We are delighted to invite nominations (including self-nominations) for the 2026 BIAPT Early-Career and Mid-Career prizes! The deadline for nominations is May 22nd. Full details are below 👇
www.associationforpoliticalthought.ac.uk/biapt-prizes...
It would be great to see you!
Do you also wish for them to contain arguments? “My thesis this evening is that the bride… could have done better. The argument proceeds in three parts.”
I gave my first keynote last week at the #BIAPT2026 conference in Edinburgh. My title was “Enlightenment Emancipation and its Abolitionist Critics.” I had the post-dinner slot so it was like delivering a wedding speech. Although such speeches don’t usually involve a handout or contain an argument…
So. What are best strategies for us as researchers? How do we divert this sewage, what infrastructural elements help drain it out of the system? What are best—and by that I mean efficient, least effortful—practices whenever we encounter this kind of crap? We need public education in info hygiene.
My forthcoming book—
For which I began research in 2006.
Is now posted on the website for Princeton University Press.
Cover will be added soon.
The King’s Slaves: The British Empire & the Origins of American Slavery
It was fun to write on ‘Humour as Political Opposition’ for this volume. The punchline is that humour can be subversive in certain contexts but that doesn’t mean it’s an effective tool of political opposition. Indeed, it is best not thought of as a ‘tool’ at all.
www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/han...
Really looking forward to this!
Very nice also to get the chance to chat to @rosscarroll.bsky.social @turnstone.bsky.social @jjjlacey.bsky.social and others not on Bluesky! Very nice to see you all, and many thanks for coming along despite the storm outside!
"The destruction of Gaza is Israeli policy"
@irishtimes.com : Slaughtered journalists, medics and starving children will not sway public opinion here in Israel
👉 www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Wonderful video from #CleanCoasts about Sally and her human Tony who litter pick on Sandymount Strand in Dublin every day
Latest Irish Business Against Litter survey has shown great improvements on beaches. It's not come about by magic, but by the heroic efforts of so many like Sally and Tony 👏
Just visited the Beara peninsula (stayed near Eyeries) for the first time last week. Loved it!
This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.
By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza
Amen to the call for programme level policy. University level policies are likely either to be so specific that they reflect only certain disciplinary perspectives, or so vague and general as to be practically useless.
Lord help us.
Mom rather than Mum or Ma?
Extraordinary & disturbing court case unfolding. UN rapporteur @michelforst.bsky.social warns State of 'directly assisting' a private company to sue an environmental activist. 'I am deeply concerned at the significant wider public interest imperilled by this case'
www.independent.ie/irish-news/u...
‘This is about how we as a community stand together & resist the injustice that’s happening. Hard-working ppl, & members of our family & our community are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice’
www.irishtimes.com/world/us/202...
“There is a pollution in the touch, in the principle of that Governor who makes nothing but money his object.” Edmund Burke on Hastings, but could be better applied to Trump.
An AI exec describes how his company’s corporate strategy is rooted in “our lived experience.” Can we now finally declare that this phrase has been utterly emptied of meaning?
www.irishtimes.com/business/202...
We're delighted to launch our CfP for our next conference, our first in Scotland. Join us in lovely Edinburgh, January 7th-9th. Submissions are open until July 17th. Full details below! 👇
www.associationforpoliticalthought.ac.uk/biapt-2026-i...
The deadline for nominations for the Early and Mid-career prizes has been extended to June 6th. So there's still time to submit!
We are accepting a new round of book proposals for this new Routledge series on "Identity, Ideology, and Worldviews in Global Politics" that Stephane Baele (UCLouvain), Beverley Loke (Australian National University), and I edit. #IR
Send us your great ideas!
This was one of the most enjoyable, useful, and well organized conferences I have attended in years. Huge thanks to the organizers!
My very talented wife has been talking about the history of papal conclaves. Interested in the time the cardinals were taking so long the locals removed the roof they were under to hurry them along (or ..em… “let the Holy Spirit in”)? Give this listen.
Why are biofuels being so heavily pushed despite their obvious, MASSIVE inefficiencies?
Because they're a fig leaf for continuing to burn stuff, above all fossil fuels.
Terrific new handbook on International Political Sociology, a what's what and who's who in the field:
"The Oxford Handbook of International Political Sociology"
eds. Stacie E. Goddard, George Lawson, and Ole Jacob Sending
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
My Burke book has been reviewed in a French publication. It’s a delightfully odd feeling to see your own words translated.
The concept is great. They review books written in languages other than French for a franchophone readership. Burke would approve!
www.books.fr/edmund-burke...
We’re eliminating programs that save millions of people from disease
And ending a lot of research that has cured diseases and will cure more
Because we need to funnel resources into AI
Because someday it may be able to figure out cures for disease
Do I have that right?
Who will play Philip Francis, I wonder? And Warren Hastings? The duel scene in Kolkata will be priceless!
