Draft schedule - move of Commonwealth Studies collections

With IHR moves and moves of periodicals from Senate House Library ongoing we are about to start the next phase which is the main collection moves across the various parts of the Senate House Library. We have a draft schedule. Please note that his is subject to change and amendment, largely because contractors are still completing works in the areas we are moving into.


This next stage will have two teams of movers working at the same time, as nearly every part of the collection is being moved. The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Collection is currently scheduled to be moved between the 15th and 17th of August, and will be moved to the 6th Floor, North of the Senate House Library (entry from the 4th Floor South Block). The Ground Floor area will close shortly after this following move of books from the Palaeography and Book Studies area.
For up to date information please also see:

http://senatehouselibrary.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/refurbishment

Shorelines and Shadows: Literary Representations of Queer and Postcolonial Mythical Beings

A one-day postgraduate conference hosted by the Joint Faculty of Arts, Humanities, and Social Science Research Theme, Minorities Identities: Rights and Representations (University of Reading, UK)

Saturday 26 November 2011

Shorelines and Shadows: Literary Representations of Queer and Postcolonial Mythical Beings

Given the increasing diversity of peoples within nations and the plurality of postmodern histories, this conference seeks to interrogate the issues at stake in defining gendered, national, and sexual identities suggested by mythological beings, such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, mermaids, spirits, jablesses, gods, and obscured historical figures. We suggest that the liminality and taxonomical uncertainties posed by such figures may help to mobilise suppressed historical narratives and undo the silences that surround minority subjectivities. This conference addresses the ways in which their psychological, social, political, cultural, and aesthetic functions have been re/interpreted and employed.

Keynote Speaker: Jamaican writer and academic Kei Miller

Topics may include (without being limited to):

• Listening to other/ed desires
• Representing collective trauma
• Transgressing and challenging borders and categorizations
• Contesting ‘received’ histories and epistemologies
• Personifying nature and natural disasters
• Utopian and dystopian imaginaries
• Colonial legacies, Neo-colonialism, and Cultural Imperialism

Abstracts of no more than 250 words for papers of 20 minutes should be submitted to: Rebecca Ashworth and Lotti Mealing pocomyth@yahoo.co.uk

Please include a brief biog-sketch (not more than 50 words) including institutional affiliation and area of research.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: Monday 15 August 2011

Successful contributors will be notified by 1 September 2011.

Conference fee: £30 (Postgraduate students: £20)

New Zealand, South Africa, Rugby and apartheid: 30 years since the 1981 tour

The controversial 1981 Springbok tour, which divided NZ, began 30 years today. The South African Rugby tour was the focus of intense debate and protest throughout New Zealand and sport and politics became intensely mixed. The tour also acted as a catalyst for an examination of racism within New Zealand, with indigenous Maori people highlighting the connections between apartheid in South Africa and racism in New Zealand.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library holds a selection of material relating to the anti-apartheid movement in New Zealand, including publications from the National Anti-Apartheid Committee, the Apartheid Information Centre, The Wellington Trades Council and Halt All Racist Tours (HART), as well as books looking back at that time such as Trevor Richard's Dancing on our bones : New Zealand, South Africa, rugby and racism and Malcom Templeton's Human rights and sporting contacts : New Zealand attitudes to race relations in South Africa 1921-94.

A photo gallery from the 1981 tour is available from the NZ Herald website.

Theses in Progress in Commonwealth Studies 2011

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies’ Register of Commonwealth Research is a list of higher degree theses conducted at UK Universities and relating to the Commonwealth of Nations, its member countries, and the former British Empire. The Register has been maintained since 1949 and covers research both in progress and completed; its retrospective coverage extends back to the 1920s.


From the data held in the Register, the Institute compiles and publishes Theses in Progress in Commonwealth Studies as a snapshot of current research on the Commonwealth and Empire in Britain. The 2011 edition is now available.

In December 2006, the School of Advanced Study launched its online repository, SAS Space. This provided the opportunity, for the first time, to make available the files of the full Register. These are sub-divided by region and contain almost 17,500 records in total. The files are added annually and can be found online at SAS-Space.

The Register, and Theses in Progress, are compiled and maintained as a source of current and past research on the Commonwealth, and also as a point of contact between candidates for higher degrees in British universities. Readers of this directory may be interested to know about the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission Professional Networks, set up to encourage communication on themes of relevance across the Commonwealth. These Networks are open to past and current Commonwealth Scholars, and to anyone with an interest in the respective fields. More information on the networks can be found at the CSC website.

Nehru Memorial Museum and Library digitisation

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), India is starting a large-scale digitisation programme. The pilot so far has digitized 50 collections of manuscripts, 834 interview transcripts, 29,802 photographs, over one lakh images of the newspaper Amrita Bazar Patrika (dating from 1905 to 1938) and much more.


The Digital Library includes:


Private papers (the Nehru Memorial Museum Library [NMML] Archives was set up in 1964 with the family papers of Jawaharlal Nehru and now has over 1,000 collections of personal papers of eminent leaders and institutional records, and claims to be largest repository in the country of primary and non-official source material for historical research on Modern Indian History. The collection of personal papers include those of freedom fighters, politicians, educationists, scientists, jurists and industrialists who contributed to the making of modern India. These include among others, private papers of M.K. Gandhi, C. Rajagopalachari, B.C. Roy, Jayaprakash Narayan, Charan Singh, Sarojini Naidu and Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. In the list of institutional records, one will find the papers of the All India Congress Committee, All India Hindu Mahasabha, All India Trade Union congress, Indian Merchants’ Chamber and D.A.V. College Trust and Management Society, among others.)


Oral History (including the recollections of men and women who came into contact with India’s great leaders or were connected with important political events or movements either as participants or as witnesses. The oral history recordings and the transcripts cover the wide span of the nationalist movement and thereafter, going back to the partition of Bengal, and the First World War; the Satyagraha campaigns, the activities of revolutionary and terrorist groups, growth of the Socialist movement, Indo-British relations in the context of Indian and British politics, and the events leading to the partition of India. )

Newspapers and Journals (currently available is a selection of the title Amrit Bazar Patrika (Calcutta), 1905-1996)


and


Photographs (including photographs of Jawaharlal Nehru and his contemporaries as well as of important events associated with the nationalist movement. The photographs have been acquired from several sources, mainly as gifts from organizations like the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust (IGMT), Photo Division, and the Nehru Collection, and individuals like Shri P.N. Sharma, Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Mohammad Yunus, Pyarelal and Shri K.R. Narayanan. The Photo-Section of the Library has at present 1,15,068 photographs in the General Collection, 52,072 in the IGMT collection and 4030 in Mohammad Yunus collection & 4541 in KRN collection which have been processed.)


The material currently available within the Digital Library is a small selection of these very large collections, but a growing one, well worth exploring and returning to.

IHR Library moves

Please be aware that the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and the library are moving. Details of moves are available at: http://ihrrelocation.wordpress.com/

The move of the library collections going into closed access started yesterday. As this affects material on all floors there is likely to be a lot of disruption and the lift will be difficult to access. The move of the collections remaining on open access is expected to begin from Tuesday 26th July and the library will close completely between 28th July and 2nd August. Details of new locations of the collections are available here: http://www.history.ac.uk/library/collections/collection-locations

Bridgetown, Barbados enters UN World Heritage List

Earlier this month the historic section of the capital of Barbados became the Caribbean country's first entry on the United Nations-managed World Heritage List after a committee of experts approved its inscription and that of two other sites.

The World Heritage Committee, meeting in Paris, said Bridgetown and its garrison deserved a place on the List, which is comprised of more than 900 cultural or natural sites around the world regarded as having outstanding universal value.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported that the committee found the Bridgetown site – comprised of a well-preserved old town and a nearby military garrison – to be an outstanding example of British colonial architecture.

“With its serpentine urban layout, the property testifies to a different approach to colonial town planning compared to the Spanish and Dutch colonial cities of the region, which were built along a grid plan,” UNESCO said in a press statement.

We congratulate Barbados on this acheivement.

Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library and Archives contains strong collections relating to the struggle within, and outside of, South Africa against the apartheid system. Today's post highlights some items relating to Nelson Mandela.


The Nelson Mandela Trials collection consists of photocopies of papers collected by Joel Joffe, lawyer acting for Nelson Mandela, relating to Mandela's trial in Pretoria (1962) and the Rivonia Trial (1963-1964); including Mandela's application to have the Pretoria trial postponed; Mandela's address to the court in mitigation of the sentence of five years imprisonment, detailing his political commitment and activities in the African National Congress (ANC); a copy of the indictment in the Rivonia Trial, the initial statement made by Mandela to his lawyers, giving details of his early life; notes by Mandela on his life and ANC association; a copy of Mandela's statement from the dock, signed by Mandela, manuscript notes by Mandela to use if he were sentenced to death, and manuscript notes by Mandela referring to the tribal council called Imbizo.

Mary Benson was born on 8 December 1919 in Pretoria, South Africa. In 1950 she became secretary to Michael Scott and first became involved in the field of race relations. In 1951 she became secretary to Tshekedi Khama, and in 1952, together with Scott and David Astor, she helped to found the Africa Bureau in London. She was its secretary until 1957 and travelled widely on its behalf. In 1957 she became secretary to the Treason Trials Defence Fund in Johannesburg. She became a close friend of Nelson Mandela, and assisted with smuggling him out of South Africa in 1962. In February 1966 she was served with a banning order under the Suppression of Communism Act and she left South Africa for London later that year. In London she continued to work tirelessly against apartheid, writing to newspapers and corresponding with fellow activists in South Africa. In April 1999 Mandela visited her at her home during his state visit to Britain and later that year an 80th birthday party was staged for her at South Africa House. Mary Benson died on 20 June 2000. Among her writings are 'South Africa: the Struggle for a Birthright', 'Chief Albert Luthuli', 'The History of Robben Island', 'Nelson Mandela: the Man and the Movement', the autobiographical 'A Far Cry' and radio plays on Mandela and the Rivonia trial. Material within the papers of Mary Benson include newspaper cuttings, correspondence, notes, and articles on Nelson Mandela and other prisoners on Robben Island, and material gathered by Mary Benson for her biography of Nelson Mandela. The collection also includes correspondence with Winnie Mandela and some photographs of Nelson Mandela from his visits in London.


Ruth First was born on 4 May 1925 in Johannesburg, the daughter of Julius and Matilda ('Tilly') First. On her graduation in 1945, First took a job in the Research Division of the Department of Social Welfare of Johannesburg City Council, but she resigned in 1946 in order to pursue a career in journalism. In the same year she produced pamphlets in aid of the miners' strike and was temporarily secretary of the Johannesburg offices of the South African Communist Party. In 1947, together with Michael Scott, she exposed a farm labour scandal in Bethal, Eastern Transvaal. Between 1946-1952 she was the Johannesburg editor of the weekly newspaper the Guardian, the mouthpiece of the SACP, and following subsequent bannings, the Clarion, People's World, Advance, New Age and Spark. Between 1954-1963 she was also the editor of Fighting Talk, a Johannesburg based monthly. In 1949 Ruth First married Joe Slovo. In 1950, First was named under the Suppression of Communism Act and her movements restricted. In 1953 she was banned from membership of all political organisations, although in 1955 she helped draw up the Freedom Charter, a fundamental document of the African National Congress, and was later a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC's military wing. In December 1956, she and Joe Slovo were among the 156 people charged in the so-called Treason Trial, although her indictment was dismissed in April 1959. In August 1963 she was arrested and detained under the 90-Day Law for a total period of 117 days. Effectively forced into exile, in March 1964 she left South Africa for the United Kingdom, accompanied by her three daughters. From 1964 she worked full-time as a freelance writer, before becoming a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester in 1972. Between 1973-1978 she lectured in development studies at the University of Durham, although she spent periods of secondment at universities in Dar es Salaam and Lourenco Marques (Maputo). In November 1978 she took up a post as Director of the research training programme at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo. Ruth First was killed on 17 August 1982, when she opened a parcel bomb addressed to her at the above university. Among other publications Ruth First wrote the foreword for and edited Nelson Mandela's autobiography, No Easy Walk to Freedom. The Ruth First papers, include background material for the book, correspondence re publication and between First and President Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria, in French, a number of draft sections, as well as a file of reviews after publication.


The CIIR collection includes material related to the Release Mandela Campaign, transcripts of an interview with Winnie Mandela, and copies of speeches and articles by Mandela.

The Library collection also includes a large number of published work relating to Nelson Mandela and authored by him.

CFP: SCOLMA 50th Anniversary Conference: 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.

Conference: Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations, and the End of Empire

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London;

The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala;

The United Nations Association of the UK, Westminster Branch London

will hold a one-day conference on

Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations, and the End of Empire

at the University of London Senate House on Friday 2 September 2011,
to mark the 50th anniversary of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld’s death.
[Convenors: Dr Mandy Banton and Dr Susan Williams]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Programme

From 9.30 Tea/Coffee and Registration

9.45 Welcome and introduction

Professor Philip Murphy, Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies,
Dr Henning Melber, Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation
David Wardrop, Chairman, United Nations Association, Westminster Branch

10.00 Session I: Global Power Shifts (Chair: Dr Sarah Stockwell, Senior Lecturer in Imperial and Commonwealth History, King's College London)

Professor David Anderson, Professor of African Politics and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, ‘The Cold War in Africa’
Professor Wm. Roger Louis, CBE, Kerr Professor of English History and Culture and Director of British Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, ‘Hammarskjöld, the United Nations, and the Middle East’
Dr Benjamin Zachariah, Reader in South Asian History, University of Sheffield, ‘The place of the United Nations in Indian foreign policy thinking’

11.30 Coffee

11.40 Session II: End of European Empires (Chair: David Wardrop, Chairman, UNA Westminster Branch

Dr Jean-Pierre Bat, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Centre d’étude des mondes africains (CEMAf), ‘De Gaulle, Algeria and Françafrique’
Dr Asahiko Hanzawa, Faculty of International Studies, Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo, ‘An invisible surrender: the United Nations and the end of the British empire’
Ludo De Witte, Brussels, author of De Moord op Lumumba, 1999 [published in English as The Assassination of Lumumba, 2001], ‘Belgium, the Congo, and the assassination of Patrice Lumumba’

1.10 Sandwich lunch

2.00 Session III: Sources (Chair: Dr Marion Wallace, African Curator, British Library)

Dr Edward Hampshire, Principal Records Specialist, Diplomatic and Colonial, The National Archives of the UK, ‘The British official record’
Declan Power, security and defence journalist, Dublin, ‘The use of oral history to uncover the voices of Irish peacekeepers in the Congo’
Hans Kristian Simensen, Gothenburg, Secretary to the Scandinavian Committee of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, ‘Ndola, 18 September: from witness statements to the official reports; more questions’

3.30 Tea

3.45 Session IV: The Legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld (Chair: Professor Philip Murphy, Institute of Commonwealth Studies)

Professor Manuel Fröhlich, Professor of Political Science, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, ‘The Hammarskjöld Tradition and Global Leadership’
Baron [Douglas] Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC, diplomat, historian and former British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, ‘The legacy of Dag Hammarskjöld’
Dr Henning Melber, Executive Director, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, ‘Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations and Africa’

5.15 Reception

CFP: Roundtable special issue on ‘The Invasion of Grenada 30 years on: a retrospective’

The Round Table – the Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs

 

SPECIAL ISSUE – CALL FOR PAPERS

 

‘The Invasion of Grenada 30 years on: a retrospective’

 

Almost 30 years on from the Invasion the events of that period are still strongly contested; so too the legacies of invasion. However, a number of recent developments have begun to heal some of the wounds. For example, several former detainees of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG), including current Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, are now serving in government. In 2006 a Truth and Reconciliation Commission published its report – Redeeming the past: A time for healing; in 2009 the international airport, which was a source of great controversy under the PRG, was renamed after Maurice Bishop; and also in 2009 the last members of the ‘Grenada 17’ convicted of Bishop’s murder were released. Therefore as the 30th anniversary of the invasion approaches it is a good time to reflect on the significance of these recent developments, as well as looking back at the PRG, the invasion and its aftermath.

 

Possible topics for inclusion in the special issue (not exhaustive):

• The legitimacy/legality of invasion from a contemporary perspective (post-Iraq etc.)
• The role of the US in the Caribbean after the invasion
• The PRG: a re-evaluation
• Invasion and the death of reformist left-wing politics in the Commonwealth Caribbean
• The UK and Grenada from associated statehood to invasion and beyond
• The legal/judicial story of the Grenada 17
• The legacy of the 1979 to 1983 PRG period for Grenada

Schedule for the special issue:

 

The deadline for papers is Friday 20 July 2012. The editing and peer-review process will take place between August and November 2012. Final copy will be submitted to The Round Table in December 2012. The issue will then be published in April 2013.

 

Instructions for authors can be found on The Round Table website here: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/ctrtauth.asp

 

 

For further information and/or submission of manuscripts please contact Dr Gary Williams, University of Essex or Dr Peter Clegg, University of the West of England, Bristol 


See also http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cfp/ctrtcfp.pdf.

 

New Books - June 2011 (Part 2)

A continuation of yesterday's selection of new books added to the collections includes new publications and some materials kindly donated by the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, filling gaps in our collections:

Smith, Vanessa. Intimate strangers : friendship, exchange and Pacific encounters. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Mills, Don. Journeys and missions : at home and away. Kingston, Jamaica : Arawak, 2009.  
Adam, Christopher S., Paul Collier, and Njuguna Ndung'u (eds). Kenya : policies for prosperity. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Du Toit, Pierre and Hennie Kotzé. Liberal democracy and peace in South Africa : the pursuit of freedom as dignity. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. (E-Book)

Garbutt, Rob. The locals : identity, place and belonging in Australia and beyond. Oxford : Peter Lang, c2011. 

Malta civil society consultation : a report from the national civil society consultation meeting held on 8 June 2009 in Malta on the 2009 CPF and CHOGM theme : partnering for a more sustainable and equitable future. London : Commonwealth Foundation, 2009.
 
Kelly, Paul. The march of patriots : the struggle for modern Australia. Carlton, Vic. : Melbourne University Publishing, 2011.

Chakrabarty, Bidyut and Rajendra Kumar Pandey. Modern Indian political thought : text and context. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE Publications, c2009. (E-Book)

Harle, Jonathan. The Nairobi report : frameworks for Africa-UK research collaboration in the social sciences and humanities. London : British Academy : Association of Commonwealth Universities, c2009.

Ninsin, Kwame A. Nation-states and the challenges of regional integration in West Africa : the case of Ghana. Paris : Karthala, 2009.

Akinyeye, Yomi (ed) Nation-states and the challenges of regional integration in West Africa : the case of Nigeria. Paris : Karthala, c2010.
 
Pacific island civil society consultation : a report from the Pacific island consultation meeting held on 11-12 August, 2009 in Tonga on the CPF and CHOGM theme : partnering for a more sustainable and equitable future. London : Commonwealth Foundation, 2009.
 
Yong, H. K. Public-private partnerships policy and practice : a reference guide. London : Commonwealth Secretarial, c2010.

Shahid, Ayesha. Silent voices, untold stories : women domestic workers in Pakistan and their struggle for empowerment. Karachi ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Commonwealth Secretariat. Solomon Islands National Parliamentary elections, 4 August 2010 : report of the Commonwealth Observer Group. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010.

Commonwealth Secretariat. Sri Lanka presidential election, 26 January 2010 : report of the Commonwealth Expert Team. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010.

Trinidad and Tobago civil society consultation : a report from the national consultation meeting held between 8 June - 11 July, 2009, in Trinidad and Tobago on the 2009 CPF and CHOGM theme : partnering for a more sustainable and equitable future. London : Commonwealth Foundation, 2009.

Uzoigwe, G. N. Visions of nationhood : prelude to the Nigerian Civil War. Trenton, NJ : Africa World Press, c2011.

West and Central Africa regional civil society consultation : a report from the regional civil society consultation meeting held on 6-7 May in Cameroon on the 2009 CPF and CHOGM theme : partnering for a more sustainable and equitable future. London : Commonwealth Foundation, 2009

Williams, Peter (ed) .Working together in education : a Commonwealth update. London : Commonwealth Consortium for Education, 2009.

Besada, Hany (ed). Zimbabwe : picking up the pieces. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. (E-Book)

New books - June 2011 (Part 1)

A selection of new books added to the collections includes new publications and some materials kindly donated by the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, filling gaps in our collections:

2008 Meeting of Commonwealth Law Ministers and Senior Officials : Edinburgh, Scotland 7-10 July 2008 : minutes and memoranda. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, 2009.

Asia civil society regional consultation : a report from the Asian civil society consultation held on 15 June, 2009, Kuala Lumpur on the CPF and CHOGM theme : partnering for a more sustainable and equitable future. London : Commonwealth Foundation, 2009

Ooi, Kee Beng. Between UMNO and a hard place : the Najib Razak era begins. Singapore : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) ; Kuala Lumpur : REFSA, 2010.

Hanson, John, Sir. Beyond 1997 - the human potential. London : Council for Education in the Commonwealth, 1997.

Caribbean civil society consultation : a report from the Caribbean civil society consultation held 15-16 June, 2009, in Grenada on the CPF and CHOGM theme : partnering for a more sustainable and equitable future. London : Commonwealth Foundation, 2009
 
Chauhan, Rajinder Singh and Shailja Vasudeva. Coalition government in India : problems and prospects. New Delhi : Deep & Deep Publications, 2011.

A consultation with Commonwealth scholars and fellows : a report from the consultation held with Commonwealth scholars and fellows on 20-22 March, 2009 at Windsor, CPF and CHOGM theme : partnering for a more sustainable and equitable future. London : Commonwealth Foundation, 2009

Canada. Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.  Documents on Canadian external relations = Documents relatifs aux relations extérieures du Canada. Vol. 27. Ottawa: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 2007.

Raubenheimer, Stefan. Facing climate change : building South Africa's strategy. Cape Town : IDASA, 2011.

Fifth national communication on climate change : actions to meet commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Gatineau : International Affairs Branch, Environment Canada, 2010.

Bieri, Franziska. From blood diamonds to the Kimberley Process : how NGOs cleaned up the global diamond industry. Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2010.

Bridge, Carl, Frank Bongiorno and David Lee (eds) The high commissioners : Australia's representatives in the United Kingdom, 1910-2010. Barton, A.C.T. : Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade, c2010.

Shukla, R. K. How India earns, spends and saves : unmasking the real India. New Delhi, India ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE, c2010.  (E-Book)

Freeman, Michael. Human rights : an interdisciplinary approach (2nd ed). Cambridge : Polity, 2011.

Kohli, Harinder S. and Anil Sood (eds) India 2039 : an affluent society in one generation. New Delhi, India ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage, 2010. (E-Book)
 
India Policy Forum. Conference (6th : New Delhi, India) India Policy Forum 2009-10. Volume 6. New Delhi ; Thousand Oaks : SAGE, c2010. (E-Book)

Kronik, Jakob and Dorte Verner. Indigenous peoples and climate change in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington, D.C. : World Bank, c2010.

Strachan, Janet and Constance Vigilance (eds) Integrating sustainable development into national frameworks : policy approaches for key sectors in small states. London : Commonwealth Secretariat, 2011.

Trial of Oxford Handbooks Online

The Senate House Libraries have a new database trial. Cross search the full text of over 2,000 essays from the prestigious Oxford Handbooks in Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion. In-depth, specially-commissioned content by leading scholars and editorially-selected and created links to a range of related online resources.


You can start using the site now at http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/ and also staff and students can use it remotely via this link until 3rd August 2011.

Please try it out, and let us know what you think,

Malta to have National Librarian

Malta will soon have a national librarian who will be responsible for ensuring that priceless books, documents and manuscripts are collected and maintained for posterity.


Malta's Education Minister Dolores Cristina recently said a call for applications would soon be issued for the post of national librarian following the publication of the long awaited Malta Libraries Act. She added that she was currently working on the appointments to the Libraries’ Council that will work to promote libraries and facilitate collaboration between different stakeholders. The council, which will serve for three years, will be made up of a chairman, national archivist, the head of the university’s archives studies, director of local council departments and another three members.

The law also sets up Malta Libraries as a legal entity that can enter into contracts, acquire books and manage resources. It also creates the roles of national librarian, to head Malta Libraries, and deputy librarians for the National Library and public libraries.

The Lions Club Sliema has embarked on a National Library Book Restoration Project in collaboration with Heritage Malta.The salvage operation started with the €9,000 restoration of three books from the Hortus Romanus, an eight volume collection of valuable botanical engravings published between 1772 and 1793. After sponsoring the restoration of about 50 rare books, the Lions Club yesterday unveiled its most recent contribution when it donated a restoration machine to the National Library.

The restoration of one manuscript’s page, that once took restorers an entire afternoon, can now be completed in five minutes by using a new machine. The €7,000 leaf-casting machine was donated by Lions Club Sliema to the National Library’s restoration unit that is dedicated to reviving the thousands of tattered pages in the library.

Important information: Senate House Libraries moves – STAGE 3

Senate House Libraries moves – STAGE 3
July 2011:

Starting from Monday July 11, 2011, we will begin the 3rd and final stage of the Library moves, dealing with collections in the publicly accessible areas of the library.

The first part this move will take place throughout July. During this time, periodical sequences in the 3rd Floor South Block and temporary North Block areas on the Ground and 2nd Floors will be relocated to the Library Tower.

In future, access to all periodical collections will be via the stack fetching service although please note that many periodicals titles are now also available in digital form. (Please also note that recent issues of periodicals titles are NOT affected by these moves).

Additionally during July, the IHR Library will re-locate temporarily from its current location in the North Block of Senate House to the 3rd Floor South Block.

These moves may mean that specific items in these collections are unavailable for short periods while they are in transit, normally no longer than 1 – 2 days.

A schedule of these moves will be posted on the library website. This will enable you to see which collections are scheduled to move on particular days.

Please refer to the library enquiry desk if you require further information or advice.

More information on the second part of these moves in August will follow shortly.

New Zealand Studies at Birkbeck - an introduction and upcoming events

New Zealand studies at Birkbeck has been established with the aim of raising the profile of New Zealand in the UK.

Professor Janet Wilson is exploring research collaborations between New Zealand and UK scholars with a focus on shared areas of interest. She currently aims to introduce New Zealand topics into some of the MA teaching provision at Birkbeck (e.g. postcolonial children’s literature, the knowledge society and the cultural economy; colonial and postcolonial studies). Further integration of New Zealand topics into the undergraduate curriculum may follow.

New Zealand studies at Birkbeck is associated with the New Zealand Studies Network (UK and Ireland). See http://nzstudies.wordpress.com/. The Network draws together professional people, scholars, students and the general public who are interested in, or experts on, aspects of New Zealand life. The Network organises meetings of general public interest which are addressed by an expert: their papers may be found on the website. It also presents film screenings, poetry readings, and musical events.

More specialised conferences, seminars and colloquia are intended to be held on the humanities, fine arts, sciences, social sciences, the law, architecture, business and management studies. It may also be expected that from time to time current events in the UK may call for comment from a New Zealand perspective.

■Friday 8th July. 6.00 pm -8.30 pm - New Zealand Studies launch


Professor Andrew Sharp will discuss the reasoning behind the expansion of Maori rights to property, political power, and group expression in the last thirty years. He will reflect on what this could teach the British and Irish about the potential of a way of thinking that originated with them.

■Saturday 9th July, 9am -1pm - Readings by New Zealand writers and poets

Fleur Adcock, Briar Wood, Robert Sullivan, Kirsty Gunn, Paula Morris, Mia Farland

South Australia - celebrating 175 years since establishment

Notwithstanding and acknowledging the much longer habitation and history of that part of Australia, South Australia this year celebrates the 175th years since the formal establishment of the State of South Australia.

As part of activities for the year a range of events are taking place and resources are being created. These include:

The Oral History Association of Australia - South Australia Branch's  SA175 Oral History Web Gateway providing access to a growing collection of oral histories of residents of the State.

The Professional Historian's Association (South Australia) Celebrating South Australia site - with content including "On this Day" in South Australian history; and collections of documents, articles and images.

Bound for Australia 1836 - a blog which follows the journeys of the first nine ships bound for South Australia

Anniversary of signing of UN Charter

The 26th of June was the 65th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter. A small selection of photographs of the signing and anniversaries, etc are available on this Flickr site.

The Commonwealth Studies Library  has a large collection of publications from the United Nations and the various agencies that are part of the United Nations. These include material relationg to issues such as apartheid, human rights, development, trade, population, land reform, economics and conflict. The matyerial can be searched for on the catalogue by using the agency name as an author search.

CFP: Imperial Relations: Families in the British Empire Institute of Historical Research, London 5-6th September 2011

Imperial Relations: Families in the British Empire Institute of Historical Research, London 5-6th September 2011


Call for papers

In the past decade, historians have increasingly turned to the family as a key site of imperial processes. This conference aims to bring together local and international scholars working on any aspect of British imperial family history between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Across the British Empire, the family was a social and economic unit at the heart of life. It operated as a site of economic strategy and capital accumulation; shaped identity formation; and structured political, gendered, sexual, generational and racialised power relations. By exploring these themes, the conference aims to provoke a conversation about the multiple and complex ways in which the family operated as a critical building block that shaped, enabled, sustained and resisted colonialism in a range of geographic and temporal contexts, from British Columbia to British India.

In so doing, the conference aims to facilitate deeper connections and future collaborations between historians interested in different aspects of family history, from the family economies of colonial rule to the social histories of imperial education.

Key themes include, but are not limited to:
• Family intimacy at a distance
• Age and Generation
• Race, nation and ethnicity
• Affective economies
• Colonial Networks
• Sexuality

To submit a proposal please email an abstract of up to 300 words and a 1-page CV to Colonial.Families@gmail.com by Friday 22 July 2011. The numbers of papers that can be accepted is limited. Proposals from Postgraduates and Early Career Scholars are particularly welcome! If you are interested in attending and participating in the conference, registration details will be available on our website later in July.

This conference is organised by Esmé Cleall, Laura Ishiguro and Emily Manktelow on behalf of the Family & Colonialism research network. For more information, please see: http://colonialfamilies.wordpress.com/

The Caribbean in a Changing Global Environment - LSE and CARICOM public lecture

The Caribbean in a Changing Global Environment
LSE and CARICOM public lecture

Tuesday 5 July 2011, 6.30-8pm, Old Theatre, Old Building

Speaker: Professor Sir Hilary Beckles

This event is part of the celebrations that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Caucus of High Commissioners are organising to celebrate CARICOM day on 1 July 2011. Several activities are being planned to mark the day from July 3-8, which aim to showcase CARICOM countries.

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles was born in Barbados in 1955. He attended secondary school in Barbados and Birmingham in the UK. He received his higher education in the United Kingdom. He graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Economic History from Hull University in 1976 and a PhD from the same university in 1980. In 2003, he received an Honorary Doctor of Letters for outstanding work as a scholar from his alma mater. He joined the History Department at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus in 1979 as a lecturer; in 1984 he transferred to the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados and was promoted to a personal professorship in 1993 at age thirty-seven, the youngest in the history of UWI. Professor Sir Hilary has served the University as Head of the History Department and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.

In 1994 he won the first University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in the field of research. In 1998 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies and returned to the Mona Campus. In August 2002 he returned to Cave Hill as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Principal.

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles was awarded Knight of St. Andrew, the highest national honour in Barbados, for his contribution to "Higher Education, the Arts, and Sports" in 2007.

Professor Sir Hilary is an internationally reputed historian and serves on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including the Journal of Caribbean History, Sports in Society, William and Mary Quarterly, the flagship journal of the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg Virginia, and an international editor for the Journal of American History. He is also the Chair, Board of Directors of the University of the West Indies Press. He is Director of Cable & Wireless Barbados Ltd., as well as Sagicor Financial Inc, the largest Caribbean financial conglomerate. He has lectured at universities in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. He served for five years as a member of the Cultural Committee of His Royal Highness, Prince Claus of the Netherlands.

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #lsecaricom

Entry Information

Update: Tuesday 28 June, 9.45am: This event will now be first come, first served, no ticket required. The event is still free and open to all but you do not need to request a ticket, apologies for this last minute amendment.