Arthur Asseraf
arthurasseraf.bsky.social
Arthur Asseraf
@arthurasseraf.bsky.social
historian
colonialism | media | Orangina
One of those Jews for a free Palestine you keep hearing about
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
A successful fieldtrip to the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park, staffed by the enthusiastic NRC volunteers 🙌

Dr Arthur Asseraf and his Special Subject students left inspired by the history, development and future of radio communications.

@arthurasseraf.bsky.social @pembroke1347.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Can I ask for help? I’m not sure how to use this platform (or any social media) anymore.
I’ve been away bc it all feels a bit useless with the world right now. But when I was on Twitter a lot, it gave my work meaning - since then I feel in a bit of a crisis professionally, and stuck. Tips welcome!
July 7, 2025 at 4:50 PM
JOB!!!
Four-year full-time job in Modern European History (Social/Economic) at Cambridge. By today's standards, it's pretty good! Split between Trinity Hall College and History Faculty.

It's also widely defined so do apply, deadline July 27.
@camhistory.bsky.social

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNR005/s...
Senior Teaching Associate [Temporary Cover] at University of Cambridge
Searching for an academic job? Explore this Senior Teaching Associate [Temporary Cover] opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.
www.jobs.ac.uk
June 27, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
No trans people were consulted on this decision that only affects trans people. In fact trans people were actively barred from consulting on this decision that only affects trans people. But transphobic bigots? Oh they got consulted for days.

Fucking grim. I'm absolutely fuming.
The UK Supreme Court has unanimously decided that the definition of sex under the Equality Act 2010 refers solely to biological sex, and does not include people with a Gender Recognition Certificate.
April 16, 2025 at 9:08 AM
I want to send a very sincere Fuck You to Columbia University, let me be specific:

Columbia was where I started learning Arabic, and in my class were at least three Orthodox Jewish women who consistently bodied everyone else due to their excellent Hebrew grammar. 1/
April 15, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
Podcast indispensable dont 1 phrase résonne avec ce qui se joue ces dernières années autour de la place des legs coloniaux dans notre présent du Sahel à Mayotte, de l’Algérie à la Kanaky-Nouvelle Calédonie
« On a jamais aussi bien connu le phénomène colonial et on ne l’a jamais aussi peu reconnu »
Avec Benoit Trépied (CNRS) pour un entretien autour de son livre aussi passionnant que pertinent pour comprendre la crise en Kanaky-Nouvelle-Calédonie, et l’effarante négation par les autorités de l’histoire et du fait colonial qui l’a déclenchée. RV lundi (31/3) dans le podcast.
April 1, 2025 at 10:41 AM
As things are getting worse for Palestinians, our ability to protest this abroad is shrinking.
Some UK universities (like mine) are trying to ban demonstrations for 🇵🇸

please consider donating to legal costs to resist this, esp. if you’re based at a university/in the UK
donorbox.org/studentprote...
DEFEND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST: SUPPORT SOAS & CAMBRIDGE STUDENT ENCAMPMENTS FOR PALESTINE | European Legal Support Center (Powered by Donorbox)
Help us defend the right to protest on our campuses!     We are witnessing intensified repression and criminalisation of student-led protests, and your support is as crucial as ever to fight back.    ...
donorbox.org
March 19, 2025 at 2:38 PM
PSA:
I’m sorry I didn’t answer your email. Yes, all of you. I have a very heavy admin job atm and cannot respond to as many requests for media, conferences or writing projects as I would like this year (especially if they’re far away). But keep bothering me and I’ll do my best!
March 4, 2025 at 11:12 AM
We did not pay anyone for this review I promise
Ce livre est une mine d'or, à jour historiographiquement et a une grande qualité : son découpage, son organisation (en courts articles) et l'intervention des meilleurs spécialistes français et internationaux.
Il est accessible à tout le monde. Une vraie réussite de vulgarisation exigeante.
February 26, 2025 at 11:42 PM
A surprise to find that our book “Colonisations: notre histoire” which came out in 2023 is in this week’s
@londonreview.bsky.social

Especially great because of how seldom books in foreign languages get reviewed in English 👇🏼

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Rahmane Idrissa · The Time of the Whites: The Will to Colonise
The will to colonise has not disappeared. Colonisation may be gone from much of what used to be the French empire, but...
www.lrb.co.uk
February 14, 2025 at 10:59 AM
New record: not once but twice in one day have I received mail and email intended for Assef Ashraf (my taller, more attractive colleague who works on a different continent)
February 5, 2025 at 8:03 PM
me: trying to fit Palestine into one model colony or another does not help us politically

people: but you’ve never heard my perfect model

An explanation of why this doesn’t work 👇🏼 1/
@arthurasseraf.bsky.social writes: "The Algerian War...is one of the few historical cases in which a colonized people successfully dismantled a settler colonial regime through armed struggle."

Asseraf is wrong, but he's in a great club that includes almost everyone. 1/8
The Algeria Analogy
We must turn to histories of decolonization not in order to predictoutcomes, but to expand our sense of how to fight without knowing the future.
jewishcurrents.org
February 5, 2025 at 7:38 PM
And here for more discussion 👇🏼
Another note, not on history this time. A main argument here is

"To insist that Palestinians must account for the future of Israelis is to deflect from the central question: how to end a brutal colonial system."

I have two points to make in response.

1/

jewishcurrents.org/the-algeria-...
The Algeria Analogy
We must turn to histories of decolonization not in order to predictoutcomes, but to expand our sense of how to fight without knowing the future.
jewishcurrents.org
February 5, 2025 at 11:03 AM
See below for discussion 👇🏼
February 5, 2025 at 10:48 AM
‘It is peculiar that some people gaze upon the occupation, fragmentation, and genocide of Palestinians and, as a precondition for supporting their liberation, demand that they specify exactly what a liberated Palestine would look like.’

Reposting bc some of the end was missing last week!
The Algeria Analogy
We must turn to histories of decolonization not in order to predictoutcomes, but to expand our sense of how to fight without knowing the future.
jewishcurrents.org
February 3, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
“We should ask not whether what unfolded in 🇩🇿 is especially similar to 🇵🇸, but how reading these histories together might help us consider what decolonization feels like not as an end point, but as an ongoing process.” The always-great @arthurasseraf.bsky.social on Algeria and Palestine.
The Algeria Analogy
We must turn to histories of decolonization not in order to predictoutcomes, but to expand our sense of how to fight without knowing the future.
jewishcurrents.org
January 28, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
"Settler colonialism relentlessly politicizes movement and dwelling, but the basic act of staying or going is not, in itself, indicative of a person’s political position."
Now online from our winter issue: Historian Arthur Asseraf argues that "understanding Algeria’s past—beyond a slogan or an analogy—is essential to countering attacks on decolonization today."
jewishcurrents.org/the-algeria-...
The Algeria Analogy
We must turn to histories of decolonization not in order to predictoutcomes, but to expand our sense of how to fight without knowing the future.
jewishcurrents.org
January 28, 2025 at 2:32 AM
My essay on the Algeria/Palestine comparison, and what we do with it now, is now out and free to read and share on the Jewish Currents website:
Now online from our winter issue: Historian Arthur Asseraf argues that "understanding Algeria’s past—beyond a slogan or an analogy—is essential to countering attacks on decolonization today."
jewishcurrents.org/the-algeria-...
The Algeria Analogy
We must turn to histories of decolonization not in order to predictoutcomes, but to expand our sense of how to fight without knowing the future.
jewishcurrents.org
January 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Fuck the American Historical Association
January 17, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Ce soir et demain à Tunis!
On January 10 & 11 in Tunis: this very timely seminar series on thinking the Palestinian question from a Maghrebi perspective. With @arthurasseraf.bsky.social, @muriamhalehdavis.bsky.social, Inès El Alami, Hèla Yousfi, Augustin Jomier, Abaher El-Sakka, Slim Laghmani irmcmaghreb.org/cycle-de-ren...
Cycle de séminaires: Penser la question palestinienne depuis le Maghreb
Sur 3 séances, le 5 décembre 2024, les 10 et 11 janvier 2025.
irmcmaghreb.org
January 10, 2025 at 11:21 AM
January 7, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
"Sortir Fanon de son autel n’implique peut-être pas seulement de retrouver l’homme derrière l’icône, mais rend aussi nécessaire de penser notre présent racial..."

@arthurasseraf.bsky.social a lu pour @laviedesidees.bsky.social le 'Frantz Fanon' d'Adam Shatz @edladecouverte.bsky.social.⤵️
Comment échapper aux lectures mythifiantes et souvent contradictoires de la figure de Frantz Fanon, révolutionnaire et théoricien de l'anticolonialisme ? Son parcours permet de saisir sa pensée dans son contexte, à rebours des tendances contemporaines à la généralisation.
Fanon décanonisé
Comment échapper aux lectures mythifiantes et souvent contradictoires de la figure de Frantz Fanon, révolutionnaire et théoricien de l'anticolonialisme ? Son parcours permet de saisir sa pensée dans son contexte, à rebours des tendances contemporaines à…
laviedesidees.fr
December 20, 2024 at 1:48 PM
Dans La Vie des Idées, ma lecture de la dernière biographie de Frantz Fanon par Adam Shatz, ou, comment retrouver l’homme derrière le mythe c’est bien mais peut-être pas suffisant
Comment échapper aux lectures mythifiantes et souvent contradictoires de la figure de Frantz Fanon, révolutionnaire et théoricien de l'anticolonialisme ? Son parcours permet de saisir sa pensée dans son contexte, à rebours des tendances contemporaines à la généralisation.
Fanon décanonisé
Comment échapper aux lectures mythifiantes et souvent contradictoires de la figure de Frantz Fanon, révolutionnaire et théoricien de l'anticolonialisme ? Son parcours permet de saisir sa pensée dans son contexte, à rebours des tendances contemporaines à…
laviedesidees.fr
December 20, 2024 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
Our Fall/Winter issue is almost here! Featuring work from @maricohen.bsky.social @arthurasseraf.bsky.social @soljbrager.bsky.social & others, a special collaboration with @hyperallergic.com and so much more. Subscribe today to get it—and save 25% with code WINTERBLUESKY. jewishcurrents.org/subscribe
December 18, 2024 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Arthur Asseraf
Pour @vintagearab.bsky.social
Le Maghreb des ondes

Tiré du roman d Amira Ghenim le désastre de la maison des notables
December 16, 2024 at 7:45 AM