Benjamin Bland
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benjamin-bland.bsky.social
Benjamin Bland
@benjamin-bland.bsky.social
180 followers 160 following 27 posts
Historian (identity, race, popular culture, cities, memory, politics) trying to survive the times. Writing a book about transatlantic hip-hop. Work at @yorknsc.bsky.social‬.
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Reposted by Benjamin Bland
sundersays.bsky.social
Tommy Robinson is claiming credit for the language/policy being used by the Labour government (about deporting people found to be refugees once their home country is deemed safe)
November 15, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
crexuio.bsky.social
Don't miss next week's C-REX/CANSES webinar: "Researcher Safety and Vicarious Trauma: Recommendations for Universities, Supervisors, and Researchers" with Clare McKendry, moderated by @audreygagnon.bsky.social. Nov. 20, 2025, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (CET), Online www.sv.uio.no/c-rex/englis...
Researcher Safety and Vicarious Trauma: Recommendations for Universities, Supervisors, and Researchers - C-REX – Center for Research on Extremism
with Clare McKendry, University of Waterloo
www.sv.uio.no
November 14, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
goodlawproject.org
No, I'd say it's racists and those pandering to them.
November 15, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
robblackie.bsky.social
Mo Farah would not have been a British citizen for the 2012 Olympics if Labour had introduced their new asylum plan.
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 14h
Mo Farah, trafficked to UK aged 9 in 1992. Teacher Alan Watkinson secures citizenship after 8 years here, 2000 (aged 17) so he could travel abroad as GB athlete

Under future rules

Renew status? 1995, 98 x6

Eligible settlement after 20 years (2012)

Citizenship 2013

news.sky.com/story/sir-mo...
Sir Mo Farah reveals 'the truth' about how he came to the UK
The Olympic star was warned speaking out could put his British citizenship at "real risk" - but it is understood the Home Office is taking no action against him.
news.sky.com
November 16, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
olimould.bsky.social
Homelessness can be sorted so easily that it's existence is purely down to the elite wanting to maintain a deterrant for worklessness

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Homelessness figures higher than data suggests, research shows
Official data for England underestimates the scale of the problem, according to research for charity Crisis says.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
qmucu.bsky.social
"Labour defines the university as an economic engine, and then suspends the laws of capitalism to expect more output without new investment."

🤷🤷🤷

Reality not big on the agenda of Labour when it comes to #UKHE
November 7, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
chloeireton.bsky.social
This term card is on 🔥🔥🔥
📍📍The London History of Anticolonial Political Thought Seminar📍📍
⌛️Seminars are hybrid and take place in-person in London & Zoom, 5:30-7:00pm (GMT).⌛️
📲To sign up to our mailing list for the seminar, please email discourseonanticolonialism@hotmail.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
liamliburd.bsky.social
Really detailed and thorough reporting but dismayed by the “bothsideism” about the flags. *Very few* people - even people without criminal records or neo-Nazi affiliations - who put up flags this summer did so innocently regardless of their stated motivations.
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk
November 1, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
sundersays.bsky.social
Conservatives have today ditched their Mass Deportation Bill, 5 months after Chris Philip tabled it in the Commons, but a week after it was dubbed the Idi Amin Tribute Act, as it proposed Deportations of settled & legal migrants on a scale never seen since 1972 & never proposed in a democracy before
October 29, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
qmucu.bsky.social
With the rise of fascism and of the sea levels, we absolutely do not need any more people actually understanding human societies and the environment...

That Labour enables this through their failure to act is ghoulish.
ronaldhartz.bsky.social Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 16d
'around 150 jobs at risk in the initial phase'

- all academic staff in the film studies and modern languages departments
- large numbers of staff in chemistry, geography, geology & the environment (GGE) and history specialisms

#UKHE
#HigherEd

bbc.com/news/article...
University of Leicester confirms formal redundancy consultation
The University and College Union's local branch says staff are planning strike action.
bbc.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
robfordmancs.bsky.social
This is really poor by BBC researchers and producers. Goodwin hasn't been an active academic for a number of years, yet is described as one (thus legitimating his relentless Reform activism and constant bad faith misrepresentation of evidence). 1/?
huwcdavies.bsky.social Huw C. Davies @huwcdavies.bsky.social · 17d
Wikipedia says Shaheen is an academic. BBCQT implies you can’t trust what she says b/c she’s an ‘activist’. Someone who Wikipedia calls ‘a former academic’ who now campaigns for Reform & wants to be its first Home Secretary is an ‘academic & author’ who you can trust. Maybe they use Grokipedia now.
October 30, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
sundersays.bsky.social
Normalisation? Musk saying civil war inevitable in UK (at least third time) + socalising violence (the second time) is mostly not considered newsworthy.

He wrote: "It is time for the English to ally with the hard men, like Tommy Robinson, and fight for their survival or they shall surely all die"
October 30, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
ihrhistorylab.bsky.social
📢CFP: Annual Olivette Otele Prize 2025/26!

Our annual prize for Black UK-based history PhD students is now open for submissions!

📆Key dates:

- Abstracts due on 28th November
- Notifications on 19th December
- 8000 word essay due on 27th Feb

(1/3)
Olivette Otele Prize 2025/26 Open for Submissions! The Institute of Historical Research’s History Lab is excited to announce the call for papers for the Olivette Otele Prize for the 2025/26 academic year. The prize offers the chance for fast-tracked publication of an article and a cash prize of £250 and is open to Black UK-based PhD students working in history or related disciplines, exploring any place or period. Olivette Otele Prize 2025/26 Open for Submissions! We invite you to submit an abstract of no more than 400 words for a 40 minute paper by Friday 28th November 2025 to ihrhistorylab@gmail.com. Timeline: Abstract deadline of no more than 400 words due by 28th November 2025 Shortlisted scholars will be notified by Friday 19th December 2025 and asked to submit a full paper of no more than 8000 words by Friday 27th February The winner will be announced by the end of March 2026 Prize and Recognition The winner will receive a £250 cash prize, will be invited to speak at History Lab’s annual conference in summer 2026, and to submit their paper to Historical Research, the leading generalist historical journal and flagship publication of the Institute of Historical Research. Shortlisted scholars will receive a £30 book voucher and the opportunity to present their research at a History Lab seminar. About the Prize The Olivette Otele Prize was created in 2020 in response to the Royal Historical Society’s ‘Race, Ethnicity and Equality Report’ which highlighted racial inequality in the field of history. The prize was named after the UK’s first Black woman history professor and was designed to both raise participants’ profiles as well as financially reward labour involved in academic research. We look forward to reading your applications!
October 29, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
gilesyb.bsky.social
"If you wanted to design a policy that would cause human misery and be about as popular as typhoid in a jacuzzi, it is difficult to imagine how you could do better than this. This is a more extreme policy position than, say, the BNP’s 2005 manifesto"
stephenkb.bsky.social Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 24d
Hadn’t, in truth, really absorbed the scale of what the Conservatives are proposing on ILR and immigration more broadly until this week’s Sunday Times interviews. Some thoughts on that in today’s note:
Tory deportation plan would upend Britain
Proposing such a radical bill with little public support is a gift to Nigel Farage
www.ft.com
October 23, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
hannahelias.bsky.social
Turn on the caps? 100% yes, for the benefit of everyone at every level of UK higher education’s system
October 23, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
mcslaven.bsky.social
Starmer and Labour talk about "delivery" but they've been in office for more than a year, with a huge majority, and have barely managed to legislate on their manifesto pledges. For example: Where are we on the employment rights bill that would outlaw this action by Solent? Why hasn't it passed yet?
Excerpt from the 2024 Labour manifesto, reading: Labour will stop the chaos and turn the page to create a partnership between business and trade unions, by implementing ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’ in full – introducing legislation within 100 days. We will consult fully with businesses, workers, and civil society on how to put our plans into practice before legislation is passed. This will include banning exploitative zero hours contracts; ending fire and rehire; and introducing basic rights from day one to parental leave, sick pay, and protection from unfair dismissal. We will strengthen the collective voice of workers, including through their trade unions, and create a Single Enforcement Body to ensure employment rights are upheld. These changes will improve the lives of working people across the entire UK. Labour will also make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage. We will change the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission so for the first time it accounts for the cost of living. Labour will also remove the discriminatory age bands, so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage, delivering a pay rise to hundreds of thousands of workers across the UK."
October 23, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
alasdaircameron.bsky.social
This essentially means you cannot marry or form a long term relationship with a foreigner - if they fall sick, have a baby, lose their job, or just decide to take a break and write a book about cheeses of the West Country, they can be deported.
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 25d
Tory policy is to revoke permanent residence (ILR) for everybody who does not earn £38k - deporting most nurses who have ILR

This is put in the video as "who is unlikely to contribute more than they cost"

NB: video does not say EU settled status is exempt

No govt since Idi Amin has done this
October 22, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
samwetherell.bsky.social
"These proposals would mean deporting greater numbers and a greater proportion of the population than former Ugandan President Idi Amin's deportation of Ugandan Asians."
sundersays.bsky.social Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 24d
Stephen Bush on the extraordinary draft legislation which Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, Matt Vickers, Katie Lam and backbench colleagues have proposed in parliament

It is a proposal that would seek to deport around 5% of the resident population, including over a quarter of a million with ILR
October 23, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
The fine UK east coast city of Kingston upon Hull #Yorkshire is in the good news bracket today having made Nat Geo's cut for one of the top 25 global destinations in 2026 - & it is worth a visit. Here's the cover to the 1931 Official Guide #Hull

↘️ flic.kr/p/2rB53Kv
The City and Port of Hull : official handbook : [Edit.] H.R. Wright : City of Hull Development Committee : A. Brown & Sons Ltd. : Hull : nd [1931]. A rather fine official handbook, published by local company A. Brown & Sons Ltd. on behalf of the City's Development Committee, giving details of the municipal amenities and services as well as of the port, docks and associated industries. This is a rather fine bold, pictorial cover showing the Old Town surrounded by the modern industrial city situated on the north bank of the River Humber and being approached by both air from the left and sea by liner from the right. Sadly it is uncredited. The land is shown in black, the sea blue and modern Hull by a series of rising red and white structures around the old walled city.
October 23, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
katrinanavickas.bsky.social
Olive Morris's former squat and centre for the Brixton Ad-Hoc Committee against Police Repression.
£1.4m

themodernhouse.com/sales-list/t...

www.decolonisingthearchive.com/remembering-...
"Original features have been reinstated, including floorboards, an ornate ceiling rose, cornicing, and a Victorian fireplace This exceptional four-bedroom house can be found on Talma Road, a residential street lined with Victorian townhouses near Brixton Station. The house, which has a large private garden, has been extensively remodelled and extended; the volume-enhancing design places a strong emphasis on light and the footprint of the house now extends to just over 1,500 sq ft internally The Building During the 1970s, the house was home - for a time - to activist Olive Morris, a prominent community leader in feminist, Black nationalist, and squatter's rights campaigns. Talma Road was one of several Brixton residences she occupied during her activism, and her legacy is now formally recognised with an English Heritage Blue Plaque on the façade, a quiet but powerful marker of the building's place in local and political history. The Tour The honse nrecente a emart farade to the ctreet with ite delirate icing and nitched hav windou The 1.4m
October 23, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
julialaite.bsky.social
Here is my first publication from my new project on the history of colonial Newfoundland and the Beothuk people, and I'm rather nervous to put it out in the world. Genuinely, all thoughts on this work are welcome as I head into writing a book about it...
royalhistsoc.org Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 24d
New in 'Transactions': 'Possible Maps: Newfoundland, 1763–1829' bit.ly/4oygf5V

@julialaite.bsky.social shows how overlapping maps highlight complexity of encounter with place over a coherence of colonial ideologies. What were peripheries of some people’s empires were centres of others' worlds 1/2
Opening page for the new Transactions article: 'Ppssible Maps: Newfoundland, 1763-1829'. Full abstract: "Islands have a disproportionate role – as strategic locations, as imaginative or symbolic locales, as extractive zones and as ecological bellwethers – in oceanic imperial histories. They were and are places of ‘great practical use and metaphorical power’. And yet Newfoundland was seen (and continues to be seen) as marginal and peripheral, even if the biomass that was pulled out of its ocean fed – quite literally – a global network of exploitation. This article uses four overlapping maps to tell four overlapping stories: James Cook’s circumnavigation of the island in 1763–8; Lt David Buchan’s trek into the interior to contact the Beothuk in 1811 and 1820; William Eppes Cormack and Joseph Sylvester’s trek across the island in 1822; and finally, a series of story-maps created by Shanawdithit, who is apocryphally known as ‘the last of the Beothuk’. In doing so, it draws in Indigenous ‘storywork’ and cartographic histories and makes a case for storytelling as powerful methodology for examining overlooked colonial histories. These maps and stories highlight the complexity of encounter with a place rather than a coherence of colonial ideologies. Through the stories these maps help me tell, I hope to show how the peripheries of some people’s empires were the centres of other people’s worlds." Extract from Julia Laite's new TRHS article with image of Clarence Brown's 'The Newfoundland Centred World' (1977), reproduced with permission from the Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.
October 23, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
andrewseaton.bsky.social
For the first Anthropocene Histories seminar of 2025-2026, we're talking about 'Cities' with Adrián Lerner (@adrianler.bsky.social) and Pollyanna Rhee (@parhee.bsky.social).

It'll be online on 29th October between 3-5pm GMT.

Open to all, sign up here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/anthropoce...
Anthropocenes Histories: Cities
This seminar will discuss the topic of 'Cities and the Anthropocene' through research on Latin America and the U.S.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 8, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
ilotem.bsky.social
The sense of quick unraveling and complete loss of any backbone and coordinates is the oddest thing about waking up to how British political establishment is talking about cleansing and deportation as if it were just normal? And even if I see how we got here, it doesn’t make it any less depressing.
October 22, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
lottelydia.bsky.social
“Following his lecture, Yarvin will debate the legendary British historian David Starkey on history and the future of conservatism.” Everything about this is so cursed. Masks off at the University of Oxford.
Curtis Yarvin & David Starkey - The End of the End of History By Oakeshott (formerly Scruton) Lectures Follow The second Oakeshott Lecture of 2025 - with perennially viral tech philosopher Curtis Yarvin and eminent historian David Starkey In the second Oakeshott (formerly Scruton) Lecture, Curtis Yarvin will address the End of the End of History in the Post-Cold War Era. A former software developer, Curtis Yarvin came to international prominence under the pen-name Mencius Moldbug as a critic of contemporary democracy. An avid promoter of technocracy and critic of ‘the Cathedral’, Yarvin has become an influential figure on the American right - a reliably controversial voice and a confidante of JD Vance and Peter Thiel. Following his lecture, Yarvin will debate the legendary British historian David Starkey on history and the future of conservatism.
October 20, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Bland
riakapoor.bsky.social
I have a new article out.

TLDR: Actively courting deportation by air is a way to claim rights as a stateless person and even as a refugee.

academic.oup.com/past/advance...
Air Travel, Statelessness, and the Rights Claims of Ugandan Asians, c.1973*
Abstract. In the aftermath of Idi Amin’s expulsion of Uganda’s South Asians in 1972, some of those made technically stateless arrived in India unsupported
academic.oup.com
October 9, 2025 at 6:02 PM