Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

richaxe.bsky.social @richaxe.bsky.social · 4d

Today we started the installation of Learning from South Omo at @soasgallery.bsky.social. Opens 14 October 2025 to 13 December 2025 www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/... @soasanthro.bsky.social

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · 5d

Bhrigupati Singh and Neil Armstrong. I hope you can join.

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SOAS Global Development @soasdevelopment.bsky.social · 8d

📌What does it mean to ‘return’?

Join the SOAS Centre for Migration & Diaspora Studies for a two-day workshop on the concept and practices of return.

📅 17 Oct, 5:30pm, DLT, SOAS
📅 18 Oct, 1pm, SOAS Bar

🔗 Details & registration: shorturl.at/ScRNW
@naomihossain.bsky.social @terminalias.bsky.social

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SOAS Department of Anthropology and Sociology @soasanthro.bsky.social · 11d

📣Our weekly departmental research seminar lineup is now live!

This year we are running the series with our own Centre for Mental Health Research in Action (CAMHRA).

Talks will invite us to think in new ways about forms of life, distress, wellbeing and personhood.

Wednesdays 3-5pm, RB01, SOAS.

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · 13d

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/r... If interested in physics, time, space, threat of war, ethics…. then have a listen 👇

podcasts.apple.com

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · 14d

This is an amazing line up for our @soasanthro.bsky.social dept research seminar series, Wed 3-5pm, organised by Bhrigu Singh and Neil Armstrong.

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richaxe.bsky.social @richaxe.bsky.social · 16d

Learning from South Omo - exhibition at the Gabre Kristos Desta Centre, Addis Ababa youtu.be/00fuNry4sV8?... @soasuni.bsky.social @soasanthro.bsky.social

Learning from South Omo: Exhibition at Gabre Kristos Desta Centre, July 2025

YouTube video by SOAS University of London

youtu.be

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · 18d

This is about how #Txlege departs from common perception. Bipartisan lawmaking thrives but is under threat. Prof Taylor-Robinson (a pol sci) and I (an anthropologist) offer a unique take. @scottbraddock.bsky.social won’t be surprised, cos his knowledge runs very deep, but others might be. Free👇

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 19d

#OpenAccess from State Politics & Policy Quarterly -

Cooperation in Polarized Legislatures: Learning from the Case of the Texas State House of Representatives - https://cup.org/46IRNJ7

- @emmacrewe.bsky.social & Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson

#FirstView

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Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 19d

#OpenAccess from State Politics & Policy Quarterly -

Cooperation in Polarized Legislatures: Learning from the Case of the Texas State House of Representatives - https://cup.org/46IRNJ7

- @emmacrewe.bsky.social & Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson

#FirstView

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · 20d

Are we losing the capacity to collaborate in political world? Probably. But not so in academic world. See here for three new articles about research collaborations in Texas, Ethiopia and Brazil: www.emmacrewe.com

EMMA CREWE

www.emmacrewe.com

Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · 21d

Lewis Goodall is doing here what journalists should, asking us (and esp politicians) to think about what’s coming down the track. This is now urgent: the regulation of AI podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Special Report: Will the AI revolution end politics as we know it?

Podcast Episode · The News Agents · 19/09/2025 · 1h

podcasts.apple.com

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Study of Parliament Group @studyofparl.bsky.social · 22d

A huge thank you to Professor Sir John Curtice for delivering last night’s Michael Ryle Lecture on the theme of “Can Britain’s Two Party System Survive?” 👏

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · 28d

Being a university dept manager is fun when you feel appreciated. My reply to a brilliant but risky idea 👇

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Kevin Cooper @kevinc55.bsky.social · Sep 9

Amnesty International UK Vigil for Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza – speech by Wael Al-Dahdouh on Wednesday 10th September 2025 at 5.30 (Wael will be speaking at 6pm for ten minutes) WHERE: Richmond House (opposite Downing St), Whitehall, London
www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releas...

Vigil for Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza – featuring speech by Wael Al-Dahdouh

Over 240 candles will be lit - each one honouring a Palestinian journalist killed in the Gaza genocide

www.amnesty.org.uk

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SOAS Department of Anthropology and Sociology @soasanthro.bsky.social · Sep 3

The NACCH 2025 International Academic Conference on Newah Cultural Heritage convenes 6 Sept (online) & 13–14 Sept (in person). With 31 papers from 18 countries, scholars, community leaders and activists will examine continuity, change & global significance of Newah culture. More info here: nacch.org

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · Jul 31

Exciting job as a Programme Manager working for the wonderful Marloes Janson (in SOAS anthro dept) on a fab new research programme about the nexus between religion and sport in 4 African countries. Should have experience of partnerships in Africa: vacancies.soas.ac.uk/job/740734

Project Manager at SOAS

Apply now for Project Manager, Bloomsbury, Camden, Greater London, United Kingdom at SOAS

vacancies.soas.ac.uk

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · Jul 31

Award-winning screenwriter and story
consultant James Moran offers an innovative
five-session course at @soasanthro.bsky.social, drawing on exceptional storytelling such as Pixar animation, Iranian
cinema, and Chekhov. I have heard amazing things about James and his courses so really recommend this.

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James Moran @jamesjmoran.bsky.social · Jul 23

This September, I'll be running a short course on creative ethnographic writing at SOAS. We'll learn narrative techniques from HBO dramas, international cinema and Russian literature! Sign up & details: academicstorytelling.substack.com/p/new-short-... @soasanthro.bsky.social @soasuni.bsky.social

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Hannah White @drhannahwhite.bsky.social · Jul 14

We at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk have coordinated a letter in @thetimes.com today in which numerous individuals and organisations call on the government to withdraw its mistaken rules which are having a serious chilling effect on civil servants speaking in public…

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Carwyn Morris @carwynmorris.bsky.social · Jun 30

Two fully funded PhDs with me at SOAS. Within my ERC project; one researching in Paris, the other in Düsseldorf. Exploring the impact of Chinese capital on European urban space, the cultural industries, and social media. More info here:

drive.google.com/file/d/12srA...

Deadline is 21 July.

2_ Fully Funded PhDs SOAS ENG.pdf

drive.google.com

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · May 25

SOAS colleague Yair Wallach gives us hope and reliable accounts in an increasingly bleak world. Follow him, if you don’t already, and you’ll see what I mean.

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · May 23

The Black Flag Group of some 800 academics in Israel is calling upon the heads of Israeli universities and colleges to mobilize the full weight of Israeli academia to stop the Israeli war in Gaza

We, members of the academic and administrative staff in institutions of higher
education in Israel, call on you to act immediately to mobilize the full weight of
Israeli academia to stop the Israeli war in Gaza.
Israeli higher education institutions play a central role in the struggle against the
judicial overhaul. It is precisely against this backdrop that their silence in the face of
the killing, starvation, and destruction in Gaza, and in the face of the complete
elimination of the educational system there, its people, and its structures, is so striking.
Since Israel violated the ceasefire on March 18, almost 3,000 people have been killed in
Gaza. The vast majority of them were civilians. Since the start of the war, at least
53,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including at least 15,000 children and at least 41
Israeli hostages. At the same time, many international bodies are warning of acute
starvation – the result of intentional and openly declared Israeli government policy – as
well as of the rendering of Gaza into an area unfit for human habitation. Israel
continues to bomb hospitals, schools, and other institutions. Among the war’s declared
goals, as defined in the orders for the current military operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” is
the “concentration and displacement of the population.” This is a horrifying litany of
war crimes and even crimes against humanity, all of our own doing.
As academics, we recognize our own role in these crimes. It is human societies, not
governments, that commit crimes against humanity. Some do so by means of direct
violence. Others do so by sanctioning the crimes and justifying them, before and after
the fact, and by keeping quiet and silencing voices in the halls of learning. It is this
bond of silence that allows clearly evident crimes to continue unabated without
penetrating the barriers of recognition.
We cannot claim that we did not know. We have been silent for too long.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · May 23

The Black Flag Group of some 800 academics in Israel is calling upon the heads of Israeli universities and colleges to mobilize the full weight of Israeli academia to stop the Israeli war in Gaza

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Stephen Holden Bates @stephenholdenbates.bsky.social · May 22

📢📢📢 CfP: What is a Parliament?

Interdisciplinary workshop on 19th September 2025 in London.

Full details below.

Kindly sponsored by Birkbeck, the University of Birmingham and @psa-parliaments.bsky.social

Please apply and/or spread the word!

Call for Papers: What is a Parliament?
Are parliaments institutions, organisations, corporations or something else? Does it make sense to ask the question Who is Parliament? or should parliaments always be considered a thing or set of relations of some kind?
This interdisciplinary one-day workshop will consider such questions from all points of view, from the metaphysical to the political, historical, legal and anthropological, as well as how our different understandings of parliaments affect the way we study, critique and run them.
We welcome papers operating at all levels of abstraction and those concerned with concrete cases. Our aim is for the workshop to include scholars working in different academic disciplines, from different intellectual traditions, and who are at all career stages from PhD onwards.
If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send a title and abstract of no more than 250 words to Stephen Holden Bates (s.r.bates@bham.ac.uk) by 4th July 2025.
The workshop will be held on Friday 19th September in Birkbeck’s Keynes Library (46 Gordon Square, London). It is being co-convened by Stephen Holden Bates (University of Birmingham), Paul Seaward (History of Parliament Trust) and Ben Worthy (Birkbeck, University of London) and co-sponsored by the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, the Department of Political Science & International Studies at the University of Birmingham and PSA Parliaments.
The workshop will be free, and refreshments and lunch will be provided. Early career researchers who have a paper accepted will be able to apply for funding from PSA Parliaments to cover some or all travel expenses on a case-by-case basis.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · May 19

From @ihabhassan.bsky.social (on X). Red are zones marked for evacuation. 2+ m people are supposed to fit into the green zones.
It sends shivers down my spine.

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · May 16

How poor we in the UK - incl London I say as a Londoner - would be without immigrants. Of course almost everyone in the UK was an immigrant if you go back a long way. A beautifully written piece 👇

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · May 16

Thank God for immigrants open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

Thank God for immigrants

This week, of all weeks: Thank God they came here and chose to make it their home.

open.substack.com

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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · May 16

Thank God for immigrants open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

Thank God for immigrants

This week, of all weeks: Thank God they came here and chose to make it their home.

open.substack.com

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Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · May 13

Immigration is not too high in the UK. Alienation, loneliness, homelessness and poverty are too high. So let’s work on those, prioritising those most in need. How on earth did we allow this extremely widely held research & ethics-based logic to become debased?

Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · Apr 30

Watched last night - it’s about villages in the West Bank being driven out. It will stay with me for a long time. Highly recommended.

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · Apr 27

"No Other Land" is still available on Channel 4 VoD. Watch it if you haven't.
The stories it tells, of oppression and injustice, are heavy and painful. But it does so with unique lightness and tenderness. Poetic ray of light in great darkness

Emma Crewe @emmacrewe.bsky.social · Apr 28

Incredible inaugural lecture by Bhrigupati Singh. Erudite, generous, captivating. He represented our dept so beautifully ❤️

SOAS Department of Anthropology and Sociology @soasanthro.bsky.social · Apr 9

CAMHRA Public Launch:

Inaugural Lecture by Dr Bhrigupati Singh

‘What can and cannot be quantified: Thoughts for a new alliance of anthropology and mental health’

With opening remarks by Prof. Laura Hammond (Deputy Vice-Chancellor)

28 April, 5:30–8:30pm

www.eventbrite.com/e/camhra-ina...

CAMHRA Inaugural Lecture with Dr Bhrigupati Singh

CAMHRA's Inaugural Lecture: 'What can and cannot be quantified: Thoughts for a new alliance of anthropology and mental health.'

www.eventbrite.com

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · Apr 27

"No Other Land" is still available on Channel 4 VoD. Watch it if you haven't.
The stories it tells, of oppression and injustice, are heavy and painful. But it does so with unique lightness and tenderness. Poetic ray of light in great darkness

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