Contents
Director’s Note
Must Creatives Run Screaming from the University?
Christopher Newfield
That seems to be the assumption in Dave Eggers’s new novel Contrapposto, a portrait of artists as young but also middle-aged and old men and women. It’s one of Eggers’s best novels, and is devoted to non-tech creativity as a work practice and way of life. But it is phobic about universities and I’m trying to work out why.
Eggers is a prominent U.S. writer and also builder of literary institutions. He founded McSweeney’s Publishing House in 1998, two years before the publication of his breakout novel, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000). Contrapposto’s author bio describes him as “the cofounder of 826 National, a network of youth writing centers, and Voice of Witness, an oral history book series that illuminates the stories of those impacted by human rights crises.” McSweeney’s Internet Tendency is as strong as ever and runs a prominent humour column among other things—for example, “I’m the Guy Who Destroys Antique Books After We Scan Them Into Our Company’s Insatiable AI Platform.” Tech and AI distinguish themselves in this novel by their total absence.
Workshop: French Theory in British Culture
7th September 2026, 10:00 am - 7:00 pm BST.
BLOC, Queen Mary University of London, London
What was French theory? Why and how did this constellation of names and ideas, imported from diverse fields in twentieth century Paris, create such ruction, such antagonism in British cultural life? Names like Barthes, Derrida, Foucault and Kristeva were hot on the lips of academics, artists, musicians, and performers, from the British Film Institute to the New Music Express and every cultural space in between. French theory became a byword for progression, provocation, and maybe even a little pretentiousness, too.
Join our one-day programme, curated by ISRF Fellow Colm McAuliffe, on the reception of French Theory in Britain and its legacies with readings, discussions, and a rare screening of ‘The Late Show - Roland Barthes.’
Book Launch: Gifts from the Arms Trade
17th September 2026, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm BST.
MayDay Rooms, London
How did continuous warfare become normal in the 21st century? How did police in many countries start using military hardware to manage ordinary crowds? Jill Gibbon’s new book reveals part of the answer to these questions: massive arms fairs, the trade shows for military equipment, which combine displays of the world’s most lethal tanks, missiles, and fighter jets with cute promotional gifts. She reports on the combination of drones hanging from ceiling and penetration bombs on the floor, all wrapped in a fun atmosphere of corporate hospitality sealed with chewable candy.
Freeports Exposed: Corruption, Harm and the Politics of Rule-Shifting
Alexandra Hall
This report, by Dr Alexandra Hall, examines the realities beneath the language of “levelling up”, competitiveness and renewal. It argues that UK freeports must be understood not simply as experimental economic tools, but as an increasingly common spatial strategy in which legal, political and institutional norms are selectively reworked.
The Two-Tier University
Eva Nanopoulos
Many academics working in UK universities face increasingly narrow career pathways, from teaching only contracts to conducting ‘strategic’ research. In this contribution to our Dispatches series, Eva Nanopoulos interrogates how the university’s two-tier system divides staff, reinforces precarity and extracts more labour from academics.
Negotiating the cuts: Reflections on a University Statutory Redundancy Consultation
Anonymous
Plans for university restructuring and cuts follow the same pattern - an announcement of voluntary severance schemes, followed by risk of redundancy letters and then a 90-day consultation period. What happens during these negotiations? Our latest dispatch explores further.
How Ukraine’s strikes on Russian warehouses became a problem in Kyrgyzstan
Claudia Eggart
Ukraine’s attacks on the Russian e-commerce platform, Wildberries, has had far reaching implications for traders across Central Asia. Claudia Eggart explains how small and medium sized business owners in Kyrgyzstan are grappling with the trade disruptions.
UK Freeports: From Exception to Rule?
Alexandra Hall
Freeports are at the centre of the UK’s post-Brexit industrial policy. While these Special Economic Zones (SEZs) encourage economic development, they also actively alter legal and institutional norms. Alexandra Hall explains how these rule-shifting governance arrangements fragment oversight, redistribute accountability and prioritise investor certainty.
Kyrgyzstan’s Dordoi Bazaar: a world made from shipping containers and a city within a city
Claudia Eggart
The Dordoi Bazaar in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, is one of the country’s most important economic engines. It’s more than just a shopping market as hotels, medical centres, a fire station and a mosque line the bazaar. Claudia Eggart speaks to women traders about how they build community and navigate Dordoi’s vast economic life.
New Publication: The Ethnic Dimension of the Greek Civil War: Conflicting Memories and Political Identities in Western Greek Macedonia by Raymondos Alvanos
Modern Greek history continues to be deeply marked by the country’s civil war (1946-1949). Through a series of oral history interviews with the local residents and secondary sources, this study investigates the ethnic dimension of the war and its impact on the memories and political identity of the communities in the Kastoria region of northern Greece.
New Publication: When authoritarian capitalism fails at development: what Hungary’s accumulative state and the exhaustion of Orbánism teach us by Gábor Scheiring
What is the connection between authoritarian capitalism and its failure to incentivise development? Scheiring offers a new interpretation to this question by drawing on the concept of the accumulative state. Examining the case of Orbánism in Hungary, this article explores how the accumulative state builds institutions and intervenes in markets but focuses on short-term interests to sustain itself.
New Publication: Anticarceral Feminisms, Penal Violence Against Women, and the Limits of Human Rights: Grassroots Knowledge from Ecuador by Silvana Tapia Tapia
As prison violence and endemic violence against women (VAW) continues in Ecuador, this article draws attention to the work of anticarceral feminists as they oppose and negotiate international human rights. Using participatory research methods, Tapia Tapia’s anticolonial feminist critique explains how rights-based frameworks can perpetuate a penal system that causes racialised and gendered harm.
New Publication: Defense Dividends by Alfredo Saad-Filho and Jack Taggart
What is the role of private finance in today’s European arms race? This article explores the evolution and increased involvement of the private financial sector in the arms industry, both nationally and internationally, and the growth of the military-financial apparatus hybrid.
Podcast Episode: ‘Jeoffrey Sarpong Podcast’ Interview with Dr Lars Cornelissen
Jeoffrey Sarpong and Lars Cornelissen discuss the intellectual history of neoliberalism and how race is intimately tied to its theory and praxis. From the history of colonialism to the rise of neoliberalism as a political power, this episode examines how the neoliberal worldview is structured and ways in which to build a new world.