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soashistory.bsky.social
SOAS History and the SOAS History Blog
@soashistory.bsky.social
630 followers 71 following 63 posts
News and events from the History Department in the School of History, Religions and Philosophies @SOAS University of London www.soas.ac.uk and the SOAS History Blog blogs.soas.ac.uk/soashistoryblog/
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soashistory.bsky.social
The SOAS History Seminar will be today, Wed 12 Nov, at 5pm, with Stephanie Mawson (University of York), who will speak about Malay Magic in Colonial Manila. For more info see www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
Ternatan, Balinese, and Bugis soldiers. European illustration from the 17th century. Manuscript summary: Travel diary ("Reisebuch") of Alsatian world traveler Georg Franz Müller (1646-1723). Image from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ternate_Bali_Bugis_soldiers.jpg
November 12, 2025 at 4:41 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
New on the blog: 'A Man Between Worlds: the Story of Persia's American Reformer' - on the young and idealistic American administrator William Morgan Shuster on a mission to save Persia's first constitutional government, by Owen Steuernagel.

blogs.soas.ac.uk/soashistoryb...
William Morgan Shuster in his private office in Atabak Palace. Source: The Strangling of Persia (1912). Text: New on the blog: A Man between Worlds: the Story of Persia's American Reformer, by Owen Steuernagel
November 1, 2025 at 9:18 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
History and Music, Episode 3: Recording Indian Classical Music, interview with Dr Richard Williams
blogs.soas.ac.uk/soashistoryb...
Female sitar player in recording studio, brownish-red background; text: Recording Indian Classical Music
November 1, 2025 at 9:00 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
History and Music, Episode 2: The B-Side of Japanese Military Music, interview with Oliver Masheter

blogs.soas.ac.uk/soashistoryb...
Photo of a Japanese military band on grey background: text: The B-Side of Japanese Military Music
November 1, 2025 at 9:00 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
Finally online: 3-part podcast series on History and Music, produced by #SOAS students Saskia Lootsma and Idriss Gheriani as part of their Co-creator internship, spring 2025. Episode 1: Interview with Lennon Aviss on Red Sun in the Sky and the Afterlife of CR Songs blogs.soas.ac.uk/soashistoryb...
Adapted Mao poster showing Mao in front of a red sun as the helmsman steering his fleet through the sea inserted into (with Chinese text saying 大海航行靠舵手) and partly covering another image of the tonearm of a record player on a vinyl; text on dark red background: Red Sun in the Sky and the Afterlife of Songs of China's Cultural Revolution
November 1, 2025 at 9:00 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
At this week's SOAS History Seminar Shounak Ghosh will speak about 'A Persian Archive of Early Modern Diplomacy: Letters and Emissaries between Golkonda and Isfahan.'

Wed 29 Oct 2025, 5pm, C426.

All welcome!

For more info go to: www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
Seminar announcement, title at the top: A Persian Archive of Early Modern Diplomacy: Letters and Emissaries between Golkonda and Isfahan At the bottom: A SOAS History Seminar with Shounak Ghosh, Wed 29 Oct 2025, 5pm, C426 Background image: Title page of Tārīkh-i Quṭb-i Shāhīyah [History of Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah, Sultan of Golconda and the Qutb Shahi dynasty and includes the historical, political and social events prevalent in Hyderabadi during the Qutb Shahi period] Library of Congress, Persian Rare Language Materials https://www.loc.gov/item/2016397784/
October 25, 2025 at 4:42 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
The Histories of Capitalism and Race series
@soasuni.bsky.social is back with a stellar line-up! Join us for exciting book discussions with @esmat.bsky.social, Catherine Hall, @omarcheta.bsky.social, Nicky Falkof, Tithi Bhattacharya, Françoise Verges, and Hafsa Kanjwal.
SOAS Walter Rodney Collective: Seminar Series, Fall 2025 Empire, Race, Capital: Readings Beyond the Atlantic 5-7pm, SOAS (unless otherwise specified_ Convenors: Sarah El-Kazaz, Hengameh Ziai, Lisa Tilley, and Samia Khatun Thursday 9 October Esmat Elhalaby, Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization (2025) Thursday 16 October Catherine Hall, Lucky Valley: Edward Long and the History of Racial Capitalism (2024) Tuesday 28 October Omar Cheta, How Commerce Became Legal: Merchants and Market Governance in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (2025) Thursday 30 October (12:30pm) Nicky Falkof, Worrier State: Risk, Anxiety and Moral Panic in South Africa Thursday 13 November Tithi Bhattacharya, Ghostly Past, Capitalist Presence: A Social History of Fear in Colonial Bengal (2024) Thursday 20 November Françoise Verges, Making the World Clean: Wasted Lives, Wasted Environment and Racial Capitalism (2024) Thursday 4 December Hafsa Kanjwak, Colonizing Kashmir: State-building Under Indian Occupation (2023) Department of Politics and International Studies, Department of Development Studies, and School of History, Religions and Philosophies
September 24, 2025 at 4:50 AM
soashistory.bsky.social
When you have 20 mins, here is our latest podcast with Phil Clark, who talks about his experience working with public media as a social scientist, gacaca courts in post-genocide Rwanda, & History - recorded a year ago but non the less interesting & enjoyable:

#SOAS

blogs.soas.ac.uk/soashistoryb...
mugshot of middle-aged male person with short brown hair, beard and glasses (Phil Clark) covering the left half of the image, SOAS History Blog and Soundcloud logos beneath, a round yellow microphone icon with an orange background in the upper right corner, text in black letters: Ep.12 Phil Clark Where History Can Take You, grey background.
August 21, 2025 at 12:51 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
You already missed the first film, but there are five more to come at the Mongolian Movie showcase at #SOAS Gallery this weekend (7 and 8 June 2025). For more info go to
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mongolian-...
Trailer screenshot for Mongolian Movie Showcase, showing six figures and a horse in yellow, red and blue framing the image. Text: 'Mongolian Cinema' at the center, wine red background. Logos of Gangara Pictures, SOAS University of London, Nomadia Pictures, Hulegu Pictures, Playmo, and Really Nice Films LTD lined up at the top.
June 7, 2025 at 11:13 AM
soashistory.bsky.social
Upcoming in the Robert H.N. Ho Foundation Lecture Series in Chinese Buddhism:

'The Women and the Woman: Building the Backstory to the Rise and Rule of Empress Wu (r. 690–705)'

Thursday 22 May | 17:30−19:00 (BST) | ONLINE

For more info & registration see: www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
Flyer: The Robert H.N. Ho Foundation Lecture Series in Chinese Buddhism Inserted image: detail of stone relief showing a women's imperial procession in the Huangfu Gong Grotto at Longmen. Ca 527. From the cover of the speaker's book. The Women and the Woman: Building the Backstory to the Rise and Rule of Empress Wu (r. 690–705) Dr. Stephanie Balkwill (University of California, Los Angeles) 22 My 2025, 5:30-7:00pm (GMT)
May 19, 2025 at 8:09 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
If you're in London next week, please join us for a seminar with Ling Zhang (Cambridge), who will speak about 'Rocks that Made Bodies: Doing Environmental History by Following Things'. Wed 14 May, 5pm at #SOAS, C325.

All welcome!

For more information see: www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...

#envhist
Seminar announcement (in insta post format), rock formations in different shades of grey, looking like a dried up river valley, brownish-black frame at the top and bottom margin, with text saying: 'Rocks that Made Bodies: Doing Environmental History by Following Thing, Ling Zhang (University of Cambridge), SOAS History Seminar, Wed, 14 May 2025, 5pm, C325. ALL WELCOME!'
May 10, 2025 at 7:37 AM
soashistory.bsky.social
A day with Mongolian Studies events upcoming at #SOAS, this Thursday, 8 May 2025. See ALT text for more detail.

#MongolianStudies
#Mongolia
Flyer for event at SOAS: Introduction to Mongolian Studies Day at SOAS. Seminars - Book Launch - Musical Performances. Thursday 8 May 2025. Seminar: Studying Traditional Mongolia in a Modern World 12:00-14:30 Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre Introduced by Dr Lars Laamann, Senior Lecturer in the History of China and Central Asia, and Guest Professor, Manchu Studies, Jilin University - Dr Uradyn E Bulag (Cambridge): Mongolia in Parallax: Insights from Inner Mongolian nd Western Vantage Points - Dr Shane McCausland (SOAS): Arts of the Mongol World - Dr Terigele Teneg (Cambridge): Unicode and the Reintroduction of Traditional Script in Mongolia - Dr George Lnde (SOAS): Revising Perceptions of the Mongols in World History Book Launch & Musical Performance "Conquering the North - Chin, Russia, Mongolia: 2000 Years of Conflict, by John Man Musical Performance by Nomadic Tunes 16:00-18:00 BGLT Welcome and Remarks by Dr Lars Laamann H.E. Enkhsukh Battumur, Ambassador of Mongolia Garid Bandii, First Secretary of Education and Cultural Affairs Unurmaa Janchiv, Cultural Envoy of Mongolia
May 4, 2025 at 8:42 AM
soashistory.bsky.social
Our next seminar will be on Wed 7 May with Jaffar Abid (NYU London) who will speak on 'The Many Lives of a Mughal King: Secularizing Aurangzeb in Communal India.'

All Welcome!

For more information see www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
Portrait of Prince Aurangzeb (17th c), Metropolitan Museum of Art (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/454817) on the right hand side. On the left: 'The Many Lives of a Mughal King: Secularizing Aurangzeb in Communal India, Jaffar Abid (NYU London), SOAS History Seminar, Wed 7 May, 5pm, C325, All Welcome!
May 2, 2025 at 2:16 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
Join us next Wed, 23/4/2025, 5pm at #SOAS for a seminar with Christian Schwermann (Bochum) about resource use in early China:
“By Nurturing Useful Resources He Let the Land Work [for him]”: Conceptualizing and Managing Resources in the Warring States and Early Empires
All welcome!
Background image in darkish brown-gray: Brick Relief with Salt-mining Scene Eastern Han Dynasty National Museum of China (Wikimedia Commons) Text: "By Nurturing Useful Resources He Let the Land Work [for him]”: Conceptualizing and Managing Resources in the Warring States and Early Empires SOAS History Seminar, Wednesday 23 April 2025, 5pm, C325. All welcome!
April 17, 2025 at 8:09 AM
soashistory.bsky.social
'All Equal!' Sat 5 April, 11am in Brixton, Rapport Festival, Kid's Corner. An animated tale of a journey from enslavement to liberation, directed by Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Diop, based on research by and co-produced with Dr Marie Rodet (SOAS) and Mamadou Sène Cissé:

rapportfestival.com/saturday-5-a...
Image from an animated film showing an older black man clad in white sitting on a chair, a storyteller facing a group of children listening intently.
April 3, 2025 at 7:53 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
We are back with a piece by Lennon Aviss on the controversy about the 'correct' version of Qing history and the uses & abuses of history, with examples from China and Russia: Who Controls History? The Case of the National Qing History Project. Enjoy!
blogs.soas.ac.uk/soashistoryb...
#NewQingHistory
Densely printed double page from a Chinese woodblock print (a Ming edition of the Shiji) as background for the following text: New on the blog: Who controls history? The case of the National Qing History Project, by Lennon Aviss.
March 28, 2025 at 9:18 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
Join us for our final #SOAS History Seminar this term on Wed, 12 Mar 2025, where Faisal Chaudhry will speak about 'Property and Law in the (Re-)Making of Colonial Rule: Reconsidering the Case of Britain's India'. For more information visit: www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
#SouthAsia
#ColonialHistory
Seminar announcement for: 'Property and Law in the (Re-)Making of Colonial Rule: Reconsidering the Case of Britain's India', with an 1858 map of Colonial India as background graphic. Image source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:India_in_1858%3B_a_summary_of_the_existing_administration,_political,_fiscal_and_judicial_of_British_India%3B_together_with_the_laws_and_public_documents_relating_thereto_from_the_earliest_to_the_present_%2814778656505%29.jpg)
March 7, 2025 at 5:20 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
Next up in the #SOAS History Seminar is @fkrautwald.bsky.social (UCL) who will be speaking about 'Mnemonic sovereignty: Memories of German colonialism and Africa’s decolonization'. Wednesday, 5 March 2025, 5pm in room C325. All welcome!
For more information see www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
Photo appears to be showing black troops in the German colonial army. Image: Copyright by the National Archives of Namibia, with permission
February 28, 2025 at 8:05 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
We warmly invite you to celebrate the publication of @kathryndyt.bsky.social's new book on 26 Feb (5pm in S209). Katie will be joined (remotely) by @gedutton.bsky.social (UCLA) as discussant. Please join us if you're around!
www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
#envhum #envhis #Vietnam
Book cover: Kathryn Dyt, The Nature of Kingship: the Weather-World in Nineteenth-Century Vietnam
February 11, 2025 at 9:18 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
Dr Amrita Shodhan and @soaslibrary.bsky.social are hosting a film screening and discussion of "The 'Strangers' Home" on Tue. 18 Feb. 2025, 18:30 in BGLT.
For more information and registration see www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
Event flyer for the screening of the documentary 'The Strangers' Home', showing a black-and-white photo of three likely South Asian seamen at the helm of a ship, Text from the top: SOAS Library | The Strangers' Home (in red) | Screening of a documentary exploring how sailors from cross the British empire and beyond built a community round London's Docks in the late 19th and mid 20-th centuries, as well as a Q&A and exhibition. | 18 February 6.30pm BGLT, Brunei Gallery Lower Ground Floor
February 1, 2025 at 1:06 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
Join us for our next SOAS History seminar this coming Wednesday 29th January when Dr. Rana Baker (KCL) will be speaking on Making money secular in nineteenth-century Egypt. All welcome!
For more information see:
www.soas.ac.uk/about/event/...
City in Egypt; early 20th Century postcard; from speaker’s collection
January 28, 2025 at 9:29 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
For those of you interested in the history of empire: Dr Brunero (National University of Singapore) speaks about Singpore's place in tours of empire. Tomorrow, Monday 23 September, 7.30pm at the Royal Asiatic Society. Distributed on behalf of the #RAS
royalasiaticsociety.org/event/dr-don...
Royal Asiatic Society, 2024-25 Lecture Series, Dr Donna Brunero (NUS), Visiting the 'Liverpool of the East': Singapore's place in tours of empire, Monday 23rd of September at 6.30pm. Photo of a postcard showing a scene of colonial Singapore, with stately buildings and a ricksha with puller waiting for customers before some kind of railing, with the caption 'Greetings from Singapore', short greetings in handwriting underneath, dated 8 Jan 1903, from the Collection of Professor Ernest Chew. Free and open to all at 14 Stephenson Way, NW1 2HD. To join us online email: mb@royalasiaticsociety.org
September 22, 2024 at 2:54 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
We are pleased to announce another line up of speakers for the SOAS History Seminar this term.
Events will take place on Wednesdays, 5-7pm and be held in room S209 in the Paul Webley Wing of Senate House.
More detailed information is one SOAS events pages and will be posted here closer to the time.
SOAS History Seminar Term 1 – 2024-2025 Wednesdays, 5-7pm, room S209 in the Paul Webley Wing of Senate House 9 Oct 2024 Jake Subryan Richards (LSE) Liberated Africans and the Legal Order of the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World 16 Oct 2024 Valentina Boretti (SOAS) Making girls and boys in twentieth century China 30 Oct 2024 Eve Hayes De Kalaf (IHR) Accessing Citizenship in an Inaccessible World: Is it time we start reframing the Windrush Scandal as an International Statelessness Crisis? 13 Nov 2024 Flavia Xiang (IHR/SOAS) The Whole Universe Was in One Mutton Stench! Olfactory Othering and Sensory Propaganda in Medieval China 20 Nov 2024 Amar Sohal (KCL) Kashmir without History: Sheikh Abdullah and the Partition of India 27 Nov 2024 Oscar Broughton (SOAS) Protein Frontiers in the Trans-imperial Pacific: A History of the Brazilian Beef Industry
September 21, 2024 at 12:51 PM
soashistory.bsky.social
Well, there is not much to brag with yet, but more is to come soon, promised!
September 17, 2024 at 7:32 PM