Laura C Forster

Thanks for reading Ole - I love your work!

💕

📢Call For Papers📢
Sociability & Political life

Marc Jaffré & I are organising a conference! We're asking: can there be politics without sociability? How have friendship, intimacy, socialising & informal attachments been central to political projects & movements?

Get your abstracts in by Feb 14th!

Writing history in a time of genocide Anne Irfan asks, what does it mean to write the history of a place as it is being destroyed before our very eyes?

"Palestinians experience the displacement of the 2020s genocide not as a singular event, but as part of a repeated cycle."

Anne Irfan on the importance of writing Gaza's history.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that a big piece of Mamdani’s campaign was simply “cities are cool and lots of people enjoy living in them” which in and of itself dismantles alot of rightwing talking points

The Curriers’ Prize The Worshipful Company of Curriers, has established an essay prize on the history of London, in association with The London Journal Trust and the IHR.

The Curriers' Prize is now open! Submit your best unpublished essay on any aspect of London's history, and you could get a £1,000 award!

Full details: 👇 w ww.history.ac.uk/funding/awards-bursaries-prizes/curriers-prize

Thanks Alasdair!

In the midst of political pessimism, this episode on friendship as transformative power gave me some hope.

Joel & I in conversation with the wonderful @marybethhamilton13.bsky.social - talking about friendship, forms of belonging, & revolutionary histories for @historyworkshop.org.uk

Friends in Common How might we reassess friendship as a transformative, even revolutionary, political resource?

How might we reassess friendship as a transformative, even revolutionary, political resource?

Laura Forster (@lauracforster.bsky.social) and Joel White (@joeljoel.bsky.social) join Marybeth Hamilton (@marybethhamilton13.bsky.social) to discuss the radical potential of friendship 🎙️🗃️

Here is a very specific thing you can do right now that will meet the moment quite nicely Maybe do it five or six times, actually

"You want a movement, I hear. We all do. But the question is never “will somebody do something?” They are. We are. Our job is to notice, and to ensure that none of our flames burn out."

Also our job is to join in, where we can, how we can, with what we have.

open.substack.com/pub/thewhite...

Congratulations Emily - can't wait to read!

Thanks so much for reading, Andrew!

Thanks Will! I'm going to search out Jill Lepore's article now!

I can heartily recommend Laura's brilliant new article - innovative, creative and hopeful!

Thanks mate! ✊💕

I’ve just added my voice to this consultation saying I don’t want a situation in which staff and fellow swimmers might scrutinise or judge my body, or anyone else’s, when I use the ponds. The current policy of trans inclusion works perfectly well. You can fill out the consultation linked below.

This will be great!!

I've got a new article out @historyworkshop.org.uk. It argues for history as a form of intergenerational friendship.
History, like friendship, can be a politically powerful way of talking and thinking across time, and can connect past, present, and future struggle ✊
academic.oup.com/hwj/advance-...

I'd love to!

Joel & I talking to Chris Browne about friendship, reimagining the world, & fighting the far right

Radicals in Conversation 📻
open.spotify.com/episode/1gNi...

NEXT WEEK! Come and hear @samwetherell.bsky.social and me chat about radical pasts & radical futures💥

💖

When and where was Britain’s radical tradition? A discussion explores Britain’s radical politics through global, anti-colonial, and transnational networks, launching two books rethinking history’s local myths.

Myself and the amazing @lauracforster.bsky.social are doing a joint event to launch our books in York. Come to learn about Liverpool, the aftershocks of the Paris Commune and the new kinds of histories our present crisis demands! www.york.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

The experiences of Communard refugees in Britain and Ireland In 1886, Paschal Grousset, once a member of the executive committee of the Paris Commune, found himself troubled by Victorian Dublin’s food options.

My first piece in the TLS — a review of a fantastic and pioneering new study of the Paris Commune’s afterlives in Britain and Ireland by @lauracforster.bsky.social

www.the-tls.com/history/the-...

All historians should read this jaw dropping interview as a case study in moral and political decrepitude. Evidence if any more were needed that the accrual of massive amounts of evidence about the past does not automatically engender a critical reflection on the present.

Thanks Stuart!

Full text here:

The Paris Commune in Britain reviewed in the TLS by the wonderful @mauricejcasey.com

Thanks Alexia! ✊ Hope all is well with you!