Florian G. Kern
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floriangkern.bsky.social
Florian G. Kern
@floriangkern.bsky.social
1.5K followers 2.4K following 120 posts
Associate Professor, political scientist, Dep of Government, Univ of Essex, comparative politics in Africa, mixed methods, Visiting Senior Fellow LSE Dep of Methodology; Co-Director @africasigessex; ESRC MCCRA

https://sites.google.com/site/floriangkern
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floriangkern.bsky.social
Florian G. Kern @floriangkern.bsky.social · Jun 8
🚨News from my home town!
sleestak.bsky.social Sleestak @sleestak.bsky.social · Jun 8
"In 1642 in the town of Lemgo, Germany, local pharmacist David Welman was accused of witchcraft and being a werewolf. Anonymous hate mail was sent to him, one of which included this sketch."
Cute drawing of a 'werewolf': In 1642 in the town of Lemgo, Germany, local pharmacist David Welman was accused of witchcraft and being a werewolf. Anonymous hate mail was sent to him, one of which included this sketch.
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
uniessexgov.bsky.social
Thank you to the students of our Essex Politics Society for organising yesterday's wonderful panel, 'Populism: On the Rise,' featuring Professor Natasha Lindstaedt, Dr. Roi Zur, and Dr. Rafael Tauil, moderated by Professor Faten Ghosn.

#EssexGov #EssexPoliticsSociety #PoliticalScience
October 30, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
uniessexgov.bsky.social
🌍 EssexGov researchers in Kampala for the Multilingualism, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution in Africa (MCCRA) project — a £2.5M ESRC-funded collaboration (2023–2027) studying how language shapes conflict and peacebuilding across Africa.

#EssexGov #EssexGovImpact @mccrafrica-essex.bsky.social
October 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
uniessexgov.bsky.social
Big questions. Brilliant speakers.

This term at @EssexGov:

📊 Demographic change
🌐 Great power politics & the UN (with ModelUN)
🌍 Africa in multilateral organisations

Join us! Link in bio.

#PoliticalScience #EssexGov
October 13, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
melissaontheroad.bsky.social
Raila Odinga, an enduring voice of Kenya’s democratic struggle, dies aged 80 rfi.my/C6F7.BS
Raila Odinga, an enduring voice of Kenya’s democratic struggle, dies aged 80
Kenya’s former prime minister and veteran opposition leader, Raila Odinga, has died following a decades-long career that defined the country’s struggle for democracy.
rfi.my
October 15, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
uniessexgov.bsky.social
🌍 The Africa Special Interest Group (ASIG) meets every Tuesday from 11:00 — the hub for Africa-focused research at Essex!

Co-directed by Prof Hannah Gibson & Dr. Florian Kern, and open to all — staff, students, and anyone interested. Come say hi! ☕

#EssexGov #ASIG
October 8, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
fgenovese.bsky.social
That’s me talking about links between my daily job and climate change for the @leverhulme.ac.uk, thanks to the Expeditions partner which come to speak to me and championed my research 💙

(yes you can tell it is me because that is indeed my house and I‘m zero tv trained but hey at least it‘s not AI!)
leverhulme.ac.uk Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · Oct 6
Professor @fgenovese.bsky.social @politicsoxford.bsky.social, specialises in the politics of climate and crises. She reflects on the need to take responsibility in the fight against climate change. www.joinexpeditions.com/experts/4624
October 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
leverhulme.ac.uk
Professor @fgenovese.bsky.social @politicsoxford.bsky.social, specialises in the politics of climate and crises. She reflects on the need to take responsibility in the fight against climate change. www.joinexpeditions.com/experts/4624
October 6, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
ryanlcooper.com
extremely well put
An actual pragmatist would evaluate and change course. Someone who understood public opinion might notice that anti-immigrant sentiment responds to media coverage, not objective reality. They might reason that this is not a problem that can be addressed by policy concessions because policy is not what is causing it. They might even consider offering a different narrative and seeing whether that makes a dent. A truly daring politician might consider telling the British public the truth: that they are being lied to by the right-wing press about the cause of the country's problems, and that Reform is capitalising on this for political gain. The government does not seem inclined to do any of this. Despite understanding themselves as critical thinkers, reactionary centrists are conformists at heart. And they are so unmoored in our current age because, increasingly, there is no social consensus for them to conform to. Affluent countries the world over are balkanising into fascist and anti-fascist factions. One must simply pick a side. There is no longer such a thing as “British public opinion” (if there ever was). Rather, half the country supports socially illiberal parties and half supports (broadly speaking) liberal ones, similar to the split in the Brexit referendum. If we follow international trends, the values of these two sides will only grow more irreconcilable. Starmer is—though you would never guess it—the captain of the liberal team. His job is not to find consensus, but to hold his own coalition together.
October 1, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
tabouchadi.bsky.social
For the Guardian, @turnbulldugarte.com and I discuss our research that clearly shows one thing: Labour's anti-immigration strategy will only strengthen Reform and weaken its own electoral prospects. It won't win voters back but ultimately normalizes the far right

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Our research makes it clear: by capitulating to the right, Labour is driving voters to Reform UK | Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte
Mimicking Farage on immigration is senseless. Labour voters feel betrayed; anti-immigration voters see through the ruse, say academics Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte
www.theguardian.com
September 26, 2025 at 11:30 AM
floriangkern.bsky.social
Most of the time, I’m outnumbered.
September 24, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
mccrafrica-essex.bsky.social
MCCRA team members Angiachi Demetris, Hannah Gibson, and Fiona Tumusiime present research on language and conflict at Makerere University, Uganda.

Most of the team will be in Kampala soon - stay tuned!

@uniessexgov.bsky.social @africasigessex.bsky.social @universityofessex.bsky.social
Angiachi presents at Makerere University
September 18, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
mccrafrica-essex.bsky.social
❗This week the MCCRAfrica project team is in #Kampala -planning the next stages of our research.

Today, we kicked off with a planning session for our upcoming field trip in the #DRC led by Dr. Alain Bernard Nseka and Dr. Delphin Kayembe.

More updates to follow, as the workshop unfolds…stay tuned!
A collage of images showing highlights from the project team meeting.
September 22, 2025 at 12:29 PM
floriangkern.bsky.social
Very Bielefeld of Bielefeld train station to cancel all trains to and from Bielefeld.
#DeutscheBahn
September 19, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
carogarriga.bsky.social
I had the pleasure of joining NPR's @planetmoney.bsky.social to talk about central banks, what’s happening with the Fed, & why it matters.

Big thanks to @erikaberas.bsky.social for a fun and engaging interview (+ Carola Binder & Lev Menand).

@uniessexgov.bsky.social
www.npr.org/2025/09/05/n...
What happens to central banks under pressure? : Planet Money
President Donald Trump has been pressuring the Federal Reserve from a few angles. So we wanted to look at other examples of political pressure on central banks, to see what it might mean for us and fo...
www.npr.org
September 7, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
uniessexgov.bsky.social
👏 Congrats to Dr Laura Sudulich on completing her Parliamentary Academic Fellowship with @ukparliament.parliament.uk!

Outcome: a global map of parliamentary public engagement 🗺️

📅 Launch Event: 25 Sept, Westminster
🎙️ Chaired by @shane-martin.bsky.social

#EssexGov #EssexImpact #UKParliament
September 12, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
uniessexgov.bsky.social
📈 The University of Essex is on the rise!
The Guardian University Guide 2026 ranks us:
🏆 12th overall in the UK
📚 12th for Politics
🌍 9th for International Relations
#EssexGov #EssexImpact #EssexIR #UniversityRankings
September 13, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
us.theconversation.com
President Trump’s attempt to remove Fed governor Lisa Cook could undermine the economy -- and amp up inflation.

The Fed’s role is to keep decisions like interest rates tied to data, not short-term political gain. Video from an article by political economists Ana Carolina Garriga and Cristina Bodea
August 27, 2025 at 8:06 PM
floriangkern.bsky.social
When you were just one voluntary severance scheme away from sucking at this. #whodathunk
August 28, 2025 at 11:51 AM
floriangkern.bsky.social
It’s August, but a decently sized @uniessexgov.bsky.social Institutions group met today for our monthly reading workshop to discuss @sascenciob.bsky.social’s super interesting working paper on gender quotas and intraparty battles. No presentation, just reading and discussion. Good group, this.
August 27, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
jessicacalarco.com
The purveyors of AI want us to believe that AI is the perfect educator. Because they want us to believe that it's more effective to invest tax dollars in private companies than in public services.
newmethos.bsky.social newmethos @newmethos.bsky.social · Aug 17
It fucking blows my mind that AI has such a hold on the mind as the perfect educator when it sucks at every pedagogical principle I’ve ever been taught
jessicacalarco.com Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · Aug 17
Arrgh. This ad (which came across my FB feed today) encapsulates so much of what's wrong with our culture. It implies that boys are struggling with math because they aren't "man" enough and that the best solution isn't to invest more in public education but rather to have parents pay for AI.
August 17, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
rheinze.myatproto.social
Es gibt aktuell keinen besseren Journalismus zu afrikanischen Themen als @thecontinent.org und Ihr könnt ihn einfach über Signal und WhatsApp UMSONST abonnieren:

wa.me/27738056068?...

signal.me#eu/_OpoNMfIF...
August 15, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
dalangmalang.bsky.social
Das ist der Zeitgeist: aufgeben
August 10, 2025 at 6:09 AM
floriangkern.bsky.social
Erklär mir mal einer warum Superpunk‘s Ich weigere mich aufzugeben nur 55k streams of Spotify hat. Unfassbar.

@dalangmalang.bsky.social da muss mehr kommen.
August 8, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
fgenovese.bsky.social
Everything is AI news or AI related opining, so as a cleanser here is one of the most humanly raw pieces of art still around:

Opera dei Pupi (hand-made marionettes theatre telling stories of the Crusades) in Palermo, Sicily
August 5, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Florian G. Kern
laurenginsberg.bsky.social
This is very bad. Although entirely predictable. Once more the humanities are being cut back to prop up STEM and, increasingly, AI investment (including at the expense of bench science). In the past, cuts to humanities were promoted on two separate logic streams that do not hold true: /1
earlymodjustice.bsky.social Holly Brewer @earlymodjustice.bsky.social · Jul 23
Dean at U of Chicago: “She also expressed concerns that the administration might be asking the Arts & Humanities Division to cut back to compensate for other divisions’ financial challenges, asking whether ‘our entire unit [is] being used to float other units facing cuts.”
UChicago Arts & Humanities Division to Restructure Amid “Historic Funding Pressures”
“The status quo is not an option,” Deborah Nelson, dean of the Division of the Arts & Humanities, wrote to division faculty on June 18.
chicagomaroon.com
July 24, 2025 at 10:37 PM