Friday, 2 March 2012

New books - February 2012

New books added to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library last month, include the following titles covering as diverse topics as Canadian political biography, copyright, minority rights in India, sport in Africa, the history of sexuality in Australia, Scotland and the Empire, citizenship, democracy and sustainable economic growth:

Anyanwu, Ogechi Emmanuel, The politics of access : university education and nation-building in Nigeria, 1948-2000, Calgary : University of Calgary Press, c2011.


Atangana, Martin-René, The end of French rule in Cameroon, Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, c2010.

Bajpai, Rochana, Debating difference : group rights and liberal democracy in India, New Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Bissell, William Cunningham, Urban design, chaos, and colonial power in Zanzibar, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2011.

Boateng, Boatema, The copyright thing doesn't work here : Adinkra and Kente cloth and intellectual property in Ghana, Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2011.

Boraine, Alex, A country unmasked : Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Cape Town ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2000.

Branch, Daniel, Kenya : between hope and despair, 1963-2011, New Haven : Yale University Press, 2011.

Bueltmann, Tanja, Scottish ethnicity and the making of New Zealand society, 1850-1930, Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, c2011.

Cheru , Fantu and Cyril Obi (eds), The rise of China and India in Africa : challenges, opportunities and critical interventions, Uppsala, Sweden : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet ; London ; New York : Zed Books, 2010.

Cornelissen, Scarlett and Albert Grundlingh (eds), Sport past and present in South Africa, London : Routledge, 2012.

Featherstone, Lisa, Let's talk about sex : histories of sexuality in Australia from Federation to the pill, Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2011.

Feminist Alternatives, My dream is to be bold : our work to end patriarchy, Cape Town ; Oxford : Pambazuka Press, 2011.

French, Patrick, India : a portrait, London : Allen Lane, 2011.

Ganguly, Sumit and Rahul Mukherji, India since 1980, Cambridge [UK] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Gott, Richard, Britain's empire : resistance, repression and revolt, London ; New York : Verso Books, 2011.

Gwyn, Richard, John A. : the man who made us : the life and times of John A. Macdonald, Toronto : Random House Canada, 2007-2011. (2 volumes)

Heinrich, V. Finn (ed), CIVICUS global survey of the state of civil society : Civil Society Index Project, 2003-2006 phase, Bloomfield, CT : Kumarian Press, 2007-

Horn, Bernd, From Cold War to New Millennium : the history of the Royal Canadian Regiment, 1953-2008, Toronto : Dundurn Press, c2011.

Johnson, Krista and Sean Jacobs ( eds), Encyclopedia of South Africa, Boulder, Colo. : Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2011.

Karlsson, Bengt G., Unruly hills : a political ecology of India's northeast, New York : Berghahn Books, c2011.

Lamming, George, The George Lamming reader : the aesthetics of decolonisation, edited by Anthony Bogues, Kingston ; Miami : Ian Randle Publishers, 2011.

LeBas, Adrienne, From protest to parties : party-building and democratization in Africa, Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Lynch, Brian and Graham Hassall (eds), Resilience in the Pacific : addressing the critical issues : proceedings of a conference held in Wellington, New Zealand, 16-17 February 2011, Wellington : New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (NZIIA), Victoria University of Wellington, 2011.

Lynch, Gabrielle, I say to you : ethnic politics and the Kalenjin in Kenya, Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2011.

McCartney, Matthew, Pakistan : the political economy of growth, stagnation and the state, 1951-2009, London : Routledge, 2011.

MacKenzie, John M. and T.M. Devine. Scotland and the British Empire, Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Ntumazah, Ndeh, Ndeh Ntumazah : a conversational auto-biography, edited and with an introduction, Linus T. Asong & Simon Ndeh Chi, Mankon, Bamenda : Langaa Research and Publishing, 2011.

Poliandri, Simone, First nations, identity, and reserve life : the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia, Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, c2011.

Proudfoot, Lindsay J. and Dianne Hall, Imperial spaces : placing the Irish and Scots in colonial Australia, Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press , 2011.

Rawat, Ramnarayan S., Reconsidering untouchability : Chamars and Dalit history in North India, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2011.

Ricatti, Francesco, Embodying migrants : Italians in postwar Australia, Bern ; New York : Peter Lang, 2011.

Reno, William, Warfare in independent Africa, Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Ryan, Orla, Chocolate nations : living and dying for cocoa in West Africa, London : Zed , 2011.

Saikia, Pahi, Ethnic mobilisation and violence in Northeast India, New Delhi ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Sanders, Peter, 'Throwing down white man' : Cape rule and misrule in colonial Lesotho, 1871-1884, Pontypool, Wales : Merlin Press, 2011.

Schwarz, Bill, The white man's world, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Srinivasan, T. N., Growth, sustainability, and India's economic reforms, New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Steel, Frances, Oceania under steam : sea transport and the cultures of colonialism, c. 1870-1914, Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press, 2011.

Tarimo, Aquiline, Ethnicity, citizenship and state in Eastern Africa, Mankon, Bamenda : Langaa, 2011

Thorat, Sukhadeo, Dalits in India : search for a common destiny, New Delhi ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 2009.

Toor, Saadia, The state of Islam : culture and Cold War politics in Pakistan, London : Pluto, 2011.

Wilson, David A., Thomas D'Arcy McGee (2 volumes), Montréal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008-2011. Dianne Hall. (Contents v. 1. Passion, reason, and politics, 1825-1857 -- v. 2. The extreme moderate, 1857-1868.)

World Bank, Poverty and social exclusion in India, Washington, D.C. : World Bank, c2011.

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Diamond Jubilee Seminar ‘The monarchy, the Commonwealth and the media’, 20 March 2012

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies is pleased to announce the second seminar in its Diamond Jubilee Series: ‘The monarchy, the Commonwealth and the media’ will be held on 20 March 2012.

The shedding of media light on the mystery of the monarchy has sometimes been engineered and sometimes accidental – but always remorseless. Alongside the triumphs, there have been the dark days of the death of Princess Diana, ‘Annus Horribilis’, and the hacking of royal phones. This seminar asks: can the monarchy survive its dealings with the media – or is that relationship the secret of its survival? The panellists discussing the relationship between the monarchy and the media will be Charles Anson CVO (former Press Secretary to the Queen), Tom Corby MVO (former Court Correspondent of the Press Association), and Keshini Navaratnam (former BBC World TV presenter).

The seminar will take place on Tuesday 20 March at 5.30pm in The Senate Room, Senate House, Malet Street WC1E 7HU. All are welcome; the seminar is free to attend. Booking is essential as places are limited, please email chloe.pieters@sas.ac.uk

The Diamond Jubilee Seminar Series was launched by the Chancellor of the University of London, the Princess Royal, on 11 January 2012. The series, which marks the Diamond Jubilee Year by exploring the relationship between the monarchy and the Commonwealth, will run throughout 2012. Information on forthcoming seminars will be posted to the Institute’s events pages.

Wednesday, 29 February 2012

New podcast available: Decriminalising Homosexuality In The Caribbean: The Belize Case In Commonwealth Perspective And Beyond

http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/events/videos-and-podcasts/decriminalising-homosexuality-in-the-caribbean/

The link above provides access to the Caribbean Studies Seminar held on 3rd February 2012 with speaker,  Lord Goldsmith QC of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, replacing the originally intended Godfrey Smith, who unexpectedly had to return to Belize. The packed event was held late on a Friday afternoon and is now made available to anyone who was unable to attend in person.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Seminar: Politics and Media in post 9/11 Pakistan

Politics and Media in post 9/11 Pakistan


Wednesday 7 March 2012, 17:30 -18:30

Speaker: Kiran Hassan (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)

Chair: Professor James Manor (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)

Venue: ST274 (Stewart House, second floor), Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Convenors: Dr Shihan de Silva (Institute of Commonwealth Studies) & Dr Susan Williams (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)

Contact: chloe.pieters@sas.ac.uk


forthcoming events in the Commonwealth Research Seminar Series include:

13 March The Commonwealth Secretary-General - from Smith to Sharma
Speaker: Stuart Mole (Institute of Commonwealth Studies / Commonwealth Advisory Bureau)
17:30 Room 261 (Senate House, 2nd floor)

28 March Reporting on The Truth & Justice Commission of Mauritius
Speakers: Dr Vijaya Teelock (University of Mauritius)
17:30 The Court Room (Senate House, First Floor)


24 April Rebuilding Sierra Leone's Evidence Base in the Post Conflict Period
Speaker: Anne Thurston (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)
17:30 Room 261 (Senate House, 2nd floor)

22 May What happened to 'garibi hatao'? India's Congress Party and the politics of poverty
Speaker: James Chiriyankandath (Institute of Commonwealth Studies)
17:30 Room 265 (Senate House, 2nd floor)

Monday, 27 February 2012

Panel: Small Territories, Global Issues: Governance and Corruption in the Caribbean

You are warmly invited to the following panel on Governance and Corruption in the Caribbean jointly hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Americas and the Institute of Commonwealth Studies on Weds 29th February:

Time: 5.30pm
Venue: Room 261, Senate House, Malet St, London, WC1E 7HU

Panel: Small Territories, Global Issues: Governance and Corruption in the Caribbean

Speakers:
Peter Clegg, UWE: The Turks and Caicos Islands: Can the cloud be banished?
Dylan Vernon, ISA: Our Turn to Feed: Big Implications of Rampant Political Clientelism in Small State Belize



Peter Clegg, UWE: The Turks and Caicos Islands: Can the cloud be banished?

The Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) is one of 14 Overseas Territories (OTs) still overseen by the United Kingdom (UK). Underpinned by tourism, property development and financial services, its economy experienced growth amongst the highest in the world during the early to mid-2000s. However, it now appears that this economic success was built on a political, economic and social system that was seriously compromised, and which created ‘a national emergency’ that potentially threatened the very future of the territory. The paper considers the report of the 2009 UK government-appointed Commission of Inquiry into alleged corruption in the TCI, and draws comparisons with a similar Commission of Inquiry undertaken in 1986. Indeed the title of the article derives from a quotation from the first inquiry overseen by Louis Blom-Cooper which said ‘… I am driven to the conclusion that the time has come to disperse the cloud that hangs like a brooding omnipresence in a Grand Turkan Sky’. It is clear that this did not happen, and the paper investigates why. The paper considers the UK government’s system of oversight and the characteristics of the TCI, and whether these help to explain recent events and those in the mid-1980s. A final assessment is then made as to whether the TCI is particularly prone to breakdowns in good governance, what is being done to repair the territory’s reputation, and whether the cloud hanging over the TCI can be banished.

Dr Peter Clegg is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of the West of England in Bristol, and in 2009/2010 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. He has published widely on the Caribbean, and teaches a range of courses on Latin American and Caribbean Politics.

Dylan Vernon, ISA: Our Turn to Feed: Big Implications of Rampant Political Clientelism in Small State Belize

The disproportionate expansion and prevalence of political clientelism in Belize since independence in 1981 have worrying implications for its democratic governance and development. From the ‘cultural normalcy’ of open vote-buying in local constituencies, to blatant patronage in the public service, to the backroom high finance deals for the ‘big boys’, the trading of political favour for political support is no longer just election addenda but a permanent state of affairs in daily political relationships of exchange and influence. Although intense party competition and high rates of poverty have jointly fuelled this political phenomenon, small state scale, highly personalised politics, and demographic shifts have also contributed significantly in the Belize context. The paper focuses on the ‘big’ governance challenges that pervasive political clientelism present for small Commonwealth Caribbean states such as Belize in terms of its relationship to political corruption, the disincentive effect on policy reform, the undermining of welfare delivery, and the creation of a mutually damaging dependency between people and their political leaders. Is this path of entrenched political clientelism inevitable for these small states?

Dylan Vernon is a United Kingdom Commonwealth Scholarship Fellow currently in his third year of completing a PhD in Caribbean Politics at the Institute for the Study of the Americas at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. The presentation is based on his thesis (in progress) on the nature and implications of rampant political clientelism in Belize. Prior to ISA, his career included directing the Society for the Promotion of Education and Research in Belize (1994-1998), chairing the Belize Political Reform Commission (1999-2000), managing the United Nations Development Programme in Belize (2000-2005), chairing the Advisory Council on the Guatemalan Claim (2005-2009), lecturing at the University of Belize, and private consulting in the development sector.

Saturday, 25 February 2012

Service and Sacrifice: Colonial Troops and the First World War

Service and Sacrifice: Colonial Troops and the First World War


Speaker: Sonya O. Rose (BIH Visiting Fellow)

Wednesday 14th March 12.30 - 2.30 Room G16 Birkbeck Main Building

This event is free - register here

This seminar will explore what historical scholarship suggests about how the meanings of the key wartime concepts of service and sacrifice resonated across Britain’s colonial empire. It will consider what it meant under different circumstances to ‘volunteer’ and will assess how colonial participation in the war effort was secured and with what consequences. The issues of gender, race and national consciousness will be central to the discussion.

If interested in this event do check out the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library catalogue for books published on African, Asian, Caribbean, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand contributions to both world wars, as well as archive collections which include Australian and New Zealand, Caribbean and African contributions.

Friday, 24 February 2012

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire

Colonial Film: Moving Images of the British Empire is a website holding detailed information on over 6000 films showing images of life in the British colonies. Over 150 of these films are available for viewing online.
You can search or browse for films by country, date, topic, or keyword.

Topics include: Administration, Development, Education, Health, Independence, Industry, Leisure, Religion, Travel, War, Empire in Revolt, and Empire on Display

Films were produced by a range of organisations including: Bekefilm, British Armed Forces Film Units, British Instructional Films, Central African Film Unit, Colonial Film Unit, Empire Marketing Board, Gaumont British Instructional, Gold Coast Film Unit, Indian News Parade, Information Films of India, Jamaica Film Unit, Malayan Film Unit , Ministry of Information /Central Office of Information, Missionary Societies, and the Nigerian Film Unit.

Over 350 of the most important films in the catalogue are presented with extensive critical notes written by the projects academic research team.


The Colonial Film project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and  united universities (Birkbeck and University College London) and archives (British Film Institute, Imperial War Museum and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum) to create a new catalogue of films relating to the British Empire with an ambition "to allow both colonizers and colonized to understand better the truths of Empire".