Antara Datta
@antaradatta.bsky.social
600 followers 200 following 27 posts
Historian of South Asia. Refugees, Migration and Borders.
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Reposted by Antara Datta
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/...
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
Reposted by Antara Datta
andreucasas.bsky.social
🚨Hiring a fully funded (3.5 years) PhD for the @ldnsocmedobs.bsky.social to research social media and politics. Candidates should have quantitative/computational skills and/or be interested in content curation/moderation. UK home candidates only unfortunately. www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/hquftp...
www.royalholloway.ac.uk
antaradatta.bsky.social
A superb special issue on caste and Indian diplomacy. Well done @kalathmika.bsky.social and the other editors! brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
antaradatta.bsky.social
I have. I did a single seminar for PhD students. For organisation I showed them what my practice was in a very granular step by step way. And took suggestions from them (younger, technically more competent?) about what I could do better. Or how they would improve my practice.
antaradatta.bsky.social
Congratulations to my lovely colleague Andreu @andreucasas.bsky.social on his fellowship- keep an eye on all the stuff he’s going to be doing!
andreucasas.bsky.social
🚨Very honored to receive the Future Leaders Fellowship from @ukri.org I’ll use this 2.3 million £ investment to create the London Social Media Observatory, for cutting-edge research on social media and politics, and novel computational tools for social science research. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-an...
Reposted by Antara Datta
lrb.co.uk
‘The conditions in the hotels are very bad: most residents share rooms with complete strangers, have no laundry or cooking facilities, no choice about when or what they eat, with any visits strictly policed by security.’

Helen Charman on ‘our girls’ vs asylum hotels: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
Helen Charman | Of Flags and Families
The new home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said in May (in an interview with Michael Gove for the Spectator) that she has...
www.lrb.co.uk
antaradatta.bsky.social
Come to our lovely campus to hear about how @danielalai.bsky.social, Will Jones, Ibrahim Halawi and Mohammad Kalantari and I have been re-designing our ‘intro to IR’ class over the last five years.
antaradatta.bsky.social
I once got asked for it by an officious bus driver when my younger one wasn’t even six. She kept saying: how do I know he isn’t 11? Because he’s half the size of his brother who is 10????! But to be fair that was the only time…
antaradatta.bsky.social
I think when they get closer to 11 it’s a way of showing that they can still travel for free/proof of age. My younger one who takes the Tube to school uses his everyday because it means we can go through the barriers separately and not wait for the wide gate to go through with me.
antaradatta.bsky.social
Many congratulations!
antaradatta.bsky.social
This is the kind of thing that’s harder after the first book/big project slump. Also learning what to say no to is discipline specific but again a steep learning curve (I am especially bad at this…).
antaradatta.bsky.social
True. And I would find it hard to mentor someone who only worked in a lab/group. But within social sciences/humanities I think you can mentor more generally- eg how to block out writing time in the week. I got some top notch advice from @thomstubbs.bsky.social on this btw!
antaradatta.bsky.social
Which leads to the more helpful question I think which is how do we support junior faculty through that tricky post first book/big tranche of publications phase?
antaradatta.bsky.social
Also: maternity leave and a gap for those with caring responsibilities (esp women)? Also it’s not just monographs, typically in the humanities we do big projects that take time to mature so once you have the material for tenure published it’s going to take time to build up to the next one?
Reposted by Antara Datta
lrb.co.uk
‘Israel’s allies are still buying time for Israel to change course or come to a deal with Hamas over how many trucks to allow in, as though food were a legitimate bargaining chip. Gazans cannot afford to wait for either.’

Amjad Iraqi on the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ju...
Amjad Iraqi | Walking Corpses
Israel’s allies are still buying time for Israel to change course or come to a deal with Hamas over how many trucks to...
www.lrb.co.uk
antaradatta.bsky.social
Re-stating the obvious for any one still in doubt.
lottelydia.bsky.social
All famines are man-made, all famines are political. Historians of empire and humanitarianism have known this forever. Gaza is not starving, Gaza is being starved, by Israel, and this starvation is enabled by our government and by every other government that does not step in to force food and aid.
Reposted by Antara Datta
saimanasar.bsky.social
I am working on 'The Asian Mother and Baby Campaign' which ran from 1984-1986. I would love to interview any linkworkers who were employed by the campaign or any women who were supported by linkworkers. Please spread the word or get in touch if this is you! My email is [email protected]
Reposted by Antara Datta
jbeisermcgrath.bsky.social
📣 If you’re in London on 7 July, join us at our mini workshop on Global South Politics! The programme is below. If interested, please email me!
antaradatta.bsky.social
For historians this was true pre pandemic but with access to many archives shut for several years, those with fingers in more than one pie benefitted. Also, my one ‘big’ project actually splintered in 2/3 one of which is a book, but the others are articles.
antaradatta.bsky.social
Read @uttara.bsky.social’s excellent new paper on exit control!
uttara.bsky.social
I’m thrilled to finally share my article on citizenship, caste, and exit control at the time of the India-Pakistan partition out now on first view in Modern Asian Studies: www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #skystorians
Bonded citizenship: Caste, Partition, and the prevention of exit | Modern Asian Studies | Cambridge Core
Bonded citizenship: Caste, Partition, and the prevention of exit
www.cambridge.org
Reposted by Antara Datta
danielalai.bsky.social
"diverted" is when the 75 bus goes through an alternative route due to roadworks, not when a boat is seized in international waters
antaradatta.bsky.social
Congratulations @sandipto.bsky.social and if you haven’t read his book, you absolutely should!
sandipto.bsky.social
Very honored to receive the 2025 Francine Frankel Prize for the best book on South Asian Politics from APSA.

Many thanks to the award committee. And it is a privilege to receive this alongside scholars like Adam and Tariq whose work I have long admired.
alexandermlee.bsky.social
Congratulations to @sandipto.bsky.social, Tariq Thachil and Adam Auerbach for winning the South Asia Section's Francine Frankel prize for their books Machines and Migrants and Legalizing the Revolution

Prizes will be presented at APSA 2025
Reposted by Antara Datta
rhulpir.bsky.social
Our students on the final-year visual writing module will be exhibiting a selection of their work Thursday 29th May at 5pm in the Chris Rumford Library in the McCrea Building
Come along to meet the markers and enjoy their excellent work 🖼️🎨
Poster advertising the event.
Across the top is the text "Visual/Writing Exhibition of student work. Chris Rumford Library, Royal Holloway (Egham) 29 May 2025, 17:00"
Taking up most of the page is a collage piece by Phoebe Solomon. Most of the image is a black and white shot of a white family. The child in the centre is watching a TV which has a colour union jack on it. The child's face has been collaged over with black features. Out of the window behind the family is a colour photo of Grenfell tower burning and in the top right hand corner is an England flag.
The right hand side of the poster is a quote from Stuart hall about racialised forms of looking.