Just out in War & Society (open access!): "Hegemonic masculinities and post-war reconciliation in Kenya during and after the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–60)" I look at how Kenyatta and the Gikuyu elite... www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Hegemonic masculinities and post-war reconciliation in Kenya during and after the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–60)

This article examines how the reconstruction of masculinity shaped Kenya’s post-colonial reconciliation following the Mau Mau Uprising (1952–60). It argues that debates over male authority, rooted ...

tandfonline.com

Joining the chorus of September announcements: later this month I’ll be starting at Keele University in Stoke as a Lecturer in History and Digital Humanities. I'm very happy to be joining Keele, teaching a new group of students, and thinking about digital approaches to African History!

Please give my latest blog a read!

Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts@glosoc.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Have a look at our latest blog, kicking off a new series highlighting characters from our research. This one by @nielsboender.bsky.social is entitled: Social Rights Thinkers: Donald Chesworth (1923–1991) — Minimum Wages and the High Tide of Labour Rights in Tanzania. medium.com/@glosoc/soci...

Some Easter reading - Our latest blog, written by Dr Andrea Azizi Kifyasi of the University of Dar es Salaam on Chinese-Tanzanian Medical Exchanges. He explores both the opportunities and challenges offered by these collaborations - with major present-day resonances. medium.com/p/cf2b4d08f6...

Chinese-Tanzanian Relations, Medical Knowledge, and Development after 1968

Dr Andrea Azizi Kifyasi of the University of Dar es Salaam tells the fascinating story of global knowledge flows around health in…

medium.com

I was very lucky to read - and review - Riley Linebaugh's recent Curating the Colonial Past: The “Migrated Archives” and the Struggle for Kenya’s History for the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History - an important and forensically researched book! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Curating the Colonial Past: The “Migrated Archives” and the Struggle for Kenya’s History

Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

tandfonline.com

📣 Save the date! The next conference of the Society for the History of War will take place at the University of Limerick, Ireland 🇮🇪 🗓 26–27 November 2026 Historians of war, conflict, and violence - mark your calendars!! 📄 Call for Papers coming soon!

This was a real privilege, as well as a challenging experience. Some very impressive and heart-rending stories of survivors. The work WOTESAWA is really important and incredible - and in the current development/aid environment, this is exactly the kind of work that becomes much harder...

Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts@glosoc.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Our project member @nielsboender.bsky.social spent the last 2 days with the incredible WOTESAWA charity in Mwanza (Tanzania), learning about their work rescuing and retraining domestic workers subject to exploitation. He also spoke to local government leaders about minimum wages and their history

We had a brilliant time today at the University of Dar es Salaam, talking to scholars about socio-economic rights in East Africa - but the discussions continue. Tomorrow in Bochum, Germany, we will be holding a further hybrid workshop on global histories of socio-economic rights. Link below

Join us online for this event we are hosting in Dar es Salaam tomorrow on Histories of Socio-Economic Rights in East Africa! Tune in especially for the keynote from Salvatory Nyanto at 11 AM EAT, 8 AM GMT on religion and Ujamaa in Tanzania - as well as a range of other scholars!

I simply couldn't keep quiet about some people's reaction to @davidolusoga.bsky.social's Empire episode dedicated to Mau Mau. Read my two cents in my latest article for @africasacountry.bsky.social. 🇰🇪

Africa Is a Country@africasacountry.bsky.social · 8mo ago

David Elstein’s attack on David Olusoga’s docuseries on the legacy of the British empire reveals less about historical error than about the enduring impulse to rehabilitate British colonial rule. africasacountry.com/2026/02/who-...

Please give my most recent journal article on debates on late-colonial social security, in the Journal of Eastern African Studies, a read! This is the output of our project and a talk I gave at the British Institute in Eastern Africa back in September. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The life and death of old-age social security in late-colonial Kenya

The last decade of colonial rule in Kenya witnessed a widespread debate about social security for African workers. The government sought to create a stable, permanent workforce, while workers wante...

tandfonline.com

Join me this Thursday (2:30 pm East Africa, 11:30 am GMT) as I give a (online) talk to the University of Nairobi's Research Seminar on my work on Kenyan decolonisation and the settlement schemes which transferred much white-owned land at independence. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Join me this Thursday (2:30 pm East Africa, 11:30 am GMT) as I give a (online) talk to the University of Nairobi's Research Seminar on my work on Kenyan decolonisation and the settlement schemes which transferred much white-owned land at independence. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Very excited to announce the publication of my latest article— the last in a trilogy about local politics in Nyeri District in the years surrounding Kenyan independence. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... (1/4)

Our Medium page has a new blog! Bernard Thomann of @ifrae.bsky.social and @inalco.fr in Paris has written for us about accusations of 'social dumping', international pressure, and the transformation of labour conditions in twentieth-century Japan. Subscribe to see more! medium.com/@glosoc/soci...

‘Social dumping’ and the economic transformation of twentieth-century Japan

Guest Blog by Bernard Thomann (Ifrae/Inalco, Paris, France)

medium.com

It's been incredible this week to see something that I, along with many others, have been working on for several years... "Emergency Exits: The Fight for Independence in Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus" exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in London. The exhibition represents a significant evolution... 1/6

We are still continuing our effort to crowdsource items for our virtual exhibition on the global struggle for labour rights! We are also welcoming blog contributions for our Medium blog medium.com/@glosoc. Any personal stories, academic findings, or reflections on the theme are welcome!

Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts – Medium

Read writing from Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts on Medium. An AHRC-funded research project exploring the histories of work-related social rights in Britain, Germany, Tanzania and Kenya,...

medium.com

Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts@glosoc.bsky.social · last yr.

Crowd-sourcing opportunity! At GLOSOC, we are putting together a virtual exhibition on Work and the Global History of Social Rights since the nineteenth century. The exhibition is targeted at school students and adults, and we need your help and suggestions for items to include!

One for the diary! If you're in Nairobi, do come along to the British Institute in East Africa to listen to me present some findings on the history of social security in the region. Alternatively, you can join online. 4 pm EAT on the 18th of September Register here: biea.ac.uk/events/the-o...

One for the diary! If you're in Nairobi, do come along to the British Institute in East Africa to listen to me present some findings on the history of social security in the region. Alternatively, you can join online. 4 pm EAT on the 18th of September Register here: biea.ac.uk/events/the-o...

Crowd-sourcing opportunity! At GLOSOC, we are putting together a virtual exhibition on Work and the Global History of Social Rights since the nineteenth century. The exhibition is targeted at school students and adults, and we need your help and suggestions for items to include!

Very happy to see my latest article published with @thejah.bsky.social - the second in what will be a trilogy of articles on the legacy of Mau Mau and local politics in Central Kenya. In this article, I take a look at the African Independent Pentecostal Church, the religious arm...

The Journal of African History@thejah.bsky.social · last yr.

Read the new OA article by @nielsboender.bsky.social‬ on the African Independent Pentecostal Church, #decolonization, #land, and #reconciliation in #Kenya: bit.ly/46hPEUo

Very happy to see my latest article published with @thejah.bsky.social - the second in what will be a trilogy of articles on the legacy of Mau Mau and local politics in Central Kenya. In this article, I take a look at the African Independent Pentecostal Church, the religious arm...

The Journal of African History@thejah.bsky.social · last yr.

Read the new OA article by @nielsboender.bsky.social‬ on the African Independent Pentecostal Church, #decolonization, #land, and #reconciliation in #Kenya: bit.ly/46hPEUo

Thrilled to say that my most recent article has been released. It appears in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, on the politics of chieftaincy in decolonising Central Kenya, where many ex-Mau Mau found their way into local politics. read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/arti...

Thrilled to say that my most recent article has been released. It appears in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, on the politics of chieftaincy in decolonising Central Kenya, where many ex-Mau Mau found their way into local politics. read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/arti...

Happy Labour Day! To mark the occasion, our project member @roryhanna.bsky.social has authored a blog on the 1955 protests by the labour movement in West Germany demanding a five-day week - with some very pertinent contemporary resonances! medium.com/p/bc26223cafcf

We are very happy to announce our exciting program for our first project workshop, 5-6 June, on "Writing Global Histories of Socio-Economic Rights" See www.glosoc.org/events/ for a text version of the programme and for details to register for online and in-person attendance.

Fascinating insights this morning from on postcolonial freedom fighters in 1960s Kenya, as part of the Global Geographies of Veteran History panel by @nielsboender.bsky.social

Thrilled to finally announce the release of our edited collection - Homecoming Veterans in Literature and Culture. I am incredibly grateful to the brilliant contributors who have established 'Homecoming' as an analytical lense for understanding veterans' return www.routledge.com/Homecoming-V...

SHoW's heading to Potsdam! 📢 Call for Papers – SHoW 2025 🗓 27–28 November 2025 📍University of Potsdam 📝 Abstracts due: 30 June How do societies understand, justify, and remember war and violence? And how do cultures resist, represent, or misrepresent it? All details can be found below! ⬇️