@mccrafrica-essex.bsky.social in practice is when I, a native German speaker working in an English-speaking country, married to an Italian, runs a project meeting in French(-ish) with colleagues in the DRC (and the brilliant @surerm.bsky.social and Carmen Leon-Himmelstine @odi.global).

🚨Call for papers: @mcchacha.bsky.social and I are convening the "International Politics in Africa" stream at the African Studies Association UK 2026 (Durham, Sept 10-12). Submit your papers on all things international in African politics. Deadline: April 30. pay.durham.ac.uk/event-durham...

I don't recall any previous transformative technologies that had to be sold to the public so hard. No one in 1999 was going, "Guys. Cell phone? It's coming, whether we like it or not. I think it's important, FOR WOMEN ESPECIALLY, to learn about cell phone. So that we're not left behind!!"

🪻The bluebell invasion in Wivenhoe woods is here!

Prof Hannah Gibson presented the MCCRA project at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka this week, in the workshop "Language, Communication, and Conflict Resolution in the Lake Chad Region: Building a Collaborative Research Agenda." She joined colleagues from across Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad.

MCCRA team member Dr Florian Kern led this BA-funded workshop in Nairobi!

Register to be emailed the Zoom link here: forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/Respon...

Tuesday 28 April! "Language Conflict Studies: Linguistic Political Science" at the MCCRA virtual research workshop. Profs Stanley Dubinsky, Michael Gavin, and Harvey Starr (University of South Carolina) will present their interdisciplinary research at 2pm UK time. Join us! See QR code or link below.

By the way, in case you were wondering, Repsol (spanish MNC whose 25% of the upstream ops is owned by American EIG) is one of the offshore companies associated with the North Sea oil fields with most spills, according to our data.

Great to see MCCRA survey planning continuing!

Great meeting the fantastic @busaracenter.bsky.social team today in Nairobi to discuss our joint survey efforts for the @mccrafrica-essex.bsky.social project over the next couple of months in Cameroon, DRC, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda. Thanks @engys.bsky.social, Salome Njambi, Gitanksh Sethi!

This week the International Politics in Africa workshop brought scholars to Nairobi to discuss their important research! The workshop was led by @mcchacha.bsky.social and @floriangkern.bsky.social, funded by @britishacademy.bsky.social, and hosted by the British Institute of Eastern Africa.

At our 🌍International Politics in Africa🌍 workshop, participants now get to meet the editors in smaller groups (and a chance to enjoy the BIEA gardens). The organisers look on.

A great effort and service to the field by @mcchacha.bsky.social and @floriangkern.bsky.social! With my editorial hat on, more journals should be thinking about how they can support the pipeline of research coming to them. Intervening in these kinds of ways also helps build better & wider networks.

Now all three editors of African Affairs, the African Review, and the South African Journal of International Affairs answer the questions of participants. Lots of questions on review time, early career researcher pressures, publishing work online before submission. 🌍International Politics in Africa🌍

Third and last day of our 🌍International Politics in Africa🌍 is all about journal editors and publishing: first up we have Martha Bridgman, Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Internationao Affairs, who presents aims of the journal and how to publish there.

🚨Funding alert🚨: Since the British Institute in Eastern Africa is not on Bluesky, I am posting this here: BIEA Annual Grant Programme 2026/27 is now open! Writing Fellowships, Thematic, Dissemination, Workshop, Impact Grants and a Graduate Attachment Scheme. ✅Apply: biea.ac.uk/fundingoppor... 🌍

Such a great group at our 🌍International Politics in Africa🌍 workshop at British Institute in Eastern Africa. Papers studying various aspects of international politics in Africa w/ a focus on how Africans, African governments & societies experience and shape IR. @britishacademy.bsky.social

And the 🌍International Politics in Africa🌍 workshop has kicked off. The first paper discussed is by Muhidin Shangwe, University of Dar es Salaam, who studies South Africa's response to the war in Gaza, and to what extent African agency is motivated by domestic or pan-African strategic choices.

🌍🌐 @mcchacha.bsky.social and I are happy to welcome all the participants arriving for our "International Politics in Africa" workshop this week in Nairobi. Everyone has been working hard to submit full papers for the workshop (see attached list) + keynote by Gilbert Khadiagala! #africanpolitics

This all goes back to the time honoured “Ein Bier ist kein Bier“ principle.

This week! Thurs, March 12 3pm in NTC 3.06: Women's Day: Research on Gender & Politics 5:30pm in EBS 1.1: British Politics in Transition, with Councillor Paul Dundas Friday, March 13 10:30am in CTC 2.01: Africa in Transition, with Lord Oates 1pm in 4.722: War in Iran panel discussion Join us!

@chrisguarnold.bsky.social & I had a fun, productive kick-off for our ESRC ⭐ ♻️ RecAIqual ♻️ ⭐ project “Exploring the Re-Analysis and Recycling of Qualitative Data with Machine Learning”. We discussed how multimodal ML/AI can complement qual research& secondary data analysis+where humans are peerless.

I feel these takes are often narrow regarding what includes social science. I am sympathetic to the idea of qualitative research and fieldwork becoming rel more weighty as AI improves. ATM, these changes seem most drastic for quant analysis. What really changed for qualitative inquiry, yet?(1/2)

Me, every year, living in a household with Italians, trying to comprehend the San Remo format. @fgenovese.bsky.social

Heading into fieldwork for your dissertation or next project? This course helps you get fieldwork-ready! Build a practical toolkit for turning an idea into a workable field plan—methods, ethics, funding, and how to handle challenges on the ground. No prerequisites. Apply now > bit.ly/4kkxDue

Get ready for fieldwork! In the first session, Alexandra Hartman and @floriangkern.bsky.social will help participants to plan and conduct their fieldwork (in person and online). More info > essexsummerschool.com/course/ess-2...

Upping this: in case people are interested in submitting papers to the African Studies Association of the UK conference this year, @mcchacha.bsky.social and I are convening the International Politics in Africa stream. Looking for abstracts at intersection of comparative and IR in Africa. See below.

Such a hero. This was when she decided to take a swim with her great-grandchildren. Admittedly, she was a youthful 98. #bluezone

so much joying seeing my grandma, a trailblazer Sicilian woman with millions of crazy stories from the past century, turning 99 today 🎈

New @goodauth.bsky.social podcast with @fgenovese.bsky.social and @jeffcolgan.bsky.social on how the world moves on with climate motigation in the new Trump era goodauthority.org/news/can-cli...

Good chatting with @erikvoeten.bsky.social about Jeff’s and my article on what Trump and the movement he represents will do to climate politics going forward. Come for the excellent questions, stay for me and Jeff trying to summarize and discuss what feels like 15 yrs of events since 2025. Paper:

A propos demographic decline... I travel a fair bit through Europe with kids and I don’t know how many times @floriangkern.bsky.social has heard me saying that I am convinced Europeans are speedily losing the habit of seeing kids around and interacting with them. Now this.

Russia plans to expand visa-free travel to Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique & Eswatini, meaning that citizens from these countries won’t need visas to enter Russia. This could create an easy chance for it to recruit more African fighters for its war on Ukraine africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifest...

It will never stop shocking me. They can come up to us and ask "how do I know youre a US citizen?" and "Where were you born?" I've been carrying around a passport for the last year. What a disgrace.

Really looking forward to helping build bridges between what was formerly known as 'qualitative' and 'quantitative' research. Couldn't think of a better colleague than @floriangkern.bsky.social to pull this off. Xtra happy to see this happening in the current dire times of UK HE #sciencerocks

🚨Excited to announce that @chrisguarnold.bsky.social and I learned that the ESRC has awarded funding for our project "Exploring the Re-Analysis and Recycling of Qualitative Data with Machine Learning". 🚨 In the current climate of UK higher ed, we feel particularly fortunate to be supported. 1/5

🚨Call for papers: Mwita Chacha and I are convening the "International Politics in Africa" stream at the African Studies Association of the UK 2026 (Durham, Sept 10-12, 2026). The stream aims to bring together scholars with an interest in the intersection between African and international politics.

Check it out! Sign up for the workshop series on multilingualism, conflict, and conflict resolution in Africa.

If you’re also interested in the politics of multilingualism, and how it relates to conflict and conflict resolution, in Africa and elsewhere, join us for the research workshop series we are starting! See below on how to join.

Bakurday

“Nach Lippe muss man wollen,” I repeat to myself, while navigating what the Deutsche Bahn has in store for me.

The workshop "Computational Social Sciences meets Qualitative Research" at #LSE last week was exceptional 🤩Now preparing the Special Issue that is going to be 🔥 so watch this space. Thank you to all the participants and chairs for your great insights and the amazing vibe.

Discussion continues in between sessions 📚

It’s Day One of our Computational Social Science Meets Qualitative Research workshop ✍️ We kicked things off with the first paper from @audreyalejandro.bsky.social @dandekadt.bsky.social 💡

On my way to the LSE workshop "#ComputationalSocialScience meets Qualitative Research." Presenting @floriangkern.bsky.social and my framework on how #multimodalML & #LLMs help re-analyse & recycle qual data. Let's leave qual–quant clone wars behind us. #ScienceRocks www.lse.ac.uk/methodology/...

Thank you to the students of our Essex Politics Society for organising yesterday's wonderful panel, 'Populism: On the Rise,' featuring Professor Natasha Lindstaedt, Dr. Roi Zur, and Dr. Rafael Tauil, moderated by Professor Faten Ghosn. #EssexGov #EssexPoliticsSociety #PoliticalScience

🌍 EssexGov researchers in Kampala for the Multilingualism, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution in Africa (MCCRA) project — a £2.5M ESRC-funded collaboration (2023–2027) studying how language shapes conflict and peacebuilding across Africa. #EssexGov #EssexGovImpact @mccrafrica-essex.bsky.social

Big questions. Brilliant speakers. This term at @EssexGov: 📊 Demographic change 🌐 Great power politics & the UN (with ModelUN) 🌍 Africa in multilateral organisations Join us! Link in bio. #PoliticalScience #EssexGov

Raila Odinga, an enduring voice of Kenya’s democratic struggle, dies aged 80 rfi.my/C6F7.BS