ISRF Newsletter – October 2025
This month's newsletter features a Director's Note examining the stagnant political discourse on economics in the UK. Also included: upcoming ISRF events, Fellows news and our latest blog posts.
Contents
Director’s Note
Towards Much Less Boring Economics
Christopher Newfield
Here’s an odd thing about Britain. All summer it marshalled rage against asylum-seekers. Anti-immigration was summer 2025’s big British social movement. It was the public face Britain showed the world. Then in September, Britain sent more than 100,000 people to the Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka “Tommy Robinson”) neofascist march in London. Yet at the same time, Britain was unable to get angry about failed economic policy, Labour’s or anyone else’s. There were no 100,000-person marches demanding that Labour fulfill its 2024 economic promises for green growth or 300,000 new homes or a restored NHS or any of the rest.
One reason that the British don’t rally for economics is the boring narrowness of the acceptable public discussion….
Independent Scholar Fellowship competition (ISF11)
Deadline: 5pm GMT (6pm CET), Friday 31st October 2025
The Independent Social Research Foundation wishes to support Independent Scholars to explore and present original research ideas which take new approaches, and suggest new solutions, to real world social problems.
An ‘Independent Scholar’ is understood by the ISRF as someone pursuing research outside of an academic role, whether or not currently in employment, who is engaged in intellectual work of a nature and standard comparable to that of a professional academic scholar.
Book Launch: Threads of Labour: Tapestry of an Ex-Industrial Community, by Lisa Taylor
Thursday 20th November 2025, 6:00pm-7:30pm (GMT). In person & online.
Venue TBC.
Charting a collaborative art-based project using carpet-making skills and the industrial heritage of the region, Threads of Labour investigates how a cleaved ex-industrial community used arts methodologies as a cohesion strategy. Drawing on images from the company's archives, the book mines the history of Firths Carpets Limited, a firm that carpeted interiors across the globe from the mid-1800s.
Book Launch: Neoliberalism and Race, by Lars Cornelissen
Tuesday 9th December 2025, 6:00pm-7:30pm (GMT). In person & online.
University College London
Neoliberalism and Race uses historical methods to reconstruct neoliberal ideas of race and position them within the broader field of racist ideology. Using archival sources, Cornelissen identifies relationships between the neoliberal tradition and fascist race theory, the British Colonial Office, and the transnational eugenics movement, each of which markedly impacted neoliberalism’s trajectory.
This launch will be co-hosted with the UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation.
Early Career Fellowship Award Announcement
Adam Smith
The ISRF has announced funding for five researchers to spend a year away from teaching and administration responsibilities.
Homelessness, fear of starvation and racism – destitute migrant mothers and their children on the reality of life in the UK
Rachel Rosen & Eve Dickson
Drawing on in-depth research with migrant mothers and children in the UK, Rachel Rosen & Eve Dickson reveal how bureaucratic exclusion produces long-term destitution - and raises urgent questions about social justice.
New publication: ‘Positioning Zimbabwe in the climate change mitigation-adaptation discourse: exploring benefits, barriers and risks’ by Nelson Chanza & Eric Kushinga Makombe
This article centres the experiences of Zimbabwe within the debates of climate-resilient development. In particular, it examines how mitigation and adaption efforts align with national development goals.
Media: ‘Frontex unlawfully shared thousands of people’s personal data with Europol’ by Ludek Stavinoha, Apostolis Fotiadis & Lola Hierro
With colleagues, ISRF Mid Career Fellow Ludek Stavinoha published a major investigation in El Pais, Le Monde, and Solomon on the role of Frontex and Europol in the criminalisation of migrants and solidarity activists.
Film Premiere: ‘Beekeeping at the end of times’ by Larisa Jašarević & Azra Jašarević
This film explores the impact of climate change on the honey ecologies of Bosnia and Herzegovina through the stories of Bosnian Muslim beekeepers. Connecting Sufi lessons, Islamic wisdoms and apocalyptic lore to the current ecological crisis, it offers ways of thinking and organising against “the end of times".
Book Launch: ‘The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade’ by Jake Subryan Richards
Based on archival research across four continents, The Bonds of Freedom follows the journeys of people who were “liberated” through the maritime seizure of slave ships and then forced back into bondage between 1807 and 1880. The book examines their ongoing fight for freedom in the face of empire.
Podcast Episode: ‘Are Summer Riots the ‘new normal’?’ hosted by ‘Talking About Race’
ISRF Mid Career Fellow Anthony Ince joined Kulvinder Nagre and Maya Goodfellow for a conversation on the ongoing anti-migrant protests in the UK. The ‘Talking About Race’ podcast, produced by Race on the Agenda, brings experts together to discuss issues facing Black and Global majority communities across the UK and beyond.
11th Independent Scholar Fellow Competition (ISF11)
Now live: deadline 31 October 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 January 2026
Funding support for small groups (2-10 scholars) to complete a piece of research or undertake face-to-face joint group work.
11th Flexible Grants for Small Groups Competition (FG11)
Application window closed on 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.
8th Early Career Fellowship competition (ECF8)
Application window closed on 14th February 2025
Individual scholars and pairs are eligible to apply for a one-year fellowship to complete a significant piece of new research.