Matt Whittle

Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik ‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik

“He was convinced that all AI really does is enable us to experience the ‘spectacle of thought’ rather than engaging in thought itself”.

The Guardian view on campus discontent: listen to those on the frontline | Editorial Editorial: The government’s funding plans, announced in this week’s white paper, won’t do much to alleviate a deepening crisis of morale among university staff

“Persisting w/ an inadequate fees-led model of higher education, in which universities are run as competing businesses funded by student consumers, is producing a dystopian academic landscape. A more stable system of public funding is urgently required.”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

One week left to apply! ✉️

Please see below a Call for Papers: 2026 Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies @soccaribbeanuk.bsky.social: community-languages.org.uk/scs/annual-s...

Very interesting read! A Labour govt sowing *more* suspicion of both migrants & people who claim benefits. These proposals will make it so migrants must pay into the system but can’t take from it at a time of need. What kind of society are they building?

Enjoyed this book launch. Lots of great insights (inc how the climate crisis will affect political mobilisation). Looking forward to reading into alternatives to the current climate transition

Stuart Hall Essay Prize reopens to submissions - Stuart Hall Foundation The second Stuart Hall Essay Prize is reopening to submissions. The new submission window is open from now until Monday 3 November. Open to submissions from UK-based entrants aged 18 to 30 inclusive, ...

Stuart Hall Essay Prize. Please disseminate:

www.stuarthallfoundation.org/foundation/s...

Agreed! Also ends with a mere side note on Humanities degrees & this expert insight framing History & English as prepping students for quaint little hobbies 🤦‍♂️

Elon Musk « x@elonmusk•6h Remigration is the only way Steve Laws @Steve_Laws_•18h Go anywhere in the UK and look around, you'll just see foreigners everywhere. It's truly sickening the damage that has been done to our nation and our people....

Steve Laws & @Steve_Laws_ X.com Epping is everywhere. 12:02•8/29/25 • 275K Views Elonmusk All Britain is Epping @Steve_Laws_ Keep highlighting this Elon, we appreciate it.

It is insane to me that the richest man in the world is using his global megaphone to call for millions of British people to be rounded up and deported (including my family) and somehow this isn’t even news.

AGAINST AI

teachers!

excited to share a new website at this late date of Aug 15 to try to help us collectively prepare for back to school in the interpretative humanities classroom assaulted by the AI grift, so we don't have to go it alone.

take a look, share, + most importantly: CONTRIBUTE
against-a-i.com

The Charles Wallace Trust - Colonial and Postcolonial Studies - Research at Kent Since 1991, the Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) has sponsored an annual Fellowship that enables a writer from India to come and work at the University of Kent for the Spring Term. Hosted by the Sch...

Application round for the Charles Wallace India Trust Writing Fellowship is now open!

Enables a creative writer from India to come and work at the University of Kent & develop their own prose/poetry project for up to twelve weeks in Spring 2026.

research.kent.ac.uk/colonialandp...

The Charles Wallace Trust - Colonial and Postcolonial Studies - Research at Kent Since 1991, the Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) has sponsored an annual Fellowship that enables a writer from India to come and work at the University of Kent for the Spring Term. Hosted by the Sch...

Application round for the Charles Wallace India Trust Writing Fellowship is now open!

Enables a creative writer from India to come and work at the University of Kent & develop their own prose/poetry project for up to twelve weeks in Spring 2026.

research.kent.ac.uk/colonialandp...

I should be at Cambridge, but I’m trapped in Gaza Home Office red tape strands dozens of Palestinian scholarship winners in war zone

Shaimaa has a scholarship to do a PhD on Palestinian literature with me at @uoe-llc.bsky.social, but she's stuck in Gaza because the foreign office won't help. Please share. www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...

*Please share with your networks 📣*

Are you a PGR interested in Postcolonial Studies? Are you interested in gaining experience in a director role? We want to hear from you!

The NVPoco network will need a new director for the coming academic year.

(1/2)

This was one of the best conferences I’ve been to - a welcoming arena for conversation & exchange of ideas about how literature & culture intervene in Hostile Environment policy & discourse

Western leaders call for diplomacy, but they won’t stop this war – they refuse to even name its cause | Nesrine Malik The political centre sees the US and Israel’s war on Iran as a crisis to be managed, while the gap between their detached politics and bloody rhetoric widens, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

Western leaders call for diplomacy, but they won’t stop this war – they refuse to even name its cause | Nesrine Malik

New Voices in Postcolonial Studies Network x University of Westminster present 'American Dream/American Nightmare' 💭

A two-day, hybrid conference on the fantastical & the horrific in a US context.

Online - 3rd July
In-person - 4th July

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, giant of African literature, dies aged 87 Kenyan writer’s death announced by his daughter, who wrote: ‘He lived a full life, fought a good fight’

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, giant of African literature, dies aged 87 | Ngugi wa Thiong'o | The Guardian

www.theguardian.com/...

Gary Younge nails it, as always.

Listen to his full response to Labour’s abysmal “island of strangers” rhetoric @overunderpod.bsky.social

If you're a creative nonfiction/memoir writer, submit now to the 2025 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize in the Life Writing category. Translated work is accepted across all categories.

Deadline: 30 June.

buff.ly/xq4ptaC

We're excited to present our 8th and final author in our series of posts on the contributions to New Voices in Postcolonial Studies Magazine No. 2: "Imagining Postcolonial Futures"! ✨

▶︎ To frame the magazine issue, we present an Introduction by Dr Matthew Whittle @drmattwhittle.bsky.social

Great network here for new scholars working across postcolonial & indigenous studies - recommend a follow!

Just had it confirmed that Meta has stolen my monographs to train its AI. Parasitic & unethical behaviour that’s taking the human out of the Humanities.

Use the link below to check for yourself and take action.

Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah review – a masterclass in quicksilver storytelling The Nobel laureate’s wonderful new novel connects a trio of east African teens as they come of age, moving from small-scale dramas to wide-ranging social panoramas

This new book from one of my Kent Uni colleagues sounds great!

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

Call for papers for the #migration studies folks!

‘Hostile Environments & Hospitable Praxes’ @ University of Kent, UK, 23rd – 24th June 2025

Deadline for abstracts is March 17

blogs.kent.ac.uk/hostileenvir...

I’m glad Labour is supporting these workers, who are at risk of losing 400 jobs. Would be nice if they were also supporting university workers, where 10,000 jobs are at risk. In the first week of February alone 1,000 job cuts were announced. Nothing from Labour at all in response.

Petition: Run a public information campaign on the climate crisis Communicate clearly: 1) the science behind the climate crisis - how & why for the first time in the last year we've averaged 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels 2) the implications of going beyond...

Seems rather important at a time when there is foolish talk of a third runway at Heathrow ... petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

Hi Hannah, @drdomdavies.bsky.social might be a good person to reach out to about this

The Wanting Seed by Anthony Burgess. Not a great novel imo & has a v odd premise. But was an influence on Soylent Green alongside Make Room! Make Room!