Ali Bennett

New blog post for the fab @bemccollective.bsky.social summarising my recent @rhi-ihr.bsky.social article on labour, global commodities, and material skill in the Port of London’s ivory warehouse sites.manchester.ac.uk/bodies-emoti...

International Writing Workshops support early career researchers in developing countries through stimulating networks, developing partnerships, encouraging skills development, providing career advice, and promoting the uptake of research. Learn more and apply: https://bit.ly/3UfyQKF

Colleagues will be sorry to hear that historian John Iliffe has this morning passed away in Cambridge at age 87. Iliffe was a maker of the academic field of African history. He took up a post at the University of Dar es Salaam shortly after Tanganyika's independence. 1/

📢PROJECT UPDATE📢 You may have seen the news that the University of Exeter, home of the wills project, has placed 500 academics at risk of redundancy. The project leader Prof. Jane Whittle & project co-investigator Dr Laura Sangha are both at risk, alongside almost all of the History department. 1/

Using collections to answer the big questions of our time. This was a fascinating day! www.ccc.cam.ac.uk/blog/uganda-...

Looking very forward to participating in this! Please join us on 23 June

Democracy in Kent is under attack from a Reform administration that is clearly terrified of scrutiny. They are moving to quiet the opposition while prioritising songs and prayers over policy discussion. It is a bizarre and anti-democratic shift for our county. 🧵 1/6

Very glad to see this. Good work Uganda Studies Group!

Belatedly posting this contribution to "God's Collections'" on the ‘Relics of the Kibuuka shrine in present-day Uganda’ www.godscollections.org/case-studies...

CFP: Deadline for submissions: 15 April 2026 Workshop: Monday 15 June 2026, at UCL (London) #Skystorians

**Symposium News** We have a few spaces available at our symposium in Oxford next Friday (17 April) on the theme 'When there are no sources'. The event is free, but please sign up using the link below. Our speakers are John Arnold, Hannah Murphy, Jonathan Saha, Miranda Spieler and Tess Wingard.

"has become"????

The Ham Mukasa Public Lecture will be delivered on Friday 6th March at the Makerere University Main Hall at 2pm and online. 'His Life and Legacy. A Public Lecture by James Galabuzi Mukasa, Ham Mukasa's Grandson'. All are welcome.

Thrilled to announce the upcoming colloquium @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social, "Flowers, Landscape Design, and Political Imagination in African History: Bridging the Gap Between Precolonial Pasts and Colonial Encounters," of which Rahab Kinyanjui and I are colloquiarchs. www.doaks.org/events/garde...

This is the elephant Mahabir Deb, presented to the emperor Shah Jahan by 'Adil Khan. This elephant was worth 60,000 rupees. c. 1630 (V&A Museum, London)

Two 15th century European images of #elephants and then two early 16th century ones. (Albertina, Vienna)

The British Trust for Ornithology's cuckoo tracking project has the most charismatic cast of characters. Find out more at: www.bto.org/get-involved...

“I needed to respond to the West Africa display as the story of the diaspora was missing”'. Looking forward to seeing Charmaine Watkiss's new works at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum soon. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

For anyone interested in our 18-month post in British Studies please follow the link below. @ihr.bsky.social www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Please join us next Wed 11 Feb 2-3.30 in Oxford for ‘Imperial Circulations Climate Knowledge, Port Labor, and Material Worlds’

Dummy board of a woman peeling apples, c. 1690, of English make (Victoria & Albert Museum) Dummy boards were life-size images placed in stairwells or in front of fireplaces in summer time. They were designed to amuse and also to startle visitors.

#CfP Call for Papers Organised by Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick: Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today Workshop: 26-27 June 2026, University of Warwick Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2026 Submit to globalhistory@warwick.ac.uk

How does a physical space become a site for global economic history? @alibennett.bsky.social unpacks the significance of African ivory in the Port of London 👇

Medieval Visual Culture Seminar 'New directions in the study of ivories from the Islamic world: A talk and handling session' Mariam Rosser-Owen (V&A) & Ashley Coutu (Pitt Rivers) 5pm Nov 20 🗓️ Khalili Research Center 🏢 (Co-sponsored by the Khalili Research Center) www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/event/mediev...

A brilliant opportunity to work on a new exhibition on the Global Renaissance.

The first volume of the Special Issue on Global Economic History @rhi-ihr.bsky.social is now out! It features 4 new articles on 4 commodities in global economic history - salt, ivory, raw cotton, and finished cotton goods - all open access. It was a great experience editing this volume!

Very pleased to have published this new article entitled ‘Port labour, global commodities, and material skill development: A study of the ivory warehouse in the Port of London and its representation c. 1860-1968’ with @rhi-ihr.bsky.social. Huge thanks go to @alkaraman.bsky.social as special editor!

We are very pleased to be working with @ihr.bsky.social and @findmypast.bsky.social on this new Applied History Fellowship programme. The launch event on Weds 19 November bit.ly/49vcgCS provides further details of the scheme and how to apply #Skystorians

On flags and ‘patriotism’ in Kent right now 😩 www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...

Over 90% of the world's museum collections are locked away in storage. Not anymore. UofG’s Museums in the Metaverse is bringing hidden treasures to life through 3D technology. Sign up to be first to hear about the beta launch www.gla.ac.uk/mim

After my annual summer break, I'm back with a new series on teaching East Africa in world history. This first post is free and introduces some resources and themes we can use when teaching East Africa. 🗺️🗃️ www.liberatingnarratives.com/a-mixed-popu...

With it being #WorldElephantDay #ElephantDay we just had to post a photo of the Seal of the borough of Pwllheli featuring an elephant and castle, as it appears on the ceiling of the wonderful Shankland Reading Room here at Bangor University.

Today is #ElephantDay! Enjoy these illustrations of the largest living land animals from our collections. The first is from C. d’Orbigny's, 'Dictionnaire universel d’histoire naturelle', 1847, and the second from B. Hawkins's, 'A comparative view of the human and animal frame', 1860.

A bit of good news from the Yale University Art Gallery. www.nhregister.com/connecticut/...

Our latest @jich.bsky.social 'Current Debate' essay entitled 'Trump and the Commonwealth' is now #OpenAccess for a limited time. The journal's former editor Professor Philip Murphy offers some compelling commentary on the US president's ambition of joining the Commonwealth. doi.org/10.1080/0308...

If you find yourself in the Margate area, do check out the Powell-Cotton Museum’s redisplay of some of its East African Collections. Especially useful for those interested in missionary collecting but also a new focus on Ugandan figures- not just the solitary British missionary ‘expert’ or explorer

How might ships change the way we understand migration policy in postwar Britain and its empire? My new article in @jbritishstudies.bsky.social offers an answer to that question. Here's a thread to hopefully pique your interest and maybe get you to read it 🧵🚢 www.cambridge.org/core/service...