ISRF Newsletter – January 2025
New year; same Foundation. Read on for a Director’s Note, exciting team news, details of our two live competitions, and much more!
Contents
Director’s Note
Fear Factor
Christopher Newfield
The political mood is foul in Santa Barbara, California, where I’ve spent the holidays visiting family and friends. For some strange reason, I don’t share it.
The bad mood is often specific to Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House. There’s a gloomy feeling of la drôle de guerre, that the current calm is about to give way to daily chaos, stealing, threats and fear.
But there’s another source of mostly unspoken gloom among academics, which stems from there being no sign of a fighting spirit about the future of their campuses…
Welcoming Baindu Kallon to the ISRF Team!
We’re delighted to introduce the newest member of our team, Baindu Kallon! Baindu joined the ISRF in December 2024 as Academic Events and Fellowship Coordinator. She organises the ISRF events programme while also managing alumni relations and outreach initiatives. She also leads the external assessment process of competition processing.
Previously, Baindu was based at Coventry University, working with the South-South Migration, Inequalities and Development (MIDEQ) Hub. She worked with a network of over 100 researchers to deepen engagement and identify impact arising from MIDEQ’s research. Her academic work and research has focused on migration politics and regional integration in West Africa, global migrant labour regimes, and exclusionary politics of urban development in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently working on a co-authored journal article for an upcoming special issue for The Review of African Political Economy. The article brings Afro-Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney in dialogue with Frantz Fanon to examine how their mobility, and subsequent transnational lives, shaped their approaches to challenging imperialism in Africa and the Caribbean.
Early Career Fellowship competition (ECF8)
Deadline: 5pm GMT (6pm CET), Friday 14th February 2025
Scholars from within Europe are eligible to apply to complete a significant piece of research over a maximum of one year. Candidates should be within 10 years of PhD award at the time of application.
Awards will normally be used to buy out a salaried academic contract – which may be permanent or fixed-term – at an Institution of Higher Education and Research. The awards are intended to provide full relief from all teaching duties and all associated academic administration for a period of (up to) one year. However, independent scholars or individuals not currently in an academic role may also apply.
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: Like Lockdown Never Happened, by Joy White
Thursday 23 January 2025, 6:00pm-7:30pm (GMT). In person.
UD Music, London, E15 2QS.
Under COVID-19, music listening increased as people used it to help counter the psychological fallout of lockdown—the isolation, restriction and boredom. In her new book, Like Lockdown Never Happened, Dr Joy White shows how Black music and culture reshaped our lives in the first 18 months of the pandemic.
ISRF Bulletin 30 is out now!
This Bulletin comes out of a Congress the ISRF organised with a small group of its Fellows in January 2024. It critically explores the conceptual pair of prehistories and afterlives, used here to speak to the ways past, present, and future blend into each other.
Featuring contributions from The Youth for Justice Collective, Eva van Roekel, Greg Constantine, and Sarath Jakka.
Democratic Backsliding in the Sahel and the Myth of Migration to Europe
In this contribution to Bulletin 31, Michael Nwankpa argues that democratic backsliding in the Sahel is partly caused by cynical interventions by Western states motivated by myths of mass African migration.
Towards a Deep History of Gaia: Displacements, Integration, and Rights Beyond Migration Myths
In this contribution to Bulletin 31, Aurea Mota discusses the radical potential and political limits of rights of nature in the effort to achieve environmental justice.
Video: Book Launch for Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen, Voices in the Dark (2024)
On the 28th of November, the ISRF hosted a book launch to celebrate the publication of an important new book, Voices in the Dark. We were joined by Samer Abdelnour and Kirsten McConnachie.
8th Early Career Fellowship competition (ECF8)
Live now: deadline 5pm GMT, Friday 14th February 2025
Individual scholars and pairs are eligible to apply for a one-year fellowship to complete a significant piece of new research.
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.
11th Independent Scholar Fellow Competition (ISF11)
Launching late summer 2025
Independent scholars not employed at a university or research institution can apply for a one-year fellowship to complete a significant piece of new research.
12th Flexible Grants for Small Groups Competition (FG12)
Launching autumn 2025
Funding support for small groups (2-10 scholars) to complete a piece of research or undertake face-to-face joint group work.