Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Past Institute of Commonwealth Studies Newsletters


*Commonwealth Matters* 2007 Spring/Summer	Commonwealth Matters 2006 Spring/Summer
Newsletter 2005 (pdf)	Newsletter 2003-2004 (pdf)

Award of Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Trust to SAS

The School of Advanced Study at the University of London is pleased to announce that is has been awarded a Sawyer Seminar grant from the prestigious Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a Comparative Study of Cultures seminar series.

The Mellon Foundation's Sawyer Seminars program was established in 1994 to provide support for comparative research on the historical and cultural sources of contemporary developments.

Despite Biblical injunctions to love our neighbours as ourselves, history is replete with examples of neighbours killing neighbours. The School's seminar series will explore the causes and consequences of neighbourly atrocities across history, cultures, and continents – from republican Rome to Kenya 's Rift Valley. It seeks to answer two overarching and inter-related questions: What turns neighbour against neighbour? How do neighbours live together again after atrocity?

The seminars will bring together all ten Institutes in the School of Advanced Study , with their formidable, international research networks, as well as a range of distinguished British and international scholars, to investigate neighbourly atrocities from an extensive range of thematic, disciplinary, methodological, geographic, and temporal perspectives.

The seminar series will be held during 2009-2010 and will comprise two one-day conferences and a series of ten half-day seminars, which will include formal presentations, responses and round-table discussions. It will be supported by a dedicated webpage providing access to conference and seminar papers. The seminar series will be open to the public and is expected to attract faculty, researchers and graduate students from around the UK , as well as policymakers and practitioners working in the areas of conflict, conflict-prevention, and post-conflict recovery.

The Sawyer Seminar series will be led by James Manor (Emeka Anyaoku Professor of Com monwealth Studies), Rachel Sieder (Senior Lecturer in Latin American Politics) and Lars Waldorf (Director, Centre for International Human Rights).

For more information, please contact the Dean's Office, School of Advanced Study on 020 7862 8659 / deans.office@sas.ac.uk

A special mention must go to Lars Waldorf for his work in putting together the successful application.

July 2008

Dr Peris Jones recent publications

The Institute is pleased to announce that Dr Peris Jones has two new chapters in recently published books; 'Universal Rights' in The Companion to Development Studies edited by Robert Potter and Dr Vandana Desai, Hodder Arnold and 'Governance Matters for Aids: but what about the politics? Lessons from South Africa and Uganda" (with Kjersti Koffeld) in The Politics of AIDS: Globalization, The State and Civil Society, edited by Maj Lis-Follér and Håkan Thörn, Palgrave MacMillan.

May 2008

Dr William Vlcek awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship

The Institute is pleased to announce that Dr Bill Vlcek was recently awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust to conduct research on 'Global governance of international corporate firms'. As part of the Research Fellowship he will be gathering information and interviewing regulatory officials and financial industry firms involved with international business company registrations and presenting two conference papers. The first paper, ‘From Road Town (BVI) to Shanghai: FDI, IBCs and global capital flows' will be presented at the Third Biennial Oceanic Conference on International Studies (OCIS) at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia (2 - 4 July) and the second paper ‘Development – Great and small: “Greater China”, small Caribbean islands and offshore finance' at the Association of Chinese Political Studies and Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies (ACPS-HKIAPS) 2008 Conference on ‘“Greater China” in an Era of Globalization' at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (14 - 15 July).

May 2008

Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth Secretary-General (1990-2000), is to be conferred with South Africa's highest national honour for non-South Africans, the Order of Supreme Companions of O.R. Tambo: Gold. The award is in recognition of Chief Anyaoku's major role in helping to negotiate the end of apartheid and establishing democracy in South Africa. Following the Harare Declaration of 1991 he personally visited South Africa many times to talk with President de Klerk, participated in the Convention for a Democratic South Africa and organised two Commonwealth Observer Missions. The honour will be conferred on Chief Anyaoku by South African President Thabo Mbeki in a special ceremony in Pretoria, South Africa, on 22nd April 2008. This Order is awarded to foreign nationals (Heads of State and Government) and other foreign dignitaries and is awarded for friendship shown to South Africa. It is therefore an Order for peace, co-operation and active expression of solidarity and support, and constitutes an essential pillar of international and multilateral relations.

The Institute of Commonwealth Studies wishes to extend its heartfelt congratulations to Chief Anyaoku. Chief Anyaoku has had a long and close connection with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. He was a member of the Board of Management for many years, and frequently contributed to its seminars and conferences on policy issues.In recognition of Chief Anyaoku's work the Institute of Commonwealth Studies established, in 2003, The Emeka Anyaoku Chair of Commonwealth Studies, funded by a number of private donors including the Duke of Westminster, the Alan and Nesta Ferguson Trust, the Nigerian Government, British Airways, the Malaysian Government and the A G Leventis Foundation. The principal focus of the Chair is the contemporary challenges that face the constituent societies within the Commonwealth, and the contribution of the Commonwealth to meeting them. These challenges embrace democratisation, human rights, multiculturalism and civil society.

The Politics of Senegambian Integration 1958–1994 is the title of the latest book by Jeggan C. Senghor, a Fellow of the Institute. Published by Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, Oxford , it is the first in the new Africa in Development Series launched in July last year and for which Jeggan is the Series Editor. Set within the neofunctionalist theoretical framework the study focuses on the experience in state-managed cooperation and integration between The Gambia (Commonwealth) and Senegal (Francophonie). In particular, it examines the nexus between national politics in the former and inter-state cooperation in Senegambia .

More details on the book can be found on the publisher's website (www.peterlang.com). A copy will be available in the Institute's library in the next few weeks.

MSc student's work on South East London to South Africa project to be aired on Channel 4 in October

In February this year, Ivor Wells co-managed a project for Lewisham Council which took a group of 11 young care leavers to volunteer in South Africa for two weeks. The project, entitled South East London to South Africa (SELSA) was the first of its kind in the UK for a local authority and gave a disadvantaged group of youngsters a chance to travel abroad, learn new skills, face new challenges, discover the wider world and consider their place and responsibilities within it. Ivor even successfully persuaded Sir Richard Branson to fly them all for free on Virgin Atlantic.

The young people's experiences were filmed for a documentary commissioned by Channel 4 entitled, "Into The Big Wide World", which is scheduled to air on C4 on Tuesday 2 October, 11:05pm, Channel 4 as part of the Cutting Edge series. Filming took place over the course of almost a year, and tells the story of the young people's lives in Lewisham, their preparation for departure, their time in South Africa, and how new horizons and experiences have impacted them.

As Ivor explains: "It's a moving journey, which has some dramatic moments, as well as some laughs,…and yes, features me navigating a very steep learning curve in how to work with youth on a high-profile international project! I can feel the stress return as I type! I hope you get a chance to see it on telly. "

To hear more from Ivor on his experience and motivation to combine his work with part-time study on the MSc course see his article in the Institute's online newsletter, Commonwealth Matters : commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/newsletter0701_wells.htm

Ivor Wells works for International Partnerships & Projects at Lewisham Council and is currently enrolled on the MSc in Globalization & Development.
www.lewisham.gov.uk

The Exchange of Ideas: A reflection on the history of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies seminar series

A one day conference will be held on Friday October the 5th as part of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library’s ongoing cataloguing and providing online access to records for individual Institute of Commonwealth Studies Seminar papers from 1950-1990. Begun in 1950 the seminars were at the time an experiment in the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and this conference will explore some of the themes and events marking both Commonwealth history and the historiography of the study of the Commonwealth and its member regions.

Institute of Commonwealth Studies seminar papers have covered a range of topics and presenters. Many presenters have been or remain key academic authors in their fields. Topics and themes of seminars include the Colombo Plan; Political Problems of Multiracial Countries; Pan-Africanism; African Politics; Private Enterprise in Foreign Aid; Constitutional Problems of Plural Societies; Caribbean Societies; Law and Labour in the Commonwealth; Labour Migration within the Empire-Commonwealth; Commonwealth Literature; Problems of Smaller Territories; Peasants; and Societies of Southern Africa.

Work on the project to date has highlighted a number of interesting topics from series including debate about plans for a envisioned post-apartheid South Africa; debates on the idea and nature of the early Commonwealth; discussion of the proposed West Indian Federation; the role of the colonial service; decolonization; elections; constitutions; gender and political economy. The papers also provide a glimpse into the Institute’s intellectual history and reflected the larger concerns of the period in which they were held, documenting how ideas shifted, beliefs were contested and new data was presented and digested.

Speakers will include Professor Shula Marks, Professor Robert Holland, Dr Michael Twaddle; Dr Peter Lyon, Professor Michael Lee, and Professor Carl Bridge. A final programme will be available soon.

See Events pages for futher information on this conference, as well as past and future events at the Institute.

An article in the 'Education 2007' supplement of the Evening Standard on 28 August featured the MA in Understanding & Securing Human Rights alongside a new course in Terrorism Studies at the University of East London. One of our recent alumni, Lizzy Openshaw, was interviewed for the piece, which looked at how postgraduate courses are responding to world events. Lizzy has just landed a new role as human rights training specialist with the International Service for Human Rights in Geneva and describes the MA as being crucial to this career move. During her studies, Lizzy took advantage of the placement support offered by the course and completed an internship with the human rights NGO, Consortium for Street Children.

Lizzy is not alone. Many of the graduates from the course point to the uniquely practical dimension of the programme in helping them to secure paid employment in what is a highly competitive field. The MA not only supports students interested in doing a placement, utilising its strong network of contacts with international human rights organisations, but it also draws on the practical experience of its lecturers, gives training in making funding proposals, and benefits from a strong programme of visiting lecturers with vast experience in the field. The course is further complemented by an evening seminar series in Human Rights as well as the highly specialised resources of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the global centre of excellence for policy-relevant research and teaching on Commonwealth studies, focusing on North-South relations, global peace and security, development, good governance, the politics of civil society, as well as, of course, international human rights.

Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri's Leftism in India, 1917-1947 released by Palgrave Macmillan

Professor Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri's latest book, Leftism in India, 1917-1947, provides a comprehensive account of the Leftist Movements in India during the most decisive phase of its struggle for freedom and describes how they interacted with the mainstream of the Indian Freedom movement under the leadership of the Indian National Congress, guided by its supreme leader Mahatma Gandhi and his ideology of non-violence.

Professor Chowdhuri writes of his motivation for the book as being the lack of understanding around the history of Leftism in India, despite its central influence in Indian policy-making today:

"Despite the wide acceptance and demonstrable success of market economy principles in India, the Left not only persists in India, it's influence has been growing so much so that it is now a partner in the ruling coalition government. India, in my view, is the only country in today's world where Leftism tremendously affects its policymaking. (In Cuba, President Fidel Castro is a hardcore authoritarian ruler who pays Communism only a lip service.) During the time of Indian Freedom Movement, the ideologies of the two prominent sides, i.e., the followers of non-violence of Gandhi, and the Leftists, directly confronted each other, and it often led the way to dramatic developments in Indian political architecture. But the Indian Leftists' history has remained in darkness so much so that the followers of the Leftism in India today know almost nothing about the origin of Leftism in India or about its founder. As reviewers of the book too pointed out, no other scholar has as yet attempted to unfold and analyze this interesting period of Indian politics. This book is going to be perhaps the only authentic documentary about Leftism in India. Without a comprehensive account of the bizarre role of the different hues of the Leftists in India, Indian political history in its most climactic period would have remained incomplete."

The book has been well-received by the academic community. Lord Desai, former Director and founder of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at LSE, wrote that Professor Chowdhuri should be "congratulated on such a comprehensive coverage of not only the Communist Party history but also of Left movements in general in India. I also like his interweaving of the history of the mainstream nationalist movement with a history of the Left. There are not many books which cover the same ground and this one, I am sure, will stay a standard reference work for a long time."

Professor Chowdhuri remains indebted to the resources of, and the support he received at, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies. " For anyone intending to work on any aspect of the colonial history of the British Commonwealth, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies would be one of the obvious choices I believe. The institute has extensive library resources on British Commonwealth which are extremely helpful, and its proximity to the British Library makes it even more interesting a place to do research in this field. From the ICwS, I gladly acknowledge my gratitude to Professors Tim Shaw and Richard Crook, Ms Dee Burn, Ms Karen Parr and Ms Coralie Mattys for their kind assistance and cooperation during my fellowship tenure."

Professor Chowdhuri is a Fellow in International Relations at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University Grants Commission, India.

Fred Opolot has been appointed by President Museveni as the new Executive Director of the Uganda Media Centre (UMC). Fred graduated from the MSc in Globalisation & Development in 2006, having previously worked for Lexicon Publishing and Barnardos - a leading children's charity organisation in the UK, as an information technology analyst. This is a timely move for Fred given the fact that Uganda is currently in preparation for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November and the UMC is expected to play an important role in this.

"I am privileged to have attended the MSc in Globalisation and Development at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of which the key attraction was its content on Human Security and Human Development - as indeed my fellow students contextualised debates on global perspectives as they were drawn from the 6 continents. The Lecturers' insistence of well researched and presented work meant that I had to work doubly hard, a trait that I have found invaluable in my current role - never forgetting the ever supportive staff, and of course the coffee mornings at the square." Fred Opolot

New Vision interview with Fred Opolot - Monday 6 August 2007

August 2007

The Colour of Our Skins shown on FORA.tv home page

The recent event, The Colour of Our Skins, which was held at the Institute on 17 July and co-hosted with the ESRC Genomics Forum, has made it to the home page of FORA.tv. The talk, based on Professor Wilmot James' forthcoming book Chase Away the Darkness: Biology and African Society, considered the phenomena of gene-environment interaction in the instance of human skin pigmentation and was written in a South African context. Professor James is the Executive Director of the Africa Genome Education Institute and Honorary Professor in the Division of Genetics in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town.

The event drew a wide-ranging audience, including those from the academic, scientific and media sectors. The Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh, Exeter, the Open University and the University of London colleges LSE, SOAS, UCL were all represented. Delegates also attended from Sense about Science, the Foundation for Science and Technology, the Human Genetics Commission, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the Wellcome Trust, and the BBC.

FORA.tv delivers international discourse, discussions and debates on political, social and cultural issues from leading public forums around the world. They enable videos of these events to be freely downloaded from their website and aim to expand the public forum by provide engaging on-demand viewing experiences in a digital venue. The School of Advanced Study is working with FORA.tv to ensure that the diverse events that the School and its member Institutes host can be viewed around the world in this way. The Colour of Our Skins is freely available for viewing, and fully transcribed, at FORA.tv.

See Events pages for futher information on past and future events at the Institute.

August 2007

Jeggan C. Senghor, a Fellow of the Institute, is delighted to announce the launch of the Africa in Development Series for which he serves as Editor. The series is published by Peter Lang International Academic Publishers. This series is designed to encourage innovative thinking on a broad range of development issues in all fields of intellectual inquiry. Of particular interest are studies with a heavy empirical content which also have a bearing on policy debates and those that question theoretical orthodoxies while being grounded in concrete developmental concerns. The series welcomes proposals for collected papers as well as monographs from recent PhDs as well as from established scholars.

Launch announcement

The latest Visiting Fellows to be based at the Institute are Professor Olayemi Akinwumi, Dr Shihan de Silva and Dr Victoria Te Velde-Ashworth.

Olayemi Akinwumi has been working on Party Politics in Nigeria since 1999. The emphasis of Olayemi's research is on the Nigerian ruling party, the PDP, and how it has been able to entrench itself on the political map of the country in spite of its unpopular reforms. An important component of this is to examine the PDP's relationship with the opposition parties and the inability of the opposition parties to stop the ruling parties in the 2003 and 2007 elections. Olayemi decided to come to the Institute because of the Library facilities which have enabled access to the literature on this subject. This is the second time Olayemi has been based at the Institute for research purposes. The first time was to conduct research for a book on Crises and Conflicts in Nigeria: A Political History Since 1960, which was published in Germany in 2005. Olayemi Akinwumi is Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Nasarawa State University in Nigeria.

Shihan de Silva brings her expertise on Indian Ocean migration and the politics of identity to the Institute. Attention is on the Atlantic this year due to the bicentennial of the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, however, eastwards African migration is very much a neglected area. She has edited several volumes on historical, sociological and ethno-musicological aspects of Afro-Asians which are published in Cahier des Anneaux Mémoire (Nantes), African & Asian Studies (Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden) and Musiké (The Hague). Her entries on the African diasporas in the East are published in An Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora (USA: Florida International University). She serves on the Advisory Board to the Journal of African Diaspora: Transnational Africa in a Global World and has presented several papers at international conferences. She was also invited to read a paper on African Migration Across the Indian Ocean at a conference organised by UNESCO and held in Paris, in December 2004, on “Issues of Memory: Coming to Terms with the Slave Trade and Slavery”.

Her work spans several commonwealth countries - India, Malaysia, Maldives and Sri Lanka - and she has lived and worked in Nigeria. In addition to having published over 50 papers in international peer-reviewed academic journals, she has also published four books: The Portuguese in the East: A Cultural History of A Maritime Trading Empire (I B Tauris Academic Publishers, London, 2008), Tagus to Taprobane: Portuguese Impact on the Socioculture of Sri Lanka from 1505 AD (Tisara Prakasakayo, Dehiwela, 2001), An Anthology of Indo-Portuguese Verse (Edwin Mellen Press, Wales, 2001) and Indo-Portuguese of Ceylon: A Contact Language (Athena Publications, London, 2001). She also co-edited with Richard Pankhurst The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean (Africa World Press, New Jersey, 2003).

Last year, she organised a multidisciplinary event - “Indian Ocean: Cultures in Contact” - at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, at which Fellows of the Institute participated, both as presenters and as observers. She has recently organised another conference - “Migrants and the Making of Indian Ocean Cultures” – which was held on Wednesday 11th July 2007 at the School of Oriental & African Studies.

Victoria Te Velde-Ashworth
Victoria Te Velde-Ashworth is currently Acting Head of the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit based at the Institute. She gained her PhD from the Institute, on the topic of the expansion of the modern Commonwealth. Her research area of interest is Commonwealth membership.

The Penguin paperback of Colour Bar. The Triumph of Seretse Khama and his Nation by Susan Williams, a Fellow of the Institute, was published on 7 June 2007, following the sell-out success of the hardback. Drawing on extensive new research in Botswana, South Africa, the UK, the USA, and Canada, Colour Bar tells the story of Seretse Khama, the man who led Botswana to independence in 1966, and his marriage to Ruth Williams, an English woman. The book’s UK launch was held at the Botswana High Commission in London; its Botswana launch was held at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. Vice President Ian Khama came to both events and gave a moving speech. Colour Bar has received outstanding reviews in many Commonwealth nations and the option on the film rights has been sold to a British company.

NEWS

ICwS Fellows deliver keynote talks at Reclaiming African History Seminar

Student Profile in Prospects Magazine

SAS Prospectus 2009/10

Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Commonwealth Matters

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Award

Dr Peris Jones recent publications

Dr William Vlcek awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship

South African ‘Oliver Tambo' Honour for Chief Emeka Anyaoku

Jeggan C Senghor's The Politics of Sengambian Integration 1958-1994

MSc student's work on South East London to South Africa project to be aired on Channel 4 in October

The Exchange of Ideas: A reflection on the history of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies seminar series

MA in Human Rights featured in Evening Standard

Satyabrata Rai Chowdhuri's Leftism in India, 1917-1947 released by Palgrave Macmillan

MSc graduate made executive director of the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala

***The Colour of Our Skins* shown on FORA.tv home page | Launch of Africa in Development Series**

Institute welcomes Visiting Fellows for the summer **| Colour Bar by Susan Williams published in paperback**

News Archives

Past Institute of Commonwealth Studies Newsletters

Dr William Vlcek awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship

Page last updated December 9, 2008

NEWS

The Colour of Our Skins shown on FORA.tv home page | Launch of Africa in Development Series

Institute welcomes Visiting Fellows for the summer | Colour Bar by Susan Williams published in paperback

Past Institute of Commonwealth Studies Newsletters

Dr William Vlcek awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship

Page last updated December 9, 2008

***The Colour of Our Skins* shown on FORA.tv home page | Launch of Africa in Development Series**

Institute welcomes Visiting Fellows for the summer **| Colour Bar by Susan Williams published in paperback**