Ben Gidley
@bengidley.bsky.social
Sociologist, dad, attenuated Jew, nervous anti-fascist, rootless cosmopolitan, drum and bass fan, out of practice salsa dancer, asphalt botaniser, glutton, insomniac, hearing impaired, union member, living in London
Reposted by Ben Gidley
📜 Our 2025 bulletin is live! Read a message from our incoming president @bengidley.bsky.social, a report from this year's conference, details of our book prize, the CFP for our 2026 conference @bisa-bkk.bsky.social, reports from institutions & more
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November 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
📜 Our 2025 bulletin is live! Read a message from our incoming president @bengidley.bsky.social, a report from this year's conference, details of our book prize, the CFP for our 2026 conference @bisa-bkk.bsky.social, reports from institutions & more
➡️ bajsbulletin.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/u...
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Reposted by Ben Gidley
Here’s a snippet of our PI @bengidley.bsky.social speed-introducing #LiminalWater
November 24, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Here’s a snippet of our PI @bengidley.bsky.social speed-introducing #LiminalWater
Reposted by Ben Gidley
Many of our team are in Nottingham for “Knowkedge Exchange for Slow Hope” as part of the HERA-CHANSE Crisis – Perspectives from the Humanities programme. Fantastic welcoming talk by @jennywustenberg.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Many of our team are in Nottingham for “Knowkedge Exchange for Slow Hope” as part of the HERA-CHANSE Crisis – Perspectives from the Humanities programme. Fantastic welcoming talk by @jennywustenberg.bsky.social
At an event in Nottingham. Nottingham Trent @jennywustenberg.bsky.social reminds us that as well as our sector as a whole, languages in particular are under attack. So important to remember this while attempting to conduct business as usual in academia.
November 24, 2025 at 9:24 AM
At an event in Nottingham. Nottingham Trent @jennywustenberg.bsky.social reminds us that as well as our sector as a whole, languages in particular are under attack. So important to remember this while attempting to conduct business as usual in academia.
To keep this in perspective: 11% had turned to Reform, 18% to Green. The Green surge among Jews 9 times bigger than in the whole population; the switch to Ref was far smaller than in the whole population. The Green surge is the Jewish-specific story: the switch to Ref a weak echo of national trends.
Nearly 20% of British Jews are turning to the Green Party, mostly younger and happy to identify as non-Zionist.
Unfortunately, the older generation is turning to Reform, seeking clarity and strength, ignoring Racism.
HT @jprdata.bsky.social
#jewsky
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Unfortunately, the older generation is turning to Reform, seeking clarity and strength, ignoring Racism.
HT @jprdata.bsky.social
#jewsky
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
British Jews turn to Greens and Reform UK as support for main parties drops
Study finds new party divide as backing for Labour and Conservatives plunges from 84% in 2020 to 58% in 2025
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:05 AM
To keep this in perspective: 11% had turned to Reform, 18% to Green. The Green surge among Jews 9 times bigger than in the whole population; the switch to Ref was far smaller than in the whole population. The Green surge is the Jewish-specific story: the switch to Ref a weak echo of national trends.
Surprisingly good editorial in the FT. What makes these evil policies even more evil is (a) they’re cynical (most Labour politicians know the measures are morally wrong), but (b) they’re stupid, in that they’re never going to help Labour win back racists and will only boost the hard right (see pic).
November 19, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Surprisingly good editorial in the FT. What makes these evil policies even more evil is (a) they’re cynical (most Labour politicians know the measures are morally wrong), but (b) they’re stupid, in that they’re never going to help Labour win back racists and will only boost the hard right (see pic).
An excellent and important piece of writing
I wrote this essay in the current Sudan issue of Transition Magazine titled "The Politics of Hunger" which argues that the current hunger crisis has been decades in the making. It begins with Nimeiri and looks at US engagement over the decades.
transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu/the-politics...
transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu/the-politics...
The Politics of Hunger in Sudan – Transition Magazine
transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu
November 19, 2025 at 8:18 AM
An excellent and important piece of writing
Packed house at @bisa-bkk.bsky.social for a brilliant lecture by @kenanmalik.bsky.social on the deep roots of the re-emergence of white identity and mainstreaming of racism
November 18, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Packed house at @bisa-bkk.bsky.social for a brilliant lecture by @kenanmalik.bsky.social on the deep roots of the re-emergence of white identity and mainstreaming of racism
Reposted by Ben Gidley
Tomorrow I’m giving a talk at the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (@bisa-bkk.bsky.social) on “How racism reclaimed its identity”. Do come along bisa.bbk.ac.uk/event/how-ra...
How racism reclaimed its identity | Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism
bisa.bbk.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Tomorrow I’m giving a talk at the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (@bisa-bkk.bsky.social) on “How racism reclaimed its identity”. Do come along bisa.bbk.ac.uk/event/how-ra...
Feeling physically sick to hear on the news Shabana Mahmood saying that “illegal migration is tearing the country apart” which she must know is not true. What’s “tearing the country apart” is the cynical entrepreneurs of fear and hate who have gleefully pushed this non-issue.
November 16, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Feeling physically sick to hear on the news Shabana Mahmood saying that “illegal migration is tearing the country apart” which she must know is not true. What’s “tearing the country apart” is the cynical entrepreneurs of fear and hate who have gleefully pushed this non-issue.
Thread on ex-sociologist David Miller and employment tribunal. I’m ashamed at how many of my colleagues defended him and that none (afaik) have recanted that. His case is similar to that of ex-political scientist now hate preacher Matthew Goodwin — but Miller’s new friends are full neo-Nazis.
Good luck Bristol Uni. Miller is obsessively hateful. He fantasises that Jews control Britain and calls anyone who doesn't agree with him a Zionist. He called Mamdani a Zionist for condemning the painting of swastikas on a school.
Nb my UCU branch leadership has supported him against Bristol.
Nb my UCU branch leadership has supported him against Bristol.
Bristol University appeals against last year's victory for the anti-Zionist academic
November 14, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Thread on ex-sociologist David Miller and employment tribunal. I’m ashamed at how many of my colleagues defended him and that none (afaik) have recanted that. His case is similar to that of ex-political scientist now hate preacher Matthew Goodwin — but Miller’s new friends are full neo-Nazis.
Been going through the Communist-affiliated Left Review from the mid-1930s Popular Front period. John Boswell’s modernist anti-fascist cartoons are a real standout.
November 13, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Been going through the Communist-affiliated Left Review from the mid-1930s Popular Front period. John Boswell’s modernist anti-fascist cartoons are a real standout.
Exciting that Birkbeck is hosting this event celebrating twinning between UK and Ukrainian universities (including our own twinning with K. D. Ushinsky South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University in Odessa) and the Global Coalition for Ukrainian Studies.
November 13, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Exciting that Birkbeck is hosting this event celebrating twinning between UK and Ukrainian universities (including our own twinning with K. D. Ushinsky South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University in Odessa) and the Global Coalition for Ukrainian Studies.
This is tomorrow. All welcome!
Our next event: Events
Migration Scholars’ Global Solidarity and Resistance Network: Global Teach-Ins/Outs, 11 November 1-5 pm Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square ssahe.net/2025/10/13/m...
Migration Scholars’ Global Solidarity and Resistance Network: Global Teach-Ins/Outs, 11 November 1-5 pm Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square ssahe.net/2025/10/13/m...
November 10, 2025 at 1:04 PM
This is tomorrow. All welcome!
Hannah Arendt in Syria, by the great Yassin al-Haj Saleh, has been published in German. It would be amazing if there was an English edition.
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de/produkt/hann...
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de/produkt/hann...
November 6, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Hannah Arendt in Syria, by the great Yassin al-Haj Saleh, has been published in German. It would be amazing if there was an English edition.
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de/produkt/hann...
www.matthes-seitz-berlin.de/produkt/hann...
This is indeed harrowing: brave testimony. (Content warning: traumatic violence.)
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a citizen of Israel and Russia, recounts a harrowing story of cruelty, survival, U.S. diplomatic pressure and, finally, release from the grip of a group backed by Iran.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/w...
A Woman Tells of Torture and 2½ Years of Captivity by an Iraqi Militia
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:56 PM
This is indeed harrowing: brave testimony. (Content warning: traumatic violence.)
Reposted by Ben Gidley
Join us in London in July!
CALL FOR PAPERS NOW LIVE
#BIAJS2026 “Space and place in Jewish studies” 13-15 July Birkbeck
bajsbulletin.wpcomstaging.com/2025/11/03/c...
CALL FOR PAPERS NOW LIVE
#BIAJS2026 “Space and place in Jewish studies” 13-15 July Birkbeck
bajsbulletin.wpcomstaging.com/2025/11/03/c...
Call for Papers: BIAJS Conference 2026 (13-15 July, Birkbeck, University of London)
CALL FOR PAPERS #BIAJS2026 Space and Place in Jewish Studies British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies Annual Conference 2026 Birkbeck, University of London | July 2026 “there is…
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November 4, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Join us in London in July!
CALL FOR PAPERS NOW LIVE
#BIAJS2026 “Space and place in Jewish studies” 13-15 July Birkbeck
bajsbulletin.wpcomstaging.com/2025/11/03/c...
CALL FOR PAPERS NOW LIVE
#BIAJS2026 “Space and place in Jewish studies” 13-15 July Birkbeck
bajsbulletin.wpcomstaging.com/2025/11/03/c...
Reposted by Ben Gidley
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
When is a refugee not a refugee? — Refugee History.
England’s ‘proud history’ of welcoming refugees is regularly invoked in contemporary debates about refugees in Britain. Public and academic histories of pre-modern migration to England support this no...
tinyurl.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:08 AM
New post on refugeehistory.org: were there refugees in 16thC England? Answer: it's complicated - migrants and the state were in the process of negotiating a form of refugee protection, which helps us to complicate notions of Britain's "proud history of welcome": tinyurl.com/bdyevr4d
Translation of a very valuable German text on the twin dangers of trivialisation and generalisation surrounding anti-Muslim racism and Islamist antisemitism in Germany:
Instrumentalised Hostilities, by Sina Arnold and Michael Kiefer – 14 June 2024 leftrenewal.org/articles-en/...
Instrumentalised Hostilities, by Sina Arnold and Michael Kiefer – 14 June 2024 – Left Renewal Blog
leftrenewal.org
November 3, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Translation of a very valuable German text on the twin dangers of trivialisation and generalisation surrounding anti-Muslim racism and Islamist antisemitism in Germany:
Been in Ottawa this week for an amazing workshop on disinformation, conspiracism, antisemitism and gender panics. Learnt a lot from this public lecture by @milleridriss.bsky.social. Will post more later about this!
Thrilled with the evening event. @milleridriss.bsky.social was brilliant, we had 200+
folks, and there were tons of good, difficult questions about misogyny and hate and the far right extremist pipeline.
folks, and there were tons of good, difficult questions about misogyny and hate and the far right extremist pipeline.
October 31, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Been in Ottawa this week for an amazing workshop on disinformation, conspiracism, antisemitism and gender panics. Learnt a lot from this public lecture by @milleridriss.bsky.social. Will post more later about this!
Solidarity to family and friends in Exeter counterprotesting the far right today.
October 25, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Solidarity to family and friends in Exeter counterprotesting the far right today.
Reposted by Ben Gidley
Where our team members are today. (Full points to anyone who can name all the locations.)
October 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Where our team members are today. (Full points to anyone who can name all the locations.)
Antisemitism & Islamophobia get seen as opposites, but on the far right they often go together. Clews, anti-Muslim influencer once in Robinson’s crew, is no anti-Zionist; he’s just antisemitic: hence his appeal to Miller, who once wrote on Islamophobia but now promotes it if he can also target Jews.
David Miller sharing David Clews of UNN / Patriotic Alternative again. One of the chief spreaders of hate and lies about Southport.
October 23, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Antisemitism & Islamophobia get seen as opposites, but on the far right they often go together. Clews, anti-Muslim influencer once in Robinson’s crew, is no anti-Zionist; he’s just antisemitic: hence his appeal to Miller, who once wrote on Islamophobia but now promotes it if he can also target Jews.
Reposted by Ben Gidley
New article for @prospectmagazine.co.uk with my colleagues David Feldman (@dmf101.bsky.social) and Ben Gidley (@bengidley.bsky.social) in which we critically examine mainstream political responses to the attack on the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester earlier this month.
The difficult truth about antisemitism
Why don’t we acknowledge that there are different ways of measuring the prevalence of anti-Jewish prejudice?
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
October 22, 2025 at 8:55 AM
New article for @prospectmagazine.co.uk with my colleagues David Feldman (@dmf101.bsky.social) and Ben Gidley (@bengidley.bsky.social) in which we critically examine mainstream political responses to the attack on the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester earlier this month.
New article with @bisa-bkk.bsky.social colleagues @dmf101.bsky.social and @brendanmcgeever.bsky.social:
More Jewish people in Britain are concerned by general racism than the number who are worried by antisemitism. This is a building block for anti-racist politics, write three Birkbeck experts. @bisa-bkk.bsky.social
The difficult truth about antisemitism
Why don’t we acknowledge that there are different ways of measuring the prevalence of anti-Jewish prejudice?
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
October 21, 2025 at 10:27 AM
New article with @bisa-bkk.bsky.social colleagues @dmf101.bsky.social and @brendanmcgeever.bsky.social: