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Frank Gerits

@frankgerits.bsky.social
567 followers 580 following 77 posts

Tenured Assistant Professor Utrecht University II Research Fellow University of the Free State, Bloemfontein South Africa Climate Justice Historian and International History of the Global South

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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
I wrote about the 2026 Africa-France summit in Nairobi which is taking place today for The Conversation "Why Nairobi Africa‑France summit bears the hallmarks of Macron and Ruto priorities" theconversation.com/why-nairobi-...
theconversation.com
Why Nairobi Africa-France summit bears the hallmarks of Macron and Ruto priorities
The business start-up vibe of the Nairobi summit is no coincidence.
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António Ferraz de Oliveira @antoniofdo.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Our fantastic contibutors are Yusra Koops-Abdullahi, Atsuko Watanabe, Atul Mishra, Maarten Meijer @orrosenboim.bsky.social, Bill Figueroa, Jacob Mundy, Alex Manby, Sveinn M. Jóhannesson, @frankgerits.bsky.social and Xavier Guillaume.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
!New publication Alert! How African Decolonization Challenged the Notion of Cold War Polarity: The End of Empire, Modernization, and International Relations Theory in the 1950s and 1960s IN Global Studies Quarterly, Volume 6, Issue 2, April 2026 doi.org/10.1093/isag...
doi.org
Validate User
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
The History of market mechanisms and COP meetings, why? how? (in Dutch) www.mo.be/opinie/hoe-m...
mo.be
‘Hoe marktwerking de klimaatconferenties binnensloop’ – MO*
Door geen pad naar reductiedoelen te creëren lieten de VN-klimaatconferenties vrij spel aan de neoliberale vrije markt.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
@lastweektonight.com doing the Presidential Library System. yes! www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB1-...
youtube.com
Presidential Libraries: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
YouTube video by LastWeekTonight
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
A new academic year at Utrecht University — always a highlight. The energy, curiosity, and fresh perspectives students bring to the classroom are what make this work so enjoyable. Excited for the year ahead! You can still join the Existential Risk Workshop on 25 September: www.uu.nl/en/events/wo...
uu.nl
Workshop: Existential Risk in the Netherlands. A New Field of Study?
Explore the the social, economic, and ecological aspects of existential risks and what a ‘Risk Community’ could contribute to research in the Netherlands.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
1 MONTH TO GO UNTIL THE "EXISTENTIAL RISK IN THE NETHERLANDS WORKSHOP" If you want to attend as an audience member get in touch with my (f.p.l.gerits@uu.nl) Funded "Pathways to Sustainability" Part of the Politics of Environmental Action Project.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Macron has acknowledged that the anticolonial struggle in Niger was a full-blown war. He further recognized that France engaged in some neocolonial meddling after independence. Why? Read my piece (in French) in The Conversation theconversation.com/massacre-de-...
theconversation.com
Massacre de l'armée coloniale au Niger : derrière le mea culpa de Macron, la continuité d’un récit historique biaisé
Une expression matérielle de regret sous la forme d'un monument dédié aux vies africaines perdues pourrait, à cet égard, être un bon point de départ.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
I had the opportunity to speak about the mysterious and tragic plane crash of Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961. The podcast by @BNR has high production value, making it enjoyable to listen to even on a beach or during a walk. www.bnr.nl/podcast/fact...
bnr.nl
13. Dood Boven Katanga
18 september 1961, even na middernacht. Een Douglas DC-6 vliegtuig nadert de luchthaven van Ndola in Noord-Rhodesië. Aan boord zit Dag Hammarskjöld, de 56-j...
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Thursday 12 June, 16h: a panel conversation with actual real climate change activists who will participate in the next COP. Come to Universiteit Utrecht Library! More info behind the QR code!
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Audra Mitchell @audralmitchell.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Looking forward to celebrating this wonderful book! #anticolonial #extinction #studies [alt text: an image of a mastodon skeleton faces right. A figure riding an elephant sits underneath and left, with two figures (one holding a spear, the other a cane and top hat) to the right.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Talking about my book "The Ideological Scramble for Africa" on "Departures with Robert Amsterdam" podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...
podcasts.apple.com
Africa's unique ideological history and its impact on unity
Podcast Episode · Departures with Robert Amsterdam · 05/22/2025 · 28m
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Great workshop on the History of Non-Alignment. A collaborative project at the University of Padua History Department.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Great conference on AI. Off to Padova to talk Non-Alignment!
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Sign up if you want to attend. Powering up towards the Bonn Climate Change Conference 📅 Date: Thursday, 12 June 2025 🕓 Time: 16:00–18:00
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Great to be here! Looking forward to seeing all of you again in the ...... future
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The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 22/04/2025
We’re so glad Bluesky appreciates The Conversation’s approach to journalism. And we get 3.6x the readership from Bluesky that we get from X. But many people don’t know about us yet – if you think your followers would appreciate our links in their feed, please let them know about us.
theconversation.com
How we're different | The Conversation
The Conversation is the world's leading publisher of research-based news and analysis. It is a unique collaboration between academics and journalists, provided to everyone for free.
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Pollyanna Rhee 이채영 @parhee.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
For this Earth Day and in celebration of my commitment to the bit that my book makes it to With Love, Meghan I made a step and repeat for it with @uchicagopress.bsky.social gift wrap. You can buy a copy or request your library purchase one, please. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/vi...
A green book with white Spanish Colonial style houses in front of University of Chicago Press gift wrap.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
Swing by tonight if you have time to hear me ramble about the international politics of climate change
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Lucas Mueller @lumu.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Save the date for the next talk in the "Geneva Environmental Lecture" series! On 8 May, Mark Carey (Oregon) will speak on the very mundane history of icebergs 🧊 More on avalanche.hypotheses.org/gel
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
This is a major step forward for International Environmental History!
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Essay - in Dutch - on the perils of revisionist imperial history ("We also did a lot of good things"). Written together with @gillianmathys.bsky.social , in response to the claims made in "Engelen uit Europa", a book by Hans Van der Jagt. THE LINK: bmgn-lchr.nl/article/view...
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Vicent J. Martínez @vicentjm.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Very interesting article by @startswithabang.bsky.social: Ask Ethan: Why are maps of the cosmos always oval-shaped? bigthink.com/starts-with-... A different representation of temperature fluctuations, in this case from WMAP data, using depths and elevations. @pomarede.bsky.social 🧪⚛️🔭
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Another day another book review. This time by Matteo Grilli and he actually has some criticism as well, which I will ignore for the sake of "providing readers with unprecedented insights into this period". www.academia.edu/128476338/Gr...
academia.edu
Grilli, review of The Ideological Scramble for Africa: how the pursuit of anticolonial modernity shaped a postcolonial order, 1945–1966 by Frank Gerits Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023. Pp x...
Free State Gerits' book is part of a scholarship which, in the wake of Westad's The Global Cold War, seeks to pay more attention to the role played by the developing world in the Cold War. Ger...
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
media.tenor.com
a pigeon is walking on a concrete surface
ALT: a pigeon is walking on a concrete surface
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
I wrote an entry on Nonalignment: www.taylorfrancis.com/search?key=n...
taylorfrancis.com
Search Results | Taylor & Francis eBooks, Reference Works and Collecti
Browse our vast collection of ebooks in specialist subjects led by a global network of editors.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Proud to announce the launch of Routledge Resources Online: The Cold War ! 🌍 You can find the link here: www.taylorfrancis.com/rrocw/?conte... Ruud Van Dijk is the main editor. I am editor for Africa entries. We have a big editorial board. @shafrhistorians.bsky.social @coldwarpod.bsky.social
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
vrtnws.be/p.aOZvaNpdX0w
vrtnws.be
Greenpeace voert actie tegen aardgas op Belgische kust
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Join us in the 2025 Policy Workshop ‘The Montreal Moment’ in Middelburg from 5-6 June 2025. Supported by the RIAS in Middelburg and Pathways to Sustainability at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social @siculovevo.bsky.social www.roosevelt.nl/app/uploads/...
roosevelt.nl
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
TOMORROW I WILL GO ON STRIKE! LIKE MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES WE RESIST THE DESTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSITY IN THE NETHERLANDS
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
"Instead, this is a monumental undertaking requiring the author to chase his sources all over the world, and a major achievement for global diplomatic history." Thank you Burleigh Hendrickson for reading my book. doi.org/10.1080/1466...
doi.org
The ideological scramble for Africa: how the pursuit of anticolonial modernity shaped a postcolonial order, 1945–1966
Published in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics (Ahead of Print, 2025)
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
It was great being a guest on AJinside @aljazeera.com talk about the AU's summit on reparations aje.io/uojo8v
aje.io
How realistic is the African Union’s call for reparatory justice?
African leaders are seeking reparations from former colonial powers at a summit in Ethiopia.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
James R. Brennan provided a thoughtful and deeply intellectual engagement with my book, offering insightful analysis instead of unfounded quick critiques. What a treat, because as he puts it himself it is a "book that should generate new debates".
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I think I would disagree with this point. What is a "conventional policy document"? If it is things published in FRUS, there is no lack of those references in my endnotes. Moreover, a lot of scholarship has highlighted how policy is also shaped by other actors beyond presidents.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
3. "questions linger regarding the representativeness of sources. Claims about general policy are illustrated primarily through fresh archival finds rather than through conventional policy documents or summaries of secondary literature."
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Right. As I pointed out elsewhere I think the intellectual history of "Anticolonial modernity" as a genuine political project deserves a book in and on itself.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
2. "Second, some arguments lack conceptual clarity. “Anticolonial modernity”"
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Fair point, but at the same time: the point of the book is to show how these intellectual currents show up in diplomacy.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
1. "The book’s cornerstone argument — that the “anticolonial modernity” pursued by African nationalists stands in a long tradition (...) carries the hallmarks of a speculative essay (...) yet the execution of this (...) carried out through intensive diplomatic archival research
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
"the author also has a knack for crisp and effective historiographical summary", but also "The book suffers from three defects." One of the most insightful reviews of the "Ideological Scramble for Africa" by a scholar whose work I admire: doi.org/10.1017/S002...
doi.org
African Worldmaking on a Global Stage - The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order, 1945–1966 Frank Gerits. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023. Pp. xi + 304. $67.95, hardcover (ISBN: 9781501767913). | The Journal of African History | Cambridge Core
African Worldmaking on a Global Stage - The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order, 1945–1966 Frank Gerits. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023. Pp. xi + 304. $67.95, hardcover (ISBN: 9781501767913).
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Like Mao's Little Red Book.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
I like that it is still "new"😄
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Thank you so much, @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to discuss THE IDEOLOGICAL SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA! @cornellupress.bsky.social You can listen to it here: newbooksnetwork.com/the-ideologi...
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
"Global South still views NATO through a colonial lens" An interview with yours truly (in Dutch) on NATO and its Global South strategy for @Atl_Comm @HumanitiesUU www.atlcom.nl/artikel-atla...
atlcom.nl
"Het mondiale Zuiden beoordeelt de NAVO nog altijd door een koloniale lens" - Atlantische Commissie
Uit onderzoek van de European Council on Foreign Relations bleek dat in veel landen, onder andere in het mondiale Zuiden, optimisme heerst over de nieuwe regering-Trump en de wereldwijde invloed die d...
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Ivan Sablin @ivansablin.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
My review of Frank Gerits, The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order, 1945–1966 and Alessandro Iandolo, Arrested Development: The Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955–1968 ojs.inz.si/pnz/article/...
ojs.inz.si
Vpogled v Modernity beyond the Cold War: Ideology and Development in Postcolonial Africa, 1945–1968 | Contributions to Contemporary History
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
I will be able to do research for “The New International Environmental Order: An International History of Climate Justice (1945-2000),” which deals with my new research areas of Existential Risk and Climate Change in the Global South.
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Happy to end a week (!) of oral examinations with the message that I received the Scowcroft Institute’s O'Donnell Research Grant to do research in the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
media.tenor.com
a little girl in a blue dress is standing in front of a mirror with her hands in the air .
ALT: a little girl in a blue dress is standing in front of a mirror with her hands in the air .
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Start of a week of oral examinations. Send help
media.tenor.com
spongebob holding a megaphone with the words we need help behind him
ALT: spongebob holding a megaphone with the words we need help behind him
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
The obsession with Control drives me nuts about this country
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Frank Gerits @frankgerits.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Green energy needs to be profitable, not cheap for a transition to work. We're fucked.
youtube.com
Why Cheap Renewables Won't Save Us
YouTube video by Our Changing Climate
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