Friday 27 May 2011

Reminder - Bank Holiday opening hours

Bank Holiday Opening Hours


A reminder of our Bank Holiday opening hours:

Saturday 28th May: The Library will be open from 09.45 - 17.30


The Library will be closed on Sunday and also on Bank Holiday Monday 30th May.

A Selection of New Books - Asia

A selection of new books from South and South East Asia added to the collection this month are listed below:

Malaysia : human rights report 2008 : civil & political rights. Selangor, Malaysia : Suaram Kommunikasi, c2009.

Baruah, Sanjib (ed). Ethnonationalism in India : a reader. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Brunner, Hans-Peter. North East India : local economic development and global markets. New Delhi ; London : SAGE, 2010.

Buch, Nirmala. From oppression to assertion : women and panchayats in India. Delhi : Routledge India; c2010.

Chowdhury, Kanishka. The new India : citizenship, subjectivity, and economic liberalization. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, c2011.

Deo, Nandini. The politics of collective advocacy in India : tools and traps. Sterling, VA : Kumarian Press, 2011.

Faraizi, Aminul Haque, Taskinur Rahman and Jim McAllister. Microcredit and women's empowerment : a case study of Bangladesh. London : Routledge, c2011.

Gilani, Ijaz Shafi, The voice of the people : public opinion in Pakistan 2007-2009. Karachi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Holt, Sarah. Aid, peacebuilding and the resurgence of war : buying time in Sri Lanka. Basingstoke ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Hossain, Shahadat. Urban poverty in Bangladesh : slum communities, migration and social integration. London : I.B. Tauris, 2011.

Kaviraj, Sudipta. The imaginary institution of India : politics and ideas. New York ; Chichester : Columbia University Press, c2010.

Kazi, Seema. In Kashmir : gender, militarization & the modern nation-state. Brooklyn, NY : South End Press, 2010.

Kua, Kia Soong. 20 years defending human rights. Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia : SUARAM, [c2009]


Kumar, Deepak, Vinita Damodaran and Rohan D'Souza (eds). The British Empire and the natural world : environmental encounters in South Asia. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Leong, Wai Kum. The Singapore Women's Charter : 50 questions. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011.

Milner, Anthony. The Malays. Malden, MA ; Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell Pub., 2008.

Panagariya, Arvind. India : the emerging giant. New York, N.Y. : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Pande, Ishita. Medicine, race and liberalism in British Bengal : symptoms of empire. Abingdon ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Raj, Subhendu Ranjan. Coalition politics in India : dimensions of federal power sharing. New Delhi : Manak Publications, 2009.

Ranganathan, Maya. Eelam online : the Tamil diaspora and war in Sri Lanka. Newcastle : Cambridge Scholars, c2010.

Roy, Anupama. Mapping citizenship in India. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Saif, Lubna. Authoritarianism and underdevelopment in Pakistan, 1947-1958, the role of the Punjab. Karachi ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
 
Saravanamuttu, Johan. Malaysia's foreign policy : the first fifty years : alignment, neutralism, Islamism. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2010.

Schaffer, Howard B. How Pakistan negotiates with the United States : riding the roller coaster. Washington, D.C. : United States Institute of Peace, 2011.

Shaban, Abdul. Mumbai : political economy of crime and space. New Delhi : Orient BlackSwan, 2010.

Shankar, B. L. The Indian Parliament : a democracy at work. New Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Siddiqui, Kamal  et al. Social formation in Dhaka, 1985-2005 : a longitudinal study of society in a third world megacity. Farnham, Surrey ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2010.

de Silva Jayasuria, Shihan. African diaspora in Asian trade routes and cultural memories, Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, c2010.


Singh, A.K., S.P. Singh and D.S. Sutaria (eds) Gender budgeting and women empowerment in India. New Delhi : Serials Publications, 2010.

Sobhan, Rehman. Challenging the injustice of poverty : agendas for inclusive development in South Asia.  New Delhi, India ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE, 2010.

Sury, M. M. India : sixty years of planned economic development, 1950 to 2010. New Delhi, India : New Century Publications, 2010.

Thursday 26 May 2011

A selection of new books - Africa

Some new books added to the catalogue this month:

Gender mainstreaming experiences from eastern and southern Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia : Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, c2010.

Rwanda presidential elections : 9 August 2010 / the report of the Commonwealth Observer Group. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, c2010.

Akonor, Kwame. African economic institutions. London ; New York : Routledge, 2010.

Barkan, Joel D. (ed) Legislative power in emerging African democracies. Boulder, Colo. : Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009.

Barume, Albert Kwokwo. Land rights of indigenous peoples in Africa : with special focus on Central, Eastern and Southern Africa. Copenhagen : International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, 2010.

Beinart, William and Marcelle C. Dawson (eds). Popular politics and resistance movements in South Africa. Johannesburg : Witwatersrand Univ Press, 2010.

Bray, Rachel et al. Growing up in the new South Africa : childhood and adolescence in post-apartheid Cape Town. Cape Town : HSRC Press, 2010.

Brownell, Josiah. The collapse of Rhodesia : population demographics and the politics of race. London ; New York : I.B. Tauris, 2011.
Carson, Tracy M. Tomorrow it could be you : strikes and boycotts in South Africa, 1978-1982. Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, c2011.

Couper, Scott. Albert Luthuli : bound by faith. Scottsville, South Africa : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2010.

Crush, Jonathan et al, Migration, remittances and "development" in Lesotho. Cape Town : Southern African Migration Programme, 2010.
 
Cruvellier, T. Court of remorse : inside the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda / translated by Chari Voss.  Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c2010.

de Silva Jayasuria, Shihan. African diaspora in Asian trade routes and cultural memories, Lewiston, N.Y. : Edwin Mellen Press, c2010.
 
Ejiogu, E. C. The roots of political instability in Nigeria : political evolution and development in the Niger Basin. Farnham ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate Pub., c2011.

Endo, Isaku et al. Uganda's remittance corridors from United Kingdom, United States, and South Africa : challenges to linking remittances to the use of formal services. Washington, D.C. : World Bank, c2011.

Fourie, Pieter. The politics of AIDS denialism : South Africa's failure to respond. Farnham, Surrey, England : Ashgate Pub., c2010.

Fujii, Lee Ann. Killing neighbors : webs of violence in Rwanda. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2009.

Goldberg, Denis. The mission : a life for freedom in South Africa. Johannesburg : STE Publishers, 2010.

Grunebaum, Heidi. Memorializing the past : everyday life in South Africa after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, c2011.

Hebinck, Paul and Charlie Shackleton (eds). Reforming land and resource use in South Africa : impact on livelihoods. London ; New York : Routledge, 2011.

Hodgson, Rica. Foot soldier for freedom : a life in South Africa's liberation movement. Johannesburg : Picador Africa, 2010.

Jansen, Jonathan D. Knowledge in the blood : confronting race and the apartheid past. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, c2009.

Kasrils, Ronald. The unlikely secret agent. Auckland Park, South Africa : Jacana Media, 2010.

Kidombo, Pius K. The architecture of corruption in Kenya. Nairobi : Sino Printers and Publishers, 2007.

Lambright, Gina M. S. Decentralization in Uganda : explaining successes and failures in local governance. Boulder, Colo. : FirstForumPress, 2011.

Ley, Astrid. Housing as governance : interfaces between local government and civil society organisations in Cape Town, South Africa. Berlin : Lit, 2010.

Magubane, Bernard. Bernard Magubane : my life & times / by Bernard Makhosezwe Magubane with Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane. Scottsville, South Africa : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2010.
 
Marais, Hein. South Africa pushed to the limit : the political economy of change. London : Zed, 2011.

Marschall, Sabine. Landscape of memory : commemorative monuments, memorials and public statuary in post-apartheid South-Africa. Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2010.

Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J and James Muzondidya (eds). Redemptive or grotesque nationalism? : rethinking contemporary politics in Zimbabwe. Oxford ; New York : Peter Lang, c2011.

Obadare, Ebenezer. Statism, youth, and civic imagination : a critical study of the National Youth Service Corps Programme in Nigeria. Dakar, Senegal : Codesria, c2010.

Obi, Cyril and Siri Aas Rustad (eds). Oil and insurgency in the Niger Delta : managing the complex politics of petro-violence.  London ; New York : Zed Books Ltd., c2011

Osei, Philip D. and Joan N Nwasike. The contract system of employment for senior government officials : experiences from Africa. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, c2010.

Piper, Laurence. To serve and protect : the Inkathagate Scandal / as told to Laurence Piper by Brian Morrow. Pretoria : Unisa Press, c2010.

Quinn, Joanna R. The politics of acknowledgement : truth commissions in Uganda and Haiti. Vancouver : UBC Press, 2011.

Sadomba, Zvakanyorwa Wilbert. War veterans in Zimbabwe's revolution : challenging neo-colonialism & settler & international capital. Harare, Zimbabwe : Weaver Press ; Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK ; Rochester, NY : James Currey, 2011.

Sarkin-Hughes, Jeremy. Colonial genocide and reparations claims in the 21st century : the socio-legal context of claims under international law by the Herero against Germany for genocide in Namibia, 1904-1908. Westport, Conn. : Praeger Security International, 2009.

Sherwood, Marika. Origins of Pan-Africanism : Henry Sylvester Williams, Africa and the African diaspora. New York : Routledge, 2011.

Stapleton, Timothy. A military history of South Africa : from the Dutch-Khoi wars to the end of apartheid. Santa Barbara, Calif. : Praeger, c2010.

Vickers, Michael. A nation betrayed : Nigeria and the Minorities Commission of 1957. Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, c2010.

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Library collection moves

The following material is currently being packed and transported to Egham, but should be available to request again in a few days. Material held at Egham needs to be requested in advance and will be available within one or two working (Mon-Fri) days.

Any questions about the moves and Commonwealth Studies collections please contact david.clover@london.ac.uk

1. The Australian High Commission collection of books and periodicals


2. Commonwealth Studies Library: selected material in the following areas:

•Commerce (Classification mark HF – HF267)
•Finance (Classification mark HG)
•Public finance (Classification mark HJ)
•Political Science documents (Classification mark J)
•Agriculture – plant and animal industry (Classification mark S)

Friday 20 May 2011

South Africa on Film

Southern Africa: History, Culture and Society Seminar Series
Centre for African Studies, University of London

SOUTH AFRICA ON FILM

BRIAN WILLAN, ‘Cinematographic calamity’ or ‘Soul-stirring appeal to every Briton’: reactions to Birth of a Nation in England and South Africa, 1915-1931

EMMA SANDON, (Birkbeck College, London): ‘The African Mirror Newsreel and African Film Productions Documentaries: Non-Fiction Film Production in South Africa, 1910 – 1950’

JACQUELINE MAINGARD, (University of Bristol) ‘Assignment Africa’: Colonial Imaginaries and Donald Swanson’s African Jim (1949) and The Magic Garden (1951) in South African Film History’

NEIL PARSONS, ‘Early Southern African Movies and the Lingering Ambiguities of South African Union, 1910 – 1923’

Discussant: Carli Coetzee (SOAS)

10 June, 2011
13.00 – 17.00
Birkbeck College
CLO GO2 Clore Management Centre

For directions see: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/maps/centrallondon.pdf

Seminar Convenors: Wayne Dooling (wd2@soas.ac.uk); Hilary Sapire (h.sapire@bbk.ac.uk); Rebekah Lee (r.lee@gold.ac.uk)

Open Evening: Institute of Commonwealth Studies - MA in Human Rights, PhD Programme

Open Evening: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London

Summer Open Evening: Wednesday 22 June 2011, 3-6.30pm

We warmly invite you to our annual Summer Open Evening at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies on Wednesday 22 June.

If you are considering studying on either the MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights or the Research degree programmes, please join us at our Senate House home in Malet Street from 3-6.30pm.

The evening will be an opportunity to:

• Learn more about the MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights

• Chat with MA teaching staff

• Meet with Research degree supervisors

• Hear about our placement scheme

• Make contact with fellow incoming students and speak to alumni now working in the field

• Gain invaluable tips on how best to prepare for life as a student in London

More information will be posted on our website in due course. If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Troy.Rutt@sas.ac.uk who will send you further information.

Why Study at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies?

The Institute provides excellent opportunities for postgraduate study, through its Master’s and Research degree programmes.

Our MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights is the longest-running multi-disciplinary and practice-oriented human rights MA programme in the UK. We have been training human rights advocates and defenders around the world since 1995.

"The MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights is a cutting edge postgraduate programme, achieving the objective of balancing academic rigour with a practical engagement in the field of human rights.”
(Nigel Eltringham, External Examiner 2010)

The Institute also provides supervision for interdisciplinary doctoral degrees, focusing increasingly on the Social Sciences, especially relating to Human Rights, Globalisation and Development, Politics, and Commonwealth History. Students can pursue their academic interests within the friendly and supportive environment of the Institute, enhanced by the outstanding libraries of the University of London, including our own prestigious library collection.

http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/postgraduate-study.html

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Singapore Research Nexus

The Singapore Research Nexus (SRN) is a unique academic resource covering the wide range of research on Singapore produced by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at the National University of Singapore.

It serves as a showcase for past research, a resource for current research and a platform for future research on Singapore. It is described as a useful tool for academics, policy makers and those with a general interest in how research has helped shape the story of Singapore.

Users may browse by keyword, author or department to access current as well as earlier research by faculty members and students in FASS. Disciplines covered include Singapore's history, geography, society, politics, economy, arts, and literature. Click on Research Gallery for an overview of current content.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Mysterious Mandela

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory is appealing to the public to assist in finding missing information to accompany many photographs held in their collections.  They will be publishing many of these photos on their website in the coming months.

The first two batches of photographs are available here and here.

Complete the information required by commenting in the gallery if you have any of the following information regarding each photograph:


1.Who the un-identified people in the photo are
2.Who the photographer is
3.When and where the photo was taken
4.Who the copyright holder is

Monday 16 May 2011

International Conference - RESPONDING TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CARIBBEAN

International Conference

RESPONDING TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE CARIBBEAN
Institute for the Study of the Americas, London, June 13-14, 2011

A conference organised jointly by: Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA, University of London); Centre for Caribbean and Latin American Research & Consultancy (CLARC, at London Metropolitan University); and the International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED).

This policy-focused conference aims to bring academic researchers together with officials from the governments of the Greater Caribbean (both Anglophone and Hispanic), international agencies, and representatives of the private sector and non-government organisations working in the field. It will assess progress to date, highlighting lessons learned: the problems and obstacles as well as successes. By assessing the story to date, the conference will provide an opportunity for policy-makers, scientists, investors and educators to better understand the requirements for effective, forward-looking responses to climate change challenges in the years ahead. A video of the conference panels, together with a conference report, copies of presentations and the text of keynote addresses, will be made available on the web. Papers will also be submitted for publication in relevant journals and considered for publication in an edited book.

For a detailed programme and registration form, see:
http://americas.sas.ac.uk/events/events.php?id=9209

For further information, contact Emily Morris

Senate House Library moves - Stage 1

Senate House Library moves - Stage 1



The first stage of the library moves began on May 11, 2011. This is part of a four month programme which will culminate in the re-opening of the newly refurbished library in its entirety on Floors 4-7 of Senate House in time for the new academic session. When the moves are completed, the temporary library facilities in the Small Hall (where the Commonwealth Studies collection is currently held) and the North Block areas will be discontinued.

The first stage of the moves involves moving certain categories of low-use material from the Library’s closed access stacks in the Tower/Basement areas to our offsite storage Depository in Egham, Surrey. This will take approximately 4 weeks to complete. While the items are in transit, they will be temporarily unavailable. Normally, this will only be for between 24-48 hours, so please check with library staff if your item falls into one of the categories listed below.

These moves will ensure that we can retain more frequently used items and specialist collections on site in central London.


Access to the collections being sent to Egham is still readily available through the stack fetching service and items requested are normally available 24 hours after the request is lodged.


Material being transferred to the Depository


Includes:

1. The Australian High Commission collection of books and periodicals


2. Commonwealth Studies Library: selected material in the following areas:
  • Commerce (Classification mark HF – HF267)
  • Finance (Classification mark HG)
  • Public finance (Classification mark HJ)
  • Political Science documents (Classification mark J)
  • Agriculture – plant and animal industry (Classification mark S) 

Thursday 12 May 2011

Advance notice: 2011 Collection moves

Collection moves will be taking place at Senate House Library from May 2011 to the end of September 2011.


These essential moves are necessary in order to accommodate the return of the Library into the newly refurbished areas of Senate House, as well as manage space for ongoing building work elsewhere. The moves will be on a grand scale and entail relocating hundreds of thousands of books in a number of interconnected sequences.

As a result some of our collections will become temporarily unavailable while they are in transit. It will also be necessary to close the Library for sometime in the summer. More details and specific dates will be published when they are confirmed.


We will do everything we can to minimise disruption to users and to provide advance warning. If you are making a special journey to the Library between May 2011 and the end of September 2011 please check our website for the latest information and confirm with staff that the item(s) or collections you wish to consult are available for your visit.

The 2011 collection moves into the newly refurbished areas will enable us to offer a hugely upgraded study environment and collection space. This will provide a greatly improved experience for users, with new desks, infrastructure and navigation, all within a unified Library space.


If you have any questions please do contact us: http://www.shl.lon.ac.uk/library/contacts

Tuesday 10 May 2011

New Zealand online bibliographies

Three online bibliographies compiled by Tony Millett have been moved from the University of Waikato Library server, and are now accessible on the National Library of New Zealand’s FindNZArticles service at the National Library website. The three bibliographies, which have been updated to February 2011, are:


Bibliography of New Zealand Bibliographies

This database records bibliographies published in New Zealand or about New Zealand since 1960. It includes stand-alone publications, theses, library school bibliographies, and separate bibliographies published in books and periodicals. It does not list “back-of-the-book” bibliographies, since most non-fiction books include this type of bibliography or list of references. The bibliography currently lists about 5,325 records, searchable by author/compiler, editor, title, publisher, subject and keyword.

Bibliography of Published New Zealand Family Histories

This bibliography lists 3,425 separately-published histories of families with descendants in New Zealand. The earliest family history listed is dated 1860. All of the histories are indexed by author, title, keyword and family names; many are also indexed by family founder names; country, county and town of origin; ship on which the family arrived in New Zealand; year of arrival; and region and place of main settlement in New Zealand. Some records also include the surnames of the families into which the first generation of descendants married.

Bibliography on Homosexuality in New Zealand

This bibliography lists 2,485 publications, dating from 1835. Books, theses, reports, chapters in books, and periodical articles are all included, with very brief annotations where the title is not self-explanatory. Newspaper articles, and articles in exclusively gay journals, are not included. The records are indexed by author/editor, title, publisher, subject and keyword.

Monday 9 May 2011

SCOLMA Conference: Sport in Africa: History, Politics and the Archive

Sport in Africa: History, Politics and the Archive
SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) Annual Conference

The National Archives, Kew, London, Wednesday 29th June 2011

Programme

9.30 Registration and coffee

10.00 Welcome

10.10 Keynote Address
Professor Tony Mangan, formerly of the University of Strathclyde
‘A COLLAGE OF COMMENTARIES ON A CULTURAL IMPERIAL COMPULSION’
     ‘ ... this is the game for gentlemen
     Till on our race the sun shall set.
     The greatest glory of our land
     Whose crimson covers half the maps
     Is in the field where the wickets stand
     And the game is played by DECENT CHAPS’
 
     "The Short Cut" Donald Hughes

11.00 Dean Allen, University of Stellenbosch
‘South African Sports History and the Archive’

11.40 Susann Baller, University of Basel
‘The politics of match reports, minutes and archives in national neighbourhood football championships in Senegal’

12.20 Holly Collison, Brunel University
‘Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction: the role of sport in post war Liberia’
And
Michelle Sikes, University of Oxford
‘The Only Sport in [Eldoret] Town: Lessons from the Fastest Women in Kenya’

1.15 Lunch and SCOLMA AGM
A display of photographs of elite women’s football in Africa will be shown by Wisemove Productions during the lunch break.

2.15 Michelle Guittar and David Easterbrook, Melville J. Herskovits
Library of African Studies, Northwestern University
‘Materials relating to sport in Africa in the collections of the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, Northwestern University: an overview’

3.00 Pascal Charitas, Université Paris Sud 11
‘Colonial and post-colonial sport and the Olympic movement in English-speaking Africa after the Second World War (1945-1965): review, reflection and perspectives’

3.40 Karl Magee, University of Stirling
‘Boycotts and bailouts: the archives of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland’

4.20 Jonty Winch, University of Stellenbosch
‘Cricket and War in early Rhodesia, 1890-7’

5.00 Conclusion

5.15 Drinks

SCOLMA would like to thank The National Archives for providing the venue.
Please note that this programme is subject to change.

To register for the conference, please contact Lucy McCann at lucy.mccann@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.

SCOLMA website: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/scolma/

Friday 6 May 2011

Newly added - Pacific Island official publications

A number of newly received Pacific Island offical publications and NGO publications have been added to our catalogue and collections. These are difficult to source and held in few UK libraries. Titles added to the collection in April included:

Cook Islands

Cook Islands. Ministry of Finance and Economic Management. Statistics Office. 2006 Cook Islands census of population and dwellings : Northern group islands : final result. Rarotonga : Statistics Office, [2008?]

Wilkinson, Alastair. Cook Islands national policy on disability and national action plan, 2008-12. Cook Islands, 2007.

Creating new opportunities : Tongareva's strategy for sustainable development 2009-2013. Tongareva, 2009?

Fiji

Parliament of Fiji, Opportunities for all : report on the implementation of affirmatives action programmes under the Social Justice Acts, 2001 (2005), Suva: Prime Minister's Office 2006.

People's charter for change, peace & progress. [Suva, Fiji] : National Council for Building a Better Fiji, [2008]


Samoa

Samoa tourism development plan, 2009-2013 : a guide to sustainable tourism. Samoa, 2009

Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands. National Parliament. Constitution Review Committee. Report on the constitution : (political parties amendment) Bill 2009 (No. 24 of 2009). Honiara : Constitution Review Committee, National Parliament of Solomon Islands, 2009.


Solomon Islands. National Parliament. Inquiry into the facilitation of international assistance notice 2003 and RAMSI intervention, Honiara : Solomon Islands National Parliament, 2009


Tuvalu


2007 Tuvalu Demographic and Health Survey : (2007 TDHS). Tuvalu : Central Statistics Office, 2008

General

A woman's place is in the house--the house of parliament : research to advance women's political representation in Forum island countries : a regional study presented in five reports. Suva, Fiji : Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, 2006.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Film as a powerful tool for social change in Africa

SCOLMA Lunchtime Seminars



Film as a powerful tool for social change in Africa - Dr Dominique Chadwick, Cambridge-based practitioner in film and development.


Monday 9th May, 1pm
Friends House
173 Euston Road
London NW1 2BJ


This discussion-based seminar will explore different applications of film in social development: as a campaigning tool; as a documentation tool; and as an empowering tool through the participative processes of film-making.


It will draw on a variety of short clips of films set in Africa, taken from the work of Dr Chadwick. The clips will be used to stimulate discussion on a range of themes such as development process, power relations, and the role of the external filmmaker.


Please note that as this event is being held in the Library at Friends House, food and drink are not permitted.


Contact Marilyn Glanfield if you would like to attend: meg23@cam.ac.uk or 01223 334398

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Canadian Election Results 2011

The 2011 Canadian General Election) was held Monday, May 2, 2011, to elect members to the House of Commons of the 41st Canadian Parliament.


The Conservative Party (under leader Stephen Harper) remained in power, moving from a minority to a majority government. The New Democratic Party won the largest number of seats in their history, including a large majority of seats in Quebec and will form the Official Opposition for the first time. The Liberal Party won the fewest seats in their history and party leader Michael Ignatieff was defeated in his own riding, and has since annouced he will stand down as party leader. The Bloc Québécois, which had always won at least a majority of seats in Quebec, lost nearly all their seats, including the seat of their leader Gilles Duceppe, who resigned as BQ leader following his defeat. The Green Party won their first elected seat, that of party leader Elizabeth May


The preliminary election results are available on the Elections canada website

In the current climate in the UK of debate over voting systems, and proportionality it is interesting to compare on this table party standing (number of seats gained) and popular vote percentages. The table clearly illustrated the benefit of the Canadian system for the two larger parties (Conservative and NDP - New Democratic Party).

Tuesday 3 May 2011

City of London Festival - Trading Places - Australasia

City of London Festival 2011 - 26 June to 16 July

Our final Australia related post (with a good dose of New Zealand and the Pacific thrown in) focuses on the City of London Festival. This year there is a theme looking at Australasia and music and arts from Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific will "animate the cathedrals, livery halls, gardens and squares of the City of London - with added birdsong!"

Premiéres include the orchestral version of Brett Dean's Between the Spaces in the Sky by the City of London Sinfonia, Elena Kats-Chernin's River's Lament for The King's Singers, the Royal New Zealand Ballet at the Barbican and Liminal's outdoor music installation Organ of Corti.

Music and culture from Australasia are celebrated throughout this year's Festival as part of Festival Director Ian Ritchie's annual Trading Places theme. The Festival opens on 26 June with A Fifteen Piano Salute to Grainger - Luke Jerram's Street Pianos ring out some of the Australian maestro's best-known works in a promenade performance at Peter's Hill, St Paul's and Paternoster Square.

It is an unprecedented array of music from Australia and New Zealand with over 30 living composers represented. World-renowned Australian guitarist John Williams and the English Chamber Orchestra present works by Peter Sculthorpe and Ross Edwards at Guildhall Old Library (27 June). Australia's foremost didjeridu player William Barton joins the Choir of Southwark Cathedral to give the London premiére of a new version of Peter Sculthorpe's Requiem conducted by Peter Wright at Southwark Cathedral (4 July) and appears with pianist Piers Lane at Apothecaries' Hall (1 July) and the Goldner String Quartet at Goldsmiths' Hall (6 July). The King's Singers give the world premiére of Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin's River's Lament at Mansion House (7 July). New Zealand-born organist Dame Gillian Weir and soprano Anna Leese perform with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simone Young at St Paul's (12 July). Maori instrumentalist Richard Nunns performs with The New Zealand Quartet String Quartet at Haberdashers' Hall (13 July) and the NZTrio at Butchers' Hall (14 July).

More information can be found at the City of London Festival website

The United Kingdom Overseas Territories: Continuity and Change

The United Kingdom Overseas Territories: Continuity and Change

A one day conference at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Chancellor’s Hall, Senate House

This conference will consider the issues and challenges facing small sub‐national jurisdictions in the global political economy. Particularly it will focus on those territories which retain formal links to European countries namely the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. Within this context, there will be a stronger emphasis on the UK territories. This is for two reasons. First, we would like to revisit some of the issues debated five years ago in a conference entitled ‘The UK Overseas Territories: Past, Present and
Future’ held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Second, with a new British government in place it is worthwhile considering the nature of the new relationship and how it might develop over the coming years. However, in order to provide a wider context, comparative developments in the French and Dutch territories will be investigated.

The issues affecting all the territories such as the maintenance of good governance, economic development and the risks of economic vulnerability, and environmental sustainability are important concerns for all territories both independent and nonindependent. The ways in which these issues are addressed are somewhat different in small sub‐national jurisdictions because of the particular regimes in place and the tensions inherent within the model of governance involving the territory and the ultimate authority of the metropole. Thus the value of the conference will be to advance a better understanding of the trends and transformations that are present in the relationships.

For further details contact the organisers:

Dr Peter Clegg, Department of Politics, University of the West of England
peter.clegg@uwe.ac.uk 44+ (0)117 32 82376

Professor David Killingray, Institute of Commonwealth Studies
dmkillingray@hotmail.com 44+ (0)1732 453008

Australian Film Festival - Barbican

The second of our Australian themed posts is to highlight the 17th London Australian Film Festival taking place from Thursday 5th to Thursday 12th of May, at the Barbican
The Festival showcases both the latest Australian feature films and documentaries, providing UK audiences with a unique overview of Australian cinema today.

With our history/social sciences hats on - here are a couple of our highlights of this year's festival:

Oranges & Sunshine Emily Watson, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham star in the true story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered one of the most significant social scandals of recent times - the deportation of thousands of children from the UK to Australia which continued into the 1970s.
UK/Australia 2010 Dir. Jim Loach 104 min.
6 May 8.20pm
Strange Birds in Paradise Australian writer, cartoonist and comedian Charlie Hill-Smith explores the rich culture and recent history of West Papua. Having made strong connections there as a student on an exchange year, he returns investigating the people's resistance to Indonesian rule, exploring the music and the stories of two political exiles from West Papua.
2009 Australia Dir. Charlie Hill-Smith 75 min
9 May 6.00pm

British Museum - Australian Season

The first of three posts with an Australian flavour... The British Museum has launched a series of exhibitions and events focusing on Australia, running through to October 2011. The season has started with the planting of an Australian landscape in the forecourt of the Museum (in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew). two exhibitions follow, opening on the 26th of May - one entitled "Baskets and belonging: Indigenous Australian histories", exploring fibrework from the British Museums colelctions; and the other "Out of Australia: prints and drawings from Sudney Nolan to Rover Thomas" featuring over 120 works on paper by 60 artists, from the 1940s modernists to contemporary artists and Indigenous Australian printmakers.

The season also includes performances of music, film, readings, gallery talks, lectures and debates and workshops.

For further details and to follow the landscape blog online go to britishmuseum.org/australianseason