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Benjamin Bland

@benjamin-bland.bsky.social

Historian (identity, race, popular culture, cities, memory, politics) trying to survive the times. Writing a book about transatlantic hip-hop. Work at @yorknsc.bsky.social‬.

170 Followers  |  152 Following  |  26 Posts  |  Joined: 28.12.2024  |  2.1876

Latest posts by benjamin-bland.bsky.social on Bluesky

The reason the Right are so invested in the myth that the arts have no value isn’t because the arts don’t generate wealth (they do); it’s that studying the arts teaches people to imagine better ways of judging the value of an idea than by counting how much money it makes…

08.10.2025 13:41 — 👍 1905    🔁 508    💬 58    📌 27
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This Israeli government decision to host Tommy Robinson will widen the growing gulf between the Netanyahu government and the British public, including the broad majority of Jews in Britain (3/4 of whom dsapproved of Netanyahu, before this new link to this anti-Muslim racist UK far right convict).

03.10.2025 16:58 — 👍 1411    🔁 623    💬 152    📌 292
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50 years on: Caribbean women and the Chapeltown bonfire night incident 1975 Marking 50 years since the Bonfire Twelve, this talk explores the women's role in resisting racism and injustice in Leeds.

In honour of the 50th anniversary of the Chapeltown Bonfire incident, I’ll be talking about Black women’s community activism in Leeds at Leeds Beckett University.

⏰ 18:00 - 19:00
📍 Rose Bowl, City Campus
🎟️ bit.ly/480KUUD

#BlackHistoryMonth #BlackBritishHistory

30.09.2025 10:08 — 👍 12    🔁 7    💬 1    📌 0

Congratulations Kieran!

30.09.2025 10:58 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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2025 Wolfson History Prize shortlist announced The Wolfson History Prize has revealed its 2025 shortlist, with six books in contention for the UK's most prestigious history writing prize.

I’m honoured that my book, MULTICULTURAL BRITAIN: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize. Hugely grateful to the judges and the many people who have supported this work along the way

@wolfsonhistory.bsky.social

www.wolfsonhistoryprize.org.uk/2025-wolfson...

30.09.2025 08:14 — 👍 225    🔁 51    💬 15    📌 4
Stop compulsory redundancies at Brunel University of London
26 September 2025
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Brunel University of London management have expressed their intention to move forward with plans for further compulsory redundancies in 2025-26. This comes after a year of decimation in 2024-25, when the institution put more than a third of staff at risk of compulsory redundancy, and over 465 staff members, amounting to around 20% of the workforce, left Brunel as a result of multiple redundancy schemes.

Stop compulsory redundancies at Brunel University of London 26 September 2025 FacebookBlueskyTwitterWhatsAppEmailShare Brunel University of London management have expressed their intention to move forward with plans for further compulsory redundancies in 2025-26. This comes after a year of decimation in 2024-25, when the institution put more than a third of staff at risk of compulsory redundancy, and over 465 staff members, amounting to around 20% of the workforce, left Brunel as a result of multiple redundancy schemes.

Already 20% of the workforce gone and yet somehow still looking to impose compulsory redundancies? What on earth is going to be left of Brunel when this management team is done?

co-sign here: speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/stop-brunel-...

29.09.2025 19:14 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Can we stop doing this? There is no sense in debating whether people are themselves racist, or sexist, or homophobic, if the context for this debate is how these people have done racist, sexist or homophobic things

29.09.2025 09:47 — 👍 375    🔁 79    💬 10    📌 4

i've seen so many articles on this today, and not a single one so far has pointed out that where "not taking any benefits payments" is concerned, you have no access to public funds on a visa. this has been the case for years. but nobody, from the BBC down, will challenge this or anything else

29.09.2025 13:25 — 👍 317    🔁 139    💬 10    📌 5

Getting mighty tired of the meme on here of “oh, it is just so difficult for the government to set the agenda”. The government (which literally employs thousands of press officers) is setting the agenda - it’s just that it is setting it on toxic ground it can’t win.

28.09.2025 12:36 — 👍 636    🔁 182    💬 38    📌 5
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States of Ignorance Cambridge Core - Twentieth Century European History - States of Ignorance

If you want to know what a new UK digital ID for immigration would mean, read "States of Ignorance" a book that came out of an ESRC project comparing the development of UK control with two countries with ID. From this research, I think it's a dangerous idea 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

26.09.2025 09:49 — 👍 6    🔁 7    💬 2    📌 4
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Lecturer in Irish/British History at King's College London Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Lecturer in Irish/British History on jobs.ac.uk!

We have two jobs at KCL History!

16-month post in Modern Irish and/or British History: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU178/l...

And 5-year post in Early Modern Europe & The World: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU182/l...

(both to start in January 2026)

23.09.2025 07:22 — 👍 20    🔁 29    💬 0    📌 0

Why is @ucu.org.uk engaging in the very behaviour that we/it publicly call out when members’ employers employ such tactics?

It is shameful. It undermines every branch of #UCU

It’s utterly destructive to staff morale and our branches’ leverage

Not in our name.

Solidarity @uniteucu.bsky.social

23.09.2025 08:18 — 👍 20    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 1

I like the way Starmer says ‘We recognised the State of Israel more than 75 years ago as a homeland for the Jewish people’ as if the UK had no role in those events and no responsibility for how they played out.

21.09.2025 17:42 — 👍 85    🔁 21    💬 2    📌 1

Living in an era quite this anti-intellectual is just so tedious.

19.09.2025 11:28 — 👍 13    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Haha, sorry... I just meant to only use "in/of recent years" once rather than twice in that opening sentence!

18.09.2025 13:17 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

P.S. Anyone who reads this review need not worry, I did spot the error in the first sentence... just not until I saw the published version.

17.09.2025 13:17 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Charlotte Lydia Riley. Imperial Island: An Alternative History of the British Empire Critical histories of Britain’s relationship with its imperial past have become commonplace in recent years, which is hardly surprising given the ongoing p

Reviewed @lottelydia.bsky.social's "Imperial Island" for the American Historical Review. Great to see this picked up by Harvard UP in the States.

academic.oup.com/ahr/article-...

17.09.2025 13:15 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 1

Cats say a £22bn investment in Dreamies and new Catnip technologies will boost Britain's economy in the next few years

17.09.2025 08:30 — 👍 339    🔁 98    💬 9    📌 2

It's fairly pointless fact-checking this sort of racist bilge, but as it happens I live in Plaistow and -- of course the area is undoubtedly multicultural, one of the most diverse in the country -- but there are certainly white children here. I've got two of them in my house.

16.09.2025 10:51 — 👍 435    🔁 71    💬 10    📌 2
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This weekend we witnessed one of the most disgraceful and distressing demonstrations of racism in British history.

Speakers including Elon Musk directly incited racist violence, calling for British people to ‘fight back’ or die.

Read our full statement 🔗 www.runnymedetrust.org/news/stateme...

15.09.2025 10:58 — 👍 12    🔁 14    💬 0    📌 2

Has anyone else had articles eaten by the Taylor & Francis submission portal? I have received automated submission receipt and peer review emails... but when I login to submit revisions there is nothing there!

15.09.2025 10:28 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Careers Do you want to help build a fairer future, free from poverty? Join us and use your skills to make a real difference.

One week left to apply 📅

We’re hiring for a Research Officer and a Lead Researcher.

Are you passionate about conducting qualitative research on poverty and financial hardship? Do you have a strong commitment to ethical and inclusive research?

Apply here: www.jrf.org.uk/careers.

15.09.2025 10:22 — 👍 11    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 1

Another thing I love about the present moment - Musk regularly goes 'don't worry, we are going to change THAT' whenever Grok produces an answer that doesn't align with his priors, yet the British Labour government thinks that they are going to be able to land an argument on there in 2029.

14.09.2025 22:06 — 👍 1111    🔁 298    💬 28    📌 5
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📣Calling all new research students in history & historical subjects. Do you want to learn how the IHR can help you during your studies?

Join us on the 8 October to find out more.

@royalhistsoc.org @ihrhistorylab.bsky.social @historyandpolicy.bsky.social @chppc.bsky.social

bit.ly/41UPOyG

15.09.2025 08:42 — 👍 32    🔁 29    💬 1    📌 4
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Gender and Sexuality MA - University of Birmingham Course information for prospective postgraduate students on our MA History taught masters degree programme at the University of Birmingham.

Some big news: the University of Birmingham is launching a new MA in Gender & Sexuality. It's interdisciplinary, with a focus on combining theory & practice. It's going to be amazing. I'm convening it: message or email with questions. www.birmingham.ac.uk/study/postgr... @unibirmingham.bsky.social

15.09.2025 08:37 — 👍 240    🔁 86    💬 9    📌 5
2h ago 10.29 BS1
Police are not using live facial recognition in its policing of the 'Unite the Kingdom' demonstration which is beginning on London's south bank, reports the PA news agency.
It said:
• We're using a mobile CCTV van to help monitor the build up of crowds. Officers have been asked if it's using 'live facial recognition' - we can confirm it is not.
The live facial recognition technology - which captures people's faces in real-time CCTV
cameras - was used in the policing operation at the Notting Hill carnival.

2h ago 10.29 BS1 Police are not using live facial recognition in its policing of the 'Unite the Kingdom' demonstration which is beginning on London's south bank, reports the PA news agency. It said: • We're using a mobile CCTV van to help monitor the build up of crowds. Officers have been asked if it's using 'live facial recognition' - we can confirm it is not. The live facial recognition technology - which captures people's faces in real-time CCTV cameras - was used in the policing operation at the Notting Hill carnival.

Ah yes if black and brown people throw a party we need to scan their faces.

White supremacists organising a hate march do not need to worry about their privacy. The police have them covered.

This btw is also why everyone arguing for digital id in this country is either naive or dangerous.

13.09.2025 11:18 — 👍 618    🔁 288    💬 16    📌 16

Not surprising for anyone who has been working in universities and journalists should take note! How many millions have been spent across the sector and by UUK?

11.09.2025 13:59 — 👍 19    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
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UPDATE: Reform is excited to tell you that freedom of speech is now bad.
thecritic.co.uk/free...

08.09.2025 18:58 — 👍 165    🔁 48    💬 6    📌 1

It’s almost as if the uncritically accepted assumption that all of our lectures must be recorded whether or not we want them to might have extremely serious implications.

06.09.2025 15:19 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

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