Fiona B. Adamson

Absolutely mind-blown! 🤯 What an honour to receive this prize. Enormous thanks to the prize committee, everyone who helped sharpen the argument & my incredible interlocutors in Crimea for whom the struggle for human rights continues.

OPEN ACCESS - The colonial migration state, by @fionaadamson.bsky.social and Hélène Thiollet, www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Constructing the “North African Problem” in France (1920–1956): A Colonial Genealogy of Migration Security Practices Abstract. Despite its sophistication, most of the literature on the securitization of migration remains presentist in the sense that it has not yet truly i

Happy to share that my first publication is out on IPS! 🥳 In this paper, I offer a new approach to securitization which aims to anchor contemporary securitization processes targeting postcolonial populations in colonial history. Check it out:
academic.oup.com/ips/article/...

Really happy to share that I have successfully defended my PhD yesterday! Thanks to my supervisors @irenefmolina.bsky.social and @briegp.bsky.social for their support throughout the journey and to examiners Martin Thomas and @fionaadamson.bsky.social for their generous and constructive feedback.

"As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education. We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding. America’s system of higher learning is as varied as the goals and dreams of the students it serves. It includes research universities and community colleges; comprehensive universities and liberal arts colleges; public institutions and private ones; freestanding and multi-site campuses. Some institutions are designed for all students, and others are dedicated to serving particular groups. Yet, American institutions of higher learning have in common the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom. Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation. Because of these freedoms, American institutions of higher learning are essential to American prosperity and serve as productive partners with government in promoting the common good. Colleges and universities are engines of opportunity and mobility, anchor institutions that contribute to economic and cultural vitality regionally and in our local communities. They foster creativity and innovation, provide human resources to meet the fast-changing demands of our dynamic workforce, and are themselves major employers. They nurture the scholarly pursuits that ensure America’s leadership in research, and many prov…

NEW— Nearly 200 US college presidents affirm their schools as places where "faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions…without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation."

Signers include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, UPenn, Brown, Tufts

Notably absent: Columbia

Opinion | Our Foreign Students Are Terrified, and They’re Right to Be The immigration crackdown has come to America’s campuses.

Worth noting that a number of universities have now sued over withheld and canceled grants, but no university has yet sued over the arrest, detention, and threatened deportation of its foreign students. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/19/o...

US Army to control land on Mexico border as part of base, migrants could be detained, officials say A long sliver of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border that President Donald Trump is turning over to the Department of Defense would be controlled by the Army as part of a base, a move that could allow troops to detain any trespassers, including migrants.

BREAKING: Army will control land on the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a base, a move that could allow troops to detain migrants, AP sources say.

In addition to violating Mr. Mahdawi’s First Amendment rights, the Rubio Determination and Mr. Mahdawi’s unlawful detention also violates Mr. Mahdawi’s statutory rights and due process rights. PARTIES 8. Petitioner Mohsen Mahdawi is a Palestinian who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank. He is a lawful permanent resident of the United States and has been for the last ten years. He is a recent student of Columbia University, with an expected graduation date of May 2025. He has been admitted to a Master’s program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (“SIPA”), to begin in the fall of 2025.

After growing up in a refugee camp, Mr. Mahdawi felt compelled to advocate for Palestinian human rights upon moving to the United States. 22. Mr. Mahdawi is also a committed Buddhist and believes in non-violence and empathy as a central tenet of his religion. In fall of 2021, he became the president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association and led it for two years. 23. In fall of 2023, Mr. Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union (“Dar”) at Columbia University which “serves to engage with and celebrate Palestinian culture, history, and identity.” Mr. Mahdawi co-founded this organization with Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian lawful permanent resident who was also recently detained by ICE for his expressive conduct related to Palestine.

Mr. Mahdawi appeared in numerous televised interviews and print news articles regarding the military campaign in Gaza and related protests. In December of 2023, Mr. Mahdawi appeared on 60 Minutes where he shared that, as a child, he watched an Israeli soldier shoot and kill his best friend in the West Bank. 27. Throughout his time as a student and a leader of Dar and the Columbia University Buddhist Association, Mr. Mahdawi was always willing to engage in dialogue with people whose views and beliefs differed from his own. Mr. Mahdawi believed, and continues to believe, that more speech is the solution to disagreement, rather than less, and that empathy and understanding through communication are a way to resolve conflicts peacefully.

…and a peaceful political solution. Mr. Mahdawi gave speeches at several of these protests. In his speeches, Mr. Mahdawi advocated for Palestinian human rights, a permanent ceasefire, and a peaceful resolution that affirmed the human dignity of all. 25. During one protest, Mr. Mahdawi vocally denounced an unaffiliated passerby who made an antisemitic comment, chanting “shame on him”. Mr. Mahdawi stated that “we are against 2:25-cv-00389 Document 1 Filed 04/14/25 Page 6 of 19 7 antisemitism because antisemitism is a form of injustice, and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The confrontation was documented by the Columbia Spectator

The Trump admin has just detained Mohsen Mahdawi, who:
–has green card
–was Columbia Buddhist club president
–saw his best friend shot & killed by Israeli soldier
–said "we are against antisemitism because antisemitism is a form of injustice, and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

Great article! Straight into the syllabus!

Yes, this. I was happy to see a recent @iajournal.bsky.social article by @fionaadamson.bsky.social and Kelly Greenhill about forced migration that begins and ends with this point.

The Trump book burnings are beginning.

Quakers condemn police raid on Westminster Meeting House Police broke into a Quaker Meeting House last night (27 March) and arrested six young people holding a meeting over concerns for the climate and Gaza.

🚨 Outrage as 20 police officers break into Westminster Quaker Meeting House and arrest six. 🚨
This shocking violation of a place of worship is a direct result of crackdowns on protest and dissent - freedom of speech, assembly and democracy are at risk.🕊️
👉 www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Since our administration would not fight the Trump administration in court, the faculty had to assume the responsibility of doing so to protect academic freedom.

www.reuters.com/world/us/col...

Among other things, this is an invitation for states to seek USG cooperation against their dissidents in exile in the US

This is so dire, particularly after the lecture Vance gave Europeans on the evils of censorship. Breathtaking hypocrisy.

"In essence, the same forces that benefited from Archbishop Romero’s murder in the 1980s are those that profit from Bukele’s dystopian carceral state machinery today"

Columbia Yields to Trump in Battle Over Federal Funding Columbia’s agreement is a significant moment in the intensifying battle between Trump and elite universities.

Will even one powerful institution stick to their principles?

"Columbia agreed to ban masks, empower 36 campus police officers with new powers to arrest students and appoint a senior vice provost with broad authority to oversee the department of Middle East, South Asian and African Studies"

Scenes from Turkey today: University students protesting, police beating up citizens, Erdogan regime arresting social
media users and bandwith throttling

Britain beefs up travel warnings over US border enforcement Britain has in recent weeks revised its advice for citizens travelling to the United States to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention.

Britain has in recent weeks revised its advice for citizens traveling to the United States to include a warning that anyone found breaking its entry rules could face arrest or detention reut.rs/41FPanJ

Istanbul’s popular mayor was about to be anointed formally as the opposition candidate to challenge Erdoğan in the next election. So what happens? He gets detained.

GUEST POST: We Are Professors at Columbia. Here is How We Would Respond. Five Columbia University political scientists offer their unofficial response to the Trump administration's demands on their university.

GUEST POST: We Are Professors at Columbia. Here is How We Would Respond.
open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...

Understand that this El Salvador gulag deportation was done partly in order to make the fascist video that the president now transmits, with his fascist message. The cameras are all set up in advance.

Job alert!
Fully-funded PhD @facultyofartsug.bsky.social, with myself, @karimeltaki.bsky.social and @bherborth.bsky.social on post-imperial geopolitical imaginations in/of the Arab world.

Please help spread the word among interested candidates!

Full details here: karimeltaki.com/phd-position...

[🇪🇺 EU Pact Series 📝] ‘The intra-Schengen borderlands, once relatively unexamined, are now becoming focal points of mobility control—risking a two-tiered system of movement where some enjoy freedom while others face increasing restrictions,’ writes Prof. Maartje van der Woude: buff.ly/Lhrk9DN

Brown University Professor and Doctor Are Deported to Lebanon Despite a Judge’s Order Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and Brown University professor who had a valid visa, was expelled in apparent defiance of a court order.

Valid visa and now gone. BTW, she was here to SAVE LIVES.

Doctor and Professor Is Deported to Lebanon Despite a Judge’s Order www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/u...

Brown University advises all international community members to postpone, reconsider travel One week before spring break, Brown advised international community members, including green card holders and permanent residents, to postpone international travel in a campus-wide email sent on Sunda...

www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025...