Benjamin Bland

Will do, thanks Daisy!

A Poster advertising the event, with a QR code leading to the Eventbrite page, an image of the film poster, and details about the event. The event will be held at The Norwegian Study Centre in Quantum House, feature a Q&A, and have representatives from the Geography Society, the Student Co-operative, and the Gardening Society.

It's Sustainability Week here at the University of York, and the NSC has an exciting upcoming event to announce: a screening of Jeanne Bøe's new short film, 'Oxseblod' and a sustainability-themed pop-up from 7pm on March 19th. Visit oxsebloduoy.eventbrite.com to request your free ticket today!

Thanks so much for doing this, really great example for students that I will definitely make use of in teaching!

A big list of resources related to the Empire Exhibition of 1938 I have recently finished a research project about the British Empire Exhibition that was held in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, in 1938. We produced a large amount of resources ourselves, and I also c…

It took me all day, but I've synthesised all of the resources we used on the Decolonising the British Empire Exhibition of 1938 through Augmented Reality Narratives research project.
Huge list of useful info about #Glasgow #EmpireExhibition 1938:
gamebasedlearninginhe.wordpress.com/2026/03/05/a...

Cheers James, hope things are good with you!

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...

Got a new article out today in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social. It's about the ways in which the music press constructed race in late 20c Britain. Open access so do share it around!

Thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk and @uniofreading.bsky.social for supporting the research.

doi.org/10.1017/jbr....

Keir Starmer, sensing he's close to finishing his mission of killing the labour party for at least a generation, decides to deliver one last Blairite special for old times sake

‘Apply the Flame More Searingly’: The Destruction and Migration of the Archives of British Colonial Administration: A Southeast Asia Case Study In 2011, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office formally acknowledged that it held records of local colonial administration that had been removed from their repositories prior to independence and eve...

Teaching this today. If I had an infinite budget I've always thought the best way to teach students about British archives, power and decolonisation would be to give them 1 million sheets of paper and tell them they have a week to destroy them all with no a trace.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We are advertising a two-year lectureship in Modern British History at University of Cambridge, please spread the word!
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/assista...

Just published open access in @globalhistjnl.bsky.social

‘Inside the belly of the monster’: The politics of race in Britain, transnational anti-colonialism, and the Black Liberation Front

doi.org/10.1017/S174...

Frederick Wiseman showed us the world and its institutions in all their cruelty and humanity. A prolific and essential documentarian, he will be missed.

RIP, 1930-2026

Together with @rshc.bsky.social QMCBS's Rob Waters is involved in a great event on 24 Feb at Rich Mix, Bethnal Green on the history of the Home Office and border control, featuring @liamliburd.bsky.social, @juanitacox.bsky.social and Bobby Phe Amis

I get what he's doing here, but it is absurd to talk about a city founded on cotton grown by enslaved people in conditions of ecological devastation as being a place where multi-racial people "pulled together" "over centuries." No less historically illiterate than the crudest statement by Reform.

18 month postdoc at the lovely IHR in London, $41,740. Deadline 7 March. 'The Fellow will play a key role within the IHR team responsible for hosting the 2027 North American Conference in British Studies (NACBS)' in London 2027.

Repost to spread the word. #Skystorians

Non-Returners: Forced Repatriation of Soviet Citizens and the Development of Refugee Protections The international community is facing numerous migration crises, much like those that drove the development of international refugee rights and protections in the twentieth century. But instead of embracing and strengthening legal…

OTD in 1945, the Yalta Conference began.

In this article from our archives, Eilish Hart discusses the post-WWII refugee crisis.

http://www.historywo...

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

A good piece on the closure of Essex’s Southend campus: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Starmer has little to offer voters of either right or left in Gorton and Denton. That’s why he’s facing a perfect storm | Owen Jones The Greens are buoyant as Labour struggles. After shredding any semblance of a progressive agenda, fear of Reform is all the PM’s party has left, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones

Labour took votes for granted.

They've blown it.

Green Party want to lower bills, protect our NHS and rebuild our public services.

Vote Green - and stop Reform.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I did my PhD at Sheffield working fairly closely with the Special Collections staff (who are brilliant). An excellent funded opportunity here...

Job opportunity: 18 month fellowship in British Studies working @ihr.bsky.social to undertake own research and prep for NACBS2027 @thenacbs.bsky.social

www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Jeffrey Epstein sent Peter Mandelson $75,000, documents show Newly released files include three payments from disgraced financier’s JPMorgan account to former UK power broker

Mandleson, of course, is by all account still a member of the Labour Party. Worth remembering Neal Lawson, the head of compass, was almost expelled from the party for retweeting someone who called for tactical voting in a local election. www.ft.com/content/1728...

Next time I see you I am buying a pint just to congratulate you on this exceptionally poetic slip

The field of British “far-right and fascism” studies, which straddles political science, history & sociology, has yet to grapple with Goodwin. He began writing about the BNP & has ended up standing for a party filling the same political space. His earlier work shows traces of this later trajectory.

The Arthur Scargill Archive Following a two year cataloguing project the Library is pleased to announced that the Arthur Scargill Archive is now open to all researchers.

🚨NEWLY CATALOGUED COLLECTION🚨

We are delighted to announce that after a 2-year project, the Arthur Scargill Archive is now available for research in our public reading room!🎉

More info➡️ tinyurl.com/cz3s5dxk

Browse the catalogue➡️ tinyurl.com/vn4xvdd6

@mrcwarwick.bsky.social @sslh.bsky.social

A row of lit tealights sit on a table in a dark room. Text reads: Holocaust Memorial Day lecture. Hiding the holocaust: Examining the architecture and topography of terror. Monday 26 January, 6.30pm.

Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, join us for a lecture from Dr Rachael Burns, exploring the history and legacy of the Holocaust.
This is a free, in-person event, but tickets must be booked in advance at: https://tinyurl.com/mdp2ffas

Its out!

It can't be a coincidence that this is all happening at a time when the Vietnam War has been reduced to a silly cliché in popular culture...

Meanwhile it's positively balmy in York

A little peek at the set up for 'The Sound'🥳It's going to look so good in the show's lighting state!

This immersive journey through the stories & sounds of #RDGUK's soundsystem era opens tomorrow (Wed 21 Jan) - we can't wait!

Book now at whatsonreading.com/the-sound

#theatre #thesound #music

Screenshot of email that reads: “This status will remain in place until the University receives notification that you are no longer participating in that action. During this period, any work undertaken will be regarded as voluntary.”

Well that’s me locked out. No pay for the foreseeable future, all because I refuse to reschedule lost teaching, for which I have already lost pay as part of the strike. Please donate to support @sheffielducu.bsky.social members like me at www.gofundme.com/f/heubvb-sup...