Very excited to say that I will be presenting on this panel at LSA Conference 2024. I will be discussing unauthorised 'wild' swimming in London, how it troubles the binary framing of blue spaces and provides a new way to explore the ambiguity of quasi-public spaces and polluted leisure.

Beautiful and important my friend and brother Michael Keith at his most eloquent and heartfelt. A must read.

WRITE FOR US: our October magazine theme is THE SEA. Editor Idle Ethnographer is seeking lively, research-informed articles on ocean-related themes, from travel by sea to maritime employment, trade and logistics. Submit your pitch by 2 July. More info: buff.ly/3Qg0ZvY

I’m listening to the first edit of our walking podcast ‘Confluence’. It combines our reflections, field recordings by Konstantinos Damianakis and the voices of people from along Lewisham rivers. Do come and walk it with us on 29th June!

'I immediately felt a connection, a kind of homecoming, a place and community where my ideas on photography and urban life and my socially-engaged and research-informed photographic practice felt validated' New Street Signs Postcard by Anita Strasser streetsigns.online/CUCR-MY-SPIRIT…

Apologies tagging the wrong person! One of these studentships will explore creative walking, with a focus on east London, working with me and Dr Anna Minton

Great to see our Nirmal Puwar work being celebrated in this way!

A brilliant day full of things watery and riparian. And cake! A microcosm of the project. Thanks to all who joined us.

[drumroll…] You can listen to Confluence episode 1 here. It’s an audio walk about rivers and the city that you can do on the move in Lewisham or listen to at home. buzzsprout.com/2380574/episod…

And Confluence episode 2. This audio walk takes you from Lewisham Gateway to Deptford Creek. It can be listened to on the move or at home. buzzsprout.com/2380574/episod…

Confluence Episode 1. Join Emma Jackson and me to walk along Lewisham’s rivers from Lower Sydenham to Catford and listen to tales from along and in the rivers buzzsprout.com/2380574/153270…

And Confluence Episode 2, where Emma Jackson and I walk along Lewisham’s rivers from Lewisham Gateway to Deptford Creek and hear from those who spend time alongside and in the rivers buzzsprout.com/2380574/153270…

Gr8 event with Emma Jackson Louise Rondel @goldsmithsuol CUCR #CUCR and their fab 2-part podcast to accompany walks by our rivers - #Sydenham > Catford + #Lewisham > Deptford Creek. Check it out (QR codes) to find out things you never knew about our rivers. We learnt loads.

This is depressing and short-sighted Goldsmiths, University of London. The first time I thought of myself becoming a sociologist was at CUCR don‘t think I could make the same transition today.

‘The decline and redundancies that will follow from the ‘Transformation Programme’ will eviscerate an incredible body of sociological scholarship’. Les Back reflects on the CUCR anniversary and current events and Goldsmiths, University of London streetsigns.online/ON-ANNIVERSARI…

Shame on ‘the architects of this mortification’

Looking forward to taking our rivers work north for the session with Dr Morag Rose & Louise Rondel ‘Sociological Sound-walking: Thinking with the River Irwell’.

'I learnt that there is no one true story of a place, but that for every interview you find often contradictory, incommensurate realities, and that each of them can be true in some way.' Ben Gidley on his time researching locally at CUCR streetsigns.online/EVEN-THE-RAIN-…

When I wrote these words in May, I had no idea how brutally my alma mater, Goldsmiths, University of London, would treat the amazing scholars of CUCR, making almost all of them redundant. It’s such a precious and vibrant research community, and heart breaking to see if destroyed in real time.