Great, glad you enjoyed it! Slightly expanded and more academic edition should be coming out at some point, too.

University of Sheffield staff 'intimidated' by pay forfeit warning University of Sheffield to withhold pay if staff do not make up for teaching missed while striking.

Management at Sheffield have aggressively ramped up their attacks on striking staff, but we @sheffielducu.bsky.social are unbowed: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Essex to close Southend campus and cut 400 jobs University says it has been forced into making ‘decisions we could have never previously imagined’ after steep drop in international student numbers

Grim news and vacuous messaging from Essex: 200 academic posts (in unspecified subjects) to go this year & 200 professional staff posts in the next 2 years. Closure of Southend campus will be a blow regionally as well. The vision and ambition that saw Essex et al established is sorely needed now.

University of Sheffield staff 'intimidated' by pay forfeit warning University of Sheffield to withhold pay if staff do not make up for teaching missed while striking.

Like in a lot of other places, we're striking to protect jobs here at Sheffield. Management have failed to negotiate with us in good faith, deliberately allowed this to escalate, and now want to lock us out of work for refusing to replace teaching that has been lost.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Art detail from the cover of Africa Development magazine, November 1974. A ship with the name 'ZIFI' at a port in Africa. Stevedores struggle to carry the weight of the cargo onto the shore.

Call for Papers: Beyond the Box: Re-Thinking Global Histories of Contemporary #Shipping

I'm hosting a workshop with my colleague Betty Banks in Edinburgh, 28-29 May 2026

More details here - networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

Art detail from the cover of Africa Development magazine, November 1974. A ship with the name 'ZIFI' at a port in Africa. Stevedores struggle to carry the weight of the cargo onto the shore.

Call for Papers: Beyond the Box: Re-Thinking Global Histories of Contemporary #Shipping

I'm hosting a workshop with my colleague Betty Banks in Edinburgh, 28-29 May 2026

More details here - networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

In Kenya, Gen Z Battles Corruption and Police Violence What keeps the Ruto administration running from crisis to crisis remains a complete unwillingness to listen to people and an unswerving commitment to responding to any form of dissent with violence.

“Those of us who lived through the tail end of Moi’s regime have developed a way of speaking politics in code and rumor, hiding the sharpest tips of our pens in fiction, comedy, and music.”
#Kenya

hammerandhope.org/article/keny...

Papuan Petitions as an Archive of Decolonisation In 1961, West Papuan leaders declared their intent to become an independent nation in opposition to both Dutch colonial control and Indonesia’s campaign to incorporate the territory into its Republ...

My article 'Papuan Petitions as an Archive of Decolonisation' is online and open access! It's part of an upcoming special issue on petitions. I explore West Papuan petitions written in the lead up to the Act of 'Free' Choice and the significance of this archive.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Can anyone point me towards any literature in the Humanities that makes the case for the continued importance of print publications in the era of digital publishing and Open Access?

Kenya’s vibe shift From aesthetic cool to political confusion, a new generation in Kenya is navigating broken promises, borrowed styles, and the blurred lines between irony and ideology.

The fire in this!

africasacountry.com/2025/04/keny...

Have you ever used this app? Endless fun (especially if you're spending a lot of time on cruise ships...) www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/...

The Soweto Uprising and South African Exile in Socialist Tanzania How did Tanzanian socialist ideas shape the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1970s? Yasmina Martin connects two traditions of African liberation through the ANC's projects of 'self-reliance' in exile.

How did Tanzanian socialist ideas shape the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1970s?

Yasmina Martin connects two traditions of African liberation through the ANC's projects of 'self-reliance' in exile.

www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decol...

Ahmed Rajab obituary Other lives: Broadcaster and journalist with a broad knowledge of African politics and economics

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Vale Ahmed Rajab, journalist nonpareil

pambazuka.org/Ahmed-Rajab-...

Face à la situation budgétaire dramatique de nos Universités, qui met en péril nos missions de service public, nos métiers, et l’avenir de nos étudiants, l’Ecole de science politique de la Sorbonne se déclare en chômage technique et appelle ses collègues et étudiant-es à faire de même ❤️‍🔥

My new article ‘Mission Impossible?
Humanitarian Actors and the Civilizational Logic of International Aid Delivery during the “Congo Crisis,” 1960–1964’ is now open access with Humanity. Worth checking out for the photos, if nothing else. Here is (most of) the abstract.
muse.jhu.edu/pub/56/artic...

Document Highlight: When Julius Nyerere broke with Western Trade Unionism [Author: Dr Niels Boender (University of Edinburgh)]

We're happy to announce we've posted our next blog - authored by Project Post-doc @nielsboender.bsky.social - a spotlight from our archival research on Trade Unions, Labour Rights and Tanzania: medium.com/@glosoc/docu...

XXIII(1-2) | 2024 Il était une fois la révolution portugaise Revue comparatiste consacrée aux espaces issus de l’histoire portugaise / Comparative review devoted to areas from Portuguese history

** Lusotopie 2025 **
Superb special issue on the #Portuguese #Revolution, edited by Michel Cahen & @yleonard.bsky.social with articles on PREC, #Timor, #Angola, #memory, newspapers, etc. AfroLuso
Free online here: journals.openedition.org/lusotopie/7912

Graph showing how the price of newsprint, constant since circa 1960, more than doubled in the mid-1970s

I've got a new article out in @globalhistjnl.bsky.social

It's about the 'paper famine' of the 1970s, the causes and consequences of newsprint shortages in the developing world, and how we can think about print media as material infrastructure

There's a graph, too

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Thanks Duncan! Yes, you're not the first person to say that this chimed with other historians who had observed the shortage and thought it was just a local phenomenon. There's a lot more to be done here (though I'm not sure I'm the person to do it...)

WAEH Call for Papers Workshop on Alternative Energy Histories (WAEH): Scenarios and Transitions Organizers: Michiel Bron, Odinn Melsted, Cyrus Mody (Maastricht University) Venue: Maastricht University D…

We're putting on a conference! "We" being me, @odinnmelsted.bsky.social & @michielbron.bsky.social as part of the Managing Scarcity project.

Workshop on Alternative Energy Histories
Dates: October 20-21, 2025
Location: Maastricht University
Abstracts due: April 4, 2025

managingscarcity.com/waeh/

Graph showing how the price of newsprint, constant since circa 1960, more than doubled in the mid-1970s

I've got a new article out in @globalhistjnl.bsky.social

It's about the 'paper famine' of the 1970s, the causes and consequences of newsprint shortages in the developing world, and how we can think about print media as material infrastructure

There's a graph, too

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Job advert. Text of the job advert reads: "UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE UNIVERSITEIT VAN DIE VRYSTAAT YUNIVESITHI YA FREISTATA UFS THE HUMANITIES The International Studies Group (ISG) at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, has vacancies for postdoctoral Research Fellows starting in September 2025, with an annual tax-free stipend of ZAR 275,000. The positions are full-time for one year, with the possibility of extension for a further two years contingent on satisfactory progress. The ISG, headed by Professor lan Phimister, is a research-intensive department, made up of post-doctoral Fellows and PhD students. Although the group particularly specialises in Central and Southern African history, applications are encouraged from candidates with any specialisation in African and/or global and imperial history. Criteria Essential A PhD of not more than two years standing at the time of appointment Excellent written, oral and interpersonal skills A project to produce original research outputs Desirable Previous experience of supervising student dissertations Experience of departmental administration Proven track record of attracting external research funding Application Process Applicants are asked to send a CV, along with a covering letter outlining their suitability for the position and their proposed research and publication plans. These should be emailed as one document to Ms Tari Gwena at gwenat@ufs.ac.za by 12pm on 15 April 2025. In addition, applicants should arrange for two letters of recommendation to be sent to the above address. Shortlisted candidates will be notified by 13 May. If you have not been contacted by this date, please assume your application has been unsuccessful."

The International Studies Group at the University of the Free State in South Africa is recruiting postdocs in history.

This is my old department and I spent three happy years working there.

1971-74 - the 'unified Germany' is presumably some of political agenda, possibly from pre-December 1972 before the GDR and FRG recognised each other's sovereignty.

It says 'Rhodesia' rather than Zimbabwe, but there are territories that became independent in 1975 still under colonial rule on it.