Rahul Rao
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social
disaffected glass-half-empty type; starting to think belatedly about more than humans
📚 'The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire' (Pluto Press, 2025) | https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745350769/the-psychic-lives-of-statues/
📚 'The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire' (Pluto Press, 2025) | https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745350769/the-psychic-lives-of-statues/
Pinned
Rahul Rao
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social
· Aug 15
10. On the Rise and Fall of Statues: Featuring Rahul Rao
Whether its legacy figures like Cecil Rhodes, Mahatma Gandhi and B.R Ambedkar, or various military men or aggressive phallic sculptures, statues are the public’s direct and unavoidable encounter with ...
www.radicalbookscollective.com
thrilling to talk to @radicalbooks.bsky.social about 'The Psychic Lives of Statues': Rhodes, Mandela, Gandhi, Patel, Ambedkar, Fanon and more against the backdrop of the dystopian present + reflections on imperial settler colonial 🇮🇳, apposite on Aug 15 www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
the gulf between the swift brutality with which places like harvard treated students protesting genocide and the endless, endless latitude those same institutions have given people like larry summers tells you everything you need to know
November 20, 2025 at 1:36 AM
the gulf between the swift brutality with which places like harvard treated students protesting genocide and the endless, endless latitude those same institutions have given people like larry summers tells you everything you need to know
Reposted by Rahul Rao
Four new books open up debate on why same-sex marriage has come to anchor queer politics in India, and how the notions and politics of Southasian queer life shift across local, diasporic and transnational scales of identity and belonging.
A review essay by Rahul Rao :
A review essay by Rahul Rao :
Navigating new scales of queer Southasia
IT WASN’T THAT long ago that queer Southasian studies – perhaps especially work centred on India – seemed to be intensely preoccupied with the frame of the nati
buff.ly
November 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Four new books open up debate on why same-sex marriage has come to anchor queer politics in India, and how the notions and politics of Southasian queer life shift across local, diasporic and transnational scales of identity and belonging.
A review essay by Rahul Rao :
A review essay by Rahul Rao :
I reviewed some new books on queer Southasia for @himalmag.bsky.social
www.himalmag.com/politics/que...
www.himalmag.com/politics/que...
Navigating new scales of queer Southasia
IT WASN’T THAT long ago that queer Southasian studies – perhaps especially work centred on India – seemed to be intensely preoccupied with the frame of the nati
www.himalmag.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:23 PM
I reviewed some new books on queer Southasia for @himalmag.bsky.social
www.himalmag.com/politics/que...
www.himalmag.com/politics/que...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
My book Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy is out with @hurstpublishers.bsky.social. It has been shaped by the support of a great community of scholars - grateful for generous endorsements from
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social @katesde.bsky.social @kalramnath.bsky.social
Order here - shorturl.at/55NjW
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social @katesde.bsky.social @kalramnath.bsky.social
Order here - shorturl.at/55NjW
November 4, 2025 at 8:14 AM
My book Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy is out with @hurstpublishers.bsky.social. It has been shaped by the support of a great community of scholars - grateful for generous endorsements from
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social @katesde.bsky.social @kalramnath.bsky.social
Order here - shorturl.at/55NjW
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social @katesde.bsky.social @kalramnath.bsky.social
Order here - shorturl.at/55NjW
Reposted by Rahul Rao
📚 🇮🇳 OUT NOW: Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy: Caste, Class and Indenture Abroad, 1914–67 by @kalathmika.bsky.social
‘Transforms our understanding of diplomatic history.’ @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
25% off w/code COOLIE25 tinyurl.com/59246yu5
‘Transforms our understanding of diplomatic history.’ @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
25% off w/code COOLIE25 tinyurl.com/59246yu5
November 3, 2025 at 4:51 PM
📚 🇮🇳 OUT NOW: Coolie Migrants, Indian Diplomacy: Caste, Class and Indenture Abroad, 1914–67 by @kalathmika.bsky.social
‘Transforms our understanding of diplomatic history.’ @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
25% off w/code COOLIE25 tinyurl.com/59246yu5
‘Transforms our understanding of diplomatic history.’ @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
25% off w/code COOLIE25 tinyurl.com/59246yu5
my household occupies the Venn diagram intersection between IR and marine biology, so this was especially distressing news
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Russia arrests Ukrainian biologist for backing curbs on Antarctic krill fishing
‘Trumped-up’ charges spark diplomatic row as scientists express fears for health of 70-year-old Leonid Pshenichnov
www.theguardian.com
October 26, 2025 at 6:33 PM
my household occupies the Venn diagram intersection between IR and marine biology, so this was especially distressing news
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
interesting on how the law on outer space, deep sea and sea bed are connected (also how to explain something harrowing beautifully)
thebulletin.org/2025/03/mars...
thebulletin.org/2025/03/mars...
Mars Attacks: How Elon Musk's plans to colonize Mars threaten Earth
Elon Musk's quest to colonize Mars could upend international cooperation and the establishment of space as a commons—it's a risk to Earthlings everywhere.
thebulletin.org
October 26, 2025 at 6:30 PM
interesting on how the law on outer space, deep sea and sea bed are connected (also how to explain something harrowing beautifully)
thebulletin.org/2025/03/mars...
thebulletin.org/2025/03/mars...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
History of the Human Sciences announces its 2025-26 ECR Prize. All details (including previous winners) on our para-site histhum.com. Deadline: 30 January 2026.
Also! Follow the journal on Bluesky at @histhum.bsky.social www.histhum.com/early-career...
Also! Follow the journal on Bluesky at @histhum.bsky.social www.histhum.com/early-career...
October 20, 2025 at 5:11 PM
History of the Human Sciences announces its 2025-26 ECR Prize. All details (including previous winners) on our para-site histhum.com. Deadline: 30 January 2026.
Also! Follow the journal on Bluesky at @histhum.bsky.social www.histhum.com/early-career...
Also! Follow the journal on Bluesky at @histhum.bsky.social www.histhum.com/early-career...
one of my favourite IR articles, one that I keep returning to in 35 second bursts (see fn. 3); thanks @debbielisle.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....
A Speculative Lexicon of Entanglement
journals.sagepub.com
October 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
one of my favourite IR articles, one that I keep returning to in 35 second bursts (see fn. 3); thanks @debbielisle.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10....
Reposted by Rahul Rao
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness compiles Francesca Albanese's damning reports on Israel’s conduct in Palestine since October 2023.
The ebook is free to download. We encourage readers to donate to @unrwa.org to support their critical work: www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
The ebook is free to download. We encourage readers to donate to @unrwa.org to support their critical work: www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
October 8, 2025 at 9:55 AM
A Moon Will Rise from the Darkness compiles Francesca Albanese's damning reports on Israel’s conduct in Palestine since October 2023.
The ebook is free to download. We encourage readers to donate to @unrwa.org to support their critical work: www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
The ebook is free to download. We encourage readers to donate to @unrwa.org to support their critical work: www.plutobooks.com/product/a-mo...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
📚TODAY📚
@thelrm.bsky.social, author of The Feminist Art of Walking visits @housmansbookshop.bsky.social for an author talk
🗓️ Wed, Oct 8
⏰ 7 pm
📍 @housmansbookshop.bsky.social
housmans.com/event/book-l...
@thelrm.bsky.social, author of The Feminist Art of Walking visits @housmansbookshop.bsky.social for an author talk
🗓️ Wed, Oct 8
⏰ 7 pm
📍 @housmansbookshop.bsky.social
housmans.com/event/book-l...
BOOK LAUNCH: The Feminist Art of Walking by Rose Morag
We are delighted to welcome feminist writer and academic Morag Rose to the shop to discuss her brilliant and essential new book The Feminist Art of Walking; a vital intervention in the growing fiel…
housmans.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:34 AM
📚TODAY📚
@thelrm.bsky.social, author of The Feminist Art of Walking visits @housmansbookshop.bsky.social for an author talk
🗓️ Wed, Oct 8
⏰ 7 pm
📍 @housmansbookshop.bsky.social
housmans.com/event/book-l...
@thelrm.bsky.social, author of The Feminist Art of Walking visits @housmansbookshop.bsky.social for an author talk
🗓️ Wed, Oct 8
⏰ 7 pm
📍 @housmansbookshop.bsky.social
housmans.com/event/book-l...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
‘If the university’s continued financial viability relies on making a world that is safe for settler colonialism, then the past is not such a foreign country’.
UK universities claim to be reckoning with their imperial and colonial pasts, but refuse to see their implication in the genocidal settler colonialism of the present – so how serious are these exercises? wrote about this for @versobooks.bsky.social blog
www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
Race Reports
In July 2025, the University of Edinburgh published a wide-ranging ‘Review of Race and History’ that attempts to confront its legacies of enslavement and colonialism. Four months earlier, the Universi...
www.versobooks.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:07 AM
‘If the university’s continued financial viability relies on making a world that is safe for settler colonialism, then the past is not such a foreign country’.
Reposted by Rahul Rao
"Race Reports: How universities 'reckon' with their imperial past, and how their investment portfolios say otherwise." www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
Excellent - by @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
Excellent - by @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 10:00 AM
"Race Reports: How universities 'reckon' with their imperial past, and how their investment portfolios say otherwise." www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
Excellent - by @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
Excellent - by @rahulraothariel.bsky.social
UK universities claim to be reckoning with their imperial and colonial pasts, but refuse to see their implication in the genocidal settler colonialism of the present – so how serious are these exercises? wrote about this for @versobooks.bsky.social blog
www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
Race Reports
In July 2025, the University of Edinburgh published a wide-ranging ‘Review of Race and History’ that attempts to confront its legacies of enslavement and colonialism. Four months earlier, the Universi...
www.versobooks.com
October 8, 2025 at 9:39 AM
UK universities claim to be reckoning with their imperial and colonial pasts, but refuse to see their implication in the genocidal settler colonialism of the present – so how serious are these exercises? wrote about this for @versobooks.bsky.social blog
www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
“Offers radical insights into how the past, present and future is made and re-made through statues and monuments in the public spheres.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
September 26, 2025 at 12:26 PM
“Offers radical insights into how the past, present and future is made and re-made through statues and monuments in the public spheres.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
seeing the recognition of Palestinian statehood dismissed as 'performative' (US State Dept) makes me wonder how the meaning of the word 'performative' has gone from words that do things (Austin, Butler) to words that do nothing
September 23, 2025 at 7:06 AM
seeing the recognition of Palestinian statehood dismissed as 'performative' (US State Dept) makes me wonder how the meaning of the word 'performative' has gone from words that do things (Austin, Butler) to words that do nothing
Reposted by Rahul Rao
“Statues are the public’s direct and unavoidable encounter with institutionally constructed histories.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
September 19, 2025 at 12:26 PM
“Statues are the public’s direct and unavoidable encounter with institutionally constructed histories.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
“Movements centered on either dismantling or building statues have become critical for understanding charged debates around history and memory today.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
September 12, 2025 at 12:25 PM
“Movements centered on either dismantling or building statues have become critical for understanding charged debates around history and memory today.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
“Offers radical insights into how the past, present and future is made and re-made through statues and monuments in the public spheres.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
September 5, 2025 at 12:24 PM
“Offers radical insights into how the past, present and future is made and re-made through statues and monuments in the public spheres.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
“Statues are the public’s direct and unavoidable encounter with institutionally constructed histories.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
August 29, 2025 at 12:24 PM
“Statues are the public’s direct and unavoidable encounter with institutionally constructed histories.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
Please consider donating and help Adam and Ahmed survive chuffed.org/project/1400...
Help Adam and Ahmed survive
My name is Sasha Miller and started this campaign for my dear friend Hanin. She and her two boys are struggling to stay alive in Gaza. Please read her words below:
chuffed.org
August 29, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Please consider donating and help Adam and Ahmed survive chuffed.org/project/1400...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
Newnham College, Cambridge. Horrifying. We have to stop this happening in other British universities
An actual job ad: “When we refer to ‘women’ we mean those assigned female at birth. . . . Successful candidates will be asked to produce [a] passport or full birth certificate. . . . It is expected that this documentation will be in the female gender.”
What a disgrace @newnhamcollege.bsky.social
What a disgrace @newnhamcollege.bsky.social
![Screenshot of part of a job ad posted on the website of Newnham College, University of Cambridge:
“Following the Supreme Court’s decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025], when we refer to ‘women’ we mean those assigned female at birth. . . . The successful candidate will be asked to produce identification documentation (e.g. passport or full birth
certificate). It is expected that this documentation will be in the female gender.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qzyiorixn5gxwuwpcnzpnh5o/bafkreidzw7rhbfjkgup37it3kitcjmmfl6tsc2roe3v5armpghspxm3iqe@jpeg)
August 27, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Newnham College, Cambridge. Horrifying. We have to stop this happening in other British universities
Reposted by Rahul Rao
“Movements centered on either dismantling or building statues have become critical for understanding charged debates around history and memory today.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
10. On the Rise and Fall of Statues: Featuring Rahul Rao
Whether its legacy figures like Cecil Rhodes, Mahatma Gandhi and B.R Ambedkar, or various military men or aggressive phallic sculptures, statues are the public’s direct and unavoidable encounter with…
www.radicalbookscollective.com
August 22, 2025 at 12:23 PM
“Movements centered on either dismantling or building statues have become critical for understanding charged debates around history and memory today.”
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
@rahulraothariel.bsky.social speaks with @radicalbooks.bsky.social on The Psychic Lives of Statues
www.radicalbookscollective.com/p/10-on-the-...
Reposted by Rahul Rao
Read now - our BISA summer book round up released by BISA members 📚
🌟 Including:
Barry Buzan, Carl Death, @rahulraothariel.bsky.social, @oxunipress.bsky.social, @agendapub.bsky.social, @brisunipress.bsky.social, @plutopress.bsky.social & more
Link to read 👉 buff.ly/RsFs5cC
🌟 Including:
Barry Buzan, Carl Death, @rahulraothariel.bsky.social, @oxunipress.bsky.social, @agendapub.bsky.social, @brisunipress.bsky.social, @plutopress.bsky.social & more
Link to read 👉 buff.ly/RsFs5cC
August 18, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Read now - our BISA summer book round up released by BISA members 📚
🌟 Including:
Barry Buzan, Carl Death, @rahulraothariel.bsky.social, @oxunipress.bsky.social, @agendapub.bsky.social, @brisunipress.bsky.social, @plutopress.bsky.social & more
Link to read 👉 buff.ly/RsFs5cC
🌟 Including:
Barry Buzan, Carl Death, @rahulraothariel.bsky.social, @oxunipress.bsky.social, @agendapub.bsky.social, @brisunipress.bsky.social, @plutopress.bsky.social & more
Link to read 👉 buff.ly/RsFs5cC