Kasper Hoffmann

In Kitwe, #Zambia, part of the Zambian Defence Force barracks is Mawlaik Banquet Hall, a public-usable venue for things like weddings and graduations. It is named after the village Mawlaik in #Burma #Myanmar where Zambia (& Malawi) soldiers fought hard in #WW2.

@historybowsh.bsky.social

Myanmar’s botanical data gaps risk its unique flora, collaborations could help, study says Myanmar is a country of extremes. From tropical forests, mangroves and wetlands to frost-bitten alpine mountain slopes and jagged limestone karst outcrops, it’s home to tremendous botanical…

Myanmar hosts extraordinary plant diversity, with 864 species found nowhere else.

A new review warns major knowledge gaps persist and calls for urgent, collaborative action to protect key plant hotspots before species are lost.

‘Trumps streven naar een nieuwe Pax Americana in Congo rust op wankele fundamenten’ – MO* In het vredesakkoord tussen Congo en Rwanda blijven de oorzaken van meer dan dertig jaar geweld grotendeels buiten beeld

Met @kasperhoffmann.bsky.social en @judithverweijen.bsky.social schreef ik een stuk over de wankele fundamenten van Trump's streven naar een nieuw Pax Americana in Congo. Wie denkt dat de door de VS gefaciliteerde akkoorden vrede zullen brengen, komt alvast bedrogen uit. www.mo.be/opinie/Trump...

If you’re having trouble accessing my book The Taliban Courts: War through Law, feel free to contact me. It’s been unavailable and, since OUP won’t do a paperback, the hardback is very expensive for individuals. I’m happy to help you find a way to read it.

LLM use in scholarly writing poses a provenance problem Nature Machine Intelligence - LLM use in scholarly writing poses a provenance problem

It’s good to see papers start to address LLMs as structural plagiarism — provenance, more hidden than the original words or training data. www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Seven German journalism students tracked Russian-crewed freighters lurking off the Dutch and German coast—and connected them to drone swarms over military bases. (Hank Van Ess)

Climate Change Is Already Costing U.S. Households Up to $900 Per Year A new working paper from a trio of eminent economists tallies the effects of warming — particularly extreme weather — on Americans’ budgets.

fondly recalling when Bill Nordhaus got the econ Nobel for his model that assumed economic damages from climate change would be modest and far in the future heatmap.news/economy/clim...

Bilingual Intervention—“Urban Futures of Popular Neighbourhoods: An (Audio)Visual Roundtable” - Antipode Online Sam Halvorsen (Queen Mary University of London) and Adriana L. Massidda (University of Sheffield) Spanish language version available at: / Versión en español disponible en: https://antipodeonline.org/...

Happy to recommend this Bilingual Audiovisual Roundtable "Urban Futures of Popular Neighbourhoods" curated by @samhalvorsen.bsky.social and Adriana Massidda. It hosts 5 short films from Latin America, inc. my film "Urukurenda: In Search of the Land Without Evil" antipodeonline.org/2025/10/29/u...

Call for Conference Papers: International Conference on the Political Economy of Energy Transitions and Inequality in Africa. Join us at this conference, which will take place 30-31 March 2026, University of Ghana, Accra. Please see the full Call via: www.ug.edu.gh/announcement...

The uncertain future of DRC’s traditional medicine, a heritage to save (commentary) Congolese traditional medicine is disappearing. Not due to a lack of usefulness, but due to a lack of space in an increasingly standardized medical world. Faced with the rise of modern medicine,…

[COMMENTARY]

Congolese traditional medicine, rooted in cultural heritage, is disappearing due to the dominance of modern medicine. In rural areas, traditional healers remain essential, yet their knowledge is largely undocumented and often undervalued.

** The views expressed are the author's.

Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change Layton Dialogue - Durham University

Really enjoyed acting as discussant for Durham Anthropology's 2025 Layton Dialogue today on Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, with brilliant speakers Prof. Beth Rose Middleton Manning and Prof. Jay Mistry www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Statement of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on the situation in El-Fasher, North Darfur The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court expresses its profound alarm and deepest concern over recent reports emerging from El-Fasher about mass killings, rapes, and other crim...

Statement of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on the situation in El-Fasher, North Darfur www.icc-cpi.int/news/stateme...

America’s super-rich are running down the planet’s safe climate spaces, says Oxfam Data shows wealthiest 0.1% of the US burn carbon at 4,000 times the rate of the world’s poorest 10%

"The wealthiest 0.1% emit an average of 2.2 tonnes of CO2 every day, equivalent to the weight of a rhinoceros or an SUV.

A citizen of Somalia burns off just 82 grams of CO2 each day, barely the mass of a single tomato or half a cup of rice."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our colleague @penelopeanthias.bsky.social will be speaking next month @camunigeography.bsky.social on the topic of 'Infrastructural affects and (contested) hydrocarbon futures in Bolivia':

Inspired by the fabulous work of @gillianmathys.bsky.social @kasperhoffmann.bsky.social @denistull.bsky.social @judithverweijen.bsky.social @rogermacginty.bsky.social and many others not on here

Well, this is reassuring. Light at the end of the tunnel?

I've written about the difficulties challenges in the various #DRC peace initiatives, and the bleak outlook.

🌍Proud to share our new article in Land Use Policy:
“Everyday Property-Making: Negotiating Land Rights, Precarity and Public Authority in Urban Congo”
📎 doi.org/10.1016/j.la...
#Property #Land #DRCongo #PublicAuthority #Precarity
@crg-ugent.bsky.social @roskildeuni.bsky.social @ucph.bsky.social

Rakhine State sees 'dramatic' hunger rise after aid cutbacks One of Myanmar's most conflict-ravaged states has witnessed a "dramatic rise in hunger" after United States aid cuts pushed by President Donald Trump during a punishing civil war, the World Food Progr...

AFP | One of Myanmar’s most conflict-ravaged states has witnessed a “dramatic rise in hunger” after United States aid cuts pushed by President Donald Trump during a punishing civil war, the World Food Programme said Tuesday.

So sad, Callon was such an important figure in STS. Who can forget those scallops? I met him once at the École des Mines, Bruno Latour introduced us, around 1990 - that was it. I wish I'd gotten to know him, too late now - yet the scallops and ANT live on
#STS @4sweb.bsky.social @aussts.bsky.social

Thanks. This looks very relevant. It goes on top of the reading list.

The grift tank In Washington’s think tank ecosystem, Africa is treated as a low-stakes arena where performance substitutes for knowledge. The result: unqualified actors shaping policy on behalf of militarists, lobbyists, and frauds.

Funny piece. It's actually stunning how incompetent people can end up influencing African policy just because they cultivate proximity with decision-making circles. Paris has its Phams, too

And now the book is officially out!

A new data hub helps small-scale fishers adapt to climate change Roughly 40% of the global fish catch comes from small-scale fisheries. It’s one of the food production systems most vulnerable to climate change, and governments are lacking data to help fishers…

Fishing is an important food production system that's most vulnerable to climate change, and yet governments lack data to help fishers adapt.

To address that gap, the global research partnership CGIAR recently launched its Asia Digital Hub.

My book Fractured Pasts @universitypress.cambridge.org was officially launched today. Grateful for everyone who attended, and thanks to everyone who contributed in big and small ways. You can order it here www.cambridge.org/core/books/f... and you can get a 20% discount at checkout using FPLKB2025.

Angola after dos Santos: An anthology on continuity and change As Angola celebrates its 50th anniversary as an independent nation, it is timely to provide an assessment of the state of political, s...

In Luanda for the launch of this edited volume on #Angola after Dos Santos, produced in record time in Portuguese & English with chapters by Angolan & foreign scholars. Both versions in the link. My chapter is on the politics of public memory 50 years after independence.
www.cmi.no/publications...

This is your once in a life time chance to work with top scholars on a super important topic!

Very important, this. News do not show up naturally, they are allowed (or disallowed) by a variety of social processes. When it comes to violence in the Lake Chad Basin, there is good reason to suspect it is seriously underestimated even in the best data bases.

Aung Naing Soe, the co-author of Frontline Poets: The literary rebels taking on Myanmar’s military, joined the DVB Newsroom on May 8. (Credit: DVB)

Aung Naing Soe, a journalist and documentary filmmaker from Burma living and working in exile, joined the DVB Newsroom to discuss the new book he co-authored with Joe Freeman called Frontline Poets: The literary rebels taking on Myanmar’s military.
Read more: english.dvb.no/resistance-a...

Ben Radley & Nicholas Fairwood, Colonial Legacies — Sidecar Understanding the DRC.

'The DRC – born under Belgian colonial rule, remade as a Cold War theatre, now shaped by external financial flows – remains deprived of anything resembling real sovereignty.'

Ben Radley & Nicholas Fairwood contextualise the conflict in the Congo:

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...