Lunchtime seminar by Dr Emma Kluge (Exeter) on “Oceanic Internationalism: Anticolonialism and Environmentalism in the Pacific”
What: The Pacific Ocean covers more than 30% of the world’s surface. However, as Sujit Sivasundaram has argued, this part of the planet has long been neglected by histories narrated from the West. This is particularly true for histories of internationalism which have rarely included the ideas or campaigns of the peoples of the Pacific Ocean. This seminar focuses on 20th century anticolonial and environmental campaigns in Oceania. By examining campaigns such as the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement, I analyse how Oceanic peoples engaged in anticolonial and environmental protest on local, regional and international scales. The framework of Oceanic internationalism provides an analytical counterpoint to more terrestrial and limited forms of internationalism that have revolved around the nation-state. It describes an alternative form of political organisation practised by Pacific and indigenous peoples as they pushed beyond divisions between peoples and planet, land and sea, and islands and continents, engaging in vibrant regional and transnational mobilisation.
When: Thursday, 30 October, 1-2pm
Where: Birkbeck Central Building room 407 & online (email j.reinisch@bbk.ac.uk for Teams link)
Online workshop on “Blindspots and Buzzwords in Internationalism”
What: Building on the previous two events of our ‘Rethinking Internationalism’ network, this online workshop will focus on key absences from these recent discussions on histories of internationalism. We will explore how the transitory, often cyclical, nature of popular research topics and methods has both informed and obstructed our understandings of international movements, ideologies, agents and sources. Grouped into five thematic clusters (Migration; Far Right or Right-Wing Politics; the UN; Intellectual Histories, Economics), we will bring together scholars who are trying to make space for topics or approaches that have been conspicuously absent from key parts of the recent historiography on internationalism. Perhaps they were once on trend but have been eclipsed by other priorities, or perhaps they are deemed unconventional or passé within some of our academic disciplines or fields.
When: Wednesday & Thursday, 5-6 November
Where: online, signup via Eventbrite
Alex Colás inaugural lecture, “The Internationalist Disposition: Resources Against a Reactionary World”
What: In a world characterised by social reaction, political involution, and impunity in the face of humanitarian crimes, advocating for internationalism today may seem a futile exercise. In his inaugural lecture, Professor Alex Colás takes up the challenge, surveying diverse historical experiences of internationalism over the past 150 years, and outlining an internationalist disposition that offers a distinctive analysis of international politics, past and present.
When: 12 November 2025, 6-9pm
Where: Clore Management Centre, book here
Lunchtime seminar by Dr Ria Kapoor (QMUL) on “Refugee Internationalisms? The Ugandan Asian Case”
What: This seminar will explore how contradictions of status in the Commonwealth and at the international level left gaps and loopholes for actors like individuals, families, community networks, and charitable and activist groups to manipulate. Specifically, it will query how the Asians expelled by Idi Amin in 1972 were resettled across the world, and how their varied experiences indicated that the experience of being a ‘refugee’ was contingent on many factors. Besides shaping national belonging, it could set precedents for the very terms of displacement both nationally and internationally.
When: Thursday, 27 November, 12-1pm (please note earlier time!)
Where: Birkbeck Central Building room 402 or online (email j.reinisch@bbk.ac.uk for Teams link)
PhD symposium on New Histories of Internationalism in Africa and the Middle East: Precedents and Legacies of Transnational Solidarity
What: This symposium showcases new doctoral research on the internationalism of African and Arab liberation movements, examining the politics of transnational solidarity as well as patronage in their relations with one another and with regional and global states. The papers cover the interwar and Cold War eras, exploring the institutions and networks built during anticolonial struggle across both, and charting their evolution in historical context. The research topics
covered will include the League Against Imperialism in the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on Palestine and the League’s Arabic-speaking networks, the role of Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt in supporting both Algerian and Southern African liberation movements, analysing both the fruits and limits of these relations, and finally, the role of global media in the Malawi liberation movement and its solidarity connections, especially with activists in Scotland. Together, the
papers situate African and Arab liberation movements within wider transnational configurations, illuminating both the possibilities and contradictions of internationalist solidarity building in the twentieth century.
Speakers: Santorri Chamley (Birkbeck), Annmarie Kiiskinen (SOAS), Farah Otozbeer (SOAS), Ajmal Waqif (Birkbeck)
When: 4th December, 2-5pm
Where: Birkbeck Central Building room 402 or online (email j.reinisch@bbk.ac.uk for Teams link)