ISRF Newsletter – February 2025
Love is in the air as we approach 14th February – but don’t let the marketing machine distract you from our next competition deadline. Also included: a Director's Note, events, news, and blog posts.
Contents
Director’s Note
Feeling Good, Not Bad
Christopher Newfield
I remember when I thought that the 2020s would be a decade of rejuvenation.
The Covid-19 pandemic had been terrible, but it unleashed the powers of massive public spending and this held lessons for the climate crisis. But that possibility was stamped out fairly quickly.
What is the larger pattern we’re stuck within? Outside of some big improvements that always come up—China’s remarkable reduction in mass poverty, advances in information and communication technology, the falling cost of renewable energy—the 21st century has been defined by brutal headwinds.
This is a not a pleasant list, but bear with me…
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.
Book Launch: Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-74, by Sandra Araújo
Thursday 27 February 2025, 5:00pm-7:00pm (WET). In person.
Lisbon, Portugal.
In this in-depth and compelling study, ISRF Fellow Sandra Araújo uses archival and oral sources to uncover a full-fledged intelligence agency and explore Portugal’s counterinsurgent spying on Muslim communities during Mozambique’s liberation struggle.
Book Launch: The Sound of Difference, by Kristina Kolbe
Thursday 20 March 2025, 6:00pm-7:30pm (GMT). In person and online.
Barnard’s Inn Hall, London.
The Sound of Difference critically examines how diversity work takes shape in classical music, a sector so deeply implicated in hierarchies of class, structures of whiteness, and legacies of imperialism. The book draws from ethnographic and interview data to analyse how diversity discourses are constructed through the organisational and creative processes of music production.
Responding to the Social, Political and Ecological Crisis by Prioritising Migrant and Disability Justice
In this contribution to Bulletin 31, Rebecca Yeo argues that campaigns for migrant justice and disability justice have much to learn from one another.
‘The Coming Anarchy’: How lessons from the Occupy movement might provide answers to today’s most pressing social issues
Alex Prichard and Ruth Kinna are rethinking the meaning and value of anarchy in the 21st century.
Four things you really need to know about the oil industry’s stranglehold on capitalism
ISRF Fellow Adam Hanieh's new book draws back the veil on our ever growing dependency on oil.
Of House and Immigrants
In this contribution to Bulletin 31, Theresa Audrey O. Esteban reflects on how post-war Rotterdam's urban geography and political climate shifted in response to changing migration patterns.
Deconstructing Migration as Connected Histories and Right to Development
In this contribution to Bulletin 31, Angelika Fortuna argues that global inequality, rooted in colonial history and continued uneven development, sits at the root of migration flows.
Video: Book Launch for Joy White, Like Lockdown Never Happened (2025)
On the 23rd of January, the ISRF hosted a book launch to celebrate the publication of Joy White’s brilliant new book, Like Lockdown Never Happened. We were joined by Karis Campion, Jade Levell, and Nathaniel Télémaque.
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 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.
11th Flexible Grants for Small Groups Competition (FG11)
Application window closed on 10th January
Funding support for small groups (2-10 scholars) to complete a piece of research or undertake face-to-face joint group work.