Last month’s Humanities & Social Sciences Communities highlights are looking at Pride spaces, South Asian psychology, gender equality in academic publishing, self-belief, public health research, and care between colleagues. Here are a few posts from June that caught my attention!

Pride Month and Social Science Matters

As June is Pride Month, we begin with a post that looks beyond the celebrations and towards the history behind Pride and the changing role of Pride spaces in the UK.

You can also explore new publications for Pride Month 2026 and discover more about #SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

Remembering Pride’s Political Roots

@Jess Mancuso 

Pride brings visibility, celebration, and a sense of community, but its roots lie in protest and the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. In this Beyond the Book post, based on the book Lesbian Visibility Politics in Manchester’s LGBTQ+ Spaces, Jess looks at the growing commercial side of Pride in the UK and asks whether large events are doing enough to support the different groups across LGBTQ+ communities. She also explores the role of smaller, community-led events in creating spaces where more people feel seen and included.

Read the full post to explore how Pride can remain visible and celebratory without losing sight of its political history. You can also read @Alice Taylor's June highlights to discover how Pride was marked across Health & Clinical and Life Sciences Research Communities.

Understanding Shame Beyond the Individual

@Saira Mirza 

Shame is often treated as a personal emotion, but what happens when it is also shaped by family, history, migration, and wider social systems? Drawing on her book about South Asian psychology, Saira introduces five new frameworks for understanding how shame can be linked to caste, colonial history, identity, relationships, and mental health across generations.

Read the full Beyond the Book blog post to discover a culturally grounded approach to understanding shame and healing.

#Social Science Matters

Both posts are part of #Social Science Matters, a Palgrave Macmillan campaign that brings together researchers, editors, and practitioners to explore current social issues and show why social science research matters. Read @Sharla Plant's blog to learn more about the campaign and explore the blogs shared as part of it! 

Beyond the Book  – A Space for book authors!

These two blog posts are also part of the new book Channel Beyond the Book. This a space for authors to share the stories, experiences and ideas that sit beyond the pages of a published book. If you’d like to know more about it, read:

• Introducing the Beyond the Book
• How to write a Beyond the Book blog post

Who Shapes the Future of AI Research? 

@Syamili C 

When we think about bias in AI, we often focus on algorithms. But what about the people who decide which AI research is published? This Behind the Paper post shares a story behind a study published in Journal of Academic Ethics, which examines more than 4,400 editorial positions across 71 leading AI research journals. The study found that almost nine in ten positions were held by men, while women were also less represented in senior editorial roles.

Read the full post to learn why gender and geographical representation on editorial boards matter for the future of AI research.

Why Success Can Be Hard to Believe

@Annalina V Mayer 

Why do some people accept their success, while others dismiss it as luck? Using ‘angel’ and ‘devil’ robots, a feedback experiment, and computer models, the researchers studied how people explain good and bad results and how these explanations shape what they believe about their own abilities. Published in the Communications Psychology, they found that people with lower self-esteem were more likely to learn from negative feedback and less likely to see positive results as evidence of their ability.

Read the full Behind the Paper post to see what robots can teach us about self-belief.

Exploring Public Health Through Film

@ASRARUL HAQUE JEELANI 

What began as a documentary for the 50th anniversary of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University grew into a wider research project published in Indian Journal of History of Science. While making the film, the author explored the Centre’s history and its role in bringing medicine and social science together. The process also raised new questions about India’s contribution to community health and the development of primary healthcare.

Read the full post to learn how filmmaking helped uncover an important part of India’s public health history.

What It Means to Support a Colleague

@Jessica Blythe 

When Jessica began cancer treatment, she was also working on revisions of a research paper which was later published in Nature. In this honest and personal behind the scenes post, she reflects on how her colleagues supported her during treatment and shares three simple lessons: reach out, ask how someone wants to stay connected with work, and offer practical help.

Read the full post discover the simple ways colleagues can make a real difference during a difficult time.

These June posts move from public spaces and publishing systems to personal beliefs, research journeys, and the everyday ways colleagues care for one another. I hope you find something here that gives you a new question to consider or a reason to explore the full story.

If a post catches your interest, don’t forget to leave a like or share your thoughts with the author in the comments!

Further readings:

• May Highlights from the Humanities & Social Sciences Communities
• Quarterly Highlights from the Humanities & Social Sciences Communities
• Highlights from Health & Clinical and Life Sciences Research Communities by @Alice Taylor 
• Highlights from the Mathematics, Physical & Applied Sciences Communities by @Yijia Li