ESRC sending millions of pounds to Sally Hines / Leeds Uni to research gender bollocks

[QuietContraryMary]

Ht (twitter.com/DaveDavidDave_/status/1064836550448619522)

There's £700k, for example, for 'Living Gender in Diverse Times'

This features a motley crew of gender cultists:

Helen [redacted] (credited only as 'Helen', and with the email adress of press@mermaids) (she's on twitter as @mimmymum and has an adoring audience of diaper fetishists & furries as she says how great puberty blockers)

Meg-John Barker (partner of Edward Lord, non-binary freemason & big-time TRA), previously featured here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3339137-BACP-Gender-Sexual-and-Relationship-Diversity-by-Dr-Meg-John-Barker

Anna Carlile - gender cultist lecturer at Goldsmiths and Mermaids advocate

Justin Hancock - is a double act with Meg-John Barker (above) megjohnandjustin.com/about-us/

Ruth Pearce - Leeds Uni gender cultist ruthpearce.net/

Emma Renold - professor of childhood studies, promotes transgender identity to children www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5932855/Transgender-muffin-challenge-young-people-reads-like-satire.html

Vanita Sundaram - intersectional feminist type, busy retweeting tweets from TW calling for Rachel Stock to be fired for transphobia twitter.com/VanitaSundaram

Liam Tielemans - works for some sort LGBT charity. Strangely, the emphasis seems to be on the T. www.lgbtconsortium.org.uk/node/3308

Strangely there does not seem to be any non-kool-aid drinkers among their number.

It's not really surprising this crap becomes law & public policy when there's a never-ending stream of cash, public (as here), semi-public (like BBC CiN), and private (Lloyds, etc.)

Follow the money.

It's a niche subject, that's for sure. The phenomenon of trans ideology certainly warrants research, but as a branch of social studies, I'd imagine transgenderism and gender identity only attracts people who are fully on board with trans ideology.

Re: who reviewed the proposals.

Generally speaking, reviewers should have both substantive expertise as well as (though not always) methodological expertise in the research proposal area.

My guess is the pool of academic experts in the sociology of transgenderism (and related areas) is tiny (the reviewers normally will be established academics) and all will have a vested interest both professionally and personally in bigging up a proposal in their area.

So the polemics (rather than social science, which is falsifiable) that Hines produces is more likely to be graded sufficiently highly by fellow transcultists as their agenda of increased visability would cancel out any/most of the usual critique that happens when someone reviews your work.

Lost. The. Plot.

Lost. The. Plot.

It would be amusing to drop a note to Leeds' research ethics people to say that one of their professors is engaged in data gathering from identifiable human subjects without informed prior consent. It is perfectly possible to get ethics approval for work involving trawling Twitter in the large. But when you're actively soliciting responses, and regard the responses as being from "participants", with no attempt at anonymisation, it would be a great deal trickier to argue you are a passive observer of a passing stream of public data...

Looking forward to the research, sounds like Ash Sarker's.

Ash Sakar is another one that I can't believe is an actual academic.

What the what????

reflectant

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Excellent idea, ref.
So unprofessional. Although... I've seen people flounce off social media before, claiming that they had been talking utter bollocks for "research purposes" when they realised they had made fools of themselves.

Dig dig dig she's posted again about research collection
time I'm guessing.

And it continues:

Guys, guys!
I've got this super amazing idea for some VERY CLEVER research.
I'm going to post something really offense on Twitter and see what response I get!
I'm going to break new ground here! Can I be a double professor? I'm honestly doing that research, it's amazing , twitter is so insightful! I mean look, all the proper women academics agree.... they do it too (when they are having a break from bullying female superstar sports women)

And again

GUYS! GUYS!

I'm not quite sure if this is a research topic , but I'm thinking about it. I think women are essentially to blame for the actions of men.

I mean, I know all about women.

I know the correct women, the incorrect women, I know everything and I'll prove it with my special "twitter data".

Can we just all ignore the fact that twitter shows I support people who harass, bully and slime? Ignore that. That doesn't count in my special study.

And if I knew how to link to twitter I would (nod to the KF's summing up of mumsnet)
But head over to (the actually amazing) Mrkhtake2 to see the kind of supporters Sally Hines has.
It's quite grim

Offense was meant to be offensive but I thought I'd do a Sally style typo for authenticity 🤗

😯 I can't believe that tweet about collecting data! Ethics are a minefield and I'd be surprised if that was truly approved. Informed consent is a big issue to negotiate. I'll be interested to hear the ethics department take on this when I contact them.

It would be amusing to drop a note to Leeds' research ethics people to say that one of their professors is engaged in data gathering from identifiable human subjects without informed prior consent*

I suggest every Twitter user who has ever interacted with Hines contact:
Jennifer Blaikie
Senior Research Ethics Administrator 
The Secretariat 
Level 11, E C Stoner Building
University of Leeds 
LS2 9JT 
0113 34 34873 
[email protected]

and request that their data is withdrawn from any study that is overseen by the university. Specify that you do not consent to any university research project using any of your data and request that any data already used is removed.

As if Twitter would be of any use in terms of data about anything in a wider context. It's a cess pit. The only thing you can use twitter for is in analysing twitter itself. If DocStokk had the same ethics as SH (i.e. none) then she could easily use twitter as 'data' about trans ideology.

OK. I am 'out' on twitter and tweet under my own name. i have interacted with professor hines. I have emailed the address above making it clear that any content stemming from or relating to my twitter handle needs to be removed from Professor Hines's research.

jeez. she really needs genderism doesn''t she? without it how would a person with her 'unique' capabilities be in such a position?

People can and do use social media, including Twitter, for research.
The British Psychological Society has produced ethics guidance for internet related research in order to try and address ethical challenges.
Whether or not Hines' research, that she claims she is undertaking, has ethical permission, people have the right to have their data removed and/or to specify that they do not want their data included in any research if they think this is a possibility.
Hines has declared she is using data from Twitter. I think it would be sensible for anyone concerned about this to write to Leeds at the address given previously to express any distress that this is causing them. Distressed caused as a result of participating (or believing you are participating in) is a different (but related) issue to that of simply complaining.

Well done Bernard.

Ethically, what Hines needs to do now is to provide details of the research project, provide evidence that she has gained ethical permission for it, provide details about how unconsenting people can get their data withdrawn and apologise for any distress caused.
If there is no ethical permission, 'participants' have little recourse or protections, but Hines will be in hot water with her employer/professional body. If there is no research, I imagine she is still in hot water.

I think she'll laugh this comment off as a joke and a 'gotcha'.

She will definitely claim it's another of her fantastic "jokes", a la Sheldon on Big Bang Theory. Bazinga!

Unless Sally Hines is a troll?
She has confirmed lots of scientists sneery thoughts on sociology to be true.
She is also making Leeds look like a lightweight laughing stock.

But when you are an academic and conduct research, you are not in a position to joke about conducting research and misusing people's data. I would be gob snacked if the university ethics committee thinks this is ok.

Previous 'jokes' that I have seen would not end up in front of the ethics committee. This one should.