diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci-config.yml b/.github/workflows/ci-config.yml
index 738294f..e81e378 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci-config.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci-config.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     strategy:
       matrix:
-        python-version: [3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8]
+        python-version: ['3.8', '3.9', '3.10']
 
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
diff --git a/ldnlib/consumer.py b/ldnlib/consumer.py
index 5acaea1..5a8fcf9 100644
--- a/ldnlib/consumer.py
+++ b/ldnlib/consumer.py
@@ -40,4 +40,4 @@ def notification(self, iri, **kwargs):
             return r.json()
         else:
             g = Graph().parse(data=r.text, format=mime_type)
-            return json.loads(str(g.serialize(format="json-ld"), 'utf-8'))
+            return json.loads(g.serialize(format="json-ld"))
diff --git a/tests/test_consumer.py b/tests/test_consumer.py
index ecd395b..375cd6b 100644
--- a/tests/test_consumer.py
+++ b/tests/test_consumer.py
@@ -91,12 +91,12 @@ def test_notification_turtle(self, mock_get):
         notification = Consumer().notification("http://example.org/inbox/1")
         self.assertTrue(1, len(notification))
         self.assertTrue("@id" in notification[0])
-        self.assertEquals("http://example.org/inbox/1", notification[0]["@id"])
+        self.assertEqual("http://example.org/inbox/1", notification[0]["@id"])
 
         prefLabel = "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#prefLabel"
         self.assertTrue(prefLabel in notification[0])
-        self.assertEquals("First notification",
-                          notification[0][prefLabel][0]["@value"])
+        self.assertEqual("First notification",
+                         notification[0][prefLabel][0]["@value"])
 
     @patch('requests.get')
     def test_notification_jsonld(self, mock_get):
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ def test_notification_jsonld(self, mock_get):
         notification = Consumer().notification("http://example.org/inbox/1")
         self.assertTrue(1, len(notification))
         self.assertTrue("@id" in notification[0])
-        self.assertEquals("http://example.org/inbox/1", notification[0]["@id"])
+        self.assertEqual("http://example.org/inbox/1", notification[0]["@id"])
         self.assertTrue("creator" in notification[0])
-        self.assertEquals("http://example.org/user",
-                          notification[0]["creator"])
+        self.assertEqual("http://example.org/user",
+                         notification[0]["creator"])
diff --git a/tests/test_sender.py b/tests/test_sender.py
index 5583255..b0edf34 100644
--- a/tests/test_sender.py
+++ b/tests/test_sender.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ def test_send_string(self, mock_post):
             data = f.read()
 
         Sender().send(self.INBOX, data)
-        self.assertEquals(str, type(data))
+        self.assertEqual(str, type(data))
         mock_post.assert_called_once_with(self.INBOX, data=data,
                                           headers=self.HEADERS)
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ def test_send_dict(self, mock_post):
             data = json.loads(f.read())
 
         Sender().send(self.INBOX, data)
-        self.assertEquals(dict, type(data))
+        self.assertEqual(dict, type(data))
         mock_post.assert_called_once_with(self.INBOX, data=json.dumps(data),
                                           headers=self.HEADERS)
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ def test_send_list(self, mock_post):
             data = json.loads("[" + f.read() + "]")
 
         Sender().send(self.INBOX, data)
-        self.assertEquals(list, type(data))
+        self.assertEqual(list, type(data))
         mock_post.assert_called_once_with(self.INBOX, data=json.dumps(data),
                                           headers=self.HEADERS)
 
@@ -49,6 +49,6 @@ def test_send_graph(self, mock_post):
         data = Graph().parse("tests/notification.nt", format="ntriples")
 
         Sender().send(self.INBOX, data)
-        self.assertEquals(Graph, type(data))
+        self.assertEqual(Graph, type(data))
         mock_post.assert_called_once_with(self.INBOX, data=data.serialize(
             format="application/ld+json"), headers=self.HEADERS)