This image shows the title and abstract for a new journal article by Benjamin Bland, published in the Journal of British Studies. Title: "“I Am Not Anti Black Music But …”: Popular Music, the NME, and Race in Late Twentieth-Century Britain". Abstract:"Popular music culture has often featured in postwar British history as a site of tolerance and inclusivity, of multicultural exchange and anti-racist activism. This article, while not denying music's intersections with progressive causes, presents a different narrative. I use the pages of Britain's most prominent weekly music paper, the New Musical Express (NME), to demonstrate the important role that music has played in perpetuating wider processes of racialization in the late twentieth century. Surveying contestations over race in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, it highlights the ways in which popular music institutions such as the NME could function as sites of racial formation, reproducing the social power of whiteness even when providing space for what was often referred to as “black music.” The article underlines the degree to which popular music could produce hegemonically white cultural spaces, despite the diversity of musical culture at large. In so doing, it indicates the significance of popular culture for understanding patterns of racialization into the latter years of the twentieth century and beyond."

This is a fascinating looking paper by @benjamin-bland.bsky.social, on processes of racialisation in the popular culture of late C20th Britain.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

there are discussions about going down to 20% at our place, though I'm not sure whether that has been finalised

just to be clear there is SO MUCH precedent for arresting a senior royal. just not any precedent where it ends well for them

this would be a dream PhD for one lucky individual...

(on behalf of Matt, who is going cold turkey on the socials....)

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Young Refugees to Britain in the early Twentieth Century at University of Reading on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Young Refugees to Britain in the early Twentieth Century at University of Reading, listed on FindAPhD.com

Fantastic funded PhD opportunity here in the School of Humanities at Reading - please share widely! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Rectangular image featuring (on the left) 2 piles of leather-bound book, then the stone head of a medieval man (statue) then a vertical row of old books. In the foreground is a red carpet. To avoid REF lopping heads off historians, send a delegate to this online meeting.

On Thursday 26 March, the Royal Historical Society will be holding an online meeting for Directors of Research / REF Leads to discuss preparations by historians for the REF.

Contact administration@royalhistsoc.org to participate.

Times report: Allies of Rayner said they believed that Wes Streeting, the health secretary, would be “ruined” by the mass disclosure of all communications with Mandelson in coming months. Streeting and Mandelson were close allies for years.

In these dark days of February, a little something to look forward to.

as someone who has written a book on the miners' strike, I can tell you that almost all of those who were the biggest proponents of the dispute eventually came to despise Scargill - that's not to say that he doesn't have any interesting insights, or that the miners' cause wasn't a worthy one.

yes indeed

I am amazed, and my cynical conclusion is that the juicy stuff has already been shredded

FindAPhD : PhD Studentships to support doctoral research in the Arthur Scargill Archive at the University of Sheffield at University of Sheffield Apply for a PhD: PhD Studentships to support doctoral research in the Arthur Scargill Archive at the University of Sheffield at University of Sheffield

Three scholarships for PhD in Arthur Scargill Archive - quite the opportunity. Believe me when I say that I am sure that some of the stuff in here will be quite the eye-opener! (if the good stuff hasn't been already shredded or slapped with an embargo)

I would LOVE to supervise these PhDs, let me tell you. Also amazed that AS has opened his archive whilst still alive. I'm intrigued to know how much is embargoed...my guess would be: a lot.

Great to see this out in the world - was a pleasure to work with Gary and Richard

They'll probably never repeat that episode of 8/10 Cats with Brand, Walliams and Noam Chomsky

Point of no returns: researchers are crossing a threshold in the fight for funding With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.

"How can funders avoid crossing the Szilard point?"

The Szilard point is "the threshold at which the total cost of competing for a grant equals (or surpasses) the value of the available funding."

When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!

"the Student Loans Company (the taxman in plastic glasses and fake moustache)"

conversely, kids at state schools in poorer towns seem to be getting the message that STEM is the only way forward, at least if my nieces and nephews are anything to go by. but my guess is that the average Oxford English graduate will still end up earning more than them...

i do wonder how much of this supposedly counter-intuitive effect is about the social capital a lot of humanities graduates - who tend to skew very middle-class - have, though?

RIP Martin Luther, you would have loved Papal Audience Black Friday deals.

As we move into “foreigners are cancelling Christmas in the name of political correctness” season it’s worth remember that Christmas was indeed once banned in England, by Christians and the man who enforced the ban has a statue in his honour outside the Houses of Parliament.

I really love this from Keith G (and not just because it's nice about my book!). Properly insightful in a way that alas, quite often writing on the miners' strike is not...

This is news to me.... (I mean, I knew they were selling the land here, but not to this end)

oh god, we keep on being told about this at work and i have NO IDEA what it means

Congratulations Holly, I'm really looking forward to reading this!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is this the result of under-awarding or over-applying? It’s both of course but it’s a particular problem that institutions require evidence of applying as part of promotions: they incentivise activity which cannot in all cases pay off, using up resources in performative performance review (1/3).

‘I will take money for the arts from murderers, from rapists, from anybody’: The British state as cultural patron This paper examines the growth of arts policy in post-war Britain.

Really looking forward to Scott Anthony's seminar @ihrbritainseminar.bsky.social tomorrow at 5:30 - sign up below!