On Freedom of the Press

With discussion in the UK media today about freedom of the press and state regulation or interference in the press I thought it opportune to highlight two archive collections which contain much on the freedom of the press in the Commonwealth and in particular in the developing nations in the post-independence world.

The Commonwealth Journalists' Association was founded by a group of journalists in 1978 following a conference of Commonwealth non-governmental organisations held at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada, with the objective of catering for the needs of individual journalists in Commonwealth countries. The CJA's objectives include the raising of journalistic standards by the provision of training courses, the encouragement of an interest in and knowledge of Commonwealth affairs and the defence of the independence of journalists where a threat is perceived. The CJA takes a particular interest in safeguarding the rights of journalists in countries where press freedom is restricted and has intervened on several occasions, sometimes in collaboration with other interested bodies, to secure the re-opening of a newspaper or the release of journalists from prison.

The Commonwealth Journalists' Association archives date from 1998 to 2003 and detail training courses, conference and activity related to defending and encouraging a feee independent press. The collection was catalogued earlier this year, with thanks to and support from the Scott Trust Charitable Foundation and the Friends of Senate House Library (SHeLF).

The Commonwealth Press Union started in the early 20th century as the Empire Press Union, with the staging of the first Imperial Press Conference, and continued operation until 2008. At its peak, the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) was an association composed of 750 members in 49 countries, including newspaper groups (with several hundred newspapers), individual newspapers, and news agencies throughout the Commonwealth, represented within the CPU by their proprietors, publishers or senior executives. The aims and objectives of the organisation were to uphold the ideas and values of the Commonwealth; to promote, through the press, understanding and goodwill among members of the Commonwealth; and to advance the freedom, interests and welfare of the Commonwealth press and those working within it by i) monitoring and opposing all measures and proposals likely to affect the freedom of the press in any part of the Commonwealth, ii) working for improved facilities for reporting and transmitting news, and iii) promoting the training of all involved in the Commonwealth’s press.

The Commonwealth Press Union archives contain the records and publications of the Empire Press Union, and the Commonwealth Press Union, including official records relating to the administration of the organisation, circulars and bulletins, and conference papers and reports. The records include details of seminars and conferences and case work relating to freedom of the press issues across the Commonwealth. In addition to the listed records availabile on the catalogue an additional donation of material was made in 2009, and with the assistance of a volunteer, a detailed handlist is being prepared for this collection while funding is being sought for a cataloguing project. Any enquiries about this latter material are very welcome.

Both collections provide valuable source material for understanding freedom of the press issues across the Commonwealth as well as an understanding of international cooperation and support for freedom of the press from newspaper publishers and journalists.

Reminder - SENATE HOUSE CLOSES AT 2.00 TODAY

Reminder- Senate House Foundation Day closure


Today, Wednesday 28th November, due to Foundation Day events, the Senate House building will close at 2.00pm.

This closure means that all the libraries (including Senate House Library and the IHR Library), all meeting rooms and cafes will close at 2.00
Library staff are also required to leave the building so wioll not be available for phone or email enquiries this afternoon.

Normal service resumes Thursday morning.

Workshop: 'Obeah Histories: Exploring Caribbean Lives under Colonial Laws' , 25 January 2013

'Obeah Histories: Exploring Caribbean Lives under Colonial Laws'
25 January 2013

Organised as part of the AHRC-funded project 'Spiritual Politics in Caribbean History' based at Newcastle University and run in conjunction with The National Archives, UK, this half-day workshop explores histories of Caribbean religion and its suppression from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

Participants will explore original archival documents as well as look at images from The National Archives' Caribbean through a Lens project. The session focuses on Caribbean people’s practice of African-oriented religion and healing. Drawing on legislation and the stories of individuals who faced prosecution, we will investigate practices that were made illegal through colonial laws against ‘Obeah’ and against ‘Shouters’ (the Spiritual Baptist religion).


Venue: The National Archives, UK

Date: Friday, 25 January 2013 from 1pm until 5pm

For more information, venue details, and to book a place, visit http://obeahhistories.eventbrite.co.uk

Public Lecture: Contested Memories: the Shahid Minar [Monument] & the struggle for diasporic space, 28th November 2012

The Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies Annual Lecture


Contested Memories: the Shahid Minar [Monument] & the struggle for diasporic space

Public lecture at SOAS:


Speaker: Professor Claire Alexander (Dept. of Sociology, University of Manchester)

Date: 28 November 2012Time: 5:00 PM -7.00 PM

Venue: SOAS, Russell Square: College Buildings Room: Khalili Lecture Theatre


Drawing on new empirical research conducted in East London as part of a project on ‘the Bengal diaspora’, this lecture explores the struggle over Bangladeshi identity in Tower Hamlets as exemplified in the monument of the Shahid Minar and the related celebration of Ekushe (Martyr’s Memorial Day), which is usually held to mark the beginning of the Bangladesh national liberation struggle. Bringing together theories of diaspora consciousness and memorialisation, the paper explores the ways in which rituals and memory work both as a form of continuity with the homeland and as a method of claims-staking for minority groups in multicultural spaces.

Organiser: Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies

Contact email: rg32@soas.ac.uk

Contact Tel: 0207 898 4434

http://www.soas.ac.uk/migrationdiaspora/seminarsevents/annuallecture/28nov2012-contested-memories-the-shahid-minar-and-the-struggle-for-diasporic-space.html

CFP: Connected Histories of Empire, 15-16 July 2013, Bristol

Call for Papers: Connected Histories of Empire, 15-16 July 2013, Bristol


Centre for the Study of Colonial & Postcolonial Societies, University of Bristol

Over the last two decades, scholars have begun to characterise the British Empire as a complex patchwork of interacting and dynamic agencies, rather than as a homogenous monolith. As a result, the traditional spatial framework based on a stable division between the metropole and the periphery seems increasingly outmoded. Instead, historians, literary critics, scholars of globalisation, and philosophers have been writing about the webs, networks, and circuits in which people, objects, and ideas moved. This conference will interrogate the idea of an empire of connections, considering the possibilities opened up by thinking in terms of global interaction, as well as the challenges of incorporating the myriad interconnections of empire into coherent historical narratives.

The conference is the culmination of a year of events at the University of Bristol which have focused particularly on the memorialisation and commemoration of the British Empire. As scholars have begun to uncover the intricately woven interconnections of empire, a central concern of the conference will be to consider how this might influence how empire has been, and is, remembered and memorialised in Britain and elsewhere.


The organisers would like to invite proposals for papers and panels that speak to the following broad themes:

• The commemoration and memorialisation of different imperial sites, events and phenomena
• Links between imperial port-cities/global cities
• Flows of people, goods (physical and cultural), and cash
• The movement, preservation and display of imperial artefacts and archives
• Imperial networks and imperial careering
• Imperial audiences and public spheres
• The links between global history and imperial history

And would like to encourage broad discussion of connections and comparisons between different modern empires: proposals need not be restricted to the history of the British empire. Papers are welcomed from a range of academic disciplines.

To apply please send a 250 word abstract to the organisers at connectedhistoriesofempire@yahoo.co.uk  by 14 January 2013.

Conference organisers:

History: Ms Emily Baughan, Prof Robert Bickers, Prof Peter Coates, Prof Tim Cole, Dr Simon Potter, Dr Jonathan Saha, Dr Rob Skinner

Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies: Dr Matthew Brown, Dr Joanna Crow

English: Dr John Lee

Archaeology & Anthropology: Prof Mark Horton

18th Commonwealth Law Conference, 14-18 April 2013, Cape Town, South Africa

The conference programme for the 18th Commonwealth Law Conference is now available at http://www.commonwealthlaw2013.org/

Current topics include

• Anti-Bribery and Corruption in the Corporate World
• Intellectual Property in the Developing World 
• New Frontiers of Competition Law: Role of Non-Competition Considerations in Adjudication of Mergers and Takeovers 
• Privatising the Courts: Alternative Dispute Resolution 
• Legal Aspects of the Mining and Extractive Industries
• Government Lawyers Exposed 
• Separation of Powers: Constitutional and Media Perspectives 
• Human Trafficking: Commerce and Slavery in the Commonwealth
• LGBT: Decriminalisation and the Role of Lawyers 
• Pitcairn Island – Mutiny on the Bounty: Violence against Women as a Cultural Norm 
• Playing Fair? Sports Law in the Commonwealth 
• Information, Secrecy and Wikileaks 
• Forced Marriages: What Should the Legal Response Be? 
• Defamation Law Reform: Thresholds, Defences and the Value of Free Speech 
• Cyber Security in the Commonwealth 
• Immigration, Migration and Refugees in the Commonwealth – the Legal Response
• How ‘International’ is the International Criminal Court?

Keynote speakers confirmed are: Dr Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and
Justice Dr Willy Mutunga, Chief Justice of Kenya

Rev. Samuel Marsden, Satan, and respectability of character in New South Wales and New Zealand

The New Zealand Studies Network presents Emeritus Professor Andrew Sharp

A New Zealand Studies Network (UK and Ireland) seminar Friday 30th November 6pm at Birkbeck
Room tba (ask at reception)

Rev. Samuel Marsden, Satan, and respectability of character in New South Wales and New Zealand

The years 1817-23 were very troubling for Samuel Marsden both in New Zealand and New South Wales. In New South Wales he fell foul of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. In New Zealand his relationships with the first two sets of missionaries in the Bay of Islands were uneasy. In Sydney the New Zealanders seemed evidently uncivilised and a danger to Europeans; but in the Bay, as well as inspiring fear among the missionaries and their helpers, they also inspired sexual desire (at least in some). The talk describes the way Marsden and his European contemporaries thought and talked about these matters, especially the way they prided themselves on their status and (the religious among them) feared Satan, the 'Prince of Darkness'

Andrew Sharp is Emeritus Professor of Political Studies at the University of Auckland and Chair of the NZSN. He will soon take up the 2013 University of Waikato/Creative New Zealand Residency Award to complete a book on the opinions of Samuel Marsden and his contemporaries in New Zealand, New South Wales and England. It will be called Civilisation and the Prince of Darkness.

Please book through NZSN to avoid disappointment. info.nzsn@gmail.com  Website NZstudies.com

ADVANCE NOTICE - 28 November early closure

Senate House Foundation Day closure


ADVANCE NOTICE - Senate House Foundation Day closure

On Wednesday 28th November, due to Foundation Day events, the Senate House building will close at 2.00pm.
This includes all the libraries, all meeting rooms and cafes.

Event at Warwick University: Thomas Glave - Scenes from a Jamaican Childhood

Jointly hosted by

Warwick University’s Hispanic Studies department and the Yesu Persaud Centre for Caribbean Studies

Thomas Glave - Scenes from a Jamaican Childhood
Thursday 22 November, Ramphal Building R.0.14, 5.30 pm

This presentation will journey through meditations on coming of age, social class, gender, sexuality, and relationships with the dead in Jamaica, by way of the author's personal reflections.

Thomas Glave’s most recent work appears in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, Callaloo, and in several anthologies, including Kingston Noir and Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform, both published in 2012. Glave has been Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Professor at MIT, and is a 2012 Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

Thomas Glave is editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Lambda Literary Award, 2008).

He is the author of Whose Song? and Other Stories; Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (Lambda Literary Award, 2005), and The Torturer’s Wife (Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist, 2008). Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh is forthcoming from Akashic Books in summer 2013: http://www.akashicbooks.com/amongthebloodpeople.htm


This event is free and open to all.

For any inquiries, please contact Fabienne Viala: F.Viala@warwick.ac.uk

John Coffin Memorial Lecture: "The Queen in Australia": rebranding the British Commonwealth in the Pacific

John Coffin Memorial Lecture


Friday 23 November 2012

Jane Landman (Victoria University): '"The Queen in Australia": rebranding the British Commonwealth in the Pacific'

6.00pm: The Beveridge Hall, Senate House, University of London

Introduced by Brian Winston (University of Lincoln)

Moving images of British monarchs traverse the history of film and television, from documentary footage of Queen Victoria dating from 1897, to the Commonwealth Film Unit’s extensive archive of royal visits to far flung colonies, to Madonna’s recently released W.E. on the Wallis Simpson-Edward VIII romance. This Jubilee year seems the appropriate time to consider the historic past and current effusion of film and television representations of the British monarchy.

To mark this occasion, Jane Landman will consider a classic of colonial cinema, the Commonwealth Film Unit’s documentary of the Royal Tour of 1953-4, "The Queen in Australia". Extravagantly praised at the time for its contribution to ‘world affairs’, this tribute to the Crown stages each floral genuflection as the act of a unified free world, marshalling Fijians, Tongans and New Zealanders as well as Australians into a Cold War homage to both Elizabeth II and the king of the British Documentary Movement, John Grierson. Dr Landman will bring to this presentation her acuity and expertise in the iconic repertoire of national narrative in postwar Australian film and television.

This lecture will be hosted by the Institute of English Studies in collaboration with the University of London Screen Studies Group, and in association with the IES conference "The British Monarchy on Screen" (23-24 November 2012), which will further debate the starring role of royalty in our viewing lives, with presentations from international film and television experts on topics ranging from the broadcasting of royal weddings to the cinematic casting of the sovereign.

Jane Landman is Senior Lecturer at the School of Communication and the Arts, Victoria University. She is the author of The Tread of a White Man’s Foot: Australian Pacific Colonialism and the Cinema (Pandanus Books, Canberra, 2006), and (with Chris Ballard) ‘New Guinea Patrol’: Documenting Australian Colonialism, forthcoming in 2013. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the monograph series on Australian film, Moving Image, and guest editor of the Journal of Australasian Studies. Dr Landman's current research concerns the role of the cinema in the process and cultures of colonialism and decolonization, with current focus on the series of government documentary films made in the Territories of Papua New Guinea in the 1950s and 1960s. These are films that visually report on those policies and practices of development that were part of Australia’s trust responsibilities, and Dr Landman’s research traces the political, institutional and administrative negotiations that determined the semantics and rhetoric of the visual and aural modes deployed to represent the Australian work of development of the Territories and its peoples. Broader research addresses a comparative understanding of imperial mass communications in the colonised - then decolonising - western Pacific, with specific focus on Australia and various British-derived colonial administrations.

Free and open to all, and followed by a wine reception. If you would like to attend please notify IESEvents@sas.ac.uk

Enquiries: Jon Millington, Events Officer, Institute of English Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU; tel +44 (0) 207 664 4859; Email: IESEvents@sas.ac.uk

Canadian WW1 Out of the Trenches project

Library and Archives Canada launch Out of the Trenches: A Linked Open Data Project video


Produced by the Pan-Canadian Documentary Heritage Network, the video highlights new work in mapping archive collections across Canada. It uses multimedia to showcase records and photographs and includes some examples of individual soldier's life stories, recreated using primary source materials.

Partners of the Pan-Canadian Documentary Heritage Network (PCDHN) have developed a "proof-of-concept" to showcase a sampling of the network's wealth of digital resources using "linked open data" and principles of the semantic web. The underlying premise is to expose the metadata for these resources using RDF/XML and existing/published ontologies (element sets) and vocabularies, maximizing discovery by a broad user community.


The partners selected the First World War as the topic for the digital resources to be contributed to the proof-of-concept. The metadata for these digital resources was provided by five partner institutions.
Archives Canada also has an older site with war diaries and archives records which you can search.

Australian material in the Bromhead Library

Staff in the Historic Collections department of Senate House Library have recently completed online cataloguing of the Bromhead Library.

The Bromhead Library was donated in 1964 by the executors of the estate of Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Claude Bromhead (1876-1963), one of the co-founders of Gaumont Cinemas. The Bromhead Library is a collection of books, broadsides, directories, pamphlets, newsbooks, prints, proclamations, maps and manuscripts primarily on the history of London, published from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. The collection also contains material on Australia, including books and maps.

The collection contains Australian material dating from 1787-1954 and covers topics including travel writing, history, convicts and settlers, exploration and gold. The earliest item in the collection was published in 1787 and is:

The History of New Holland, : from its first discovery in 1616, to the present time. With a particular account of its produce and inhabitants; and a description of Botany Bay: also, a list of the naval, marine, military, and civil establishment. To which is prefixed, an introductory Discourse on banishment, by the Right Honourable William Eden. Illustrated with a map of New Holland, a chart of Botany Bay, and a general chart from England to Botany Bay.


The book was printed in London for John Stockdale in 1787 and is variously attributed to George Barrington or to William Eden, and consists of 254 pages as well as plates and coloured maps. From Bormhead's Library, the book includes the armorial bookplate of "Will. Lacon Childe of Kinlet. Esqr.", a previous owner.

Another early item of interest is:

Reid, Thomas, Two voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land : with a description of the present condition of that interesting colony : including facts and observations relative to the state and management of convicts of both sexes : also reflections on seduction and its general consequences, printed in London for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster-Row, in 1822.

Material from the Bromhead collection can be found using a keyword search of "Bromhead and Australia" (or "Bromhead and New South Wales", etc) and needs to be booked for use in advance with one working days notice, and consulted in the Library's Historic Collections Reading Room.

Winter update from the Ruth First Papers Project

The project team working on the Ruth First papers digitisation project recently sent out an update as the project enters the winter term and resumes digitisation after a summer hiatus. We're pleased to share this report:

Mozambique trip for RFP researchers

Following on from Matt’s trip to the CEA and the IESE in September, Leo, Vanessa and Virgilio will be attending a Ruth First memorial conference in Maputo in late November. The conference is titled ‘Os intelectuais Africanos face aos desafios do século XXI’ and runs from the 28th to 29th of November. The team will also present to the CEA in a plenary session on the 27th.

Virgilio will remain in Maputo until February, conducting a survey of the materials held in the CEA archives.

Read more about the conference on the CEA’s website.

Read about Matt’s trip to Moambique and South Africa in September on the project blog.



Video from the 90 Days film screening

A recording of the talks at the film screening on the 17th of August is now available via the School of Advanced Study YouTube channel. The event featured director Jack Gold in conversation with Professor Philip Murphy and Gavin Williams in conversation with Leo.

Watch the video here.




ICwS seminars for your diary

There are two upcoming seminars in the Institute related to the project:

Songs and Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance

26 November 2012, 17:30, ICwS G22/26. Barry Gilder (former intelligence chief in post-apartheid South Africa) will discuss his new book Songs and Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance. The session will be chaired by Dr Sue Onslow (Senior Research Fellow and Co-Investigator, Commonwealth Oral History Project).

The Commonwealth in the World: resistance, governance and change, 'Ringtone and the Drum: West Africa on the Edge'

17 January 2013, 5.30pm, ICwS. Author Marc Weston will talk about the modernisation process in West Africa and his new book Ringtone and the Drum.

Debate: 20 years of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – is a mine-free world still a realistic goal?

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Landmines and Unexploded Weapons of Conflict
Chairman: Pauline Latham OBE MP

 

Debate: 20 years of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – is a mine-free world still a realistic goal?

When – 6:30 pm, Monday 19th November, 2012.
Where – The Mandela Room at the Commonwealth Club, Northumberland Avenue, London WC2N 5AP.

 

Chairman: Stuart Hughes, Diplomatic Producer BBC News

 

Panel

• Nick Roseveare MBE, Chief Executive, Mines Advisory Group (MAG)
• Agnes Marcaillou, Director, UNMAS New York
• Chris Austin, Head of the Conflict, Humanitarian and Security Department at DFID
• Steven Smith, Chief Executive, Action on Armed Violence
• Judy Grayson, Head of the child protection section’s work on armed violence and weapons, UNICEF New York.

Special Guest:  Sir Bobby Charlton – founder of the landmines charity ‘Find a Better Way’

 

 Places are strictly limited so book your place now (click on link http://www.thercs.org/society/252). Cost is £15, of which £10 will go to Find a Better Way, plus booking fee.

 

Activity

 

A high level debate, in association with the Royal Commonwealth Society looking back over the past twenty years – and forward to the huge amount of work still needing to be done. The debate will be followed by a drinks reception kindly sponsored by Explore Worldwide adventure holidays and the CIPR international Group.

 

Background

 

"Millions of people live with the fear of landmines. And every day people die or suffer horrific injuries from abandoned weapons left behind after conflict".

 

2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. In October 1992, six NGOs held the ICBL’s founding meeting, with the goal of ridding the world of landmines. The odds were long, the challenges immense, but five years of intense lobbying and negotiations later the Ottawa Treaty came into existence. The Ottawa process was – and still is – seen as a model for how civil society groups can help resolve some of the pressing issues of our time, and that there is a place for “global citizen diplomacy.”

 

We need to re-awaken awareness of the continuing and often indiscriminate use of landmines and improvised explosive devices and their unacceptable humanitarian and developmental consequences – by openly exploring the successes and failures of the last 20 years. Two decades ago, the ICBL proved that NGOs could put issues on the international agenda and drive change. But 20 years on, what is the future for the ICBL and the wider mine ban movement? How does the movement remain energised and motivated – and how will it continue to attract donors in the years ahead? Is true universalization of the treaty realistic when major powers such as the US, Russia and China remain outside it? Is “virtual compliance” enough? Is it time for the ICBL to celebrate its successes and move onto other issues?

 

Contact

 

Nigel Ellway, APPG Co-ordinator,

Mob: 07586 329335

nigel.ellway@parliament.uk

New books - October 2012 (Part 2)

The second part of our list of selected new books added to the catalogue and collection in October. New books include reports on household incomes and poverty in the Pacific, works on young people in South Africa and the Solomons, and a number of books on war and conflicts and their aftermaths.


Wasserman, Herman (ed). Press freedom in Africa : comparative perspectives. London ; New York : Routledge, 2013

Gupta, Akhil. Red tape : bureaucracy, structural violence, and poverty in India. Durham : Duke University Press, 2012.

Bradley, Tamsin. Religion and gender in the developing world : faith-based organizations and feminism in India. London ; New York : I.B. Tauris ; New York, 2011

Afram, Gabi G. The remittance market in India : opportunities, challenges, and policy options. Washington, D.C. : World Bank, 2012.

Narsey, Wadan. Report on the 2008-09 household income and expenditure survey for Fiji. Suva, Fiji : Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics, 2011.

Campioni, Maddalena and Patrick Noack (eds). Rwanda fast forward : social, economic, military and reconciliation prospects. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Samoa. Bureau of Statistics. Samoa : a report on the estimation of basic needs poverty lines, and the incidence and characteristics of hardship & poverty : analysis of the 2008 household income and expenditure survey. Apia, Samoa : Samoa Bureau of Statistics and UNDP Pacific Centre, [2010]

Anderson, Mark Cronlund and Carmen L. Robertson. Seeing red : a history of Natives in Canadian newspapers. Winnipeg : University of Manitoba Press, c2011.

Perold, Helene, Nico Cloete and Joy Papier (eds). Shaping the future of South Africa's youth : rethinking post-school education and skills training. Somerset West, South Africa : African Minds ; Wynberg : Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) : Further Education and Training Institute (FETI) ; Rondebosch : Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU), 2012.

Allina-Pisano, Eric. Slavery by any other name : African life under company rule in colonial Mozambique. Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2012.

Solomon Islands : Ministry of Women, Youth & Children's Affairs. Solomon Islands national policy on gender equality and women's development. Honiara, Solomon Islands : Ministry of Women, Youth & Children's Affairs, 2010

Solomon Islands : Ministry of Women, Youth & Children's Affairs. Solomon Islands national youth policy : 2010-2015 Honiara, Solomon Islands : Ministry of Women, Youth & Children's Affairs, 2010

Hofmeyr, Isabel and Michelle Williams (eds). South Africa & India : shaping the global South. Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2011.

Binney, Judith. Stories without end : essays 1975-2010. Wellington, N.Z. : Bridget Williams Books, 2010.

Tanzania General Elections, 31 October 2010 : report of the Commonwealth Observer Group / [Commonwealth Observer Group]. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, c2010.
India. Finance Commission. Thirteenth finance commission 2010-2015. Vol I : report. India: Finance Commission, 2009.

Gopakumar, Govind. Transforming urban water supplies in India : the role of reform and partnerships in globalization. New York, NY : Routledge, 2012.

Pham, Phuong N. and Patick Vinck. Transitioning to peace : a population-based survey on attitudes about social reconstruction and justice in Northern Uganda. Berkeley, CA : Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley : Berkeley Law, 2010.

Nyamnjoh, Frances B., Walter Gam Nkwi and Piet Konings. University crisis and student protests in Africa : the 2005-2006 university students' strike in Cameroon. Bamenda, Cameroon : Langaa groupe d’intiative commune en recherche et publication, 2012.

India. Planning Commission. Uttarakhand development report. New Delhi : Academic Foundation, 2009.

Dinstein, Yoram. War, aggression, and self-defence. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Lui, Andrew. Why Canada cares : human rights and foreign policy in theory and practice. Montreal, QC : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2012.

Chidester, David. Wild religion : tracking the sacred in South Africa. Berkeley : University of California Press, c2012.

Saikia, Yasmin. Women, war, and the making of Bangladesh : remembering 1971. Durham, NC : Duke University Press, 2011.

New books - October 2012 (Part 1)

Selected new books added to the catalogue and collection below (part 2 tomorrow). Notable addiituons include a number of Pacific Island official publications including policy documents on children and women's affairs, as well as a number of development plans and reviews of plans from the Pacific, Africa and India.


Jacques, Mélanie. Armed conflict and displacement : the protection of refugees and displaced persons under international humanitarian law. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.


Percox, David A. Britain, Kenya and the Cold War : imperial defence, colonial security and decolonisation. London : Tauris Academic Studies, 2012.

Green, Toby (ed). Brokers of change : Atlantic commerce and cultures in precolonial Western Africa. Oxford ; New York : Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2012.

Bugailiskis, Alex and André Rozental (eds). Canada among nations, 2011-2012 : Canada and Mexico's unfinished agenda. Montréal, QC : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2012.

Malcolmson, Patrick and Richard Myers. The Canadian regime : an introduction to parliamentary government in Canada. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2009.

Barnes, Douglas F., Priti Kumar and Keith Openshaw. Cleaner hearths, better homes : new stoves for India and the developing world. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, c2012.

Coalition for National Unity and Rural Advancement (Solomon Islands). Policy statements. Honiara, Solomon Islands : Coalition for National Unity and Rural Advancement Government, [2008]
Conrad, Margaret. A concise history of Canada. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Solomon Islands. Constitutional Reform Unit, Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Constitutional reform project of Solomon Islands. Honiara, Solomon Islands : Government Printer, 2008
Marsh, Ian and Raymond Miller. Democratic decline and democratic renewal : political change in Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Eicher, Peter, Zahurul Alam and Jeremy Eckstein. Elections in Bangladesh 2006-2009 : transforming failure into success. Dhaka : United Nations Development Programme, c2010.
Storey, Ian, Ralf Emmers and Daljit Singh (eds). Five power defence arrangements at forty. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011.

Adu, Kwasi. The Ghana 2008 elections : growing pains of a budding democracy. Accra : FOSDA, 2009.

Adejumobi, Said (ed). Governance and politics in post-military Nigeria : changes and challenges. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Fiji. Ministry of Strategic Planning. Government achievements 2007-2011. [Fiji] : Ministry of Strategic Planning, National Development & Statistics, 2011.

India infrastructure report, 2009 : land - a critical resource for infrastructure. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2009.

India infrastructure report, 2010 : infrastructure development in a low carbon economy. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Day, Kathleen M and Stanley L Winer. Interregional migration and public policy in Canada : an empirical study. Montréal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2012.

Kiribati. Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. Kiribati development plan : 2008-2011. Kiribati : Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, 2008

Kiribati. Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. Kiribati national assessment report for the 5-year review of the Mauritius strategy for further implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of Small Islands Developing States (MSI+5). Bairiki, Tarawa : Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, [2010?]

Stovel, Laura. Long road home : building reconciliation and trust in post-war Sierra Leone. Antwerp ; Portland : Intersentia, c2010.

India. Planning Commission. Mid-term appraisal eleventh five year plan, 2007-2012. New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2011.

Solomon Islands Government, Ministry of Women, Youth & Children Affairs. National children's policy : 2010-2015. Honiara, Solomon Islands : Ministry of Women, Youth & Children's Affairs, 2010

Swaziland. Economic Planning Office. National development plan, 2009/10-2011/12. Mbabane, [Swaziland] : Economic Planning Office, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, 2009.

Solomon Islands Government, Ministry of Women, Youth & Children Affairs. The national policy on eliminating violence against women. Honiara, Solomon Islands : Ministry of Women, Youth & Children's Affairs, 2010

Mawby, Spencer. Ordering independence : the end of empire in the Anglophone Caribbean, 1947-1969. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Price, John. Orienting Canada : race, empire, and the Transpacific. Vancouver : UBC Press, c2011.

Currier, Ashley. Out in Africa : LGBT organizing in Namibia and South Africa. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

Delle, James A., Mark W. Hauser, and Douglas Armstrong. Out of many, one people : the historical archaeology of colonial Jamaica Ala : University of Alabama Press, 2011.

Bower, Ernest Z. et al. Pacific partners : the future of U.S.-New Zealand relations : a report of the CSIS Southeast Asia program and the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Washington, DC : Center for Strategic and International Studies, c2011.

Olson, Sherry H. and Patricia A. Thornton. Peopling the North American city : Montreal, 1840-1900. Montreal ; Ithica: McGill-Queen's University Press, c2011.

Fernando, Jude L. The political economy of NGOs : state formation in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. London : Pluto Press, 2011.

Sevea, Iqbal Singh. The political philosophy of Muhammad Iqbal : Islam and nationalism in late colonial India. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Saw, Swee-Hock. The population of Singapore. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012.

Events at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies

The Menzies Centre for Australian Studies organises a research seminar series throughout the academic year with events being held weekly during term time. The seminar series is a fantastic opportunity for the centre to welcome academics from a broad range of disciplines working on Australian subjects and to exchange research ideas and new discoveries.


All Wednesday seminars take place at the Strand Campus, King’s College London. See individual listings for room details.

Wednesday 7 November 2012
K0.18, King's Building – please note change of room from previous announcements
18.15

David Lowe (Deakin)
‘The Uses of History by Australian Politicians’

Wednesday 14 November 2012
S0.11, Strand Building
18.15

Toby Davidson (Macquarie)
'Francis Webb: Australian Poet, English History'

Wednesday 21 November 2012
S0.12, Strand Building
18.15

Carl Bridge (KCL)
*** ‘Australia and the Dardanelles Commission’
Followed by Book Launch

Launch by John Darwin (Nuffield College, Oxford) of new book Media and Empire (OUP) by Simon Potter (Bristol Uni, ex Rydon Fellow)

CFP: CSAE 2013 Conference on Economic Development in Africa

CSAE 2013 Conference on Economic Development in Africa


St Catherine’s College, Oxford, 17-19 March 2013


Keynote speaker: Edward Miguel, Director of the Center for Effective Global Action at the University of California, Berkeley

Dinner speaker: Marcelo Giugale, Director of Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction Programmes for Africa, World Bank

Call for papers

Papers addressing economic analysis of the broad issues relevant for economic development in Africa are invited for the CSAE 2013 conference. Papers on countries other than those in Africa are welcome, providing they deal with issues central to African development.

All abstracts for consideration must be submitted via the online submission site at

https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/conference.cgi?action=login&db_name=CSAE2013

Further details on student submissions and funding possibilities at http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/conferences/

Deadline for submissions Friday 30 November 2012


Enquiries should include the reference ‘CSAE conference 2013’ and be addressed to:

e-mail: csae.conference@economics.ox.ac.uk

postal address: CSAE, Dept of Economics, Oxford University, Manor Road Building, Manor Rd, Oxford, OX1 3UQ, UK

Dictionary of African Biography

The new Oxford University Press Dictionary of African Biography has been added to the Senate House Library collection - this 6 volume work edited by Emmanuel K. Akueampong and Henry Lousi Gates, Jr is housed on the 4th floor in the reference collection in the Periodicals Reading Room.

The Dictionary of African Biography is a major biographical dictionary covering the lives and legacies of notable African men and women from all eras and walks of life, teling the story of the African continent through the lives of its people. The dictionary is based on new historical research and perspectives and aims to correct the uneven coverage of previous attempts to collate African biographies - focusing unevenly on the colonial period, European adventurers, and Egyptian dynasties. As the most wide-reaching reference project on Africa to date, the Dictionary of African Biography intends to codify the explosion of new research, with entries written by contributing scholars from African studies departments the world over. The Dictionary contains nearly 2,200 entries, each with bibliography, ranging from 750 to 2,000 words, within six volumes.

Homelessness in Australia

An interesting resource (and use of new web tools) is the Australian Homelessness Clearinghouse a new website for sharing information and good practice solutions for the homelessness sector in Australia, funded by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA).

As a Clearinghouse, this website has been designed to provide information including research papers, data and data sets, articles on homelessness, details of conferences, seminars and other events and a community of practice (encouraging people to collaborate through the use of interactive communication tools to improve knowledge and good practice on particular homelessness issues).

The key aim of the Australian Homelessness Clearinghouse is to provide opportunities to share knowledge, ideas and good practices with the entire homelessness sector to better tackle homelessness in Australia. It will also be a useful tool for researchers on homelessness generally and within Australia. Users are encouraged to suggest new content for the site,  and to add research papers, data or articles about a particular topic, make comments about a research paper, data or article, suggest documents to be uploaded (e.g. a policy or a good practice case study) to share with others, provide information about organisations, services and programs that deliver support services targetting homeless people, list conferences, seminars or events and participate in forums with other site users.

Access to Senate House Library

From today until Saturday (1-3 November, 2012, inclusive) access to the Institute of Commnwealth Studies Library and Senate House Library (SHL) will be via Stewart House only: there will be no access to the ground floor of Senate House while it is being used for filming. There may also be some disruption for a few days before and after these dates.


The Book Drop Box will also be in Stewart House from the morning of 1st to 5th November.

On the above dates, all readers must go to Stewart House, at the Russell Square entrance. The route to the lifts normally used to access SHL will be clearly signposted. There will not be any access to Senate House Library via the stairs.

All SHL readers should be able to access the library unimpeded. Anyone with disabilities may contact us before they visit, although it is not necessary to give us advance warning.