New journal issue of Journal of Southern African Studies with focus on Histories and Legacies of Punishment in Southern Africa

Newly available (in both print and electronic access) and with a special focus on the history and legacies of punishment is the following journal issue:

Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3, 01 Sep 2011
This new issue contains the following articles:

"Introduction: Histories and Legacies of Punishment in Southern Africa", Jocelyn Alexander & Gary Kynoch

"Defining Crime through Punishment: Sexual Assault in the Eastern Cape, c.1835–1900", Elizabeth Thornberry

"Law, Violence and Penal Reform: State Responses to Crime and Disorder in Colonial Malawi, c.1900–1959", Stacey Hynd

"Repression and Migration: Forced Labour Exile of Mozambicans to São Tomé, 1948–1955", Zachary Kagan-Guthrie

"Of Compounds and Cellblocks: The Foundations of Violence in Johannesburg, 1890s–1950s",
Gary Kynoch

"Punishment, Race and ‘The Raw Native’: Settler Society and Kenya's Flogging Scandals, 1895–1930",
David M. Anderson

"Containing the ‘Wandering Native’: Racial Jurisdiction and the Liberal Politics of Prison Reform in 1940s South Africa", Kelly Gillespie

"The Limits of Penal Reform: Punishing Children and Young Offenders in South Africa and Nigeria (1930s to 1960)", Laurent Fourchard

"In the Shadow of Mau Mau: Detainees and Detention Camps during Nyasaland's State of Emergency", John McCracken

"Nationalism and Self-government in Rhodesian Detention: Gonakudzingwa, 1964–1974", Jocelyn Alexander

"Discipline and Punishment in ZANLA: 1964–1979", Gerald Chikozho Mazarire

"State Discourse on Internal Security and the Politics of Punishment in Post-Independence Mozambique (1975–1983)", Benedito Luís Machava

"‘Entering the Red Sands’: The Corporality of Punishment and Imprisonment in Chimoio, Mozambique", Bjørn Enge Bertelsen

"Deviance, Punishment and Logics of Subjectification during Apartheid: Insane, Political and Common-law Prisoners in a South African Gaol", Natacha Filippi

BLDS Digital Library

Very pleased to be helping to promote a digital initiative form colleagues at the British Library for Development Studies (BLDS:

New BLDS Digital Library is helping research from developing countries enjoy a wider global readership


"With so many library users now expecting to access information through search engines, developing country publications tend to get overlooked in favour of the wealth of research available online from American and European academic institutions.

The British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) has the largest collection of economic and social development materials in Europe and over half of it originates from developing countries. But until now, much of the BLDS physical collection has only been available to visitors to the library or users of its Document Delivery service. BLDS is hoping that its newly-launched Digital Library will help redress the situation by making developing country research more accessible and visible online

The new service, funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, has been created to help decades of research from developing country institutions enjoy a wider global readership. BLDS is working with partner research institutes in Africa and Asia, to digitise their printed publications and host them online so they can be easily found through search engines. Nearly 600 papers have been digitised so far from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and India, with more to be added in coming months as BLDS continues building partnerships with research institutes. The publications in the BLDS Digital Library are being made available through a Creative Commons licence which enables future sharing and dissemination of this content by others.

For more information on the BLDS Digital Library, contact Henry Rowsell

or visit the BLDS Global Projects webpage at http://blds.ids.ac.uk/global-projects

(Selected) New books - July 2011, Part 2

Beaty, Bart et al (eds). How Canadians communicate. III, Contexts of Canadian popular culture. Edmonton : AU Press, c2010.


Grob-Fitzgibbon, Benjamin John. Imperial endgame : Britain's dirty wars and the end of empire. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Ker-Lindsay , James, Hubert Faustmann and Fiona Mullen (eds). An island in Europe : the EU and the transformation of Cyprus. London : I. B. Tauris, 2011.

Lea, David and Timothy Curtin. Land law and economic development in Papua New Guinea. Newcastle : Cambridge Scholars, 2011.

Gould, Jeremy. Left behind : rural Zambia in the third republic. Lusaka : Lembani Trust, 2011.

Isitt, Benjamin. Militant minority : British Columbia workers and the rise of a New Left, 1948-1972. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2011.

Kilby, Patrick. NGOs in India : the challenges of women's empowerment and accountability. London ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Campbell, John. Nigeria : dancing on the brink. Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2011.

Aaron, Kiikpoye K. and Dawari George (eds). Placebo as medicine : the poverty of development intervention and conflict resolution strategies in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Port Harcourt, Nigeria : Kemuela Publications, 2010.

Biney, Ama. The political and social thought of Kwame Nkrumah. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, c2011.

Oriji, John Nwachimereze. Political organization in Nigeria since the late Stone Age : a history of the Igbo people. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Landau, Paul Stuart. Popular politics in the history of South Africa, 1400-1948. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Chand, Vikram K. (ed). Public service delivery in India : understanding the reform process. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Jaffrelot, Christophe. Religion, caste and politics in India. London : Hurst, 2011.

Straus , Scott and Lars Waldorf (eds). Remaking Rwanda : state building and human rights after mass violence. Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, c2011.

Basu Das, Sanchita. Road to recovery : Singapore's journey through the global crisis. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010.

Nkwi, Walter Gam. Sons and daughters of the soil : land and boundary conflicts in North West Cameroon, 1955-2005. Bamenda [Cameroon] : Langaa RPCIG, 2011.

Roberts, Benjamin , Mbithi wa Kivilu and Yul Derek Davids (eds). South African social attitudes, 2nd report : reflections on the age of hope. Cape Town : HSRC Press, 2010.

Chan, Stephen. Southern Africa : old treacheries and new deceits. New Haven : Yale University Press, c2011.

Behiels, Michael D. and Reginald C. Stuart. Transnationalism : Canada-United States history into the twenty-first century. Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2010.

Regan, Paulette. Unsettling the settler within : Indian residential schools, truth telling, and reconciliation in Canada. Vancouver : UBC Press, c2010.

Vergau, Hans-Joachim. Negotiating the freedom of Namibia : the diplomatic achievement of the Western Contact Group. Basel : Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 2010.

Peters, Krijn. War and the crisis of youth in Sierra Leone. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press ; London : International African Institute, 2011.

Glassman, Jonathon. War of words, war of stones : racial thought and violence in colonial Zanzibar. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2011.

(Selected) New books July 2011 - Part 1

With apologies for delay, due to annual leave and moves, below is the first part of our new books list for July, with remainder and August and September to follow soon:

Abegunrin, Olayiwola. Africa in global politics in the twenty-first century : a pan-African perspective. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, c2009.


Evans , Malcolm D. and Rachel Murray (eds). The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights : the system in practice, 1986-2006. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Morse, Valerie. Against freedom : the war on terrorism in everyday New Zealand life. Wellington, N.Z. : Rebel Press, 2007.

Chhotray, Vasudha. The anti-politics machine in India : state, decentralization, and participatory watershed development. London ; New York : Anthem Press, 2011.

Connor, John. Anzac and empire : George Foster Pearce and the foundations of Australian defence. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Horner, D. M. Australia and the 'new world order' : from peacekeeping to peace enforcement: 1988-1991. Port Melbourne, Vic. : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Khan, Naveeda (ed). Beyond crisis : re-evaluating Pakistan. London : Routledge, 2010.

Flanagan, Thomas et al. Beyond the Indian Act : restoring Aboriginal property rights. Montréal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2010.

Rush, Anne Spry. Bonds of empire : West Indians and Britishness from Victoria to decolonization. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Singh, Kelvin. British-controlled Trinidad and Venezuela : a history of economic interests and subversion, 1830-1962. Kingston, Jamaica : University of the West Indies Press, c2010.

Das, S. K. Building a world-class civil service for twenty-first century India. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Lackenbauer, P. Whitney and Peter Kikkert (comp). The Canadian Forces and Arctic sovereignty : debating roles, interests, and requirements, 1968-1974. Waterloo, Ont. : Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies, c2010.

Gimblett , Richard H. and Michael L. Hadley. Citizen sailors : chronicles of Canada's naval reserve. Toronto : Dundurn Press, c2010.

Howe, Paul. Citizens adrift : the democratic disengagement of young Canadians. Vancouver : UBC Press, c2010.

Watt , Carey A. and Michael Mann (eds). Civilizing missions in colonial and postcolonial South Asia : from improvement to development. London ; New York : Anthem Press, 2011.

Midgley , James and David Piachaud. Colonialism and welfare, social policy and the British imperial legacy. Cheltenham : Edward Elgar, 2011.

Higman, B. W. A concise history of the Caribbean. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Oji, Mazi Kanu and Valerie U. Oji. Corruption in Nigeria : the fight and movement to cure the malady. Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, 2010.

Lollini, Andrea. Constitutionalism and transitional justice in South Africa. New York : Berghahn Books, 2011.

Ivaska, Andrew M. Cultured states : youth, gender, and modern style in 1960s Dar es Salaam. Durham [N.C.] : Duke University Press, 2011.

Des Forges, Alison Liebhafsky. Defeat is the only bad news : Rwanda under Musinga, 1896 -1931. Madison : University of Wisconsin Press, c2011.

Freund, Bill and Harald Witt (eds). Development dilemmas in post-apartheid South Africa. Scottsville, South Africa : University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, 2010.

Saunders, Peter. Down and out : poverty and exclusion in Australia. Bristol : Policy Press, 2011.

LeDuc, Lawrence et al. Dynasties and interludes : past and present in Canadian electoral politics. Toronto ; Tonawanda, N.Y. : Dundurn Press, c2010.

Crossley, Michael et al. Education in small states : policies and priorities. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010.

Ferree, Karen E. Framing the race in South Africa : the political origins of racial-census elections. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Clark, Philip. The Gacaca courts, post-genocide justice and reconciliation in Rwanda : justice without lawyers. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Bose, Sugata. His majesty's opponent : Subhas Chandra Bose and India's struggle against empire. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

Armstrong, Eric. A history of money and banking in Barbados, 1627-1973. Kingston, Jamaica : University of West Indies Press, 2010.

Wallace, Marion. A history of Namibia : from the beginning to 1990. London : Hurst, 2011.

Exhibition: Independence and After: Dr Eric Williams and the Making of Trinidad & Tobago

A small exhibition to co-incide with the Institute for the Study of the America's conference, "Independence and After: Dr Eric Williams and the Making of Trinidad & Tobago" taking place today, is situated on the 1st floor, Senate House, University of London.


The exhibition shows material from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies book and archive collections, including material from the Political Pamphlets Collection (from the People's National Movement, Democratic Labour Party, and Indian Association of Trinidad and Tobago) and the West India Committee and CLR James collections.


The exhibition will remain up for the rest of this week. It is intended that a digital version of the exhibition will be mounted on the Senate House Library website at a later date.

Association of Caribbean Historians 44th Annual Conference: Curaçao, 2012

ACH 44th Annual Conference: Curaçao, 2012


The 44th Annual Conference of the Association of Caribbean Historians will be held in Willemstad, Curaçao from Sunday, May 13 to Friday, May 18, 2012. Registration will open on Sunday afternoon and sessions begin Monday morning.

CONFERENCE VENUE AND ACCOMMODATIONS:

All conference sessions will be held at the Renaissance Curaçao Resort and Casino, a Mariott Hotel, where a special rate is being negotiated for ACH attendees. Newly built, this hotel features modern, colorfully designed rooms, spacious balconies in all ocean- and island-side hotel rooms, high speed Internet access in all guest rooms, and wireless internet in public areas. Built within and around the fascinating Rif Fort—a nineteenth-century landmark designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site—Renaissance Curaçao is within easy walking distance of a variety of boutiques, cafés, bars and restaurants.

Hotel amenities include an on-site pool as well as access to the Infinity Beach Club. Updates about reservations and rates will be posted on the ACH website as soon as they become available. In the meantime, please visit the hotel website for information about services and amenities:

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/curbr-renaissance-curacao-resort-and-casino

The Executive Committee is pleased to receive paper and panel applications for next year’s conference. Members suggested a number of themes at this year’s Annual General Meeting in Puerto Rico. While papers on these ideas are encouraged, please note that applicants are welcome to submit proposals about other subjects or ideas. Instructions for submitting paper and panel proposals appear on the following page. Suggested themes included:

•“The Indigenous Caribbean”
•“Caribbean Universities”
•“Medical Biographies”
•“The Guyanas from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century”
•“The Press in the Caribbean”
•“The Ocean from the Seventeenth through the Twentieth Century”
•“Archives and Digitization”
•“Circulation of the Press and Books in the Caribbean”
•“Afro-Caribbean Entrepreneurs”
•“Pan-Africanism”
•“Jews in the Caribbean, Seventeenth to Nineteenth Century”
•“Caribbean Independence Movements”
•“Slavery in the Dutch Antilles”
•“Vernacular Sports”
•Role of history in education
•Emancipation as an ongoing process
•Comparative studies in the Dutch Caribbean

Michelle Craig McDonald, Secretary-Treasurer, Association of Caribbean Historians: achsecretary@gmail.com

Nigerian census portal

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies has good collections of print census documents from across the Commonwealth. Increasingly governments are publishing the material only, either in PDF format, or sometimes as datasets.

We're pleased to highlight the Nigerian census portal, based on the UN DevInfo software platform.

Produced by the National Population Commission, under the authority of the Federal Government of Nigeria, this resouces presents 2006 census data at three different geographic area levels: national, state and local government area, as well as UN data from 2008 on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals.

Visiting Professor in Australian Studies, University of Tokyo, 2012–2013

Applications are now open for the Visiting Professor in Australian Studies, University of Tokyo, 2012 – 2013


The Visiting Professorship in Australian Studies was created in 1999 by the Centre for Pacific and American Studies, The University of Tokyo, to promote a deeper understanding of Australia and its regional engagement.
The position is supported by the Australia–Japan Foundation.

Applications are invited from highly qualified Australians with a significant academic or public achievement in the fields of Australian studies, history, cultural studies, politics, literary studies, and other relevant areas across the humanities and social sciences. The Visiting Professor in Australian Studies is required to teach at undergraduate and postgraduate levels; to present conference papers; to conduct research; and to participate in promoting Australian Studies within Japan.

The appointment is for a period of 10 months and will commence no later than 1 October 2012. The Visiting Professor is expected to spend most of the period in Tokyo engaged in research and, during semester, in teaching.

All teaching is conducted in English. An attractive salary package is available.

Applications close at 5pm on Friday 14 October 2011

The selection process will be managed by the International Australian Studies Association (InASA). A full position description and application procedures are available at:
http://www.inasa.org/


For any further information contact:
Professor Kate Darian-Smith
phone: + 61 3 8344 7232
email: k.darian-smith@unimelb.edu.au

George Price

George Cadle Price, leader of Belizean independence and the country's firtst premier died earlier this month (19th September 2011).

Price's political career started with winning a seat in the Belize City Council in 1947, as part of a growing nationalist movement. Price was a founder member of the People's United Party (PUP), and vice-president of its key ally, the General Workers Union. He served as the Mayor of Belize City from 1958 to 1962 and was the leader of the People’s United Party from 1956 to 1996. He became First Minister on April 7th, 1961 and Premier on January 1st, 1964, under the system of internal self-rule. George Price headed the team that negotiated full independenceand on Belize attaining independence on September 21st, 1981 become Belize’s First Prime Minister (and Foreign Minister).

The People's United Party lost the 1984 election, to the United Democratic Party, but returned to power under Price in 1989 for another four years.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies holds a number of pamphlets from the People's United Party in its political pamphlets collection and also holds in its colections copies of a number of published speeches made by Price.

Collections of speeched by Price held include:
 
Price, George, The premier speaks. [Belize City, Belize] : Government Information Service, [1963]
F1443 BRI REFERENCE ONLY

Price, George Belizeans unite to build our nation : [a collection of important speeches by Premier George Price]. Belize City, British Honduras : Government Printer, [1965]
F1443 PRI REFERENCE ONLY

CFP: Dis/connects: African Studies in the Digital Age

SCOLMA: The UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa

50th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE

Dis/connects: African Studies in the Digital Age
Oxford, 25–26 June 2012

CALL FOR PAPERS

The digital revolution is profoundly affecting African studies. New digital resources are making available large areas of content, as well as greatly improving access to bibliographies. In Africa, governments and NGOs are publishing online, some publishers are moving to print on demand and e-books, and international academic journals are increasingly becoming available in university and national libraries.

Yet the story, as is well-known, is far from straightforward or unproblematic. This conference will mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of SCOLMA by taking a critical look at the field of African studies and how it is changing. In particular, although there has been much discussion of new digital resources and what their creators plan to do, we have a limited understanding of their impact on their users and on knowledge production in general. For example, what are the implications for historical research of the availability of digitised sources, and of the choices made in their selection? How do social science researchers work in a field in which much, but not everything, is now available online? Are e-journals – or indeed mobile phones – beginning to change the research process in Africa? And, more generally, how have broader historical and political developments changed African studies and librarianship over the last half-century?

We welcome papers on these themes across the humanities, arts, social sciences and sciences. Papers may deal with digital content, whether digitised or born-digital, of any kind, e.g. archives and manuscripts; audio-visual material; maps; newspapers; books, journals and theses; photographs, prints, drawings and paintings; ephemera; statistical databases; and social media.

The conference will bring together academics and other researchers with librarians and archivists. We aim thus to have a productive exchange of expertise, experience and analysis on the question of knowledge production in African studies.

Themes may include, but are not limited to:

• How scholars, researchers, librarians and archivists use digitised resources.

• How African studies is changing, and the place of the digital revolution in these changes.

• Access to, selection of, and training in the use of digital resources in the library context. Are resources under-used?

• To pay or not to pay? How easy is it for researchers to find subscription e-resources? And for libraries to fund them? What is the balance of free and charged resources in the research process? How well do the models for making e-resources available in Africa work?

• How well does user consultation work?

• Access to the technology that underpins e-resources.

• Digital scholarship: are scholars in African studies using digital collections to generate new intellectual products?

• The impact of mobile phone technology on African studies.

• How patchy is the creation of digital resources, and what – and who – is being left behind?

• Language in Africa and new technology.

One-page abstracts of papers on these themes are warmly welcomed. If you would like to give a paper, please send your abstract to

Lucy McCann
SCOLMA Secretary
Email: lucy.mccann@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
Tel.: 01865 270908

THE DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS IS 31 OCTOBER 2011.

Papers in French are welcome if a summary is provided in English.

CFP: 20th European Seminar for Graduate Students in Canadian Studies

20th European Seminar for Graduate Students in Canadian Studies

10-13 November 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Association for Canada Studies in the Netherlands (ACSN), in collaboration with the Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, organises the 20th European Seminar for Graduate Students in Canadian Studies

10-13 November 2011, Groningen, Netherlands

European students working on a master's thesis or a doctoral dissertation in Canadian Studies are invited to present their current research findings and to exchange ideas with Canadianists from other countries.

Presentations can be given in English or in French. They should not exceed 20 minutes and will be followed by a discussion (10 minutes each). A selection of the best papers will be published after the seminar. The seminar sessions will be chaired by established European or Canadian scholars in the field of Canadian studies.

How to Apply

Students interested in participating should submit an abstract (1-2 pages), indicating their topic of research and the nature of their findings, plus a short CV. Applications may be submitted by e-mail. Papers will be selected by the scientific committee on the basis of the abstract. Invitations to participate will be sent out as soon as possible after the selection has been completed.

Deadline for Abstracts: Extended to 1 October 2011 - to be sent to the address below.

Official Languages: English and French

Maximum number of Students Admitted: 25

Registration Fee: € 50,--

Travel Expenses: Students' responsibility. Please apply for financial assistance to your university or to your national/regional Association for Canadian Studies (UK students please copy your application to the BACS office when submitting).

Boarding: Accommodation (3 nights from Thursday 10th November to Sunday 13th November, 2011) and meals will be covered by a grant from the Government of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to the European Network for Canadian Studies, by the Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Groningen and by the Association for Canada Studies in the Netherlands. The students will be lodged in the guesthouse of the University of Groningen in the centre of town very close to the venue where the sessions will take place. Some students may be asked to share rooms.

Organizing Committee: Cornelius Remie, Conny Steenman Marcusse, Irene Salverda (ACSN) and Jeanette den Toonder (Canadian Studies Centre, Groningen)

Contact address: Bosweg 12, 6523 NM Nijmegen, Netherlands / Pays-Bas T. (int.+)31-24-323-4525 E. acsn@upcmail.nl

Electronic version of Richard Ligon's "A True and Exact History of Barbados" (1657)

Thanks to David Chan Smith, Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Wilfrid Laurier University an electronic teaching edition of Richard Ligon's "A True and Exact History of Barbados" (1657) is now available at:


The edition includes a basic introduction and footnotes for this important early modern Caribbean text. The text is also set in modern typescript. It is freely available for public distribution and undergraduate teaching thanks to the generosity of the Text Creation Partnership and Harvard University Libraries.

It is hoped that the text will evolve as a collaborative editing project whereby readers can contribute additional footnotes or information that will then be recompiled into a new edition.

http://www.wlu.ca/docsnpubs.php?grp_id=12753

The Endangered Archives Programme - new round of grants open and an example of recent project

The Endangered Archives Programme is funded by Arcadia and managed by the British Library, and offers a number of grants every year to individual researchers world-wide to locate vulnerable archival collections, to arrange their transfer wherever possible to a suitable local archival home, and to deliver copies into the international research domain via the British Library.

NB The specific focus of this Programme is upon archives relating to the pre-industrial stages of a society's development, whether in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, or even Europe.

These grants will be the primary means by which Arcadia will contribute to the urgent task of identifying, preserving and making accessible such archival collections before they are lost to international scholarship forever.

How to Apply

Applications are now invited for the Pilot Project Grant and Major Research Project Grant schemes. All applicants must initially submit a preliminary application.

The deadline for submission of preliminary applications is 4 November 2011.

After assessment of the preliminary applications has taken place, only those subsequently invited to do so may submit a detailed application.

The deadline for submission of detailed applications is 24 February 2012.

Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their applications by the end of May 2012.

All the application documentation can be found here.
Applicants must read carefully the Guidelines for Applicants (PDF format 52KB) and Terms and Conditions of Award (PDF format 49KB) and refer to these documents for details on how to submit an application.

An August Accession


During August material was received from a number of projects including:


EAP279: A rescue programme for the Matsieng Royal Archives, Lesotho


Mrs Celina Qobo, National University of Lesotho

2009 award - Major project

£13,956 for 12 months

The Royal Family of Lesotho has been based in Matsieng since just after the 1858 war, when Matsieng was established by the second Lesotho king, Mohato (Letsie 1). Matsieng is near Morija, the original missionary settlement in Lesotho dating from 1843, where King Letsie 111 was born. The royal family has been based at Matsieng continuously since the founding of Matsieng, which has been a 'royal hub' of the Basotho kingship and chieftainship. The documents that have accumulated at Matsieng cover material dating from the early 19th century. The collection includes records of historical, political, legal and economic significance:
     •records on chieftainship and succession to high office
     •court proceedings and judgements
     •boundary disputes and resolutions
     •traditional marriage systems and records
     •inheritance documentation and disputes
     •official speeches
     •correspondence (of national and international significance, as it includes official communications between Lesotho and the UK, and diplomatic contacts with many other countries)
     •books and serials
     •official administrative records covering the colonial period
     •records of public works
     •financial records of governmental divisions

Most of this material is unique. Repatriation of the Royal Archives material will allow a much more comprehensive, complete and coherent record to be established, documenting the national history of Lesotho from the early 19th century.

The material was in poor storage at the Royal residence in Matsieng, Lesotho. The ceiling then collapsed leaving the materials exposed to rain. The University Archives arranged 'emergency repatriation' in December 2007 and January 2008. The material is all paper, though in a range of physical formats: papers in folders, paper assembled with treasury tags, ledgers and other bound record books, and many stacks of individual papers.

The University has fumigated the material and re-boxed it, with box-level content listing. About 20% of the material may be too damaged to scan; about 40% is damaged but copying should be possible. This project will scan all the documents from Matsieng that can be scanned. The files will be organised by a database, with detailed cataloguing in the archive's existing system. Additionally, each document will exist as a PDF of one or more scans, accessible from a digital library using the Greenstone (open source) software. The University will host one copy of the digital library, the Internet Archive will also host the collection, and the full data will be available to the British Library.

Aboriginal Rights in the Arctic

Aboriginal Rights in the Arctic


Tony Penikett
(Former Premier, Yukon Territory)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 12.30-1.45 p.m.


Room G34, Ground Floor, Senate House [South Block]

RSVP: Olga.Jimenez@sas.ac.uk
0207 862 8871
University of London
Malet Street, London WC1

Tony Penikett's 25 years in politics included two years in Ottawa as Chief of Staff to federal New Democratic Party Leader Ed Broadbent, MP; five terms in the Yukon Legislative Assembly, and two terms as Premier of Canada's Yukon Territory. His government negotiated final agreement for First Nation Land claims in the territory and passed pioneering education, health, language legislation, as well as leading a much-admired bottom-up economic planning process. Penikett entered politics after the miners at the northern Yukon Arctic asbestos mine, where he was shop steward, nominated him for the Territorial Legislature.

Penikett has also served as Deputy Minister of Negotiations and later, Labour for the Government of British Columbia. In 2006, Douglas and McIntyre published his book, Reconciliation: First Nations Treaty Making. He is also the author of two films: The Mad Trapper for BBC TV/ Time Life Films and La Patrouille Perdue for French television as well as several plays.

Institute of Commonwealth Studies special collections and archives

With the completion of moves within Senate House Library the Institute of Commonwealth Studies special collections and archives will now be available to consult in the Sterling Library Reading Room, 4th floor, south, of the Senate House Library.

Users are reminded that material needs to be booked in advance by email to: shl.specialcollections@london.ac.uk
or by phone
020 7862 8470



One full working day's notice is required. The cut-off point for making archive appointments is 1600. Any messages after this time will be dealt with the following working day (and archives therefore produced for the day after that).  Items for Saturdays or evenings must be ordered by 1600 on the preceding day.

Opening hours are listed at:
http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/specialcollections/historicaccess.shtml

The Australian Women's Register

The searchable-on-line Australian Women's Register is a valuable and growing source of biographical data about Australian women and their organisations, with hyper-links to the archival repositories and libraries where their records are held and to other sources of information. Women and women's organisations are listed alphabetically. You' can also search by functional classification, for example, 'P' covers physicists, politicians, pharmacists, pacifists and many more.


The Register is an initiative of The National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) in conjunction with The University of Melbourne, funded by the Australian Research Council.The Australian Women's Archive Project promotes the keeping and care of personal records and encourages individuals and organisations to deposit records appropriately in available archives and libraries. National institutions preserve the papers of well known women and significant organisations. The AWAP register will tell you that the National Library of Australia holds the archives of Judith Wright (1915-2000) poet and conservationist, the John Oxley Library in the State Library of Queensland holds the records of the Queensland Country Women's Association from 1922 onwards and the Mortlock Library at the State Library of South Australia holds the papers of Dame Roma Mitchell (1913-2000) the first woman governor of an Australian state.


But there are many smaller institutions with fascinating archival collections. The Warringah Library's local studies collection at Dee Why NSW holds the records of surfboard rider and swimming instructor Isabel Letham (1899-1995). The Geelong City Council's Heritage Centre (Vic) holds the records of local Girl Guides groups from the 1930s - 1960s. The Charles Sturt University Regional Archives in Wagga, NSW holds the records of the Coolamon Mothers' Union (1947-85) and the Italian Historical Society (Vic) holds the records of Lena Santospirito (1895-1993) a community worker and migrant community advocate.


This resource is a good supplement to the free online version of the Australian
Dictionary of Biography

African Arguments

African Arguments is hosted by the Royal African Society and the Social Science Research Council. This online discussion forum was launched in 2009 as a multiblogging site to supplement the African Arguments book series, edited jointly by Alex de Waal and Richard Dowden. Published by Zed Books in the U.K. and Palgrave Macmillan in the U.S.A. it aims to offer online discussion of controversies facing Africa. These include politics, globalisation, terrorism and international security. The site covers both contemporary African events as they unfold, and develops debates on themes centrally important to an ever changing continent.

Each debate will consist of many individual ‘arguments’ – the first contribution being commissioned from an expert on the theme. Responses are then invited, and will be moderated by the editor.

The site currently has country-specific debates on Sudan and Zimbabwe, thematic discussions on development policy and Asian involvement in the continent, as well as a rolling news-based commentary on contemporary political affairs.

Oral History Interviews: Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge

The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge is near completion of a project to digitise their collection of  Oral history interviews
The site provides free online access to a unique sound archive containing several hundred oral history interviews and recordings relating to the political, economic and social history of India during the 20th century. They include materials relating to the British Empire, colonial rule in India, their struggle for Independence and the work of political movements such as the Indian National Congress and supporters of Gandhi. Contributors include Indian politicians, social reformers, eye witnesses of key events and members of the British establishment. Each entry has associated bibliographic information, technical and copyright data. Many have transcripts.

Two conferences on natural history

Botanic gardens, science, explortation and empire... This history of plant collectors and their relationships with Empire is a fascinating one. Two conferences coming up explore this theme:


“Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker- Botanist-Explorer-Champion of Darwin- A centenary celebration”

Conference at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 9 December 2011

In an age of great naturalists, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) was perhaps the greatest Victorian botanist. His reputation is based on his early travels in the South Pacific Ocean and India, his lifetime’s work on the world’s flora and biogeography, and twenty commanding years as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Sir Joseph’s fame has continued to grow through his friendship with and staunch support for Charles Darwin.


A day of talks by leading experts, behind-the-scenes tours, and a reception with private view of the centenary exhibition on Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker’s life and work (1817-1911). The conference fee is £35 (£15 for students) and includes attendance at the meeting, refreshments, lunch, and evening reception. Places are limited and filling up quickly!

Further details and booking information can be found at: http://www.kew.org/visit-kew-gardens/whats-on/scientific-events



Wallich and Indian natural history: Collection dispersal and the cultivation of knowledge

A two-day interdisciplinary conference to celebrate the collections of the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich (1786-1854) and Indian natural history.

6 - 7th December 2011, at the Natural History Museum and Kew Gardens, London.

The Natural History Museum project is working to reunite historically and scientifically significant plant specimens at the Museum with the correspondence and illustrations of Nathaniel Wallich, the superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Gardens for the East India Company from 1817 to 1846.

The project includes: a website; collaboration with the Calcutta Botanic Gardens and the National Archives of India; a survey of collateral natural history drawing collections; hosting of humanities researchers from India; and a two-day interdisciplinary conference

More information available at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/departments/cahr/recent-projects-and-partnerships/wallich-indian-natural-history/index.html

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British Cabinet Papers 1915-1980

The National Archives Cabinet Papers website provides free access to a major digital archive of British
government documents. Over half a million pages of papers, memos, minutes and reports covering all major British government cabinet, ministerial and prime minisers decisions from 1915-1980 can be read online at the National Archives website as part of a project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) digitisation programme. All areas of British domestic and foreign policy can be traced and insight offered into government decision making processes. The site can be searched by keyword or browsed by theme.

Key topics include: the British Empire, decolonisation and the development of the Commonwealth; diplomacy, foreign policy and British involvement in the First and Second World wars.

The site also includes 'A' level teaching guides with suggested classroom activities; interactive maps of key political and social events and a who's who of prime ministers and key politicians.

Sport mega events - the 2010 FIFA World Cup

With the Rugby World Cup currently being held in New Zealand, and the Olympics and Paralympics coming to London in 2012 the latest issue of Development Southern Africa, (Vol. 28, No. 3, 01 Sep 2011) should make for interesting reading, with a special focus on the 2010 FIFA WOrld Cup and its legacies.


The new issue contains the following articles:

EDITORIAL

"Sport mega-events and their legacies: The 2010 FIFA World Cup" Scarlett Cornelissen, Urmilla Bob & Kamilla Swart

ARTICLES

"Towards redefining the concept of legacy in relation to sport mega-events: Insights from the 2010 FIFA World Cup" Scarlett Cornelissen, Urmilla Bob & Kamilla Swart

"Tourist displacement in two South African sport mega-events" Johan Fourie, Krige Siebrits & Karly Spronk

"South Africa under FIFA's reign: The World Cup's contribution to urban development" Christoph Haferburg

"The 2010 FIFA World Cup high-frequency data economics: Effects on international tourism and awareness for South Africa" Stan du Plessis & Wolfgang Maennig

"A method for calculating the crowding-out effect in sport mega-event impact studies: The 2010 FIFA World Cup" Holger Preuss

"Rural community perceptions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup: The Makhowe community in KwaZulu-Natal" Urmilla Bob & Mbali Majola

"Pan-Africanism and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa" Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni

"A sport and sociocultural legacy beyond 2010: A case study of the Football Foundation of South Africa" Kamilla Swart, Urmilla Bob, Brendon Knott & Mushfieqah Salie

Biographies: The Atlantic Slave Data Network

Biographies: The Atlantic Slave Data Network
Call for Database Contributions, Michigan State University.


The National Endowment for the Humanities has funded "Biographies: The Atlantic Slaves Data Network" (ASDN). The ASDN will provide a platform for researchers of African slaves in the Atlantic World to upload, analyze, visualize, and utilize data they have collected, and to link it to other datasets, which together will complement each other in such a way as to create a much richer resource than the individual datasets alone. To help you better understand our vision we encourage you to visit the project website at : http://www.slavebiographies.org/

Project Directors have recently met with representatives from MATRIX, Michigan State University's digital humanities center, who will create the ASDN website. MATRIX is currently assessing the needs of the ASDN based upon Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's large dataset for Louisiana and Walter Hawthorne's smaller dataset for Maranhão, Brazil. But the more examples of datasets we have the better able we will be to define fields, to work through issues of combining data in different electronic formats, and to cope with other challenges we are bound to face. What we need now are additional scholars to share their database structures to help us create and set the parameters of the ASDN.

Any scholars interested in sharing their databases are encouraged to contact the Project Directors at the email addresses posted below.

Databases will not be made public unless permission is granted.

Project Directors:

Gwendolyn Midlo-Hall, ghall1929@gmail.com
Walter Hawthorne, walterh@msu.edu

General Project Information:contact@slavebiographies.org

CARIBBEAN SEMINAR SERIES 2011-2012

INSTITUTE OF COMMONWEALTH STUDIES AND INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE AMERICAS

CARIBBEAN SEMINAR SERIES 2011-2012

AUTUMN PROGRAMME OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2011

12th October, 5pm
Venue: TBC
Amanda Smyth and Monique Roffey

Trinidadian-born writers Amanda Smyth and Monique Roffey will speak about and read from their recent novels, Black Rock (Serpent’s Tail, 2010) and The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (Simon & Schuster, 2009).

Amanda Smyth is Irish/Trinidadian. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at UEA in 2000. Her short stories have been published in New Writing, London Magazine and broadcast on Radio 4 as part of a series called Love and Loss. She was awarded an Arts Council Grant for Black Rock, her first novel. For more on the author and her work see:
http://thescribblerblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/waterstones-new-voices-2009-interview-three-amanda-smyth/

Monique Roffey was born in Trinidad and is based in London. She has published two novels and a memoir and is editor of an anthology of short stories The Global Village (Peepal Tree, 2009). Her second novel, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle (2010) was shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2010. Her work has been hailed as ‘a major contribution to the New Wave of Caribbean writing…[breaking] entirely new ground’ (Olive Senior). For more on the author and her work see: http://www.moniqueroffey.co.uk/about-me/

26th October, 5pm

Rosemarijn Hoefte, KITLV
Suriname: Moving from the Netherlands to Venezuela?

In August 2010 former dictator Desi Bouterse was elected president of Suriname. He immediately announced that the country’s foreign policy as of now would focus on the Caribbean and Latin America rather than on the former metropole, the Netherlands. In the year after his election, the influence of Venezuela and Hugo Chávez are noticeable in Paramaribo, where a parallel state without parliamentary control is being created. This is generally presented as a new phenomenon in Suriname. In this presentation, I will explore whether this development does not have deeper roots in the history of independent Suriname.

Rosemarijn Hoefte (KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) is currently working on a social history of twentieth-century Suriname. Her other project is a biography of the first Surinamese female politician and social activist Grace Schneiders-Howard (1869-1968). In 2010 she coordinated a one-year project collecting life stories of Javanese migrants in Suriname, Indonesia, and the Netherlands.

9th November, 5pm

Leah Gordon, film-maker and photographer
Kanaval: A People’s History of Haiti

For the last 15 years Leah Gordon has been documenting a carnival in Jacmel, Southern Haiti using photography and the collection of oral histories. This work has recently been published in the book Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti (Soul Jazz Publishing, 2010). Each year, Jacmel holds pre-Lenten Mardi Gras festivities. Troupes of performers act out mythological and political tales in a whorish theatre of the absurd that courses the streets, rarely shackled by traditional parade. Whatever the Carnival lacks in glitz and spectacle, it makes up for in home-grown surrealism and poetic metaphor. The characters and costume partially betray their roots in medieval European carnival, but the Jacmellien masquerades are also a fusion of clandestine Vodou, ancestral memory, political satire and personal revelation. The lives of the indigenous Taino Indians, the slaves’ revolt and more recently state corruption are all played out using drama and costume on Jacmel’s streets. This is people taking history into their own hands and moulding it into whatever they decide. So within this Historical retelling we find mask after mask, but rather than concealing, they are revealing, story after story, through disguise, gesture and roadside pantomime.

A selection from over 150 photographs will play on a loop whilst Leah discusses the importance of documenting the carnival, the role of folk history in Haiti and the many different mediums used by Haitian people to retell history, the implicit complexities of the visual representation of Haiti (in terms of two centuries of post-revolution Western demonisation), the on-going struggle between spectacle and narrative in a photographic project, the role of oral histories in restoring narrative to the visual and the link between the technical process, analogue photography and historic narrative. Leah will finish by reading one or two of the oral histories.

Leah Gordon is from the UK and has worked as a photographer, film-maker and curator. She visited Haiti for the first time in 1991, and has continued to have a relationship with the country to this day. As a reportage photographer Gordon covered the coup in the early nineties and then began to make work inspired more by the culture and religion than the politics. In 2006 she commissioned the Grand Rue Sculptors from Haiti to make 'Freedom Sculpture', a permanent exhibit for the International Museum of Slavery in Liverpool. In 2008 she completed a film about the artists called Atis-Rezistans: the Sculptors of Grand Rue. Continuing her relationship with the Grand Rue artists, Gordon organized and co-curated the Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince in December 2009. She has recently been involved in a range of projects as film-maker and photographer including a film documenting the colonial legacy and the museum in Maputo and a meditation on the Slave Trade and the River Thames; her photography book Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti was published in June 2010. Gordon is currently on the curatorial teams for the first Haitian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011), 'In Extremis' at the Fowler Museum, UCLA, Los Angeles (2012) and co-curator, with Alex Farquharson of an exhibition based on the Haitian Revolution at the Nottingham Contemporary (2012). Leah Gordon is represented by Riflemaker Gallery and is film tutor on the BA in Digital, Film and Screen Arts at University of the Creative Arts, Farnham.

23rd November, 5pm

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.

7th December, 5pm

Anyaa Anim-Addo, Royal Holloway
Slavery, Emancipation and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (RMSPC) began full operations between Britain and the Caribbean in 1842, with the Company’s vessels transporting mail, people and goods between European and Caribbean ports-of-call throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. James MacQueen, one of the Company’s key advocates and founders, had gained personal experience of the Caribbean as an employee on a sugar estate in Grenada at the end of the eighteenth century. This paper revises existing historiography of the RMSPC and insists that the Company’s operations be interpreted in the context of Caribbean slavery and emancipation. Three perspectives on the Company are used to advance this argument. The first part of the paper interrogates the personal networks and interest groups involved in the Company during its first decade of service. The second part of the paper examines the Company’s attempts to establish labour arrangements in Grenada, St Thomas and Bermuda, and argues that the RMSPC’s infrastructural operations were characterised by complex geographies of bondage and freedom. The final part of the paper relates steamship travel to circulating debates on emancipation and free labour during the late nineteenth century. In this way, the paper argues that the RMSPC was equally shaped by geographies of slavery and emancipation.

Anyaa Anim-Addo is soon to take up a research fellowship at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Her doctoral research focused on the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in the post-emancipation Caribbean.

New location

These are the new floor plans for Senate House Library. Please note that some collections may not yet be fully moved into place including the Senate House Library US Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies collections, which move next week:
http://www.senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/library/floorplans/SHLs_2011_Floor_Plans.pdf

Applications Invited for 2012 Decolonization Seminar

Applications Invited for 2012 Decolonization Seminar
Applications must be received by November 1, 2011

The National History Center invites applications from early-career scholars to participate in the seventh international summer seminar on decolonization, which will be held for four weeks, from Sunday, July 8, through Saturday, August 4, 2012, in Washington, D.C.

As in the previous six seminars in the series, the participants will engage in the common pursuit of knowledge about various dimensions of 20th-century decolonization in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

The 15 participants selected to participate in the four-week seminar will receive a small stipend to cover daily living expenses (food, local travel, and so on). The Center will arrange and pay for participants' accommodation in Washington. The Center will also reimburse (subject to limits) travel costs incurred by the selected participants for traveling between their workplace or place of normal residence and Washington, D.C., and back.

The seminar will be an opportunity for the participants to pursue research at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and other repositories of historical research materials in Washington, D.C., on projects within the overarching theme of decolonization; to exchange ideas among themselves and with the seminar leaders; and to produce a draft article or chapter of a book with the guid-ance of the faculty leaders, who, together with the participants themselves, will offer comments and critiques on the evolving draft papers.

That is, significant time will be allocated during the seminar to discussions (collective as well as individual), while participants will also be given time to conduct research in local libraries and archives.

Wm. Roger Louis, Kerr Professor of English History and Culture and Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin (and the founding director of the National History Center), will direct the seminar. Other seminar leaders will include Jennifer Foray (Purdue Univ.) Dane Kennedy (George Washington Univ.), Philippa Levine (Univ. of Texas at Austin), Jason Parker (Texas A & M Univ.), and Pillarisetti Sudhir (AHA).

Applicants should preferably have a recent PhD and be at the beginning of their careers. Applications from advanced PhD students who are nearing completion of their dissertations are also encouraged.

Applicants should note that all the academic activities (including discussions and written work) will be in English. Applicants must, therefore, be fluent in English.

Those selected will have to agree that they will actively participate in the seminar, including all required meetings and events, for its entire duration.

For further information and complete application requirements, please check the website, http://nationalhistorycenter.org/applications-invited-for-2012-decolonization-seminar/

14th UK-Belize Association Meeting Friday 23rd September, 2011

14th UK-Belize Association Meeting Friday 23rd September, 2011

To be held at: Senate House, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Room: G37 Bedford Room (Ground floor).

Provisional Programme.

13:00 Registration
13:15 Welcome

13:30 Session 1
Dylan Vernon, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
Big Game, Small Town: Exploring the Origins of Modern Political Clientelism in Belize.
Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
The Belize Economy since Independence.
Anne Burns, The Belize High Commission in London
Barrier Reef Conservation initiatives: Reforesting coral beds.
Elizabeth Graham, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London
Residual waste in the past and its impact on modern environments

15:30 Tea & coffee

16:00 Session 2
Holley Moyes, University of California
The Archaeology of Las Cuevas
Percival Cho, Lancaster Environment Centre, University of Lancaster
Hurricane impact assessment on the Forest Dynamic Plots in the Chiquebul and Colombia Forests: Implications for Forest conservation.
Christopher Minty, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh & Charles Britt, New Mexico State University.
Monitoring the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) in the Chiquebul Forest: Update.
Barbara Bulmer-Thomas, Independent Researcher
Origin Myths: The curious case of Peter Wallace the vanishing pirate.

UK-Belize Association Business

18:00 Close of meeting

ALL WELCOME
Contact: bbulmerthomas@gmail.com

Commonwealth Advisory Bureau

Last night I attended the UK Launch of the Commonwealth Advisory Bureau's Policy Briefing for the 2011 Commonwealth Summit and Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), to be held in Perth, Western Australia in October this year.

The Commonwealth Advisory Bureau, based at the Institute of COmmonwealth Studies is the new name for what was known as the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, and is is the independent think-tank and advisory service for the modern Commonwealth of fifty-four nations and nearly two billion citizens. The Ccommonwealth Advisory Bureau (CA/B) specialise in issues of Commonwealth policy including globalisation, democracy, civil society and human rights and runs projects in numerous countries across the Commonwealth; produces quality research-based reports and briefings to inform and influence policy makers in over a quarter of the world’s countries; and seeks to put the policy choices before the Commonwealth into sharper focus, exploring options and suggesting new directions. CA/B also offers confidential and impartial advice to countries interested in applying to join the Commonwealth, and can help existing member countries make the most of Commonwealth membership for maximum impact at home and abroad.

The CA/B Briefing for the 2011 Commonwealth Summit is available online and  presents chapters on key issues for discussion and debate within the Commonwealth meetings that will take place at and around the Commonwealth Summit. Chapters include an alternative (sustainable) vision for mining, a challenge to the economic model of consumerist culture; discussions of the situation in Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth relationship with that nation; a call for a more open, inclusive, transparent and meritocratic selection of the next Commonwealth Secretary General; and an interview with Albie Sachs on the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the South Africa experience of protection against unfair discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Albie Sachs spoke at the launch of South Africa's experiences and lessons and of the role of lesbians and gay men in the apartheid struggle, stressing the importance of debate and mutual respect in the dabates that it is hoped will continue at the Commonwealth Summit. In the chapter in the briefing is acknowledged the work of the Commonwealth Human Rights Institute and Commonwealth Lawyers' Association in highlighting the issue of LGBT rights in the Commonwealrth arena.

David Nicholls Memorial Trust Lecture

David Nicholls Memorial Trust Lecture


Regents Park College
Pusey Street, Oxford, OX1 2LB

Tuesday 11th October, 2011

Dr David Lambert, University of Warwick
‘In but not of the West’: Caribbean histories and geographies


4.00pm Coffee and tea in Regent’s Park Common Room, with poster presentation by Mark Tumbridge, DNMT PhD student, Warwick

5.00pm Lecture

6.30pm Reception

7.00pm Dinner at Regent’s Park - all welcome, no need to advance book, cost per head c. £7 (tbc)

Caribbean Studies Book Prize

Caribbean Studies Association Announces the 2012 Gordon K. and Sybil Lewis Prize

Deadline for Application: November 15, 2011

To honor the memory of distinguished Caribbeanist Gordon K. Lewis, the Caribbean Studies Association has established a yearly award to be given for the best book about the Caribbean published over the previous three-year period (2009-2011) in Spanish, English, French or Dutch. The nominated book should approach the chosen subject or aspect of Caribbean life conditions and situations from an interdisciplinary perspective, and should clearly be shown to have regional impact.

Monographs in all disciplines and fields of Caribbean scholarship will be considered. Preference will be given to books written by one or more authors as opposed to edited volumes.

Please submit books (2 copies) to the chair of the award selection committee:

Holger Henke, Ph.D.
Asst. Provost
York College (CUNY)
94-20 Guy R. Brewer Blvd.
Jamaica, NY 11451
USA

Deadline for submission is: November 15, 2011.

Black and Asian Britain seminars

Institute of Commonwealth Studies, in conjunction with the Black & Asian Studies Association

Black and Asian Britain seminars

Senate House, University of London, Russell Square, London WC1
6 to 7.30 pm,

Everyone is welcome. You do not have to pre-book/register. (Contact: Marika.Sherwood@sas.ac.uk)

27 September (G34 - Gordon Room) Kate Donnington 'Feeding the ghosts': George Hibbert, the West India Docks and the memory of British Slave Ownership.' This paper will explore the ways in which George Hibbert has been represented in the West India Dock area. It will consider the relationship between the representation and memory of slave ownership in Britain.

18 October (The Court Room, 1st Floor) Kwame Nimako, ‘The Legacy of Atlantic Slavery: the Unfinished Business of Emancipation’. Abolition is a legal act, and this has taken place; emancipation is a social, political and economic process, and has not yet been achieved. Taking the Dutch situation as a point of departure, I offer an assessment of how current struggles over recognition, remembrance and commemoration remain at the forefront, as revealed, for example, in the 2007 bicentenary in Great Britain, and in the preparations for the 150th anniversary of the abolition of Dutch slavery which will occur in 2013. (Book will be on sale at £15)

15 November ( STB8, Stewart House Basement) Michael Ohajuru, ‘An Introduction to the Black Presence in Renaissance Europe’ as exemplified by the Black Magus's image found on a 16th Century Rood Screen from Devon. (Now in the Victoria & Albert Museum's Collection (W.54-1928). How did the image reach Devon and what might it have meant at the time?

SAS-Space

So shameless self promotion - and to inform you we have added some conference papers on various Caribbean topics, presented by the Commonwealth Studies Librarian at the Society for Caribbean Studies conference to SAS-Space, the School's Institutional Repository.

Clover, David (2005) Dispersed or destroyed: archives, the West Indian Students' Union, and public memory. Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers, 6 . ISSN 1471-2024


Clover, David (2006) Visions of the Caribbean: exploring photographs in the West India Committee Collection. Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers, 7 . ISSN 1471-2024

Clover, David (2007) The West Indian Club Ltd: an early 20th century West Indian interest in London. Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers, 8 . ISSN 1471-2024

Clover, David (2008) “This horably wicked action”: abortion and resistance on a Jamaican slave plantation. Society for Caribbean Studies Annual Conference Papers, 9 . ISSN 1471-2024



More papers on various topics will be added over the next few weeks.

New location for Commonwealth Studies Librarian

Following the move of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Collection to the 6th floor of the Senate House Library, the Commonwealth Studies Librarian (and Head of Academic Liaison and Research Support), David Clover has moved offices to be located near the collections.
David is now based in room 651, at the north end of the 6th floor.

Other contact details remain the same:

Mail: David Clover, Senate House Libraries - University of London, Library Office, 4th Floor, Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU.
Phone: 020 7862 8840
email: david.clover(at)london.ac.uk

United Nations Economic Commision for Africa (UNECA) institutional repository

The United Nations Economic Commision for Africa (UNECA) has launched an institutional repository.



In its 50 years of existence, UNECA has created and holds a vast quantity of information and knowledge in a variety of formats, including printed and electronic. These represent the organisation's corporate memory, providing historical evidence of its actions and decisions. The information resources include published materials such as flagship publications, journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports, mission reports, annual reports, working papers, speeches and other grey literature, all which outline important research or decisions that have been made on the economic and social developmental aspects in Africa.


The Institutional Repository of the Economic Commission for Africa offers unique knowledge and information not available elsewhere pertaining to regional programmes, decisions and resolutions promoting social and economic development in Africa. The repository includes key documents relating to the African Governance report, the African Women's Report, the Economic report on Africa, and Millennium Development Goals in Africa.


This material has been grouped into the following "communities" (with number of items as of July 2011 in square brackets):


•Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing [1537]
•Economic Development and Development Finance [8287]
•Gender issues and Equity [1153]
•Governance and Public Administration [2506]
•Industry [1539]
•International Trade [1524]
•Library, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Science and Technology [1770]
•Natural Resources and Environment [1934]
•Organizational Questions [1715]
•Political and Legal Questions [507]
•Social Development [6133]
•Sub-Regional Offices [57]
•Transport and Communications [1233]