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Drs Charlotte Heath-Kelly and Steve Kettell recently gave TEDx talks, for , on the theme of conflict.

Dr Heath-Kelly's talk, The Motivation of Terrorism, explored the motivations of terrorism, as identified through Charlotte's interviews with members of EOKA (a terrorist organization based in Cyprus).

Dr Kettell's talk, The Necessity of Secularism, addressed the role religion plays in warfare and will question society鈥檚 habit of hastily blaming religion for conflict.

Les aveux de la chair [Confessions of the Flesh], the fourth volume of French philosopher Michel Foucault鈥檚 History of Sexuality is published today (Feb 8, 2018), despite Foucault鈥檚 expressed wish that there should be 鈥榥o posthumous publications鈥�.

Stuart Elden, Professor of Political Theory and Geography, in 糖心TV University鈥檚 Politics and International Studies Department and Monash 糖心TV Professor in the Faculty of Arts, Monash University, is one of the leading experts in Foucault鈥檚 work.

He comments on the significance of and on Foucault鈥檚 academic legacy:

鈥淲hile Michael Foucault worked across many conventional academic disciplines, he was essentially a philosopher who explored questions through historical investigations. Most of his books are titled the history of something – madness, sexuality – or the birth of something – the clinic, the prison. He sometimes described his work as archaeologies – digging down to discover previously unseen layers, or genealogies – tracing roots and lineages of ideas and practices. But this work was always to try to explore larger questions – why do we think the way that we do, or know what we do; how does power work over us; what does it mean to be a subject?

鈥淚n many ways is the key to the whole History of Sexuality series. In 1976, with the publication of the first volume, Foucault outlined a thematic treatment of six volumes. The second book, on that plan, was to be on the medieval church and especially the question of confession of sins. Its initial title was La chair et le corps [The Flesh and the Body]. Foucault wrote much of a volume under this title. But he came to realise that crucial issues in the Christian tradition could be traced much further back. So through the late 1970s and early 1980s, which we can see in his lectures and other sources, he explored older and older historical material.

鈥淭his book is the result of this work. But Foucault felt that he needed to precede this book with a treatment of pagan antiquity, as he came to realise that many of the issues in the early Christian tradition had links to Greek and Roman texts and practices. So he put this book aside, wrote the books which were published as Volumes II and III, and the intended book on Christianity became Volume IV.

鈥淭he book is in three parts. The first discusses how the ancient notion of aphrodisia – a notion we might understand as pleasure, became replaced with the Christian notion of the flesh. That, in turn, precedes our modern understanding of sexuality. The second and third parts of the book discuss being a virgin and being married. These are the two key subjects that the Church fathers are concerned with – the monk and the married man.

鈥淭he book is much closer in style to Volumes II and III than some of Foucault鈥檚 other works. It is written in an austere style of textual analysis, without the kind of rhetorical flourishes that characterise some of his other work.鈥�

Reflecting on Foucault鈥檚 continued relevance, Professor Elden added: 鈥淔oucault only rarely wrote about contemporary events. In his lectures and interviews, and especially in his political activism around prisons and health in the early 1970s, he sometimes connected his work to the current moment. But most often he was concerned with the historical analysis of issues. He spoke of his work as a 鈥榟istory of the present鈥�, an examination of how we got to where we are, how what is currently taken for granted was made possible. The issues he was concerned with – madness and mental illness, medicine and health, punishment, sexuality and so on – remain pressing issues today and Foucault鈥檚 investigation of these issues, and perhaps especially the questions he asked about them, mean he continues to be a regular reference.

鈥淲ith the publication of his lecture courses, and now this entire book, we are continually finding new work to explore and think with him.鈥�

8 February 2018

• Professor Elden is the author of Foucault鈥檚 Last Decade, a study of Foucault鈥檚 History of Sexuality which draws on archival material and interviews:
• He is also the author of a book on the immediately preceding period which looks at Foucault鈥檚 political activism and academic work on power –
• He is currently writing a book entitled The Early Foucault

Dr. Maria Koinova published an article "Beyond Statist Paradigms: Sociospatial Positionality and Diaspora Mobilisation in International Relations" in the December 2017 issue of International Studies Review. The article develops a new positional theory for the analysis of diaspora mobilisation in IR, seeking to shift debates beyond realist, liberalist, and constructivist thinking, and speaking to a cluster of socio-positional theories in IR. The piece provides a conceptual discussion and empirical illustrations of diaspora positionality, and its utility to account for different diaspora mobilisation trajectories across the globe. In the development of a comprehensive theory, she focuses on the agency of diasporas and their moderate and transgressive behaviors. Empirically, it discusses diaspora mobilization of Armenians for genocide recognition and of Palestinians for an emerging statehood.

This article is open access:  

You can watch a short video on the article here:

Professor Ben Clift has been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for a project entitled 鈥楾he OBR and the Politics of UK Growth amidst Brexit, Uncertainty and Austerity鈥�. This will run from October 1st 2018 to September 30th 2021. The trust noted that 鈥楾he competition for these Fellowships has been particularly keen. The Trust received 186 applications and awarded 33 Fellowships. More importantly, the quality of the applications was extremely high and the Trust Board has been gratified both by the outcome and by the distinction of the successful scholars.鈥�

Ben鈥檚 Major Research Fellowship will draw back the veil on how UK growth assessments are constructed amidst pervasive uncertainty to explore the implications of Brexit and the British model of capitalism. The project penetrates the world of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) in path-breaking fashion to reveal an under-appreciated politics of economic forecasting, and to analyse the political economy of Brexit. The analysis will explore how economic concepts used to frame and pilot economic policy, even when advanced by technocratic bodies like the OBR, are political constructions, always founded upon contestable and contested normative assumptions. Growth forecasts crucially mediate the politics of austerity through their implications for the tax take, and in assumptions they make about effects of government policy (and shocks like the GFC or Brexit) on actual and potential growth. Government policy options are opened up or closed off by particular renderings of Britain鈥檚 growth trajectory and their assumptive foundations (notably about Brexit effects).

This hugely impressive achievement means that the Department of Politics and International Studies now holds a record four Leverhulme Major Research Fellowships — the others being held by Professors Richard Aldrich, Shaun Breslin, and Mike Saward.

Dr Steven Kettell was the principal author of a report for the National Secular Society that has been published recently. The report, which calls the monarchy and the Church of England to be 鈥渄isestablished鈥� when Prince Charles is crowned King, has been covered in the national press, including The Guardian and the Daily Express: