Emile Chabal

This was fun. Lots of speculation about the upcoming election(s) in France in 2026 and 2027, and even a little bit of solid analysis.

Today I had the pleasure of recording an interview with @emile-chabal.bsky.social for the Modern & Contemporary France podcast. Emile shared his thoughts on what's in store for French politics in 2026, talking about Macron's presidency, the far right, and the 2027 Presidential Elections.

France — A Paradoxical Nation: New Perspectives with author and historian Emile Chabal - Institut français · Écosse France today seems to be mired in a deep social and political crisis. But how exceptional is the present wave of discontent? And how should we understand the historical roots of France’s tumultuous po...

Edinburgh-based Francophone friends may like to come along to a conversation I'm having on my book and the state of France with the journalist Étienne Duval at 16:00 on 24 February at the @ifecosse.bsky.social. Venez nombreux! www.ifecosse.org.uk/events-agend...

Impossible not to love this story. Historians represent!

Contemporary European History digest, no. 2, August to December 2025 « News# « Cambridge Core Blog As we - like many other journals - transition towards digital-only publication, we have become acutely aware of how difficult it can be to find out what is happening with Contemporary European History...

🧵CEH's second digest is out now, detailing our latest special issues, journal news, and more.

And once again our six editors have each highlighted a recent article they've enjoyed - read on to see which ones they picked, and why! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ [1/7]

www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

For some time, I've thought that the closure of universities in the UK would be a 21st century version of deindustrialisation, with the heart ripped out of communities and the collapse of entire local economic ecosystems. What a terrible (and avoidable) waste. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Britain Is Having the World’s Most Extreme Immigration Debate The British discourse makes even the Trump administration look moderate.

This brewing rebellion addresses a major mistake by the government that @emile-chabal.bsky.social and I wrote about in @foreignpolicy.com. But raising the profile of this issue the govt has opened the way for the right parties to promote even more damaging policies. foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/b...

Contemporary European History digest, no. 2, August to December 2025 « News# « Cambridge Core Blog As we - like many other journals - transition towards digital-only publication, we have become acutely aware of how difficult it can be to find out what is happening with Contemporary European History...

We at @conteurohistory.bsky.social have just published our latest editorial digest for Jul-Dec 2025, including details of new special issues + our favourite articles. Give it a read! www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...

Love this!

I have a new article out in the Journal of Contemporary History: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

It examines Soviet humanitarianism by focusing on Soviet Red Cross hospitals in Tehran, Addis Ababa, and Phnom Penh.

📷 Soviet Red Cross hospital in Addis Ababa, ICRC Audiovisual Archives

Absolutely. That would be another way. Fund permanent jobs and make universities apply for the money. Create systemic change, not star power.

And they pretend they want "blue-sky" thinking when so much EU funding rewards those who already have it all. How could it be otherwise when the amounts are so huge..? You don't trust a fresh-faced postdoc with 2m EUR, much less 7m!

Yes, of course, that's the rationale, but even then the money could have been used so much more effectively (while still fulfilling that goal!).

Yes, that's a separate issue about conflating funding for all subjects. Sure, if you need a 5m EUR piece of equipment, a 7m EUR grant makes sense. But arts and humanities scholars need something very different. We're cheap!

ERC’s new €7m Plus Grants open to researchers at any career stage - Research Professional News European Research Council president describes scheme as part attempt to lure US talent

This is so problematic. Creating big-money grants (7m EUR!) is such a travesty. Instead of funding 1 researcher, why not fund 25 with smaller grants? It would create more ideas, secure more careers, and create so much more innovative knowledge. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...

Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik ‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

And @nesrinemalik.bsky.social agrees (because it's true!): www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Of all the arguments that Mahmood is making for her wretched immigration "reforms", this is one of the most self-serving and disngenuous. It's also wrong. By attacking the principle of settlement, she is quite literally attacking people like her. Shame on her.

Wow, the pressure!

Thanks! :)

My British Academy project is on the road this week as some of the project team present a panel at #nacbs2025 in snowy Montreal! If you fancy an early-morning wake-up call, come along to hear us talk about identity politics, multiculturalism, prisons, and political mobilisation...

FYI, paywall-free PDF here: emilechabal.com/files/ukimmi...

Britain Is Having the World’s Most Extreme Immigration Debate The British discourse makes even the Trump administration look moderate.

I wrote something with the wonderful @mcslaven.bsky.social about how the immigration debate in the UK has becoming so mind-bogglingly radicalised.

foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/05/b...

Thanks for circulating this Speranta! I wrote it with a colleague (with whom I worked on a research project some years ago). We felt we had to say something about the mind-boggling radicalisation of immigration rhetoric and policy proposals in the UK...

Haha.

Cool! You may be waiting for a while, but, hey, it's good to be in anticipation of something, right..?

Thanks, Nat! Still has to see the light of day, but everything becomes more real when you see the front cover...

The Age of Hobsbawm — Harvard University Press An intellectual biography of Eric Hobsbawm, one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century.Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012) was one of the foremost European intellectuals of the twentieth cent...

It seems unreal after so many years in preparation, but my Hobsbawm book is almost there! It now has a front cover and a place on the publisher's website. Publication is due in August.

www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

So am I! In fact, that's the first time the book has appeared on the HUP website. It's getting more and more real by the day...

We don't bite and we publish good stuff. Nuff said.

Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History at University of Leeds Discover Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History jobs and more in higher education on jobs.ac.uk. Apply for further details on the top job board.

Job Opportunity!

Teaching Fellow in Twentieth Century Black British History
University of Leeds - Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures - School of History

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPF977/t...