Thinking the current debate on national identity through Gupta & Ferguson

I have been doing my filing this afternoon. Not my favourite of tasks, but the advantage of allowing a large pile to accumulate is that when you come to sort it all out it often contains things you’d almost forgotten about. So it was this afternoon when I came across a print out of Gupta [...]

“En quête de mémoire”: a local exhibition by young people

A few weeks ago now I visited an exhibition put on by the group R.E.T.I.F (Rencontres Echanges entre Travailleurs Immigrés et Français retif.asso@freesbee.fr). The primary activity of the association, insofar as I understand it, is to run literacy classes, mostly for the migrant workers who live in the foyer in which the association has its [...]

Proposition de communication

I’ve just submitted a proposal for this conference at the ENS in December. Unbelievably, if my paper is accepted it will be the first I’ve given in French, so I’m understandably nervous about it. I was relieved though when I looked again at the CFP this morning that what I had remembered as 1,500 words [...]

France and the people without history? Sarkozy in Senegal

From today’s Le Monde (citing Sarkozy)

“Le drame de l’Afrique, c’est que l’homme africain n’est pas assez entré dans l’Histoire (…). Jamais il ne s’élance vers l’avenir (…). Dans cet univers où la nature commande tout, l’homme reste immobile au milieu d’un ordre immuable où tout est écrit d’avance. (…) Il n’y a de place ni [...]

Website update

I’ve update my UCL webpages. They’re not terribly exciting, but at least the publications are now up to date. All comments and feedback gratefully received.

New Ireland: Arts of the South Pacific – review published

Hurrah! My review of this exhibition at the Quai Branly has finally appeared on Material World. Thanks to the Quai Branly for permission to reproduce the images included and to Benoit de l’Estoile for organising the visit that enabled me to write the review.

A few recent links

Migration museums
The UNESCO initiative on migration museums has a shiny new(ish) website. So far there’s not much on it, but it’s a useful way of staying in touch with developments around the world.#
Diaspora and migration research
I recently came across this Finnish website, focused on diaspora research.  The links page is particularly useful. [Note to self [...]

Dati and the CNHI

Sometimes looking back over old notes and documents throws up surprises. The first time I glanced through the list of members of the CNHI’s ‘technical committee’ in the prefiguration stage (2003-4) none of the names meant anything to me (they were mostly advisers from the various ministries concerned). What a surprise then to see the [...]

Calls grow for regularisation in the UK, whilst Sarkozy looks to ban such measures throughout Europe

At a time when French policy on immigration is looking tougher than ever calls are growing in the UK – somewhat surprisingly perhaps, given the prevailing popular attitudes towards immigrants – for a large-scale regularisation of illegal immigrants. I have already mentioned the ‘Strangers into citizens‘ campaign on this blog (and it now has its [...]

How long is a research paper…?

A beautiful sunny day – one of the first of the summer – and I am sat at my desk writing a paper for a conference in September (the organizers want the full text now). Somehow I had in my head the idea of a 5,000 word limit. I have a chapter of about 12,500 [...]