Duncan Bell
@duncanbell.bsky.social
Teaches politics & history at Cambridge. Interests include empire, war, technology, architecture, science fiction, utopia. Currently writing a book on transhumanism
NEW BOOK! I'm very happy to say that my new book, Utopia, co-written with Douglas Mao, has been published on-line academic.oup.com/book/62279
Utopia
Abstract. Ideal societies, better worlds, more just and peaceful ways of living: these have long been the stuff of human beings’ social dreaming. In this c
academic.oup.com
I’ve got an essay on Wells and Sociology, too! It was a delight to write, but I’ll still say on that topic I feel a bit of “il miglior fabbro” is in order for @duncanbell.bsky.social , whose work on sociology and Wells is the bees knees.
Dr. Megan Faragher@meganfaragher.bsky.social · 2w agoI hear this is making its first rounds, perhaps. Thank you to the editors for their work and an incredible volume on such an important figure….
Great essay by @quinnslobodian.com www.theideasletter.org/essay/digita...
Digital Bandung
The recent turn to the language of “digital empire” and “data colonialism” captures aspects of the concentration of technological power, but often mistakes polemic for analysis. Slobodian revisits the...
theideasletter.org
I have just discovered the Allister Heath right-wing clickbait headline generator and it is amusing me greatly. stirring-fox-7e1fab.netlify.app
I love how Mbappe has matured into such a smart spokesperson as well as being a brilliant striker.
Zito@zeets.bsky.social · 4w agoMbappe fires back at the racist Paraguayan senator who said he grew up with chimpanzees
We’ve opened the call for @britishacademy.bsky.social Postdoctoral Fellowships. We provide 3 years of funding to early-career researchers in the humanities and social sciences wishing to pursue an independent research project. Apply by 30th September www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
Postdoctoral Fellowships
The British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships is a three year award made to an annual cohort of outstanding early career researchers in the humanities or social sciences.
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
On the Utopianism and Federalism of Le Guin, More, and Plato's Republic open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the Utopianism and Federalism of Le Guin, More, and Plato's Republic
Regular readers know of my interest in Le Guin’s The Dispossessed and More’s Utopia. One non-trivial commonality of both receives very little attention in the secondary literature (or from students). ...
open.substack.com
🚀🚨🚀 We are hiring: 3-year postdoc in African history! 🚀🚨🚀! The University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway is hiring a researcher with a PhD in History to conduct research on “European Languages in Post-Colonial Africa (1950-1990). The job listing can be found here: www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...
Post-doctoral Research Fellow in European Languages in Post-Colonial Africa (303877) | University of Agder
Job title: Post-doctoral Research Fellow in European Languages in Post-Colonial Africa (303877), Employer: University of Agder, Deadline: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
jobbnorge.no
On Istvan Hont on Smith as a follower of Locke. open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Istvan Hont on Smith as a follower of Locke.
Yesterday’s post got me interested in looking anew at Istvan Hont’s massive (2005) Jealousy of Trade: International Competition and the Nation State in Historical Perspective (Harvard).
open.substack.com
think ive managed to connect my chapter on the racism of the international order to the racism of space expansionism and the connection is more than the South Africanism of Jan Smuts and Elon Musk... but does owe a lot to @duncanbell.bsky.social, @quinnslobodian.com and @jordanscarroll.bsky.social
On Mathew Arnold, and his liberal Target (John Bright) with shout outs to @samuelmoyn.bsky.social @jcherniss.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Mathew Arnold, and his liberal Target (John Bright)
[G]eneral intelligence, as Monsieur Renan calls it, or, in our own words, a reference of all our operating to a firm intelligible law of things, was just what we were without, and that we were without...
open.substack.com
On Popper as the Useful Idiot of Anti-History. Responding to @samuelmoyn.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/digressi... Shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social
On Popper as the Useful Idiot of Anti-History.
Yesterday, Samuel Moyn (Yale) gave our public, annual Jos de Beus lecture in Amsterdam.
open.substack.com
OUT NOW! The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells is now available online academic.oup.com/edited-volum... 47 chapters on Wells and his worlds Hardcopy to follow in June
The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells
Abstract. The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells offers a wide-ranging overview of the life and work of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth ce
academic.oup.com
🚀 35 years ago Helen Sharman became the first Brit in space 🚀 It's a great privilege of mine to be able to work with Helen at @sciencemuseum.org.uk: her spacesuit is on display in our Space Gallery, and she narrates the new and improved Space-on-a-Sphere projection. youtube.com/shorts/RYBpP...
Celebrating 35 years since Helen Sharman became the first Brit in space #space #science #astronaut
YouTube video by Science Museum
youtube.com
The Society's President and Council have released the following statement on the proposed closure of undergraduate degrees at the University of Hertfordshire, in #History and the wider humanities bit.ly/4dmV5oO This comes at a time of further bad news from Essex and Nottingham #Skystorians
History and the humanities at the University of Hertfordshire – a statement from the Royal Historical Society - RHS
Even for those familiar with bleak times, this has been a particularly bad few weeks in UK higher education. Confirmed job losses at the University of Essex were followed by further bad news from Hert...
bit.ly
We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to build the new website & the technology underpinning our OJC Journals Catalogue. Great to see it out in the world! 🔥
Open Journals Collective@ojcollective.bsky.social · 3mo agoWe're delighted to share the new Open Journals Collective website! Visit us at openjournalscollective.org where you'll find information about OJC plus details of all our journals. We'll be adding more content in the coming weeks, so check back soon for FAQs, blog posts, case studies and more!
new from alum Emma Planinc, MA '12, now Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts and Political Science, University of Notre Dame, and recent RGCS Lecturer: "Wells and Human Rights," in Duncan Bell & Sarah Cole, eds, The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells, OUP 2026 academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
Wells and Human Rights
Abstract. In 1940, H. G. Wells wrote two letters to the London Times, very soon after to become his important work, The Rights of Man, Or What Are We Fight
academic.oup.com
Princeton University Press has a 50% off sale, lasting until the 9th of June. It covers most of their catalogue. If anyone is interested, it includes a few of my own books:
Princeton University Press has a 50% off sale, lasting until the 9th of June. It covers most of their catalogue. If anyone is interested, it includes a few of my own books:
Duncan Bell, "Scripting the City: J. G. Ballard Among the Architects" in Bell & Zacka (eds.), Political Theory and Architecture www.bloomsbury.com/uk/political...
bloomsbury.com
Duncan Bell, "Scripting the City: J. G. Ballard Among the Architects" in Bell & Zacka (eds.), Political Theory and Architecture www.bloomsbury.com/uk/political...
bloomsbury.com
📚 Delighted to share that The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells has now been published online by Oxford University Press! I was very pleased to contribute Chapter 46, “Wells and the North American Literary Market” 🇺🇸📖 Thanks to the editors, @duncanbell.bsky.social and Sarah Cole!
Duncan Bell@duncanbell.bsky.social · 3mo agoOUT NOW! The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells is now available online academic.oup.com/edited-volum... 47 chapters on Wells and his worlds Hardcopy to follow in June
My 2023 Kathleen Hughes Memorial Lecture, "The Moral Economy in Early Medieval Ireland", is now available as a free PDF download from the ASNC website, for anyone who's interested! #OpenAccess #MedievalSky #Spéirghorm #Speirgorm @ceilteachomn.bsky.social www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/publications...
asnc.cam.ac.uk
OUT NOW! The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells is now available online academic.oup.com/edited-volum... 47 chapters on Wells and his worlds Hardcopy to follow in June
The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells
Abstract. The Oxford Handbook of H. G. Wells offers a wide-ranging overview of the life and work of one of the most influential writers of the twentieth ce
academic.oup.com
