As India prepares to host another India-Africa forum summit in a fortnight, we revisit a recent volume which looks at how India's soft power has been imagined/ implemented by the diaspora, government + private sector. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv...

Can a middle powers/internationalist coalition form between the Global North and South? New article for IPQ assess opportunity and limitatoins ip-quarterly.com/en/chances-m... @ipq.bsky.social @dgap.org

Timeline cleanse -- 4 images of the Christian story of Jesus's birth at Bethlehem, sponsored by India's Mughal rulers c. 1600–1605. These images attest to a transfers and dialogues across regions, borders, and religions. #MerryChristmas

Just published: an excellent collection of essays on the cultural/material flows and interconnections between West Africa & India in 'Africa: Journal of the International African Institute', (volume 95, issue 3), ed. by Shobana Shankar + Oliver Coates www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

on the topic of dick cheney, one thing i’ve always said is that you shouldn’t kill a million people

We’re excited to announce the release of a publication edited by Ute Fendler and Clarissa Vierke. An essential read for anyone interested in Indian Ocean studies, cultural and literary studies, performance, and transdisciplinary art research. Available now. 👉 www.routledge.com/Transoceanic...

A short piece on a ongoing project which seeks to understand trajectories of recent African migration to Mumbai, and the contributions of Africans to the city's economic + cultural landscapes. Thanks to @iias.bsky.social + @miasa-ug.bsky.social for support humanitiesacrossborders.org/blogs/africa...

🎉Congratulations to Mayke Kaag! We celebrated her inaugural lecture as Professor of the Anthropology of Politics and Governance in Africa at Leiden University, titled 'Reflections on power, knowledge, and trust. Political dynamics in Africa and beyond'. www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...

Brand new here and pleased to share news of the publication of our new @degruyterbrill.bsky.social book “Beyond Federation: Ideas and Practices of East African Regionalism in a National and Global Age, 1950–1975". Available for free: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

"In fact, the best estimate is that we’re emitting carbon perhaps 10 times faster than even the mindless, undirected Siberian volcanoes that brought about the worst mass extinction ever." Read that again.

🎙Hot Off the Mic: Don't Miss Our Latest Episode of Cluster Conversations! In this edition, fellow Dr. Renu Modi talks with her host Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke about her recent fellowship with the Cluster of Excellence in Bayreuth. www.africamultiple.uni-bayreuth.de/en/1_4-Publi...

On 9 July, the US imposed sanctions on special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. Below I provide a brief context of this unprecedented attack against this body of experts.

My article which examines India's positionality and relations w/Africa in the Third World turned Global South is now open access. Co-authored w/ @danbanik.bsky.social and published by Third World Quarterly www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We are receiving desperate messages of starvation from #Gaza, including from our colleagues. Food prices have increased 40 fold. UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months, stockpiled just outside Gaza. Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale.

Bubaraye Dakolo, an influential traditional chief and the traditional ruler of Ekpetiama Kingdom in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, has demanded that Shell pay $12 billion to address environmental damage caused by decades of oil pollution before divesting its onshore assets in the region - AFP /1

My book Life at a Distance is now out! Many thanks to colleagues, friends, and the press for the support along the way. www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

In a new article w/ @danbanik.bsky.social , I analyse the evolution of India's political relations and development cooperation w/Africa www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

#Oldpost. The fiction of an "international community" involves a relationship in which the 'Global North' ignores the African subject in favour of the ‘African project’. This makes it easy for some to take decisions that inevitably result in death for many. folukeafrica.com/for-africa-t...

Invitation to upcoming #MIASA Public lecture by Dr. Stephanie Lämmert on "(Un)silencing #women in the colonial #archive" on 27 May 2025 at 3:00 pm (UTC) at the Univ. of Ghana. Zoom link via: miasa.ug.edu.gh/event/public...

Around D.C., the new going rate is well-known: $5 million for a one-on-one dinner with Trump, but gov-affairs execs have “no clue where the money is eventually going,” one said. Another told me it’s “outer-borough Mafia sh*t.” My new piece is out @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

So sickened and enraged.

According to the canonical Star Trek timeline, World War III starts next year, and goes on for the next three decades... Just in case you had any plans...

In a new article w/ @danbanik.bsky.social , I analyse the evolution of India's political relations and development cooperation w/Africa www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"The UN climate change chief Simon Stiell warned on Wednesday the world was “on a trajectory to 3C” above pre-industrial times — a level at which scientists have warned of devastating environmental and human consequences." By @attractamooney.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/f17d...

Please remember the cost of war, once more, will fall hardest on civilians, especially in Kashmir. This is a moment to stay informed, to resist jingoism, and to call for de-escalation: www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...

Join in-person or online this hybrid seminar “Missionaries, Traders, and Cultural brokers: Africans and the making of modern Mumbai (1750-onwards)” by IIAS fellow Meera Venkatachalam. 01.05 | 10:30 ~ 12:00 Info/registration: tinyurl.com/4y69n5y7 #indianocean #asianstudies @leidenglobal.bsky.social

📖 Manish Karmwar and Abhinav evaluate "India's Development Diplomacy and Soft Power in Africa" by @meerakat.bsky.social and Kenneth King, dubbing it an extensive effort to map and analyse the complex dynamics in India-Africa relations. ➡️ doi.org/10.1177/0002...

Le philosophe congolais Valentin-Yves Mudimbe est décédé à l'âge de 83 ans

RIP Valentin-Yves Mudimbe (1941-2025) ❤️

rest in peace. | “How I became an Anthropologist” Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere kathika.lk/2016/12/29/h...

In this new piece we show that as the imperial core imposed structural adjustment programs on Africa, Africans were forced to consume less while their surplus resources were transferred instead out to the capitalist world economy effectively *for free*. roape.net/2025/02/28/p...

You CANNOT make this up. OEUK, a North Sea oil and gas lobby, is seeking an exemption from emissions standards because... *checks notes* Pollution is its business. I shit you not. The most pampered, subsidised industry on Earth begging for another backhander www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Tonight at 630pm I’m chairing an LSE public event on Climate Capitalism with @brettchristophers.bsky.social @benbraun.bsky.social and Daniela Gabor. Nothing more important and couldn’t have a more impressive panel to talk about it! www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2025/....

My wife found a map from The Technocracy, the 1930's group Elon Musk's Nazi-sympathizing grandfather was involved in, that explains Trump's desire to take over Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. Behold the Technate of America. Thread.

I was interviewed by Deutsche Welle for a social media feature on the Woermann Group. You can now watch the result here: www.dw.com/en/how-germa...

Trump pulls all aid to South Africa, probably over its ICJ case against Israeli genocide and also maybe because Elon Musk misses apartheid. www.timesofisrael.com/trump-orders...

JOB Assistant Professor in the History of International Political Thought c.1700 to the Present, University of Cambridge (this is a permanent/tenured position, open to those with a specialism in any period since 1700) www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50242/

Reupping this piece. If you read this essay, you will know vastly more about USAID than the people currently trying to destroy it.

📢 Call for applications: Regenerating the Ngong River. A Journey of Riparian Planning, Renewal and Transformation 💧 ISEP 2025: a seven-day intensive in-situ engagement project in the city of Nairobi, Kenya ⚠️ Deadline:7 Febr 2025. ⏰ The in-situ event: 7-14 Sept. 2025 🔗 www.iias.asia/events/regen...

[IIAS Call for applications] Professorial Fellowship Chair of Taiwan Studies at Leiden University. DL: 15 Febr 2025 #taiwanstudies #taiwan @unileiden.bsky.social @leidenglobal.bsky.social www.iias.asia/professorial...

We're entering a new year which is certain to be shaped by autocratization and popular struggles to reclaim and reimagine democracy, so I'm sharing my interview from last year on the trajectories of postcolonial democracies in the global South. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Vd...

"I don't know what word in the English language—I can't find one—applies to people who are willing to sacrifice the literal existence of organized human life so they can't a few more dollars into their highly stuffed pockets. The word 'evil' doesn't even begin to approach it." —Noam Chomsky

Academia in a time of genocide: www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....