Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Belinda Dodson

@belindadodson.bsky.social

590 followers 690 following 110 posts

Semi-lapsed academic. Research interests in migration, gender, and development; mainly Southern Africa. Lives in Ottawa, Canada. Previously Eswatini, Zambia, South Africa, UK.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Nov 11

It's not so much that we seem collectively to have lost the plot, but that there no longer seems to be a plot at all. Or, if there is, how to find it again.
🌎 😠 🧭

2 5

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Rift Valley Institute @rvinews.bsky.social · May 8

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS | Early career researchers from the Horn of Africa working on policy-oriented social science or humanities research on climate change, conflict or displacement are invited to apply for a British Academy funded writing programme.

Apply: bit.ly/4jUVgsf

6 3

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · Apr 17

Seems pretty risky for foreign students to study at American universities. Even if you don't get thrown in a detention center, it's not at all certain you'll be able to stay long enough to get a degree.

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · Apr 17

Trump threatens to block all 10,000 international students from attending Harvard unless the school turns over student info they’ll use for new visa revocations and deportations.

Every day feels like a fresh round of this country stabbing itself in the face.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/u...

Trump Threatens to Block International Students Unless Harvard Shares Student Data

The demand from the Department of Homeland Security is an escalation in President Trump’s fight against Harvard, the country’s oldest and richest university.

www.nytimes.com

1 4 12

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Apr 10

One of my professional roles is Editor of CJAS. Our latest issue just came out, with an interesting lineup of research articles, commentaries and reviews. Take a look!
www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcas20/c...

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines

Volume 59, Issue 1 of Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines

www.tandfonline.com

1 2

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · Apr 9

A painting of a bird next to the words "some of us actually learn something when we fuck up"

3 150 750

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Apr 5

Just voted, in an over-50, female, highly educated, middle-class kind of way.
#elxn45 🇨🇦

1 2

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 31

One of the things that keeps me going back there is SA Twitter. How can we get them to migrate?

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Forced Migration Review @fmreview.bsky.social · Mar 26

FMR’s next issue on 'Dangerous Journeys’ is due out in May & then we’ll be working toward our October issue on a #ClimateChange -related theme.

To be notified when issues go online & when calls for article proposals are live, sign up for email alerts at: www.fmreview.org/fmr-alerts/

#Displacement

Image caption: Untitled, painting by Abdullah Rahmani, 2020. Reproduced with the permission of the artist.

Alt-text: Painting of a group of migrants disembarking a raft in the ocean, in waist deep water close to shore. The sky is paiting with sunset colours and cloud, in the foreground is a very young man with a tyre intertube around his neck and one shoulder, walking towards us. Behind him is another man in an orange life best, and a group of people still in the raft.

1 5 11

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 26

While the chaos generator distracts us, let's not forget this.

Human Rights Watch @hrw.org · Mar 26

The Trump administration's plans to revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 people in the US is not just cruel.

It also puts thousands of people at risk of deportation to harmful conditions.

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 25

And build warships.
Carney seems to be upping his comms game on this too, based on his NL and NS campaign stops.

1 1

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 25

Yes! That makes me feel ancient.

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 25

No-one more surprised than me to find myself on the front page of a Swedish daily newspaper.
🇨🇦 ❤️ 🇸🇪

Mats Widgren @matswidgren.bsky.social · Mar 25

Great to see geographer Belinda Dodson on the cover of your printed daily newspaper for breakfast www.dn.se/varlden/kana...

Kanada går till val: ”Allt handlar om Trump”

Den 28 april går Kanada till val. Men huvudpersonen befinner sig söder om gränsen mot USA. ”Allt kommer att handla om Trump”, säger Belinda Dodson, Ottawa.

www.dn.se

1 6

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 25

Thanks Mats! No-one more surprised than me. And the journalist and photographer were super friendly.
🇨🇦 🇸🇪

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 20

Try South Africa in winter (their summer).

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Emmett Macfarlane 🇨🇦 @emmettmacfarlane.com · Mar 20

We should issue a blanket travel advisory that warns people not to go to countries that don't respect the rule of law, including the United States.

Jason Haslam @jasonhaslam.ca · Mar 20

Canada—including its medical, research, educational, banking, and other institutions dealing in confidential matters—needs to issue directives about what, if any information people can travel to the US with.

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Mar 19

🚨NEW: A French scientist had his laptop searched at the US border & was sent back to Europe after private messages were found criticising Trump.

He was accused of messages which “can be described as terrorism”.

This is what a slide into FASCISM looks like.

1/

11 49 180

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 20

Not sure @stevenguilbeault.bsky.social is the right man (!) for the Women and Gender Equality job, although he posted on X today that it remains a government priority. Let's keep the pressure on.

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 20

I'm hoping for more attention and clarification during the campaign. Getting more men aged 18-34 to vote Liberal might make it worth it.
Not justifying, simply trying to understand their strategy!

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 20

Although to be fair, a lot of the feminist stuff in the Trudeau government seemed largely performative.

1 2

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Philippe M. Frowd @pmfrowd.bsky.social · Mar 19

Another case on how quickly anyone can end up, without charge, deep in America's sprawling system of private detention camps.

I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped

I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky

www.theguardian.com

1 4 3

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Cold War Steve @coldwarsteve.bsky.social · Mar 12

I purchased image rights to original artwork for a movie poster of the 1964 film ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire’. I’ve adapted it into a photomontage featuring Trump, Musk, Vance and the rest of the wrecking crew.

20 260 1K

Reposted by Belinda Dodson

Kristof Titeca @kristoftiteca.bsky.social · Mar 11

4 fully-funded PhD positions to work on climate resilience among at-risk populations in #Uganda and #Mozambique (smallholders & refugees) at @w-u-r.bsky.social
and @erasmusuniversity.bsky.social: climares.nl/vacancies/

climares.nl

1 10 7

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 11

As a Canadian (and South African), I say absolutely yes. To me it's become like the academic boycott against apartheid South Africa: a moral stance against a cruel and repressive government. American and other geographers are welcome to come to the CAG.

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 3

Keep an eye on Canada while you're at it. And if you need to do a runner!

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 1

Well, since you put it like that. Divisible Crown's embodied monarch caught between different UK and Canadian national interests.

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 1

The King refusing Starmer's request would have put the UK in a bit of a bind. As you know, the King does what his government requests. It's less metaphysical, more constitutional.
The invitation itself is what offends.

Belinda Dodson @belindadodson.bsky.social · Mar 1

Except the King of Canada didn't write it. It was the King of the UK, as requested by the Prime Minister of the UK. Canada's Prime Minister can ask the King of Canada to express his support for Canadian sovereignty.

1 1