis humanity has ever faced, caused by the “poison of the century”. foreverpollution.eu/lobbying/
Big news: A new EPA study finds that millions of acres of farmland are likely polluted w/ #PFAS from sewage sludge spread over the fields as fertilizer—a practice EPA has long promoted. The implications for our food system are hard to overstate. h/t @ewg www.federalregister.gov/public-inspe...
Public Inspection: Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment: Perfluorooctanoic Acid and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid
Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment: Perfluorooctanoic Acid and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid
federalregister.gov
Chemical recycling doesnt work at scale; it’s neither environmentally or economically viable ioplus.nl/en/posts/ano...
Another pioneering plastic recycler faces bankruptcy amid challenges
While chemical plastics recycling shows promise, the practical implementation faces significant hurdles. Blue Cycle's experience mirrors these challenges.
ioplus.nl
“The first Trump admin altered or deleted numerous federal web pages containing public-facing climate information, according to monitoring efforts by the nonprofit Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, which tracks changes on federal websites.” www.scientificamerican.com/article/scie...
Scientists Scramble to Save Climate Data from Trump—Again
Federal climate databases remained largely intact during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term. Scientists say the threats are bigger this time
scientificamerican.com
Heading home to Melbourne next week - if you're around and keen to chat about pollution, chemicals, or waste, I'll be there throughout December. (Also would appreciate hot takes on good cafes as my coffee map is 6 years out of date...)
Today 20.000+ people came together in The Hague to protest the proposed cuts in education funding. To protest against layoffs. Against a penalty for study delays. Against the closure of degree programmes. And to fight for academic freedom, equal opportunities, and the right to study. #WOinActie
More than 20,000 people protesting the budget cuts in higher education in the Netherlands #WOinActie
This summer Hiilei Hobart and I, among others, will "contribute to the theorization, imagination, and practice of socially just and ecologically hopeful futures" includding workshops on works-in-progress with participants. Apply!
Summer Institute - Center for the Arts and Humanities
Summer Institute in Environmental Humanities The Colby Summer Institute in Environmental Humanities (SIEH) gathers scholars from around the globe to
cah.colby.edu
Solidarity with colleagues at the University of Wollongong in geography, history, language, maths, environmental science, physics and public health. Entire units being cut, short sighted and devastating. Petition here: betteruniversities.work/uow-petition...
David Bissell@davidjbissell.bsky.social · 2y agoThe very idea of so many incredible geography friends and colleagues at the University of Wollongong being in scope for possible redundancy next month is absolutely gut wrenching www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11... 1/5
There you have it! An official Starter Pack of people working on #PFAS issues curated by @saferstates.bsky.social go.bsky.app/ThQN6Zs
Starter Pack on Colonialism, Decolonisation & Race 👇. Interdisciplinary and not limited to academics. Set it up last week so I may have missed people who joined recently - pls let me know if you'd like to be added (or removed). ..Overlapping starter packs v.welcome! go.bsky.app/NypyY8Q