ISRF Newsletter – November 2024
Another month, another funding competition. Read on for details of our new Flexi Grants for Small Groups. Also: a Director's Note, events, posts, and news.
Contents
Director’s Note
We Could End the Cosmetic Fixes that Damage Higher Education
Christopher Newfield
Let’s say you work for Disney, and you’re part of the group that CEO Bob Iger instructed to “fix streaming.” By “fix” he meant, keep it from losing money in every quarter for a total loss of $4 billion in 2022. Bob offered a public hint about how to do this: “Basically we invested too much.”
You come up with a simple plan…
11th Flexible Grants for Small Groups (FG11)
Deadline: 5pm GMT (6pm CET), Friday 10th January 2025
Scholars from within Europe are eligible to apply as Principal Investigator(s) to lead a small group of 2-10 scholars (which may include graduate students). Applicants should hold a PhD and will normally have a permanent appointment at an institution of higher education and research.
The awards are intended as providing flexible support for a period of (up to) one year for the activities of the research group.
Book Launch: Crude Capitalism, by Professor Adam Hanieh
Wednesday 13 November, 5:30pm-7:00pm (GMT). In person and online.
Barnard’s Inn Hall, London (30 Holborn, EC1N 2HH)
In his new book, Crude Capitalism, Adam Hanieh shows how capitalism would not have become what it is without oil to fuel it, which may mean that we will need to do without capitalism if we want to do without oil. Synthesising unique empirical detail with a grand historical narrative, Hanieh changes our sense of oil’s centrality while opening new prospects for going beyond it. He will be joined by Adrienne Buller and Angus McNelly.
Book Launch: Voices in the Dark, by Dr Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen
Thursday 28 November, 6:00pm-7:30pm (GMT). In person and online.
Barnard’s Inn Hall, London (30 Holborn, EC1N 2HH)
Voices in the Dark draws upon a decade of original research to provide evidence on the energy lives of refugees. Focusing on refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya, the book identifies that urgent change is required within humanitarian responses to forced migration and the climate crisis to ensure that future energy provision in displacement settings is sustainable, reliable and affordable for refugees. Sarah will be joined by Samer Abdelnour and Kirsten McConnachie.
‘Egg of the serpent’ – Green Border director Agnieszka Holland on the scapegoating of migrants and her fears for the future of democracy
Speaking at the October ISRF conference, the Polish auteur also blamed politicians for blocking the international collaboration needed to tackle the climate emergency.
Being Poor is Expensive: Bashy’s new album showcases all that’s important about Black music today
Joy White argues that the rapper and actor’s latest album, which he began during the pandemic, joins the dots from Windrush and lovers rock to contemporary rap.
A new ‘race science’ network is linked to a history of eugenics that never fully left academia
Lars Cornelissen writes for The Conversation on the post-war history of the eugenicist groups that lived in the margins of academia.
New Publication: ‘Almost-Invisible White Supremacy: Racism, Silence and Complicity in the Interracial Interaction Order’ (Sociology)
Dr Fatima Khan (ISRF Early Career Fellow 2024–25) reports on a study with 32 young Muslims and finds that the reproduction of white supremacy always depends on the silence-complicity from the majority. (Open Access.)
New Publication: Like Lockdown Never Happened: Music and Culture During Covid (Repeater Books)
Dr Joy White (ISRF Independent Scholar Fellow 2015-16 and Academic Advisor) explores how Black music and culture framed how we passed the time in the first 18 months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
New Publication: Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market (Verso Books)
Professor Adam Hanieh (ISRF Political Economy Fellow 2023-24) sets out the expansive history of the hidden connections between oil and capitalism from the late 1800s to the current climate crisis.
New Publication: The sound of difference: Race, class and the politics of 'diversity' in classical music (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.
11th Flexible Grants for Small Groups Competition (FG11)
Live now: deadline 5pm GMT, Friday 10th January 2025
Funding support for small groups (2-10 scholars) to complete a piece of research or undertake face-to-face joint group work.
2nd First Book Grant (FBG2)
Closed on 1st November 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.
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.