Antonian Publications

Ramon Sarró (Fellow)

Inventing an African Alphabet

Cambridge University Press 2023

In 1978, Congolese inventor David Wabeladio Payi (1958–2013) proposed a new writing system, called Mandombe. Since then, Mandombe has grown and now has thousands of learners in not only the Democratic Republic of Congo but also France, Angola and many other countries. Drawing upon Ramon Sarró's friendship with Wabeladio, this book tells the story of Wabeladio, his alphabet and the creativity that both continue to inspire. A member of the Kimbanguist church, which began as an anticolonial movement in 1921, Wabeladio and his script were deeply influenced by spirituality and Kongo culture. Combining biography, art, and religion, Sarró explores a range of ideas, from the role of pilgrimage and landscape in Wabeladio's life to the intricacies and logic of Mandombe. Sarró situates the creative individual within a rich context of anthropological, historical and philosophical scholarship, offering a new perspective on the relationships between imagination, innovation and revelation.

Avi Shlaim (Emeritus Fellow)

Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab -Jew (Oneworld 2023)

In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, aged five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing their beloved Iraq for the new state of Israel.

Now Iraqi Jews, a once flourishing community of over 130,000, tracing their history back 2,600 years, are all but extinct. For many, this tells of a timeless clash between Arab and Jewish civilisations, the heroic mission of Zionism to rescue Eastern Jews from backward and inhospitable nations and unceasing persecution as the fate of the Jewish people.

Avi Shlaim tears up this script.  In Iraq, there had been a long tradition of religious tolerance.  The Jews were just one minority among many.  Unlike Europe, Iraq did not have a “Jewish problem”.  The Jews were well integrated into Iraqi society.  His parents had many Muslim friends in Baghdad and no interest in Zionism.  As anti-Semitism grew in Iraq, especially after the birth of Israel, the Zionist underground fanned the flames to accelerate an exodus.

Upon arrival in Israel, Iraqi Jews, once celebrated for their ancient heritage and rich culture, were treated as inferior and their native Arabic language viewed with contempt.  Their history was rewritten to serve the Zionist master narrative.

This memoir reanimates the vanishing world of Iraqi Jews.  Weaving together the personal, familial and political, it offers a fresh perspective on the history of the Jews of the Arab lands.

Robert Service (Emeritus Fellow)

Blood on the Snow (Pan Macmillan, 2023)

In Blood on the Snow, Robert Service returns to the subject that has formed the backbone of his long and distinguished career: the Russian Revolution.

For Service, the great unanswered question is how to reconcile the two vital narratives that underpin the extraordinary but troubled events of 1917. One puts the blame squarely on Tsar Nicholas II and on Alexander Kerensky’s provisional government that deposed him. The other is the view from the bottom, that of the workers and peasants who wanted democratic socialism, not the Bolshevik dictatorship imposed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and his successors.

Service's vivid and revisionist account spans the period from the outbreak of the First World War to Lenin’s death in 1924. In it, he reveals that key seeds of the revolution were sown by the Tsar's decision to join the war against Germany in 1914. He shows with brutal clarity how those events played out, eventually leading to the establishment of the totalitarian Soviet regime, which would endure for the next seven decades.
Nicholas II, Kerensky and Lenin are to the fore, but Service enriches his narrative by drawing on little-known diaries of those such as the Vologda peasant Alexander Zamaraev, the NCO Alexei Shtukaturov and the Moscow accounts clerk Nikita Okunev. Through the testimony of these ‘ordinary’ people, Service traces the tortuous path that Russia took through war, revolution and civil war.

Olga Akroyd (MSc Russian and East European Studies, 2009)

Presidents and Place: America's Favorite Sons [co-edited]. Lexington Books, 2023

Presidents and Place: America's Favorite Sons highlights the interrelationship between America's leading political icons and various facets of space and place, including places of birth and death as well as regional allegiances, among others. The chapters examine the legacy of relationships between presidents and place in a variety of social and cultural forms, ranging from famous political campaigns to television series to developments in tourism. Beginning with the political iconography of New York's Federal Hall in early eighteenth-century America and ending with a focus on the Republican Party's electoral relationship with the South, the interdisciplinary and methodologically diverse nature of the chapters reveals that place has more than a biographical significance in relation to US presidents.

Professor Dr. Harun Arikan (SAM, 2006)

Turkey’s Challenges and Transformation: Politics and Society on the Centennial of the Republic (Springer, Palgrave Macmillan 2023)

This book analyses the transformation of Turkey’s international and domestic politics in the past two decades through a comprehensive domestic- international nexus. It examines the domestic system, the main historical challenges and their international drivers and looks into foreign policy areas and issues by accounting for the domestic developments that affected them. Looking inside Turkey’s transformation on the basis of an interplay of external and internal factors, through the prism of critical scholars who all agree on the interdependency of national and international politics, it is designed to provide a thoughtful look into the future of Turkey through themes and regions.

This book offers an unconventional perspective on the development of nationalism and world history. It will be relevant for scholars, and researchers of European history, nationalism, and self-determination.

Miriam Bradley (DPhil International Relations, 2008)

The Politics and Everyday Practice of International Humanitarianism. (Oxford University Press 2023)

Through a combination of detailed case studies of humanitarian emergencies and thematic chapters which cover key concepts, actors and activities, this book explores the work of the largest international humanitarian agencies. Its central argument is that politics plays a fundamental role in determining humanitarian needs, practices, and outcomes. In making this argument, the book highlights the many challenges and dilemmas facing humanitarian agencies in the contemporary world. It covers significant ground - temporally, geographically, and thematically.

The book is divided into four sections, providing a wide-ranging survey of contemporary international humanitarianism. The first section begins by presenting chapter-length case studies of the international responses to eleven humanitarian emergencies from the 1960s to the present day across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe; the second explains key concepts and trends in international humanitarianism; the third discusses how the work of international humanitarian agencies interacts with a range of other actors-including media, celebrities, donors, states, civil society, military forces and armed groups-who have significant impacts on humanitarian response and outcomes; and the fourth turns to the operations and activities undertaken by aid agencies on a daily basis.

Elias Buchetmann (MSc Global Governance and Diplomacy, 2013)

Hegel and the Representative Constitution. Cambridge University Press, 2023

This book provides the first comprehensive historical discussion of the institutional dimension of G. W. F. Hegel's political thought. Elias Buchetmann traces this much-neglected aspect in unprecedented contextual detail and makes the case for reading the Philosophy of Right from 1820 as a contribution to the lively and widespread public debate on the constitutional question in contemporary Central Europe. Drawing on a broad range of primary source material, this volume illuminates the wider political discourse in post-Napoleonic Germany, carefully locates Hegel's institutional commitments within their immediate cultural and political context, and reveals him as something closer to a public intellectual. By exploring this indispensable thinker's demand for the constitutional protection of popular participation in government, the book contributes beyond Hegel scholarship to shed new light on the history of democratic theory in early nineteenth-century Europe and encourages critical reflection on questions of representation today.

Chi-Kwan Mark (DPhil Modern History, 1996)

Decolonisation in the Age of Globalisation: Britain, China, and Hong Kong, 1979-89. Manchester University Press, 2023

In the 1980s, Britain actively engaged with China in order to promote globalisation and manage Hong Kong’s decolonisation. Influenced by neoliberalism, Margaret Thatcher saw Britain as a global trading nation, which was well placed to serve China’s reform. During the negotiations over Hong Kong’s future, British diplomats aimed to educate the Chinese in free-market capitalism. Nevertheless, Deng Xiaoping held an alternative vision of globalisation, one that privileged sovereignty and socialism over market liberalism and democracy. By drawing extensively upon the declassified British archives along with Chinese sources, this book explores how Britain and China negotiated for Hong Kong’s future, and how Anglo-Chinese relations flourished after 1984 but suffered a setback as a result of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. This original study argues that Thatcher was a pragmatic neoliberal, and the British diplomacy of ‘educating’ China yielded mixed results.

Julian Cobbing (Global/Planetary Crisis, 1963)

Growth Growth Growth: Human History and the Planetary Catastrophe. Mvusi Books, 2023

Growth Growth Growth retells history as a succession of pivotal crises linked to economic growth. Beginning with agriculture ten thousand years ago, each crisis led to an impasse until human ingenuity devised a technical ‘solution’ to fix it. These solutions included the alphabet, paper, clocks, guns, the printing press, the steam engine, the petrol engine, electricity, nitrogen fertilizer, and the computer. Each solution, however, played a part in the next crisis. This time, however, there is no technical solution, and the continuation of our economic system causes us to devour the Earth’s finite resources.

Suranjan Das (DPhil Commonwealth History, 1984)

Dreadful Diseases in Colonial Bengal: Cholera, Malaria and Smallpox. Primus, 2021 [Co-Edited with Achintya Dutta]

Dreadful Diseases in Colonial Bengal is the third volume produced under the aegis of the Wellcome Trust (London) funded documentation project 'Western Medicine and Indigenous Society: History of Disease, Medicine and Public Health Policy in Colonial Eastern India, (1757-1947)'. While the first volume documented the context in which hospitals were established in Calcutta during the rule of the British East India Company, and the second analysed the trauma caused by tuberculosis in the public health system of twentieth-century India, the present volume brings together selections from official reports on cholera, malaria and smallpox-the three diseases which repeatedly struck colonial Bengal as epidemics. Its objective is to provide a useful resource for researchers, with ready entry points for reconstructing the incidence of these diseases, their mortality rates, social and economic effects as well as colonial medical interventions to contain them. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of studying epidemics that have struck human society in a historical continuum and the significance of the present collation needs to be viewed in this context.

Suranjan Das (DPhil Commonwealth History, 1984)

Gandhi and the Champaran Satyagraha. Primus, 2022

This volume looks back at the Champaran Satyagraha of 1917 through contemporary accounts and scholarly reflections. Organised into five parts, the collection contains passages from Gandhi’s own recollection of the Satyagraha; excerpts from the accounts of participants such as Rajendra Prasad and J.B. Kripalani; statements of indigo ryots; selections from official documents; and extracts from the works of historians and academics. Gandhi and the Champaran Satyagraha: Select Readings provides readers with an idea of how the first Gandhian mass political intervention in India has been recreated, contextualised, and assessed in writings, and captured through some archival visuals.

João Carlos Espada (DPhil Social Studies, Politics, 1990)

International Meetings in Political Studies (Est. 1993): Confronting the Authoritarian Challenge - Volume especial 2022. Universidade Católica Editora, 2023

The International Annual Meetings in Political Studies began in 1993 in Arrábida and were in the meantime transformed into the Estoril Political Forum, which celebrates its 30th edition in 2022.

This special volume is a compilation of the papers presented in this 30th edition.

João Carlos Espada (DPhil Social Studies, Politics, 1990)

International Meetings in Political Studies (Est. 1993): From Arrábida to Estoril, through Sintra and Cascais Vol. I: 1993-2002. Universidade Católica Editora, 2022

This book is the first volume of a hopefully three-volume edition on The International Annual Meetings in Political Studies (now called Estoril Political Forum) which started in 1993 in Arrabida. This first volume covers the years 1993 through to 2002, including papers presented by guest-speakers such as Professors William Galston, Seymour Martin Lipset, Steven Lukes, David Marquand, David Miller, Anthony O'Hear and Raymond Plant, Marc F. Plattner, among others.

João Carlos Espada (DPhil Social Studies, Politics, 1990)

Liberdade Como Tradição: Um Olhar Euro-Atlântico sobre a Cultura Política Marítima de Língua Inglesa. Dom Quixote, 2023

In this provocative meditation on a group of Euro-Atlantic political thinkers, João Carlos Espada argues that there is a tradition of liberty specific to English-speaking peoples that is one of the essential pillars of the Free World. Through a succinct description of the paths and ideas of fourteen outstanding thinkers, usually forgotten despite being very influential in the tradition of liberty, the Professor gives us a broad perspective of that tradition, using current concepts to clarify the meaning of “liberal, “conservative” and “labour”, and makes a persuasive and intellectual defence of liberal democracy.

Brad Faught (MSt Modern History, 1986)

Churchill and Africa: Empire, Decolonisation and Race. Pen and Sword Military, 2023

This book covers Churchill's long relationship with Africa during the most important period in Anglo-African history, from nineteenth-century imperial rule to independence and the emergence of modern Africa.

Churchill first went to Africa during the British re-conquest of Sudan in 1898 and would spend almost the next sixty years dealing with Africa as soldier, journalist, government minister, and finally prime minister. Churchill's story is one of transition from the height of late-Victorian British imperialism to the acceptance of African nationalism in the middle years of the twentieth century. He helped to shape British colonial policy in Africa from the first decade of the twentieth century through the Second World War and colonial Kenya's Mau Mau crisis of the 1950s. Few British leaders were as closely involved with Africa as was Churchill.

Patrick Fridenson (Visiting Fellow, 1977)

The Truth of Liberal Economy: Jacques Rueff and John Maynard Keynes. Yasuo Gonjo, Kazuhiko Yago, Patrick Fridenson. Springer, 2023

This book provides historical, theoretical, and biographical perspectives on two giants of contemporary economics, Jacques Rueff (1896-1978) and John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946). The former French bureaucrat and academician championed classical economics; the latter British economist founded macro-economics criticising the classical school. Depending upon archival sources, including personal correspondences between the above two figures, the book describes furious debates between them and surrounding them.
The two economists proposed contrasting diagnoses over almost every event in the contemporary world economy: the reparations problem, the Great Depression, the gold exchange standard, and the Bretton Wood System. Keynes appraised managed currency to cope with unemployment, criticizing the classical gold standard; Rueff believed in the function of market mechanism, blaming the state intervention. The book highlights deep influence of Rueff, rather larger than Keynes, in Europe before and after WWII. The perspective of the book reaches today’s economic issues. The classical view of Rueff was shared in Mont Pelerin Society, a cradle of neo-liberalism. Rueff’s market-friendly view paved the way to the neo-liberal reforms which took place after the 1980s. The classical market theory of Rueff, together with dialogues with the labour unions, prepared the social background of the European Union. This book thus reveals the truth of liberal economy, from the 20th to 21st centuries.

Sandhya Fuchs (MPhil Social Anthropology, 2015)

Fragile Hope: Seeking Justice for Hate Crimes in India. Stanford University Press, 2024

Against the backdrop of the global Black Lives Matter movement, debates around the social impact of hate crime legislation have come to the political fore. In 2019, the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice urgently asked how legal systems can counter bias and discrimination. In India, a nation with vast socio-cultural diversity, and a complex colonial past, questions about the relationship between law and histories of oppression have become particularly pressing. Recently, India has seen a rise in violence against Dalits (ex-untouchables) and other minorities. Consequently, an emerging "Dalit Lives Matter" movement has campaigned for the effective implementation of India's only hate crime law: the 1989 Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act (PoA).

Drawing on long-term fieldwork with Dalit survivors of caste atrocities, human rights NGOs, police, and judiciary, Sandhya Fuchs unveils how Dalit communities in the state of Rajasthan interpret and mobilize the PoA. Fuchs shows that the PoA has emerged as a project of legal meliorism: the idea that persistent and creative legal labor can gradually improve the oppressive conditions that characterize Dalit lives. Moving beyond statistics and judicial arguments, Fuchs uses the intimate lens of personal narratives to lay bare how legal processes converge and conflict with political and gendered concerns about justice for caste atrocities, creating new controversies, inequalities, and hopes.

Sam Halabi (MPhil International Relations, 1999)

Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders (2024, Routledge) [Co-Edited]

This book examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has engendered a new and challenging environment in which borders drawn around people, places, and social structures have hardened, and new ones have emerged.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, borders closed or became unwelcoming at the international, national, sub-national and local levels. Debate persists as to whether those countries and territories that tightly managed their borders, like New Zealand, Australia or Hong Kong, got it ‘right’ compared to those that did not. Without doubt, a majority of those who suffered and died throughout the pandemic have been those from vulnerable populations. Yet, on the other hand, efforts taken to manage the spread of the disease, such as through border management, have also disproportionately affected those who are most vulnerable. How, then is the right balance to be struck, acknowledging too the economic and other imperatives that may dissuade governments from taking public health steps? This book considers how international organizations, countries, and institutions within those countries should conceive of, and manage, borders as the world continues to struggle with COVID-19 and prepares for the next pandemic. Engaging a range of international, and subnational, examples, the book thematises the main issues at stake in the control and management of borders in the interests of public health.

Paul Hansbury (MSc Russian & E European Studies & DPhil International Relations, 2012)

Belarus in Crisis: From Domestic Unrest to the Russia-Ukraine War. Hurst Publishers/Oxford University Press, 2023

In 2020, mass anti-government protests erupted across Belarus. The brutal crackdown that followed shocked the international community: the authorities arrested tens of thousands of citizens, shut down independent media and NGOs, and fomented a migrant crisis on the European Union's border. But where many thought Belarus's dictator, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, would fall, he instead turned to Moscow for support, intensifying repression. Many of his opponents fled the country. Then, in February 2022, Belarus provided a staging area for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, allowing troops and missile systems to be based on its territory as large-scale war returned to Eastern Europe once again. Many outsiders now view Belarus as little more than a Russian military district, rather than a sovereign country. Paul Hansbury offers a wide-ranging account of these two related crises. Exploring the domestic origins of Belarus's political chaos and its international ramifications, he also assesses the effectiveness of western sanctions policy, as well as considering the history and prospects of Belarusian statehood. Does Belarus have a future as an independent polity? And how has Russia's war with Ukraine affected Belarusians' views of their dictatorship and the cause of democracy in their country?

Peter Harris (MPhil International Relations, 1977)   

The Empire Looks South: Chinese Perceptions of Cambodia before and during the Kingdom of Angkor. Silkworm Books & The University of Washington Press, 2023

The most famous first-hand account of the Kingdom of Angkor was left to us by the imperial Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan. But Zhou’s was not the only portrait of Angkor and the kingdoms that came before it. The Empire Looks South draws on other early Chinese sources to provide new and engrossing perspectives on early Cambodia up to and including the time of Angkor.

These sources include accounts in official Chinese histories, descriptions by Buddhist monks, the reflections of Daoists searching for immortality, and reports by Chinese merchants in pursuit of perfumes and other exotic goods.

The book tells the story of the Kingdom of Angkor through readable translations of important texts, some of them in English for the first time, and all of them set in historical context. The work concludes with several informative appendices, among them a portrait of Linyi, the pre-Vietnamese kingdom that was early Cambodia’s neighbour, again drawn from Chinese sources.

Renee Hirschon (DPhil Social Anthropology, 1971)

Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe: The Social Life of Asia Minor Refugees in Piraeus

First published 1989 [Clarendon Press, Oxford], published in 1998 [Berghahn Books, Oxford], updated and reissued in 2023 with a new Preface and Afterword [Berghahn Books]

Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe is a landmark work in the areas of anthropology and migration studies. Since its first publication in 1989, this classic study has remained in demand. The third edition is published to mark the centenary of the 1923 Lausanne Convention which led to the movement of some 1.5 million persons between Greece and Turkey at the conclusion of their war. It includes updated material with a new Preface, Afterword by Ayhan Aktar, and map of the wider region. The new Preface provides the context in which the original research took place, assesses its innovative aspects and explores the dimensions of history and identity which are predominant themes in the book.

Bruce Hoffman (DPhil International Relations, 1978)

God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America [Co-author]. Columbia University Press, 2023

Shocking acts of terrorism have erupted from violent American far-right extremists in recent years, including the 2015 mass murder at a historic Black church in Charleston and the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. These incidents, however, are neither novel nor unprecedented. They are the latest flashpoints in a process that has been unfolding for decades, in which vast conspiracy theories and radical ideologies such as white supremacism, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and hostility to government converge into a deadly threat to democracy.

God, Guns, and Sedition offers an account of the rise of far-right terrorism in the United States—and how to counter it. Leading experts Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware trace the historical trajectory and assess the present-day dangers of this violent extremist movement, along with the harm it poses to U.S. national security. They combine authoritative, nuanced analysis with gripping storytelling and portraits of the leaders behind this violence and their followers. Hoffman and Ware highlight key terrorist tactics, such as the use of cutting-edge communications technology; the embrace of leaderless resistance or lone-wolf strategies; infiltration and recruitment in the military and law enforcement; and the movement’s intricate relationship with mainstream politics. The book ends with an array of essential practical recommendations to halt the growth of violent far-right extremism and address this global terrorist threat.

Jeremy Jennings (DPhil, 1975)

Travels with Tocqueville Beyond America. Harvard University Press, 2023

It might be the most famous journey in the history of political thought: in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville sailed from France to the United States, spent nine months touring and observing the political culture of the fledgling republic, and produced the classic Democracy in America.

But the United States was just one of the many places documented by the inveterate traveller. Jeremy Jennings follows Tocqueville’s voyages—by sailing ship, stagecoach, horseback, train, and foot—across Europe, North Africa, and of course North America. Along the way, Jennings reveals underappreciated aspects of Tocqueville’s character and sheds new light on the depth and range of his political and cultural commentary.

Despite recurrent ill health and ever-growing political responsibilities, Tocqueville never stopped moving or learning. He wanted to understand what made political communities tick, what elite and popular mores they rested on, and how they were adjusting to rapid social and economic change—the rise of democracy and the Industrial Revolution, to be sure, but also the expansion of empire and the emergence of socialism. He lauded the orderly, Catholic-dominated society of Quebec; presciently diagnosed the boisterous but dangerously chauvinistic politics of Germany; considered England the freest and most unequal place on Earth; deplored the poverty he saw in Ireland; and championed French colonial settlement in Algeria.

Drawing on correspondence, published writings, speeches, and the recollections of contemporaries, Travels with Tocqueville Beyond America is a panoramic combination of biography, history, and political theory that fully reflects the complex, restless mind at its centre.

Hartmut Kaelble (Research Fellow, 1975-76)

The Rich and the Poor in Modern Europe 1890-2020. Berghahn Publishers New York 2023

As social inequality grows, historical analysis on wealth and income distribution across the 20th century often does not take into account inequality of education, health, housing and chances of social mobility, nor does it differentiate statistical inequality from the realities of peoples’ actual experience. With this broad understanding in mind, in a long look back on the history of social inequality in Europe, The Rich and the Poor in Modern Europe addresses these neglected subjects. It also tackles the commonplace notion that modern capitalism inevitably produces wealth gaps and asks whether the facts and figures we possess also lead to alternate interpretations of examples of mitigated inequality. Covering the 20th century and the beginnings of the 21st century in Europe through wars and economic crises, periods of unprecedented economic prosperity and staggering economies, both exacerbating and dampening the problem, Hartmut Kaelble offers a response to understanding our present-day challenge of social inequality.

Isaac Kardon (MPhil Modern Chinese Studies, 2007)

China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order. Yale University Press, 2023

An in-depth examination of the law and geopolitics of China’s maritime disputes and their implications for the rules of the international law of the sea. This book provides an empirical account of whether and how China is changing “the rules” of international order—specifically, the international law of the sea.
 
Conflicts over specific rules lie at the heart of the disputes, which are about much more than sovereignty over islands and rocks in the South and East China Seas. Instead, the main contests concern the strategic maritime space associated with those islands. To consolidate control over this vital maritime space, China’s leaders have begun to implement “China’s law of the sea”: building domestic legal institutions, bureaucratic organizations, and a naval and maritime law enforcement apparatus to establish China’s preferred maritime rules on the water and in the diplomatic arena. China’s maritime disputes offer unique insights into the nature and scope of China’s challenge to international order.

Hilary Kilpatrick (DPhil Oriental Studies, 1964)

Edited and translated al-Shābushtī The Book of Monasteries. New York University Press, 2023

The Book of Monasteries takes readers on an engaging tour of the monastic centers of the medieval Middle East, illustrated with a rich variety of poetry and prose. Starting with monasteries in Baghdad, readers are taken up the Tigris into the mountains of south-eastern Anatolia before moving to Palestine and Syria, along the Euphrates down to the old Christian center of Ḥīrah and onward to Egypt. For the literary anthologist al-Shābushtī, who was Muslim, monasteries were important sites of interactions between Abbasid elites and the Christian communities that made up about halkif the population of the Abbasid Empire at the time.

Each section in this anthology covers a specific monastery, beginning with a discussion of its location and the reason for its name. Al-Shābushtī presents poems, anecdotes, and historical reports related to each site. He selects heroic and spectacular incidents, illustrations of caliphal extravagance, and occasions that gave rise to memorable verse. Important political personalities and events that were indirectly linked with monasteries also appear here, as do scenes of festive court life and gruesome murders. Through these accounts, al-Shābushtī offers readers a meditation on the splendor of Abbasid culture as well as moral and philosophical lessons: the ephemerality of power; the virtues of generosity and tolerance; the effectiveness of eloquence in prose and poetry; and the fleeting nature of pleasure and beauty. Translated into English for the first time, The Book of Monasteries offers an entertaining panorama of religious, political, and literary life during the Abbasid era. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Herbert Klein (DPhil History, 1975)

 Brazil: An Economic and Social History from Early Man to the 21st Century. Cambridge University Press, 2023

This book is the first modern survey of the economic and social history of Brazil from early man to today. Drawing from a wide range of qualitative and quantitative data, it provides a comprehensive overview of the major developments that defined the evolution of Brazil. Beginning with the original human settlements in pre-Colombian society, it moves on to discuss the Portuguese Empire and colonization, specifically the importance of slave labour, sugar, coffee, and gold in shaping Brazil's economic and societal development. Finally, it analyses the revolutionary changes that have occurred in the past half century, transforming Brazil from a primarily rural and illiterate society to an overwhelmingly urban, literate, and industrial one. Sweeping and influential, Herbert S. Klein and Francisco Vidal Luna's synthesis is the first of its kind on Brazil.

Susannah Kennedy (DPhil Social Anthropology, 1989)

Reading Jane: A Daughter's Memoir. Sibylline Press, 2023

A gripping memoir that shows what freedom looks like when we choose to examine the uncomfortable past.

Jane is to the world a charismatic personality – opinionated, an inner-city teacher and public activist, a lover of Italy, proud and successful – who thrives on a carefully crafted life narrative. Susannah, her beautiful only daughter and her intended protégé, senses the stricter, darker truth, and fights to resist the control imposed on her by her mother’s narcissistic tale, especially as Susannah becomes a mother herself.

But then Jane at 75, healthy and fit, chooses suicide, leaving her daughter with grief and the unwelcome gift of 45 years of hidden diaries. Daring to “read” Jane after her death is like unlatching Pandora’s Box. For a year, Susannah twists and turns to the truths she uncovers, comparing what she remembers with what her mother put down in words. As Susannah Kennedy re-lives her life through her mother’s eyes, she grapples with the ties between mothers and daughters and the choices parents make.

Herbert Klein (DPhil History, 1975)

Crops in the Global Market: The Emergence of Brazil as a World Agribusiness Exporter Since 1950 [Co-author]. Palgrave MacMillan, 2023

This book comprehensively examines the development of Brazilian agriculture by focusing on the crops which evolved from national products to international commodities on a massive scale. It traces the transformation of Brazil from a country with low-yield levels in 1950 to its current position as a leading world producer.

The first section of the book examines the modernisation of Brazilian agriculture through a government programme which transformed traditional agriculture through subsidized credit, guaranteed prices, stock purchases, land utilization laws, modern research, new technology and major support for exports. It also explores the changing structures of agricultural production and farm ownership over time, analysing national censuses from 1920 to 2017 to illustrate the increasing efficiency of Brazil’s agricultural workers. The book then discusses the history and evolution of the major Brazilian crops in detail, starting with the newer export crops such as soybeans, maize and cotton, before focusing on the traditional sugar and coffee industries. The final section of the book examines two other major areas of agroindustry: forestry and the evolution of the pastoral industries, as well as the growth of a meat exporting sector. The authors also explore questions of sustainability in the context of today’s climate challenges, and the role of Brazilian agriculture in the world market going forward.

Bill Kinsey (Senior Member 1994)

Agribusiness and Rural Enterprise. Routledge, 2023

Originally published in 1987 and now reissued with a new Preface by the author, this book is written primarily for planners, public administrators and project managers in countries or international agencies considering a development strategy in which agribusiness and rural enterprise projects are viewed as a desirable policy instrument for generating employment and income. It makes available the background and methodology of project analysis so that agribusiness and rural enterprise project can be designed, implemented and reviewed effectively in a wide range of circumstances. It outlines how to establish objectively the potential and limitations of agribusiness and rural enterprise projects; provides guidelines for deciding whether a project can be effective; considers the policy issues relating to such projects and suggests techniques for judging project performance.

Creating Rural Employment. Routledge, 2023

Originally published in 1987, this book discusses the problem of rural employment in developing countries. It puts forward strategies for action and is intended as an applied development manual to assist those organising rural public works programmes. It draws on the experiences of over 20 countries which have implemented such programmes and it draws out the lessons for developing countries in all continents. It discusses policy making, organisational features of programmes, the need to be realistic in establishing the potential and limitations of programmes and explores the problems of assessing performance.

Andre Liebich (Junior Associate Member, 1972; SAM, 2010)

Cultural Nationhood and Political Statehood: The Birth of Self-Determination (Milton Park: Routledge, 2023)

Cultural Nationhood and Political Statehood explores the development of the idea that every nation – most commonly understood as a linguistic community – is entitled to its own state.

Following several contemporary studies of nationalism, this book provides a critical examination of the peculiarly modern concurrence of cultural nations and political states as it developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author argues that this is one of the most fateful coincidences of modernity: so firmly engraved in today's consciousness that most scholars and policymakers assume the correlation of cultural nationhood and political statehood to be intellectually unproblematic, yet the consequences have been overwhelming. The conflation of cultural nation and political state has imposed an isomorphism of language, culture, and politics upon the world. It has pre-determined democratic practice by enforcing the doctrine that the will of the people can only be the will of a people. It has led to the assumption that every nation may become a state. The book’s originality lies in tracing the genesis and the elaboration over time of this curious contemporary assumption.

John C Maher (Senior Member 2008)

The World of Coronaspeak: Mockdown, PCR and Surgeon's Finger. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023

This book explores the concept of Coronaspeak, the language adopted by the global community as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; it involves jokes, slang, public health slogans, cliché, and coronalit (corona related literature). In Coronaspeak we see new vocabulary and coinage like solomoon (honeymoon without the honey), elbow bump or Coronafussgruss (German, ‘corona foot-greeting’), variant labelling in the Greek alphabet (omicron and delta), new drug naming (AstraZeneca), medical jargon (pathogen, R number), semi-technical (spillover, variant) and common expressions (stale air, rebound), and informal speech, dialect and nonce words (jab, jag, and ‘the lurgi’). The book highlights the capacity of words to adapt to shock and social disorder, and argues that they are part of disaster management, with entries from Italian, French, Japanese, German and Korean, taken from scholarly articles and print and internet sources.

Helena F. S Lopes (DPhil History, 2013)

Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War. Cambridge University Press, 2023

The South China enclave of Macau was the first and last European colonial settlement in East Asia and a territory at the crossroads of different empires. In this highly original study, Helena F. S. Lopes analyses the layers of collaboration that developed from neutrality in Macau during the Second World War. Exploring the intersections of local, regional and global dynamics, she unpacks the connections between a plurality of actors with competing and collaborative interests, including Chinese Nationalists, Communists and collaborators with Japan, Portuguese colonial authorities and British and Japanese representatives. Lopes argues that neutrality eased the movement of refugees of different nationalities who sought shelter in Macau during the war and that it helped to guarantee the maintenance of two remnants of European colonialism – Macau and Hong Kong. Drawing on extensive research from multilingual archival material from Asia, Europe, Australasia and America, this book brings to light the multiple global connections framing the experiences of neutrality and collaboration in the Portuguese-administered enclave of Macau.

Georgia Lagoumitzi (MPhil Sociology, 1981)

Sociology in Greece: Its History and Development [Co-author]. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022

This Palgrave Pivot provides a concise history of the development of sociology in Greece. It provides a compelling narrative of the discipline’s embryonic state, its promising beginnings that aligned with its contact with the then robust French and German accomplishments in sociology. It continues with sociology’s entanglement with modern Greece’s turbulent history during the Civil War and the junta years. It charts Greece's gradual recovery during the mid-1970s, which led to sociology’s institutionalization. Yet such institutional boom was not free of politicisation processes, many of which proved residual and resilient, stemming from the dictatorship years, as well as from Greece’s dependency during its process of modernization. This book completes this historical account by reconsidering sociology’s gradual embrace of a multi-paradigmatic orientation, its opportunities in light of the burgeoning Greek EU membership and extroversion. It concludes with charting sociology’s position in the 21st century, facing challenges like the Great Recession and its impact in Greece as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moshe Maoz (DPhil, ME studies 1966)

Asad’s Autocratic Dynasty in Syria: Civil War and the Role of Regional and Global Powers. Liverpool University Press, 2023

In 2011, the diplomatic and expert consensus was that Bashar al-Asad’s regime would fail, causing Syria to disintegrate into several ethnic enclaves or mini-states. A decade later Bashar is still in control, having defeated the rebels and gained the support of Russia. The years of internal warfare have brought about changes in the spectrum of parties involved in the Syrian state, and the outcome is inevitably going to be shaped by geo-politics. The Alawi minority still largely controls the Sunni-Muslim (Arab) majority. The other players are a gallery of everchanging allegiances: ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and many other radical Islamic groups; the Muslim Kurdish and Christian Arab communities; as well as Shii Lebanese Hizballah. External horizon players are Iran; Sunni Turkey and Saudi Arabia; Jewish Israel; the United States and Russia. This study aims to analyse these various actors' agendas, actions, and interrelations from 2011 until the present. It will discuss their ongoing politics and assess forthcoming developments. Both Iran and Russia continue to support Bashar, but compete for political, military, and economic influence. The US has greatly reduced involvement, keeping only 900 troops in north-eastern Syria, to protect its Kurdish allies and fight against ISIS. Turkey still occupies parts of northern Syria, to eliminate the Kurdish forces. Syrian and Russian military attempts to conquer this area continue sporadically. The Israeli air force has attacked Iranian and Hizballah positions with the tacit approval of Russia. However, Russia’s war on Ukraine in February 2022 may result in restricting Israeli interdictions and instead enhance cooperation with Tehran to counter the US and NATO. Both Russia and Iran have been incapable of reconstructing the massively destroyed Syrian infrastructure; the US and Europe are reluctant to contribute due to Bashar’s continued Alawi minority-based autocratic and corrupt rule.

Paul Morland (MPhil International Relations, 1992)

Tomorrow's People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers. Picador, 2022

The great forces of population change – the balance of births, deaths and migrations – have made the world what it is today. They have determined which countries are superpowers and which languish in relative obscurity, which economies top the international league tables and which are at best also-rans.

The same forces that have shaped our past and present are shaping our future. Illustrating this through ten illuminating indicators, from the fertility rate in Singapore (one) to the median age in Catalonia (forty-three), Paul Morland shows how demography is both a powerful and an under-appreciated lens through which to view the global transformations that are currently underway.

Tomorrow’s People ranges from the countries of West Africa where the tendency towards large families is combining with falling infant mortality to create the greatest population explosion ever witnessed, to the countries of East Asia and Southern Europe where generations of low birth-rate and rising life expectancy are creating the oldest populations in history. Morland explores the geographical movements of peoples that are already under way – portents for still larger migrations ahead – which are radically changing the cultural, ethnic and religious composition of many societies across the globe, and in their turn creating political reaction that can be observed from Brexit to the rise of Donald Trump. Finally, he looks at the two underlying motors of change – remarkable rises in levels of education and burgeoning food production – which have made all these epochal developments possible.

Tetsuo Ogawa Senior Member (Academic Visitor, SAM, SCR, 2000)

Public Policy in the Era of SDGs. Partridge International, 2023

This book provides an overview of public policy, but rather than describing a country's policies, it deals with explanations for each area. By doing so, basic concepts, issues related to policy effectiveness, and approaches reveal researchers' methods in describing its characteristics. In this way, the book explores how public policies and policy systems are performing sector by sector among developed countries. It will be clarified by many examples of how different the so-called "society" to which this document is directed includes developing countries and OECD member countries. This book also shows that public policy is still growing in the process that needs to be covered, and government, where public policies are undergoing drastic changes to allow optimism. Therefore, it cannot be handled either. The examples dealt with in this book are issues that have been studied comparatively.

Dr Shane O'Rourke (DPhil Russian History, 1988)

Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, Princess Isabel and the Ending of Servile Labour in Brazil. Anthem Press, 2023

Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia and Princess Isabel of Brazil were active participants in the struggle to end servile labour in their respective countries. They acted in defiance of political conventions which excluded women from any political activity. Both women were determined to do all in their power to further the cause of emancipation and to determine the terms under which serfs and slaves were emancipated. This book examines the political activities of the two royal women within the context of their respective societies and adopts a comparative approach. 

Daniel Peris (MPhil Russian and East European Studies, 1986)

The Ownership Dividend: The Coming Paradigm Shift in the U.S. Stock Market. Routledge, 2024

We are on the verge of a major paradigm shift for investors in the US stock market. Dividend-focused stock investing has been receding in popularity for more than three decades in the US; once the dominant investment style, it is now a boutique approach. That is about to change.

The Ownership Dividend explains how and why the stock market drifted away from a mostly cash-based returns system to one almost completely driven by near-term share price movements. It details why the exceptional forces behind that shift—notably the 40-year drop in interest rates and the rise of buybacks—are now substantially exhausted. As a result, the U.S. market is poised for a return to the more typical business-like relationships observed in the private sector and in other mature markets around the world. While many market participants have profited from and become used to the way things have been in recent decades, savvy individual investors, financial advisors, and even institutional portfolio managers will want to position themselves to benefit from the reversion to cash-based investment relationships in the years ahead.  

Priyanca Mathur (MSC in Forced Migration, 2002)

Discovering New India: Multiculturalism, Pluralism, Harmony. Jain University Press, 2022

A collection of thought-provoking and well-written articles by a group of progressive thinkers of the society, it reflects the country’s aspirations for national solidarity, economic prosperity and social justice. This book is an initiative to propagate the values we espouse, namely harmony and hope and promote positivity that can reduce violence and hatred; to critically examine issues of contemporary relevance in the context of the current socio-economic religious and political events, and to stimulate discussions on these disciplines in the public domain. It has been produced with the vision of promoting India as a model of unity and diversity. This edited volume aims at inspiring citizens to work towards strengthening India’s potential as a unifying moral force in world affairs while it is emerging as a global economic power.

This book has been specially curated by the Ekam Sat Trust, which was formed in 2021 to promote the concept of unity in diversity and social harmony under the leadership of Dr. Ravindra. It seeks to foster constitutional and human values through dialogue and discussion, particularly among the youth in India.

Ryszard Stemplowski Senior Member (Academic Visitor, SAM, SCR, 1974)

DZIENNIK AMBASADORA. LONDYN 1994 – 1999, TOM I, ROK 1994

Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych, 2023

Ambassador's Diary. London, 1994-1999, Vol. I (1994)

Ryszard Stemplowski Senior Member (Academic Visitor, SAM, SCR, 1974)

ZALEŻNOŚĆ i WYZWANIE. Argentyna wobec rywalizacji Wielkiej Brytanii, Niemiec i Stanów Zjednoczonych, 1930-1946

Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych, 2023

Dependence and Challenge. Argentine and the rivalries among the UK, and Germany and the US, 1930-1946.

Chris Saunders (DPhil History, 1965)

Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa: New Perspectives on the Era of Decolonization, 1950s to 1990s [Co-editor]. De Gruyter, 2023

It is now widely recognised that a Cold War perspective falls short in unfolding the complex geographies of connections and the multipolarity of actions and transactions that were shaped through the movement of individuals and ideas from Africa to the "East" and from the "East" to Africa in the decades in which African countries moved to independence. Adopting an interdisciplinary, transregional perspective, this volume casts new light on aspects of the role of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the decolonisation of Africa. Taking further themes explored in a collection of essays published by the editors in 2019, the twelve case studies by authors from South Africa, Czech Republic, Portugal, Russia, Hungary, Italy, Canada, Serbia, and Germany draw on new sources to explore the history of the ties that existed between African liberation movements and the socialist bloc, some of which continue to influence relationships today. Chapters contribute to three relevant main themes that resonate in a number of scholarly fields of inquiry, ranging from Global Studies, Transregional Studies, Cold War Studies, (Global) History to African Studies, Eastern European, Russian and Slavic Studies: Reconsiderations, Resources, and Reverberations. Drawing upon newly opened archives and combining transregional perspectives with sources in different languages, chapters explicitly point out the shortcomings of past research and debates in the respective field. They highlight new avenues which have been developing and which need to be further developed (Reconsiderations). Selected case studies address the resources of those being active and involved in decolonisation processes, be it in East, North, West and South. They reveal: Which resources (both material and intellectual) are the actors drawing upon? On the other hand: From which resources are individuals on one side or the other reciprocally or intermittently (intentionally) kept away? (Resources). Finally, the third theme puts an emphasis on the historicity of the processes depicted. Studies point to the gaps and dead ends of international support, the paths that peter out, but also to repercussions and reverberations up until today. (Reverberations) Taken these three themes together, the individual chapters contribute to the overall question of: Which general historical narratives about the second half of the 20th century are changing based on these new research findings?

Sau Wai Law (MSc in Economics for Development, 2005)

Banking and Finance Dispute Resolution in Hong Kong: The Suitability of Arbitration in Private Disputes. Routledge, 2023

This book examines the concept of ‘naming, blaming, claiming’ in the application of arbitration for private banking dispute resolution. The author focuses on examining this issue using Hong Kong as a case in point, blending theory and empirical evidence to unveil how disputes are resolved within the banking and finance industry, which will enable them to explore possible effective and efficient mechanisms to resolve financial disputes.

The book offers a comprehensive review of the laws and regulations governing the private banking industry in Hong Kong and selected jurisdictions, as well as how they are implemented. It examines the clients’ perceptions through an innovative methodology for empirical studies. Describing how clients react to the laws and regulations and the potential adverse impacts to the stability of the banking industry, the author identifies possible factors that could trigger another financial crisis. Synthesising his analysis, the author proposes newly discovered self-corrective mechanisms embedded among clients and concludes with policy recommendations.

Lewis Siegelbaum (DPhil History, 1975)

Making National Diasporas: Soviet-Era Migrations and Post-Soviet Consequences (Elements in Soviet and Post-Soviet History). Cambridge University Press, 2023 [Co-author]

This Element explains the historical conditions for the seemingly anomalous presence of people outside of 'their own' Soviet republic and the sometimes-fraught consequences for them and their post-Soviet host countries. The authors begin their inquiry with an analysis of the most massive displacements of the Stalin era – nationality-based deportations, concluding with examples of the life trajectories of deportees' children as they moved transnationally within the Soviet Union and in its successor states. The second section treats disparate parts of the country as magnets attracting Soviet citizens from far afield. Most were cities undergoing vast industrial expansion; others involved incentive programs to develop agriculture and rural-based industries. The final section is devoted to the history of immigration and emigration during the Soviet period as well as since 1991 when millions left one former Soviet republic for another or for lands farther afield.

Reflections on Stalinism. Cornell University Press, 2024 [Co-editor]

Reflections on Stalinism distils decades of historical thought and research, bringing together twelve senior scholars of Soviet history who began their careers during the Cold War to examine their views of Stalinism. They present insights into role of personality in statecraft, the social underpinnings of dictatorship and state terrorism, historians' attachments to their subjects, historical causality, the applicability of Marxist categories to Soviet history, the relationship of Soviet history to post-Soviet Russia, and more. Essays address the transformation of a peasant country into a superpower and the causes and scale of domestic bloodshed. Reflections on Stalinism ultimately tackles an age-old question: Do powerful people make history or are they the product of it?

Vera Tamari (MPhil Islamic Art and Architecture, 1984)

Returning: Palestinian Family Memories in Clay Reliefs, Photographs and Text. The Arab image Foundation and The Educational Bookshop, 2022

This book is the culmination of an art project developed by visual artist Vera Tamari between 1989 and 1996, for which she created a series of fifteen terracotta bas-relief panels titled ‘Family Portraits’. Each of those panel was inspired by a family photograph from her father’s photographic collection, taken in Palestine between the early 1920s and the 1948 Nakba.

This book documents through the clay reliefs, photos and text, personal vignettes of Vera Tamari’s family from Jaffa and Jerusalem. The stories and images in the book portray the subtleties of life of members of a typical Palestinian urban middle-class community, capturing their social gatherings and daily activities. They appear to live normally and following the natural daily rhythm of life -before their forced exodus and dispersal.

The resulting narrations, supported by photographic representations and the clay reliefs are inherently not only about loss and displacement, but also about remembrance and renewal – in many ways, it is about ’RETURNING’.

Born into a Jaffa family, Vera Tamari is a Palestinian artist residing in Ramallah. She is a multidimensional artist specializing in ceramic sculpture and conceptual art. Her work focuses on nature and the Palestinian landscape and issues of women, history, and memory. She has exhibited widely in Palestine and internationally and is actively involved in the promotion of art and culture in Palestine. Vera has served for more than two decades as professor of Islamic Art and Architecture and Art History at Birzeit University, where she also founded and directed the Birzeit University Museum from 2005 to 2011. A book on Vera’s art and career Intimate Reflections: The Art of Vera Tamari, was published in 2021 by the A M Qattan Foundation.

Siyoree Thaitrakulpanich (MSc Social Anthropology, 2019­)

Thailand's BCG Transformation: 40 Case Studies on the Bio-Circular-Green Strategy and the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy in Action

NIDA's Sustainable Development and Sufficiency Economy Studies Center, 2022

The book outlines Thailand's BCG (bio-circular-green) trajectory through information pages on different industries and 40 different case studies in the country. This BCG strategy is proposed to be probably because of the previous king's SEP (Sufficiency Economy Philosophy).

Francisco Torres (SAM 2012; SCR Member 2015)

The political economy of Europe’s future and identity: integration in crisis mode. BONGARDT, Annette; TORRES, Francisco (eds)

European University Institute 2023

Today’s European Union (EU) finds itself in a permanent crisis mode – crises appear no longer sequentially and time distant but overlap and reinforce each other and even interact. If, as Jean Monnet put it, Europe will be forged in crises and as the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises, it is also true that multiple, major crises affecting the EU at the same time do not only stretch but risk to overwhelm its crisis response capacity. Yet, the EU needs to successfully address those crises to deliver results for its citizens and hold the ‘club’ together. There is also demand for some soul- and identity-searching, with a shared identity and values assuming special importance for facilitating collective action and leaps forward in times of crisis, such as at present, when the EU faces the need to stand by its values amidst Russia’s war on Ukraine while pursuing its main objectives and its current priorities for 2019-24, most notably the European Green Deal (EGD). Both – addressing multiple challenges and a shared identity – are fundamental for making the EU more resilient to shocks and European integration sustainable (and with a purpose) over time. And they are related.

Roxanne Varzi (Senior visiting Iran fellow 2004 to 2005)

Death in a Nutshell: An Anthropology Whodunnit

Bouncing Box Press, 2023

Alex is on the verge of dismissal from her anthropology doctoral program when her luck turns, and she lands a fellowship with a dioramist at the Museum of the Rockies. Only problem is, Alex hasn’t a clue about dioramas or dinosaurs, and, as she will soon find out, she’s not the only one faking it in this frozen landscape.

From New York City to Yellowstone National Park, we follow Alex, a whip-smart dyslexic-ADHD Margaret Meade cum Ms. Marple, as she explores friendship, identity, globalization and a murder against the stunning backdrop of the Rockies in winter.

In an era of fake news and science denial, a little anthropology goes a long way.

Zhe Wang (DPhil Human Geography, 2017)

Transnational Student Return Migration and Megacities in China: Practices of Cityzenship

Springer Nature, 2023.

This book is a study of the return migration of overseas Chinese students. By 2018, over 3.5 million Chinese students had returned from overseas universities to China, with the megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen representing by far their main destinations. In other words, when overseas students return to China, many do not return to their hometown but usually land, work and settle down in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Their return migration is thus not only transnational, but also internal-urban. This book adopts a multi-level geographical analysis to explore this important phenomenon, exploring why and how returnees choose these three cities and how they experience and interpret their everyday lives in these megacities after their return. In doing so, it highlights the importance of cultural logics and multiscalar thinking of transnational Chinese students’ return migration and illuminates how their transnational migration reproduces domestic socio-spatial inequalities. This book brings an important contribution to the fields of Cultural Geography, Urban Geography, Transnationalism, Migration Studies and Citizenship Studies.

Olufemi Vaughan (DPhil Politics, 1985)

Letters, Kinship, and Social Mobility in Nigeria

University of Wisconsin Press, 2023

Why was letter writing so pivotal to the everyday experience of Africans in the modern world?

In 2003, Olufemi Vaughan received from his ninety-five-year-old father, Abiodun, a trove of more than three thousand letters written by four generations of his family in Ibadan, Nigeria, between 1926 and 1994. The people who wrote these letters had emerged from the religious, social, and educational institutions established by the Church Missionary Society, the preeminent Anglican mission in the Atlantic Nigerian region following the imposition of British colonial rule. Abiodun, recruited to be a civil servant in the colonial Department of Agriculture, became a leader of a prominent family in Ibadan, the dominant Yoruba city in southern Nigeria. Reading deeply in these letters, Vaughan realized he had a unique set of sources to illuminate everyday life in modern Nigeria.

Letter writing was a dominant form of communication for Western-educated elites in colonial Africa, especially in Nigeria. Exposure to the modern world and a growing sense of nationalism were among the factors that led people to begin exchanging letters, particularly in their interactions with British colonial authorities. Through careful textual analysis and broad contextualization, Vaughan reconstructs dominant storylines, including themes such as kinship, social mobility, Western education, modernity, and elite consolidation in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria. Vaughan brings his prodigious skills as an interdisciplinary scholar to bear on this wealth of information, bringing to life a portrait, at once intimate and expansive, of a community during a transformative period in African history.

Nira Wickramasinghe (DPhil Modern History, 1985)

Monsoon Asia: A Reader on South and Southeast Asia  

Leiden University Press, 2023 [Co-editor]

Monsoon Asia was the first venue of global trade, a zone of encounters, exchanges, and cultural diffusion. This book demonstrates the continuing fertility of the Monsoon Asia perspective as an aid to understanding what South/Southeast Asia, as a connected space, has been in the past and is today. Sixteen tightly knit chapters, written by experts from perspectives ranging from Indology and philology to postcolonial and transnational studies, offer a captivating view of the region, with its rich and variegated history shaped by commonalities in human ecology, cultural forms, and religious practices. The contributions draw upon extensive research and a thorough command of the most recent scholarship. This volume will be an invaluable text for anyone interested in South and Southeast Asia, and for more specialized students in the fields of global and Indian Ocean history, transcultural studies, archaeology, linguistics, and politics.