The Frederick Douglass Book Prize finalists have been announced and I'm so pleased to see that Makhroufi Ousmane Traoré's book with Cambridge, SLAVERY, RESISTANCE, AND IDENTITY IN EARLY MODERN WEST AFRICA is on the list. macmillan.yale.edu/glc/stories/...

As the world recognizes Palestinian state, Israel's plan to bury it.“It’s performative diplomacy.You’re recognizing the Palestinian state,but at the same time,your actions are aiding and abetting the very system that is destroying that state.” www.972mag.com/palestinian-...

The second element in our new series "Elements in Middle East Politics" has published: Narratives of Sino-Middle Eastern Futures - www.cambridge.org/core/element...

More than 40 students trapped in #Gaza with scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come & study. Over 4,800 UK university staff urge the UK Home Office & FCDO to allow biometric visa deferrals & open a safe route. Read the letter: bit.ly/3IYjqVl

Publishing this month: Ethan Sanders' book in the African Identities series: BUILDING THE AFRICAN NATION - www.cambridge.org/core/books/b...

Over 400 writers, publishers and booksellers — including figures across the literary world — have signed an open letter warning that a proposed ban on protest group Palestine Action represents a serious threat to free expression and civil liberties. @theguardian.com

North Gaza: Food, Water & other Distributions by The Sameer Project - chuffed.org/project/help...

From the account Gaza Poets Society over in that other place: Famine by Design by Taqwa Al Wawi

A template for writing to your local representative: Stop UK's Complicity in Israel's Atrocities: www.map.org.uk/campaigns/st...

Publishing this month: OCCUPIER AND OCCUPIED by Chloe Skinner - www.cambridge.org/core/books/o...

Publishing this week: THE RULE OF LAW IN THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, edited by Hadi Enayat and Mirjam Künkler - www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...

Happy to see this finally out. Featuring my chapter on labour rights. Thanks to Hadi Enayat and Mirjam Künkler for their hard work www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...

NEW: Hossam Shabat’s Last Article Filed hours before his killing in an Israeli airstrike, journalist Hossam Shabat describes the resumption of Israel's scorched earth campaign in his hometown of Beit Hanoun. Translated through tears by Sharif Kouddous dropsitenews.com/p/hossam-sha...

Publishing in February: Nicki Kindersley's NEW SUDANS: Wartime Intellectual Histories in Khartoum, part of Cambridge's African Studies series www.cambridge.org/core/books/n...

Open Letter on the University of Cambridge’s application for an injunction to prevent protests for Palestine at Senate House. Open to employees of CUP&A and any alumnus/a: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The first in the brand new series Elements in Middle East Politics is now available online. So pleased to see this launch with such an important topic, thank you @abuaardvark.bsky.social

TEHRAN'S BORDERLINES publishing this week. This book by Jaleh Jalili is a fascinating look at how urban development in Iran's capital city has affected public spaces and the people that use them - www.cambridge.org/core/books/t...

It occurs to me, for no reason in particular, that I should put this starter pack back in circulation go.bsky.app/3h6n3YC

"Not just path-breaking; it’s shapeshifting. Presents a bold argument that spatial inequality & regional economic differences, not ethnic identities, shape local and national political dynamics across Africa." Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa by Catherine Boone cup.org/4hxZu7A

I am also glad you like the cover, which features a Klein bottle inspired by the Mobius strip. I chose this image because, as illustrated in the Mobius strip, I argue in the book that authoritarianism and securitisation are inextricably linked.

Striking covers, as usual, from The Global Middle East series: the latest from @seckinsertdemir.bsky.social is CIVIC DEATH IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY

Historians For Palestine's response to the AHA Council veto: 1. Today's American Historical Association veto supports scholasticide.

I am beginning with the case of @sanaabdlarhim.bsky.social who is collaborating with me on this series, to tell her own story and those of others. She’s a 35 year old single mother who lives in Belgium and who is fundraising for her family of 11. Find her fundraiser here: gofund.me/dd137898

Any current or former MLA members who can help spread the word about these campaigns, let’s connect. We would love to run a matching campaign for Sameer Project or organize an @openpoetrybooks.bsky.social gift certificate drive like this: open-books-a-poem-emporium.myshopify.com/collections/...

Publishing this week in the Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization series is Mohammad Sadegh Ansari's The Science of Music - www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

Today on ArabLit, an extraordinary text by poet Yousef el-Qedra. arablit.org/2025/01/06/w...

One only needs to read Nurit Peled-Elhanan’s scholarship on how the Israeli education system deals (or does not deal) with the question of Palestine. I’m serious when I say that if you look at Israel’s educational system it may horrify you as much as watching an IDF soldier selfying a genocide

Gaza University publishes a call for volunteers to teach remotely. All of Gazas twelve universities have been destroyed or badly damaged through Israeli air strikes or controlled demolitions www.facebook.com/share/p/19f8...

Marwa Daoudy here on what Syria's transition process might look like: www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...

Publishing by Cambridge University Press this week is Touraj Atabaki's TOILING FOR OIL. A big social history of oil in Iran, it has been described by its reviewers as "comprehensive" and "indispensable" - www.cambridge.org/core/books/t...

Khaled Nabhan was filmed holding the lifeless body of his granddaughter Reem after Israel murdered her in Gaza. I think about that photo all the time. It haunts me. They’ve now murdered him too. Israel is a terrorist state

Back to my desk in Cambridge and reflecting on a really inspiring few days in Chicago for the African Studies annual meeting. Thank you to all who kindly took their time to meet at #ASA2024. Now back to the emails…

“What do you do with the clothes your wife was wearing when she was killed, now stained with her blood? How do you preserve them as evidence for an investigation that may never happen?” A painful opinion piece by Hamid Ali, widower of Ayşenur thehill.com/opinion/inte...

A collection of free book chapters and articles on Syria: www.cambridge.org/core/browse-...

Fingers crossed for these two finalists in the 2024 ASA book prize #ASA2024

The Cambridge booth is all set up at #ASA2024: book exhibit is on the 7th floor and opens at 9am with coffee provided by the African Studies Association.

African studies folks! We’re in Chicago today, setting up our booth all ready for tomorrow’s African studies meeting

If you can, please do take the time to read sections of Salwa Ismail’s THE RULE OF VIOLENCE: this is a manuscript that has stayed with me since I read it, a powerful look at the rule of the Assad family in Syria - www.cambridge.org/core/books/r...

It’s a good day for Mahmoud Darwish — “The Prison Cell”

Out this week: Ali Mirsepassi & Tadd Fernée's THE INTELLECTUAL THOUGHT OF AL-GHAZALI, part of Cambridge's Global Middle East series: www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...

If you’re looking to catch up on scholarly work on Syria, I’ve posted a number of reading lists over the years. Here’s one, featuring Ora Szekely’s Syria Divided and Dipali Mukhopadhyay & Kimberly Howe’s Good Rebel Governance plus another ten for background. abuaardvark.substack.com/p/wrestling-...

🎁This year, we have put together a Holiday Giving list. It includes mutual-aid suggestions and gifts you can buy where 100% of profits go to Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon: books, art, pottery, more. Thanks to everyone who helped w/the list. arablit.org/2024/11/28/h...

Publishing this week at Cambridge University Press: the legendary Toyin Falola’s UNDERSTANDING COLONIAL NIGERIA - www.cambridge.org/core/books/u...

If I must die, let it be a tale. —Refaat Alareer

I'm late to this, but there's a wonderful roundtable here of reviews of Mehran Kamrava's HOW ISLAM RULES IN IRAN

The Palestine Lectures: Raymond Geuss on solidarity. All welcome.

Nice review here by Simidele Dosekun of Karen T. Hansen's DRESS CULTURES IN ZAMBIA; doi.org/10.1017/9781... in The Journal of Modern African Studies | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

We are a group of autonomous writers, artists, educators and translators coming together to offer online courses and workshops to raise money for people in Gaza 🥀🥀🥀