Ryan Cecil Jobson

On Dimanche Gras, I wrote about how imperialism in the Caribbean feels from Trinidad’s North Coast. Blessings to the Joseph and Samaroo families and the people of Las Cuevas. portolan-journal.org?post=a-carib...

For our special issue we are honored to feature Michel-Rolph Trouillot's previously unpublished manuscript "Banana Wars: The Sweetness of Commodities," edited by Ryan Cecil Jobson.

Resisting Mining Book Club: “The Petro-State Masquerade” with Ryan Cecil Jobson For our first Resisting Mining Book Club of 2026 we welcomed Ryan Cecil Jobson to discuss his book, The Petro-State Masquerade: Oil, Sovereignty and Power in Trinidad…

Missed our book club with @ryanceciljobson.bsky.social?

📚 Watch the full recording here: vimeo.com/1154794909

Tune in for discussion on imperialist resource grabs in the Caribbean and what Trinidad & Tobago's history of workers' struggle can teach us about fighting for a just transition.

This essay meditates on the dual meaning of power—radiant power and political power—that surfaced in the anticolonial struggle for Chaguaramas. The scientific fact of radiation remained secondary to the political fact of radiation as a basis for working-class power.
Read @ Duke tinyurl.com/2u67sbs7

🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

Fierce competition from The Black Jacobins (and someone might say Minty Alley) but BAB is my personal favorite—a praisesong for the genius of working people in the Caribbean.

Kinda like this lowkey

Lost pages reveal an alternate ending to a classic Caribbean novel Discovery from UChicago’s Kaneesha Parsard sheds new light on “Minty Alley” by political theorist C.L.R. James

On a separate note, this isn’t even the most exciting development in the study of CLR James in my own household this week.
news.uchicago.edu/story/lost-p...

“Radiation and the Question of Power: C.L.R. James and the Struggle for Chaguaramas” - Small Axe

read.dukeupress.edu/small-axe/ar...

“Rumors of a War: Radar and Power in Trinidad and Tobago” - Clash! Voices for a Caribbean Federation from Below

medium.com/clash-voices...

When I wrote this article on CLR James’s coverage of a radiation controversy at the US base in Trinidad, I couldn’t imagine that we’d find ourselves in another this week. Links below to my essays in Small Axe and Clash!

read.dukeupress.edu/small-axe/ar...

medium.com/clash-voices...

And the brilliant cover image features the work of Zenaéca Singh whose work examines the “complex history of the sugar economy in South Africa and its entanglement with migration, colonialism, labour exploitation, and the dynamics of the domestic sphere.”

Our new issue of @transformanthro.bsky.social is out! Featuring an editorial by me and Christen Smith, unpublished manuscripts and translations from Marlene Cunha, Michel-Rolph Trouillot, and Ellen Irene Diggs, and articles by Pyar Seth and Nala Williams. www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/tra/2025...

Our latest issue on the “Archives of Black Anthropology” is now available online!

We are thrilled to share this special issue and to invite our readers to engage in dialogue with our intellectual ancestors and meditate on an archive that crosses borders, languages, and histories.

RSVP to Book Club Live @ AAA: A Burdensome Experiment | Partiful Join us for our third annual live Book Club at AAA in New Orleans, hosted by Ryan Jobson, Michael Ralph, and Maya Singhal! We will be in conversation with Christien Philmarc Tompkins to discuss his bo...

partiful.com/e/oYY9D6L1l8...

Spectral Remix - Takeover THIS PLACE NICE Welcome to paradise. A land of smiling faces (never mind the occasional steups). An island with a stable government, welcoming to US drone strikes, military build-ups, and foreign ...

www.spectralremix.org/takeover

For friends headed to New Orleans for the AAAs, mark your calendars for our roundtable on Trouillot’s Peasants and Capital, a book discussion with Christien Tompkins, and a video installation on militarism in the southern Caribbean that I curated with Brent Crosson. #ABAxTA_NOLA

RSVP to Book Club Live @ AAA: A Burdensome Experiment | Partiful Join us for our third annual live Book Club at AAA in New Orleans, hosted by Ryan Jobson, Michael Ralph, and Maya Singhal! We will be in conversation with Christien Philmarc Tompkins to discuss his book, A Burdensome Experiment: Race, Labor, and Schools in New Orleans after Katrina. We will send the location to everyone RSVPed a few hours before the event (it will be somewhere in or around the conference space).

Book Club is back for AAA! We’ll be talking about @cptompkins.bsky.social’s book A Burdensome Experiment on Saturday (11/22) 3-4pm. RSVP for the location: partiful.com/e/oYY9D6L1l8... @ryanceciljobson.bsky.social

An open-access download of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy is now available. This new edition features an introduction by yours truly and an afterword by Schuyler Esprit.

haubooks.org/wp-content/u...

My essay "Tending to the Future" is out in Small Axe!

Thanks @ryanceciljobson.bsky.social for the invitation to contribute to the Caribbean Keywords project on Heritage!

Read the essay here: read.dukeupress.edu/small-axe/ar...

At long last, the new edition of Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Peasants and Capital is slated for a November print release. An open access PDF will be made available after the initial print run, so please recommend to your library or purchase a copy if you can. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

patería/ makoumé/ kambrada/ friend & family
A SMALL AXE @smallaxeproject.bsky.social VIDEO

Contributors
@doctorjc.bsky.social
Krystal Ghisyawan
@julianisenia.bsky.social
@larrylafountain.bsky.social

Moderated by
@ryanceciljobson.bsky.social @vanessayperez.bsky.social

smallaxe.net/sxprojects/k...

Perfect timing if you’re still looking for a (digital) copy of my book. 🙏🏽

Our spring issue is out! The issue, the first under the new editorial leadership of Christen Smith and Ryan Cecil Jobson, features beautiful cover art by Madjeen Isaac and articles on Black geographies, queer Black hip-hop discographies, and state violence and “witch talk” in the DR.

Our first issue under the editorial leadership of Christen A. Smith and Ryan Cecil Jobson begins with a letter to our readers marking a new chapter for the journal and grappling with the “struggle for liberation” that is the “very foundation of Black anthropology.”

5 July 1934: Couva Plantation riot Mini-podcast about an event on this day in working class history. Our work is only possible because of support from you, our listeners on https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory. If you appreciate our work, please join us and access exclusive content and benefits at https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory. - https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/no-beer-no-work - See all of our anniversaries each day, alongside sources and maps on the On This Day section of our Stories app: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/date/today - Browse all Stories by Date here on the Date index: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/date - Check out our Map of historical Stories: https://map.workingclasshistory.com - Check out books, posters, clothing and more in our https://shop.workingclasshistory.com - If you enjoy this podcast, make sure to check out our flagship longform podcast, https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast.   Acknowledgements - Written and edited by Working Class History. - Theme music by Ricardo Araya. Check out his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@peptoattack

📣 New Podcast! "5 July 1934: Couva Plantation riot" on @Spreaker #black #history #trinidad

To the Readers of Transforming Anthropology | Transforming Anthropology: Vol 33, No 1

You can also read our inaugural editorial as Christen and I begin our three-year term at the helm of the journal. Stay tuned for the fall and beyond! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

The spring issue of @transformanthro.bsky.social —and debut issue with my coeditor Christen Smith—is out! Read for articles on Black geographies, state violence in Haiti/Quisqeya, and queer hip hop genealogies. Thanks to Madjeen Isaac for the cover art! www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/tra/2025...

“Foenem on that Popemobile”

Yes, the Red Wedding is an extended metaphor here (but it was a lashing, indeed)! And plenty more to mull over on the common frustrations across Tobago and the southwest peninsula.

This is so well done!

At first I thought the Red Wedding comparison was a bit much but the analogy really came together as the article unfolded.

I particularly enjoyed the perspective on labour and its connection to party politics in the existing dominant duopoly! 🇹🇹