Far left book launch at Historical Materialism Sydney (13 Dec)

I am happy to announce that Jon Piccini and I will be launching the book that we have co-edited with Matthew Worley, The Far Left in Australian since 1945, at Historical Materialism Sydney next month. Joining Jon and I will be contributors Ana Stevenson and Isabelle Barrett Meyering, as well as Hannah Forsyth.

The launch will be at the University of Sydney Business School on Thursday 13 December at 4.15pm. More details about HM Sydney are here.

If you can’t attend the book launch, you can still pick the book up on sale for only $40 from Routledge here. Or if you’re in Melbourne, grab a copy from the New International Bookshop.

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New covers for paperback editions of books on the history of the British far left

I am very happy to announce that for the new paperback editions of Against the Grain and Waiting for the Revolution – our two books on the British far left from 1956 – Manchester University Press have designed new covers for each volume. Inspired by the left-wing pamphlets of the 1970s, Matt and I are excited to see them!

The new edition of Against the Grain is available to order now from here.

The new edition of Waiting for the Revolution is available for pre-order here. It will be published in March 2019.

Paperback edition of ‘British Communism and the Politics of Race’ is ready for pre-order!

This is just a quick announcement to let you all know that the paperback edition of my book British Communism and the Politics of Race will be out next month through Haymarket Books. You can pre-order it now here.

You can read an interview I did with Selim Nadi for the Historical Materialism blog about the book here. And you can read an interview I did Alex Carnovic for the CPGB’s Weekly Worker here.

Event – Within and Against the Metropole: Communism and Transnational Anti-Colonialism in Interwar Europe (Manchester, 30 Nov)

Within and Against the Metropole: Communism and Transnational Anti-Colonialism in Interwar Europe

(University of Manchester// November 30^th, 2018// 9:30 am- 4:30 pm)

The professed internationalism and anti-imperialism of the communist movement has attracted the attention of historians of transnational labour movements, empire and colonialism. A resurgence in studies which focus on the relationship between communists and anti-colonial movements has taken place, due to both the growing availability of formerly-restricted source materials, and the rise of increasingly-sophisticated transnational methodologies. These new sources and methods have allowed for a richer study of the development, growth, transformation, and decline of anti-colonial networks involving communist activists, with emphasis placed on the role of border-crossing populations and individuals, local cultures of activism, and patterns of conflict and cooperation in both the Comintern and national Communist Parties’ apparatuses.

This one-day conference will bring together an international group of scholars to explore the relationship between communism and anti-colonialism in the interwar period. This will include sessions on the transnational connections and journeys of individual activists and their relationship to the structures of international communism; various anti-colonial milieus’ connections to labour and social movements in differing national and regional contexts; and the broader relationships between communists, race, and nationalism, both in colonial and metropolitan settings.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Satnam Virdee (University of Glasgow)
• Kasper Braskén (Åbo Akademi)
• Oleksa Drachewych (Independent Scholar)
• Daniel Edmonds (Independent Scholar)
• David Featherstone (University of Glasgow)
• Kate O’Malley (Royal Irish Academy)
• Professors Kevin Morgan, John Callaghan, and Neville Kirk, in a roundtable discussion.

Thanks to the generosity of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, attendance will be free, and registered attendees will receive lunch as well as tea and coffee. To book your place please email anticolonialconference@gmail.com

New post at History & Policy on controlling Cypriot migration to UK

History and Policy has published an opinion piece by Andrekos Varnava and I on our research into the controlling of Cypriot migration to the UK in the 1920s-30s. It is based on our article in English Historical Research last year and some of the research we have been doing as part of our ARC project on border control in Britain and Australia. You can read the piece here.

Guest post at Verso blog on the ‘long 1968’ in Australia

I am excited to let you all know that the Verso Books blog published a piece by Jon Piccini and I on the old left, new left and the ‘long 1968’ in Australia. It is based on the introduction to our new book (co-edited with Matthew Worley), The Far Left in Australia since 1945, which will be published by Routledge in July.

You can pre-order the paperback version here. We will hopefully having a book launch in Melbourne in late August. More details to follow!

New post for AHA ECR blog: Surviving academia without permanency

I am very excited that the ECR blog for the Australian Historical Association has featured an article by me on surviving in academia without tenure. Here is the first paragraph:

I have decided that the best way to write about being a non-tenured academic in Australia in the humanities/social sciences is to talk about surviving. But it is not about personal resilience in an attempt to overcome the problems of academia, but about recognising that working in academia on a casual, fixed-term or independent basis requires survival in the face of institutional pressures and pitfalls.

You can read the rest of the piece here.