Looking forward to this! Thanks to @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social for the invitation to present my book Currency of Nihilism to the BISA working group on Critical Alternatives for World Politics. Come join us for the seminar. Details below.

BISA Critical Alternatives for World Politics Working Group@cawpbisa.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What happens to economic life when meaning and value come apart? 💹 💀 Join us for our next virtual seminar as @aminsamman.bsky.social discusses his new book exploring the nihilistic moods and of contemporary global finance from cryptocurrencies to meme-stocks. @mybisa.bsky.social

@benandersongeog.bsky.social @davidjbissell.bsky.social @joeblakey.bsky.social @vickyblake.bsky.social @kbrickell.bsky.social @jbrigstocke.bsky.social @gbuttars.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social @marxinhell.bsky.social @mckenziewark.bsky.social @katiecmoliver.bsky.social

Ben Bowsher@benbowsher.bsky.social · 4mo ago

As the crowdfunder for the first radical bookshop icon Newcastle for 40 years gets closer to the end I’m making the bold move of calling on all the academics I sort of vaguely know and also those I don’t to share the link for our crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...

Finally! I’ve been banging on about Failure for a while now - lot’s more to think about, but I wanted to put this into the world as a starting place. Bonus - they let me keep the swears! academic.oup.com/ips/article-...

Making It Worse: Productive Failure as Global Common Sense

Abstract. This paper examines how our collective responses to global challenges like war, migration, and climate change are being shaped by the desire to t

academic.oup.com

🔉We have kicked off todays event with our new Working Group @cawpbisa.bsky.social! 🎊Todays event gives an opportunity to learn the aims of the group as well as introduction to the convener team @nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social @chenchenzhang.net and Leah de Haan.

New BISA WG! 🎉 Critical Alternatives for World Politics - fostering a welcoming space for experimental, creative & non-mainstream research and researchers at the margins of International Studies - join today! 🌟 Info here 👉 buff.ly/1Pxr7Bz @nataliejester.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social

About Critical Alternatives for World Politics (CAWP)

The Critical Alternatives for World Politics (CAWP) Working Group aims to foster a welcoming space for experimental, creative, and non-mainstream research and researchers at the margins of…

buff.ly

🖖Hi people! We are launching our new BISA working group, Critical Alternatives for World Politics! We have been working on this for a while now :) It will be a great space to experiment with and create new methods and approaches to IR. Please make sure to follow and join us :)🥰

BISA Critical Alternatives for World Politics Working Group@cawpbisa.bsky.social · 11mo ago

🎆We are incredibly excited to launch BISA's new working group: Critical Alternatives for World Politics (CAWP)! CAWP aims to foster a collegiate space for creative, experimental, and non-mainstream research in IR 🎉Follow us on here and join us at: www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...

Drawing on surrealism & anti-colonial thought, Sara Wong’s new open-access article in @risjnl.bsky.social offers an interesting engagement with aesthetic politics. She argues for shift from representation to “what aesthetics do or could do.” www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I got interviewed about my PhD thesis on the relationship between neoliberal social media and the normalisation of far-right fantasies by @reacpolrn.bsky.social the Reactionary Politics Research Network. Many thanks to @aurelmondon.bsky.social for conducting the interview!

Reactionary Politics Research Network@reacpolrn.bsky.social · 12mo ago

📣New interview📣 @paskokisic.bsky.social discusses how psychoanalytic theory can help us understand the contemporary far right and its normalisation. Check it out below! reacpol.net/psychoanalyt...

🏆 We are pleased to announce @alvinahoffmann.bsky.social as the author of the Best Article in the European Journal of International Relations. Congratulations! 👏 Honorable mention to Alexander Cooley, John Heathershaw, Ricardo Soares De Oliveira 🔗 buff.ly/hqpQJSz

Check out my dear and awesome friend Charlie's new piece on the silly/serious politics of digital reaction! 👇👇

Charlie Price@charlieprice.bsky.social · last yr.

Do you like ketchup? Not only are you wrong, but you may be a fascist. Not really, but in my 🍅New Publication🍅 "Ketchup Is the Whitest Sauce", in International Political Sociology, I argue that memes about ketchup showcase Neo-Nazi solidarity. academic.oup.com/ips/article/...

🎉 Best Article in the @risjnl.bsky.social winner this year was @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social for: 'Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes' with judges finding the 'theoretical approach original & highly relevant' 🌟 Summary - buff.ly/Rvd09Wk DOI -

Have you read the 2024 winner of the RIS Best Article Prize? Uygar Baspehlivan's article "Theorising the memescape: The spatial politics of Internet memes" is #OpenAccess, and a must read for anyone interested in visual IR! 👉 buff.ly/fZmc0Ch

🚨 Launch of the first MA in International Political Sociology at @qmpoliticsir.bsky.social, starting September 2025. Applications are now open for 2025-26. The programme adopts a problem-driven approach, bridging disciplines to address complex challenges in World Politics. More information here:

Our 11th joint winners were Anne-Marie Houde and Ugyar Baspehhlivan of the Emotions Working Group Prize – best PhD thesis in Emotions and Politics and IR 🎉 #BISA2025

Our fourth winner was Uygar Baspehlivan🎉 Uygar Baspehlivan won the Review of International Studies: Best Article Prize for his article 'Theorizing the memescape: the spatial politics of internet memes' 📝 #BISA2025

🏆🏆Absolute pleasure to be awarded the: -RIS Best Article Prize for "Theorising the Memescape: The Spatial Politics of Internet Memes -Honourable Mention for BISA Michael Nicholson Best Thesis Prize @MYBISA -BISA Emotions in Politics and IR Working Group Best Thesis Prize

I enjoyed this talk by @robtoes.bsky.social on the rhetoric of reactionary digital politics. I liked the idea of 'ambient extremism.' I think it's very useful to understand how reactionary rhetoric leaks into our daily conversations by blurring boundaries. I also liked+ www.spui25.nl/programma/am...

Ambient Extremism in Reactionary Digital Politics

In this second talk of ACES’s “Diagonalism” series, Robert Topinka engages with the idea of “ambient extremism.” This type of contemporary digital reactionary politics entails a dissolution of distinc...

spui25.nl

📣Applications for the second Reactionary Politics Summer School are open📣 The summer school provides a space to develop key skills for the research of reactionary politics. It will be hosted hybrid and attendance is free. Bursaries are also available. Sign up below! reacpol.net/summer-schoo...

Summer School - Reactionary Politics Research Network

reacpol.net

My review of The Technological Republic by Palantir CEO Alex Karp and exec Nicholas Zamiska is out. They call for Silicon Valley to re-align with the Pentagon, where democracy is obsolete, engineers shift from apps to weapons, and code becomes law. Tech is no longer just for profit. It’s for war.

Political Economy Research Centre@goldperc.bsky.social · last yr.

As part of PERC's Silicon Valley Ideology series, @alirizataskale.bsky.social reviews The Technological Republic, by Palantir's CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas Zamiska. The books is an unapologetic blueprint for a militarised tech oligarchy that threatens democracy and needs to be resisted.

Incredibly honoured to have received BISA Emotions in Politics Working Group's Best Thesis Prize! And to share it with the lovely @annemhoude.bsky.social! Double the honour 😊😊

Emotions in Politics and IR (EPIR) BISA Working Group@epir-bisa.bsky.social · last yr.

🎉 We’re thrilled to announce the winners of the 2025 EPIR Thesis Prize! 🏆 Winners: Anne-Marie Houde & Uygar Baspehlivan 🎖 Honourable Mention: Shambhawi Tripathi Their theses impressed our judges with originality, critical insight, and innovative methods. Congratulations to all! 👏

A whole new issue! Check out Volume 51, Issue 2 on our website now! All articles are free to read until the end of the month 🥳

Following the outcome of the recent regional elections and in response to the rising tide of fascism in the region (and beyond), we've sent a letter to the VC asking Durham University to publicly commit to the safety and wellbeing of its international/migrant staff and students. Excerpts below:

Durham UCU@ducu.bsky.social · last yr.

A letter we've sent to our Vice Chancellor, and other members of senior management, insisting they publicly commit themselves to the safety and wellbeing of the university's international/migrant staff and students. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

We're hiring! I'll be co-supervising a PhD at Utrecht University on the global governance of socially disruptive technologies. Political philosophy/ethics project focused on legitimacy & good governance. More info: edu.nl/9admd Deadline: June 3, 2025 (apologies for the short notice!)

Are you a graduate student who presented at the 2025 ISA in Chicago? If you were part of a panel sponsored or co-sponsored by the IPS section, consider applying to the 2026 IPS Graduate Student Paper Award! Self-nominations are encouraged!

*seeking diabetic people based in the UK* Great opportunity to help researchers who are seeking to design better diabetic food tracking technology! Please share. Expression of interest here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Working on my presentation for the Spinoza/Marx conference this Friday and coming back to my central point that all attempts to derive a theory of ideology from ultimately become about the relation between minds and bodies, and how one reads EIIP7 www.unemployednegativity.com/2024/04/one-...

One, Two, Many Spinozist-Marxisms: A Postscript to The Double Shift

unemployednegativity.com

my hard pivot to environmental (still digital) politics going strong. really enjoyed Ted DeLay's Future of Denial, this one's going super well too 😇

Verso Books@versobooks.bsky.social · last yr.

What are you reading this weekend?

Interesting piece on memes and international politics here www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A great discussion and fantastic questions! These @mybisa.bsky.social working groups aren't just good fun, they're great spaces to share and develop ideas in a friendly academic space. 10/10 would recommend. Thank you for organising @epir-bisa.bsky.social and @annemhoude.bsky.social !

BISA - British International Studies Association@mybisa.bsky.social · last yr.

📢We had a fascinating concluding event for the year today with @epir-bisa.bsky.social ! 👉📚Topic 'Emotions and the right – navigating feeling in the study of populism and reactionary politics' w/ @theoaiolfi.bsky.social @charlieprice.bsky.social @ubaspehlivan.bsky.social and Elisabeth Mörking