Sophie Harman
Professor of International Politics
Author of global health books, producer of BAFTA-nominated film, lover of books, Corrie, Bruce Sproodlesteen, & (once upon a time) house music all night long
- Bill Gates' justification for meeting with Epstein “The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying he could get them to give money to global health' is as gross as it is unsurprising.
- This Friday I'm talking research integrity and the making of Pili. Ten years on, Did I get it right?
- This is an incredible piece of work by @ellarosebee.bsky.social ⬇️ link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by Sophie Harman30,000 jobs gone in three years. Before the national insurance increase and the international student levy hits. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pay-spe...
- Reposted by Sophie HarmanI am so excited to be part of this event on the Global Politics of Abortion with the fabulous Dr Nayla Luz Vacarezza, Sarah of Ad’iyah Collective, Prof Sophie Harman & Dr Sydney Calkin 28th January. Be there! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-pol... @qmulsse.bsky.social @profsophieharman.bsky.social
- I'll be talking all things Global Politics of Abortion - MAHA, far right, eugenics, women's health - with the brilliant Nayla Luz Vacarezza, Sarah from the Ad’iyah Collective, Joe Strong & Sydney Calkin - 28th Jan Do register so we can don't run out of snacks www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-pol...
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- I've been saying this a lot this year. Instead of looking at what Trump is destroying in aid and global health, look at what is being built www.state.gov/united-state...
- Feel downbeat this #WorldAIDSDay - 'sunset' for UNAIDS, other UN agency cuts, decades of progress & majority of international community no longer attuned to the lives, families, & friends of 630,000 people who died of AIDS last year www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
- After years of talking about this book I am sooo excited to have ordered Chasing Freedom by Simukai Chigudu. Despite not being allowed to read any of it (I've tried), I know everyone is going to be talking about this in 2026. Gift your future self & pre-order www.penguin.co.uk/books/448455...
- 10 years ago this week Leanne Welham, Ansity Noel & I met with 80ish women around Pwani to hear their stories, ask what they thought about making a film & would they act in it? The result was Pili. A film that went on to win awards, a distribution deal, a BAFTA nomination, & £1000s to these women
- Huge congratulations to Sunil Amrith for winning the @britishacademy.bsky.social Book Prize!!! I'm enormously proud of Sick of It being shortlisted alongside such fab books, especially as I *think* it's the first International Relations book to make the shortlist, hope it becomes the 1st of many.
- Absolute joy to discuss Sick of It at the British Academy Book Prize event last night, meet such lovely readers & shortlisted authors, & celebrate with my mates (Becky my pal since I was 12 who beats me at tennis every week & Simukai who has the most amazing book coming out next year!)
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- Most fun (& difficult!) task of the year! I was asked to recommend 3 books I read recently for the @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk blog as part of the @britishacademy.bsky.social book prize. My recommendations (and those of the other nominees) ⬇️ www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/blog/2025/oc...
- Want to learn more about the British Academy shortlist? Excellent overview of all the books around 45min mark www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
- There was I worried I wouldn't have time to properly read America First Global Health Strategy before finishing my keynote for next week.... but its all BIG font and BIG pictures and some quite comedy (despite seriousness of issue) graphs
- Is the far right's success in global health partly homegrown? www.medico.de/en/crisis-of... I'll be talking about this and more next week in Berlin ahead of the World Health Summit - come along if you're in town! www.medico.de/termin/2025-...
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- Kindle has chosen Sick of It to be part of their 99p deal for October! Given the first book I published back in 2010 was about £80 this is a much better deal. And cheaper than a whippy.
- You may already have seen her on the BBC this morning, but journalists and policy experts looking for experts on digital ID cards - you need to speak to @kerenweitzberg.bsky.social This is a post from earlier this year blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...
- Heading to the World Health Summit in Berlin in October? I'll be popping up to give the keynote at this excellent side event organised by @medico.de - do come along www.plattformglobalegesundheit.de/defending-th...
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- Can the New Public Health Order deliver for Africa in a post-Trump world? New piece for @plosglobalpublichealth.org journals.plos.org/globalpublic...
- When the US right talk about free speech in the UK their point of reference is always abortion. This is not an accident, but a core part of their agenda. Women's health as ever at the forefront of global politics.
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- Look at this lovely list! Equally thrilled to have my book in the LRB Bookshop as I am to have more readers encounter the data grannies, the community health workers, and the driver 🥰
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- Sick of It has been nominated for the British Academy Book Prize!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am such a fan of this prize, that I've alternated between a weird merry dance and 🙀 since I found out. Congratulations to all of the authors on the shortlist www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/british-acad...
- We cannot stop talking about this: attacks on maternity units Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan...are deliberate tactics of conflict that target civilians. I argue this in Sick of It - politicians decry some cases (Ukraine), ignore others, but can't claim not to know. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
- 'We need more of this type of calling out bullshit. Not to bring down global health and its potential to advance women’s health. But to show us what’s really broken, rotten, or simply dangerous.' Thanks so much @katribertram.bsky.social for this generous and no nonsense review of Sick of It
- $2.5billion for women's health is great. BUT as I argue in Sick of It, all this innovation, money & attention is great but this will get you nowhere unless you understand the bigger problem: how women's health is used to gain and sustain power in the world (which is also what Gates is doing here)
- Sick of It is now out in PAPERBACK!! www.virago.co.uk/titles/sophi... What an incredible year: speaking in parliament/book shops/unis/major donor meetings to meeting amazing readers & receiving such generous reviews. I am so grateful to everyone who has read, engaged & championed the book.
- I'm going to Rio tomorrow! So excited to be teaching a short course on Global Health Security as part of the PUC IPS Winter School & bringing my reading pile (@whitproject.bsky.social Erased, Mackay's Positive Humanity, when?, & a colleague's secret project) to the beach. Highlight of work summer 🥰
- ‘A powerful prescription for change’ Observer, Book of the Week ‘An eye-opening contribution to the global discourse on women’s health and a call for change’ The Lancet Sick of It: the Global Fight for Women's Health Paperback out next week!!! www.virago.co.uk/titles/sophi...
- Ahead of #UNAIDS Board this week, vital that a gendered response to #HIV is not traded out to appease donors (who you can't appease anyway) www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
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- 53% people living with HIV are women. Along with aid cuts, the danger is that leaders of the HIV response will trade out the needs of women & girls & the gendered determinants of HIV to align with donor interests. This cannot happen. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
- Happy 50th @mybisa.bsky.social and happy #BISA2025! BISA's big birthday coincides with my Mum's big birthday so I won't be in Belfast but I bloody love BISA - all the opportunities when I was early career, the friendships from the working groups & the Board, the great conferences, the journals! 🥳
- Be Brave! Ahead of the most important Board in @unaids.org history, I joined forces with the indomitable Treatment Action Campaign & International Community of Women Living with HIV to call for women to remain at the centre of the HIV response in @thelancet.com www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...