ISRF Newsletter – August 2024
No August would be complete without blooming sunflowers—or an ISRF Newsletter. Read on for a Director's Note, upcoming events, recent posts, Fellows news, and our competition schedule for this year.
Contents
Director’s Note
Radical Rethinking Coming Up
Christopher Newfield
Last month I discussed the background to some research on the condition of British higher education that ISRF are funding. Now James Brackley and two co-authors have published an excellent overview of a first phase of that research in The Conversation.
Called “University finances are in a perilous state,” the title won’t shock academics. Even university managers are admitting the general crisis, and are now trying to convince the new Labour government of its structural nature. By structural, they mean the crisis can’t be traced to specific unforced errors or to rational market forces punishing inferior courses and universities. The structural problem is that the sector’s “business model” was flawed from the start and is now damaging good and bad actors alike…
Conference: Migration and Democracy in a Time of Climate Crisis
7-9 October, Warsaw, Poland.
Our three topics for this year’s ISRF Conference have become trapped in a vicious cycle. Climate crisis increases migration, which has triggered anti-democratic backlash, which reduces international cooperation on climate, which allows the climate crisis to intensify. Each of these relationships is real, and each is rooted in myth. The ISRF invites papers on any of these three topics, or any combination of them. How can we interrupt this cycle and even reverse it? How can we treat underlying causes rather than addressing symptoms?
To enquire about attendance contact lars.cornelissen@isrf.org
Recent Bulletin Posts
Mid-Career Fellowships Award Announcement
The latest round of Mid-Career Fellowships (MCF7) will provide funding for six academics allowing them time away from teaching to focus on their research.
University Finances Are in a Perilous State – It’s the Result of Market Competition and Debt-Based Expansion
James Brackley, Adam Leaver and David Yates explore the causes of the fiscal crisis currently gripping the higher education sector in the UK.
How to Unite Heterodox Thinkers From Around the World – Everything You Need to Know About the ISRF’s Latest Book Launches
Season IV of the ISRF’s Book Launches highlighted many of the key themes linking its Fellows’ work.
Why Politics Is Failing Disabled People – And What To Do About It
An eye-opening new book exposes the barriers preventing fairer, more inclusive representation.
New Publication: Ek Khaale – Once Upon a Time
On this website, divided into nine chapters, ISRF Fellow Dr Greg Constantine offers a visual restoration of the history of the Rohingya. At present, seven chapters have been published. The other two will be published over the course of August.
New Publication: The sound of difference: Race, class and the politics of 'diversity' in classical music (2024, Manchester University Press)
Dr Kristina Kolbe (ISRF Early Career Fellow 2023) critically examines how discourses of ‘diversity’ in the classical music, a sector that is notably implicated in hierarchies of class, structures of whiteness, and legacies of imperialism.
Video: Book Launch for Elizabeth Evans and Stefanie Reher, Disability and Political Representation (2024)
On the 20th of June, the ISRF hosted a book launch to celebrate the publication of an important new book, Disability and Political Representation. We were joined by Sarabajaya Kumar and Alison Wilde.
2nd First Book Grant (FBG2)
Launching on 2nd September 2024
Newly qualified post-docs (within three years of PhD award) are eligible to apply for support to convert their PhD thesis into a book.
11th Flexible Grants for Small Groups Competition (FG11)
Launching autumn 2024 (date to be confirmed)
Funding support for small groups (2-10 scholars) to complete a piece of research or undertake face-to-face joint group work.
7th Mid-Career Fellowship (MCF7)
Closed on 28th March 2024
Scholars more than ten years post-PhD were eligible to apply for support to complete a one-year piece of original research. Award announcements are expected in the summer.