ISRF Newsletter – March 2025
Spring has arrived; as has the next ISRF Newsletter! Read on for: a Director's Note on so-called 'Artificial Intelligence', ISRF events, Fellows news, and recent blog posts.
Contents
Director’s Note
The Fight About AI
Christopher Newfield
I love technology—airplanes, smartphones, electric vehicles, vaccines, computers, the internet—when it expands human capabilities. I hate technology as an imposed force which we must laboriously gear up to confront for the sake of safeguarding our already impaired agency.
The “Artificial Intelligence” rollout is as imposed a technology as we have faced in recent years. ISRF is hosting a workshop this month called Social and Cultural Frameworks for ‘Artificial Intelligence’, which is a good deadline for me to organise my thoughts about how we got here…
Book Launch: The Politics of Unemployment Policy in Britain, by Jay Wiggan
Friday 7 March 2025, 1:00pm-3:00pm (GMT). In person.
Chrystal Macmillan Building, University of Edinburgh, UK
In his searching new study, The Politics of Unemployment Policy in Britain, Jay Wiggan surveys the last fifty years of labour activation strategies. Adopting a materialist lens, the book positions successive market-friendly welfare reforms as an attempt by capital to curtail the autonomy and bargaining power of labour.
Though this event will not be live streamed, a video recording will be made available afterwards.
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.
Documentary Screening: Like Lockdown Never Happened, by Joy White
Thursday 3 April 2025, 6:30pm-9:30pm (GMT). In person.
BLOC, Queen Mary University of London
With a focus on contemporary Black music, this book takes a deep dive into a few of the various forms that popular culture took over this period, including Kano’s Newham Talks series; Steve McQueen’s BBC anthology Small Axe; the Verzuz DJ Battle series; TikTok’s Don’t Rush Challenge. The documentary reflects on some of the key themes in the book.
Can We Be Optimistic for Our Grandchildren?
Constantinos Repapis
In this contribution to Bulletin 32, Constantinos Repapis revisits John Maynard Keynes's 1930 essay, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, to reflect on the current polycrisis.
Towards a Green International Monetary System: The Ecor and a Green World Central Bank
Nicolás Águila, Paula Haufe and Joscha Wullweber
In this contribution to Bulletin 32, Nicolás Águila, Paula Haufe and Joscha Wullweber argue for the Ecor, a new international monetary tool, based on Keynes's Bancor, that could break the current impasse surrounding climate transition financing.
How refugee entrepreneurs are supplying sustainable energy to the camps they live in
Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen
Refugees are providing energy within camps home to millions of displaced people around the world, establishing shops, phone charging stations, even cinemas.
‘Stress Testing Democracy’: A Brief History of Poland and Migration
Adam Balcer
In this contribution to Bulletin 32, Adam Balcer discusses the sharp rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in Poland and its normalisation at the hands of centrist politicians.
Fairness in University Financing: We Must Do Better
Lars Cornelissen
Lars Cornelissen argues that the debate over university financing is hampered by a limited conception of what fairness means and, by extension, what universities are really for.
New Publication: Spaces of Anticolonialism: Delhi's Urban Governmentalities (University of Georgia Press)
In Spaces of Anticolonialism: Delhi's Urban Governmentalities, Professor Stephen Legg provides a spatial analysis of the anticolonial governmentalities that emerged in the colonial capital of British India.
Video: Book Launch for Sandra Araujó, Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-74
On the 27th of February, the ISRF hosted a book launch to celebrate the publication of Sandra Araujó’s brilliant new book, Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-75. We were joined by Mustafah Dhada and Martin Thomas.
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 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.