Joel Quirk
@joelquirk.bsky.social
Enslavement and Abolition, Mobility and Work, Social Movements, Gender and Violence, Historical Repair, the Politics and History of Africa. Wits Politics Prof
Anti-trafficking killjoys struggle to get beyond trafficking and slavery. The only way to truly get beyond anti-trafficking is to stop making it the main character.
Our final @beyondslavery.bsky.social feature on solidarities beyond silos
www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...
Our final @beyondslavery.bsky.social feature on solidarities beyond silos
www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...
Solidarity beyond silos is our best bet to end exploitation
Far-right bullies are on the rise, and exploitation will likely rise with them. Cross-movement organising is the only way out
www.opendemocracy.net
November 10, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Anti-trafficking killjoys struggle to get beyond trafficking and slavery. The only way to truly get beyond anti-trafficking is to stop making it the main character.
Our final @beyondslavery.bsky.social feature on solidarities beyond silos
www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...
Our final @beyondslavery.bsky.social feature on solidarities beyond silos
www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...
Two data points:
1) Trump killing 11 people via drone strike off the Venezuelan coast
2) Isreal violating international law to strike Hamas in Doha
These are cut from the same cloth. Once you create a state of exception you keep using it over and over
Really baaaaaad shit is coming down the pipe
1) Trump killing 11 people via drone strike off the Venezuelan coast
2) Isreal violating international law to strike Hamas in Doha
These are cut from the same cloth. Once you create a state of exception you keep using it over and over
Really baaaaaad shit is coming down the pipe
September 11, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Two data points:
1) Trump killing 11 people via drone strike off the Venezuelan coast
2) Isreal violating international law to strike Hamas in Doha
These are cut from the same cloth. Once you create a state of exception you keep using it over and over
Really baaaaaad shit is coming down the pipe
1) Trump killing 11 people via drone strike off the Venezuelan coast
2) Isreal violating international law to strike Hamas in Doha
These are cut from the same cloth. Once you create a state of exception you keep using it over and over
Really baaaaaad shit is coming down the pipe
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Applications are now open for the 2025 Colin Murray Award. Deadline: 30 September 2025. The award supports post-doctoral researchers to carry out original ‘engaged field research’ in Southern Africa. Please see the link below for more details jsas.blog
Journal of Southern African Studies
Publishes leading research concerning the history, economics, sociology, demography and anthropology of Southern Africa.
jsas.blog
August 27, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Applications are now open for the 2025 Colin Murray Award. Deadline: 30 September 2025. The award supports post-doctoral researchers to carry out original ‘engaged field research’ in Southern Africa. Please see the link below for more details jsas.blog
Reposted by Joel Quirk
BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.
‘I escaped a Russian prison — only to end up in an American jail’
Dozens of Russian dissidents have been expelled from the US and forcibly returned to Russia with the co-operation of immigration authorities
www.thetimes.com
September 6, 2025 at 10:52 PM
BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
I’m just a girl, who did a spinal tap on a preschooler last week, asking you to fire RFK Jr.
a woman in a blue shirt is looking at a man in a pink shirt .
Alt: a woman in a blue shirt is looking at a man in a pink shirt , scene from Notting Hill
media.tenor.com
September 4, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I’m just a girl, who did a spinal tap on a preschooler last week, asking you to fire RFK Jr.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Imagine picking a “businessman” to be your leader, but instead of a great businessman, or even a good one, you pick the absolute worst one…I mean, the laughing stock of his sector (land dev’t), known for many bankruptcies, cheating people, crooked deals, etc.
Now imagine letting him be a dictator.
Now imagine letting him be a dictator.
August 25, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Imagine picking a “businessman” to be your leader, but instead of a great businessman, or even a good one, you pick the absolute worst one…I mean, the laughing stock of his sector (land dev’t), known for many bankruptcies, cheating people, crooked deals, etc.
Now imagine letting him be a dictator.
Now imagine letting him be a dictator.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Call from a producer this morning:
Zoe please help - we thought the panel on our show was balanced, but it turns out they’re both pro-mass detention camps for asylum seekers. Would you come on to be the anti-detention camp voice?
We are in a really bad place, friends, I am telling you.
Zoe please help - we thought the panel on our show was balanced, but it turns out they’re both pro-mass detention camps for asylum seekers. Would you come on to be the anti-detention camp voice?
We are in a really bad place, friends, I am telling you.
August 20, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Call from a producer this morning:
Zoe please help - we thought the panel on our show was balanced, but it turns out they’re both pro-mass detention camps for asylum seekers. Would you come on to be the anti-detention camp voice?
We are in a really bad place, friends, I am telling you.
Zoe please help - we thought the panel on our show was balanced, but it turns out they’re both pro-mass detention camps for asylum seekers. Would you come on to be the anti-detention camp voice?
We are in a really bad place, friends, I am telling you.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Laura Bates' book The New Age of Sexism takes a sobering look at how tech accelerates misogyny. But the book makes a pretty glaring failure, in that it overlooks the very real and harmful impact that AI has on sex workers. Which should be the real story.
The New Age of Sexism: AI impact on sex workers overlooked
Laura Bates’ new book is distracted by sexbots. AI’s power to surveil and marginalise sex workers is the real story
www.opendemocracy.net
August 20, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Laura Bates' book The New Age of Sexism takes a sobering look at how tech accelerates misogyny. But the book makes a pretty glaring failure, in that it overlooks the very real and harmful impact that AI has on sex workers. Which should be the real story.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
This is all becoming very dangerous and the Government's failure to show any kind of resistance to it is a disgrace www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Family in fear after Tommy Robinson shares video of black man with white granddaughters
Exclusive: Olajuwon Ayeni racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile as far right weaponises clip of family in park
www.theguardian.com
August 20, 2025 at 7:12 AM
This is all becoming very dangerous and the Government's failure to show any kind of resistance to it is a disgrace www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
My latest with the Global Observatory, on the need for urgent action in #Tigray: theglobalobservatory.org/2025/08/urge...
Urgent Action Is Needed to Prevent Tigray from Sliding Back into War - IPI Global Observatory
The current state of “no war no peace” in northern Ethiopia seems to be preserved only by the rainy season’s predictable afternoon showers and relatively chill air. Tigrayans are making anxious prepar...
theglobalobservatory.org
August 19, 2025 at 8:18 PM
My latest with the Global Observatory, on the need for urgent action in #Tigray: theglobalobservatory.org/2025/08/urge...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Apartheid South Africa banned television until 1977, partly due to a belief that TV was satanic.
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
August 19, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Apartheid South Africa banned television until 1977, partly due to a belief that TV was satanic.
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
At the beginning of September, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court will hear a case that could finally end the criminalization of sex work in the country.
It’s a moment decades in the making, which could bring real gains for the safety, dignity, and equality of sex workers.
It’s a moment decades in the making, which could bring real gains for the safety, dignity, and equality of sex workers.
Standing with Sex Workers: Why This Case Matters
At the beginning of September, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court will hear a case that could finally end the criminalization of sex work in the country.
www.hrw.org
August 19, 2025 at 3:32 PM
At the beginning of September, South Africa’s Western Cape High Court will hear a case that could finally end the criminalization of sex work in the country.
It’s a moment decades in the making, which could bring real gains for the safety, dignity, and equality of sex workers.
It’s a moment decades in the making, which could bring real gains for the safety, dignity, and equality of sex workers.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
I understand why Democrats are citing things like a "human trafficking investigation" as evidence of beneficial local/federal enforcement cooperation, but the one cited here appears to have not resulted in any arrests for human trafficking, but for sex-for-a-fee: police.boston.gov/2025/08/12/t...
August 19, 2025 at 3:56 PM
I understand why Democrats are citing things like a "human trafficking investigation" as evidence of beneficial local/federal enforcement cooperation, but the one cited here appears to have not resulted in any arrests for human trafficking, but for sex-for-a-fee: police.boston.gov/2025/08/12/t...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
I am genuinely impressed at the government's capacity to undermine the normative power of invoking terrorism and national security. They have done more in 30 days to problematise the concepts than 30 years of leftist scholarship.
BREAKING: Downing Street has warned Sally Rooney risks committing a terrorist offence if she funds Palestine Action
It comes after the author said she would continue to support the group financially
It comes after the author said she would continue to support the group financially
August 18, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I am genuinely impressed at the government's capacity to undermine the normative power of invoking terrorism and national security. They have done more in 30 days to problematise the concepts than 30 years of leftist scholarship.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
The return to the Gilded Age continues as ICE detention centers have become a spawning ground for consumption, AKA tuberculosis. It goes without saying that ICE isn't doing what it takes to prevent this. @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social has the disturbing story:
prospect.org/health/2025-...
prospect.org/health/2025-...
Tuberculosis Spawning in Crowded, Dirty ICE Detention Centers
Doctors and medical researchers expect more outbreaks of infectious disease as the Trump administration crams thousands more people into miserable conditions.
prospect.org
August 18, 2025 at 1:33 PM
The return to the Gilded Age continues as ICE detention centers have become a spawning ground for consumption, AKA tuberculosis. It goes without saying that ICE isn't doing what it takes to prevent this. @whitneycwimbish.bsky.social has the disturbing story:
prospect.org/health/2025-...
prospect.org/health/2025-...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
@theguardian.com doesn't reflect the reality of what happened yesterday. The fascist group held signs saying "Kill them all" (no arrests), made obscene gestures, did nazi salutes, used abusive & obscene language (vocabulary not usually a strong skill for them).
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Anti-racism and anti-immigration protesters in Falkirk face off outside asylum hotel
Counter-demonstration offers welcome to refugees as anti-migrant protesters gather outside Cladhan hotel
www.theguardian.com
August 17, 2025 at 10:13 AM
@theguardian.com doesn't reflect the reality of what happened yesterday. The fascist group held signs saying "Kill them all" (no arrests), made obscene gestures, did nazi salutes, used abusive & obscene language (vocabulary not usually a strong skill for them).
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
There are no magic fixes, but Section 307 of the US Tariff Act delivers results. Import bans blocking forced-labor tainted goods from the US market have led to more than $62 million in back wages & fees returned to workers. Read our @opendemocracy.net oped: www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...
August 14, 2025 at 1:40 PM
There are no magic fixes, but Section 307 of the US Tariff Act delivers results. Import bans blocking forced-labor tainted goods from the US market have led to more than $62 million in back wages & fees returned to workers. Read our @opendemocracy.net oped: www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tr...
Seminar (online only): Female Politicians Running for Office
Thursday 10am SAST
Meeting link: lnkd.in/d3gxgGUm
Causes of Women's Descriptive Under-representation in Zambia, Janet Mundando
Between Rhetoric and Reform: The Failure of Gender Quotas in Liberia, Lisa Kindervater
Thursday 10am SAST
Meeting link: lnkd.in/d3gxgGUm
Causes of Women's Descriptive Under-representation in Zambia, Janet Mundando
Between Rhetoric and Reform: The Failure of Gender Quotas in Liberia, Lisa Kindervater
August 12, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Seminar (online only): Female Politicians Running for Office
Thursday 10am SAST
Meeting link: lnkd.in/d3gxgGUm
Causes of Women's Descriptive Under-representation in Zambia, Janet Mundando
Between Rhetoric and Reform: The Failure of Gender Quotas in Liberia, Lisa Kindervater
Thursday 10am SAST
Meeting link: lnkd.in/d3gxgGUm
Causes of Women's Descriptive Under-representation in Zambia, Janet Mundando
Between Rhetoric and Reform: The Failure of Gender Quotas in Liberia, Lisa Kindervater
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Facebook reminds me that a year ago I started a project of scanning the journals of the Central African Historical Association, based at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, which ran from 1970 to the early 1980s. I have uploaded my scans to Dropbox here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ruzbp...
August 12, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Facebook reminds me that a year ago I started a project of scanning the journals of the Central African Historical Association, based at the University of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, which ran from 1970 to the early 1980s. I have uploaded my scans to Dropbox here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ruzbp...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Happening now: protesters in Chicago are interrupting a hiring fair at the Congress Hotel, where U.S. Customs and Border protection is recruiting today.
Banner reads, "stop kidnapping our neighbors!"
It's quite the scene in here, and the DHS table has been blocked for several minutes already.
Banner reads, "stop kidnapping our neighbors!"
It's quite the scene in here, and the DHS table has been blocked for several minutes already.
August 7, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Happening now: protesters in Chicago are interrupting a hiring fair at the Congress Hotel, where U.S. Customs and Border protection is recruiting today.
Banner reads, "stop kidnapping our neighbors!"
It's quite the scene in here, and the DHS table has been blocked for several minutes already.
Banner reads, "stop kidnapping our neighbors!"
It's quite the scene in here, and the DHS table has been blocked for several minutes already.
This is nuts. 474 people have been arrested and are now facing being charged with terrorism for showing up in a public place to peacefully protest against the most well documented genocide in human history…
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Police arrest 474 people at protest over Palestine Action ban in London
Number of arrests was highest recorded in relation to single operation in at least past decade, according to Met police
www.theguardian.com
August 10, 2025 at 11:42 AM
This is nuts. 474 people have been arrested and are now facing being charged with terrorism for showing up in a public place to peacefully protest against the most well documented genocide in human history…
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Reposted by Joel Quirk
UK still sharing intelligence with Israel as surveillance flights over Gaza continue - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-still-sharing-intelligence-israel-surveillance-flights-over-gaza-continue
UK still sharing intelligence with Israel as surveillance flights over Gaza continue
Despite escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries, Britain has continued to assist Israel militarily
www.middleeasteye.net
August 6, 2025 at 8:47 AM
UK still sharing intelligence with Israel as surveillance flights over Gaza continue - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-still-sharing-intelligence-israel-surveillance-flights-over-gaza-continue
Reposted by Joel Quirk
Texas has made "trans women peeing" a higher governmental priority than human trafficking.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has listed the anti-trans bathroom bill as the 7th highest priority on his list of 16 priority bills #txlege
July 22, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Texas has made "trans women peeing" a higher governmental priority than human trafficking.
Reposted by Joel Quirk
The stranger danger panic has convinced a whole lot of people that rapists are never people you know.
And they interpret that to mean that, if they know someone—personally or parasocially—that they must be innocent.
No matter how many victims come forward.
And they interpret that to mean that, if they know someone—personally or parasocially—that they must be innocent.
No matter how many victims come forward.
July 18, 2025 at 2:41 PM
The stranger danger panic has convinced a whole lot of people that rapists are never people you know.
And they interpret that to mean that, if they know someone—personally or parasocially—that they must be innocent.
No matter how many victims come forward.
And they interpret that to mean that, if they know someone—personally or parasocially—that they must be innocent.
No matter how many victims come forward.
Public Lecture Series: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Semester Two, 2025
For further information please contact everythingeverywherewits@gmail.com
All sessions are hybrid, with meeting links being circulated close to time. There is no need to register in advance.
For further information please contact everythingeverywherewits@gmail.com
All sessions are hybrid, with meeting links being circulated close to time. There is no need to register in advance.
July 17, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Public Lecture Series: Everything Everywhere All at Once, Semester Two, 2025
For further information please contact everythingeverywherewits@gmail.com
All sessions are hybrid, with meeting links being circulated close to time. There is no need to register in advance.
For further information please contact everythingeverywherewits@gmail.com
All sessions are hybrid, with meeting links being circulated close to time. There is no need to register in advance.