iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Joining the chorus of September announcements: later this month I’ll be starting at Keele University in Stoke as a Lecturer in History and Digital Humanities. I'm very happy to be joining Keele, teaching a new group of students, and thinking about digital approaches to African History!

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Please give my latest blog a read!

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Some Easter reading - Our latest blog, written by Dr Andrea Azizi Kifyasi of the University of Dar es Salaam on Chinese-Tanzanian Medical Exchanges. He explores both the opportunities and challenges offered by these collaborations - with major present-day resonances. medium.com/p/cf2b4d08f6...

medium.com

Chinese-Tanzanian Relations, Medical Knowledge, and Development after 1968

Dr Andrea Azizi Kifyasi of the University of Dar es Salaam tells the fascinating story of global knowledge flows around health in…

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

I was very lucky to read - and review - Riley Linebaugh's recent Curating the Colonial Past: The “Migrated Archives” and the Struggle for Kenya’s History for the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History - an important and forensically researched book! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

Curating the Colonial Past: The “Migrated Archives” and the Struggle for Kenya’s History

Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2026)

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The Society for the History of War @sochistorywar.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

📣 Save the date! The next conference of the Society for the History of War will take place at the University of Limerick, Ireland 🇮🇪 🗓 26–27 November 2026 Historians of war, conflict, and violence - mark your calendars!! 📄 Call for Papers coming soon!

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

This was a real privilege, as well as a challenging experience. Some very impressive and heart-rending stories of survivors. The work WOTESAWA is really important and incredible - and in the current development/aid environment, this is exactly the kind of work that becomes much harder...

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

We had a brilliant time today at the University of Dar es Salaam, talking to scholars about socio-economic rights in East Africa - but the discussions continue. Tomorrow in Bochum, Germany, we will be holding a further hybrid workshop on global histories of socio-economic rights. Link below

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Join us online for this event we are hosting in Dar es Salaam tomorrow on Histories of Socio-Economic Rights in East Africa! Tune in especially for the keynote from Salvatory Nyanto at 11 AM EAT, 8 AM GMT on religion and Ujamaa in Tanzania - as well as a range of other scholars!

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Lauren Brown @laurencochrane.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I simply couldn't keep quiet about some people's reaction to @davidolusoga.bsky.social's Empire episode dedicated to Mau Mau. Read my two cents in my latest article for @africasacountry.bsky.social. 🇰🇪

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Please give my most recent journal article on debates on late-colonial social security, in the Journal of Eastern African Studies, a read! This is the output of our project and a talk I gave at the British Institute in Eastern Africa back in September. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

The life and death of old-age social security in late-colonial Kenya

The last decade of colonial rule in Kenya witnessed a widespread debate about social security for African workers. The government sought to create a stable, permanent workforce, while workers wante...

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Join me this Thursday (2:30 pm East Africa, 11:30 am GMT) as I give a (online) talk to the University of Nairobi's Research Seminar on my work on Kenyan decolonisation and the settlement schemes which transferred much white-owned land at independence. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Very excited to announce the publication of my latest article— the last in a trilogy about local politics in Nyeri District in the years surrounding Kenyan independence. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... (1/4)

cambridge.org

“Blackshirts” and “Blacklists”: The Politics of Late-Colonial Central Kenya, 1958–1963 | Itinerario | Cambridge Core

“Blackshirts” and “Blacklists”: The Politics of Late-Colonial Central Kenya, 1958–1963

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Our Medium page has a new blog! Bernard Thomann of @ifrae.bsky.social and @inalco.fr in Paris has written for us about accusations of 'social dumping', international pressure, and the transformation of labour conditions in twentieth-century Japan. Subscribe to see more! medium.com/@glosoc/soci...

medium.com

‘Social dumping’ and the economic transformation of twentieth-century Japan

Guest Blog by Bernard Thomann (Ifrae/Inalco, Paris, France)

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

It's been incredible this week to see something that I, along with many others, have been working on for several years... "Emergency Exits: The Fight for Independence in Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus" exhibit at the Imperial War Museum in London. The exhibition represents a significant evolution... 1/6

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

We are still continuing our effort to crowdsource items for our virtual exhibition on the global struggle for labour rights! We are also welcoming blog contributions for our Medium blog medium.com/@glosoc. Any personal stories, academic findings, or reflections on the theme are welcome!

medium.com

Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts – Medium

Read writing from Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts on Medium. An AHRC-funded research project exploring the histories of work-related social rights in Britain, Germany, Tanzania and Kenya,...

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

One for the diary! If you're in Nairobi, do come along to the British Institute in East Africa to listen to me present some findings on the history of social security in the region. Alternatively, you can join online. 4 pm EAT on the 18th of September Register here: biea.ac.uk/events/the-o...

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 10/09/2025

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Crowd-sourcing opportunity! At GLOSOC, we are putting together a virtual exhibition on Work and the Global History of Social Rights since the nineteenth century. The exhibition is targeted at school students and adults, and we need your help and suggestions for items to include!

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

Very happy to see my latest article published with @thejah.bsky.social - the second in what will be a trilogy of articles on the legacy of Mau Mau and local politics in Central Kenya. In this article, I take a look at the African Independent Pentecostal Church, the religious arm...

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Thrilled to say that my most recent article has been released. It appears in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, on the politics of chieftaincy in decolonising Central Kenya, where many ex-Mau Mau found their way into local politics. read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/arti...

read.dukeupress.edu

Neo–Mau Mau and Ex-Loyalists | Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East | Duke University Press

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

read.dukeupress.edu

Neo–Mau Mau and Ex-Loyalists | Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East | Duke University Press

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Happy Labour Day! To mark the occasion, our project member @roryhanna.bsky.social has authored a blog on the 1955 protests by the labour movement in West Germany demanding a five-day week - with some very pertinent contemporary resonances! medium.com/p/bc26223cafcf

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

We are very happy to announce our exciting program for our first project workshop, 5-6 June, on "Writing Global Histories of Socio-Economic Rights" See www.glosoc.org/events/ for a text version of the programme and for details to register for online and in-person attendance.

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The Society for the History of War @sochistorywar.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Fascinating insights this morning from on postcolonial freedom fighters in 1960s Kenya, as part of the Global Geographies of Veteran History panel by @nielsboender.bsky.social

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Thrilled to finally announce the release of our edited collection - Homecoming Veterans in Literature and Culture. I am incredibly grateful to the brilliant contributors who have established 'Homecoming' as an analytical lense for understanding veterans' return www.routledge.com/Homecoming-V...

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The Society for the History of War @sochistorywar.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

SHoW's heading to Potsdam! 📢 Call for Papers – SHoW 2025 🗓 27–28 November 2025 📍University of Potsdam 📝 Abstracts due: 30 June How do societies understand, justify, and remember war and violence? And how do cultures resist, represent, or misrepresent it? All details can be found below! ⬇️

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Give this blog a read - where I explore an interesting bit of correspondence between Julius Nyerere and the pro-Western International Confederation on Free Trade Unions on the future of trade unions in Africa.

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

If you're anywhere near Oxford this Thursday come along at 15:30 for my talk in the African Studies Seminar on reconciliation and repression in 1960s Kenya! www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/event/resear...

africanstudies.ox.ac.uk

African Studies Seminar: Researching Reconciliation and Repression in 1960s Kenya

Niels Boender

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

Call for Papers for our first event! Join us at our hybrid workshop - Writing Global Histories of Socio-Economic Rights at the University of Sheffield, 5-6 June 2025. Please send us a keyword, abstract, and bio at glosoc@sheffield.ac.uk. The deadline is 15 February. See more details below!

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

We've published our first two blogs for our GLOSOC project. Find out about the diversity of approaches to social rights across both time and space in Europe and Africa. From Bismarck's Germany to the era of Structural Adjustment, we sketch the broad outlines of our project. medium.com/@glosoc

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Niels Boender @nielsboender.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Had a really wonderful time at the @sochistorywar.bsky.social conference in Nicosia last week. Authentically a wonderful group of people - and in an incredibly fascinating (and relevant) location. Next year in Potsdam!

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Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts @glosoc.bsky.social · 01/11/2024

We are live! Our AHRC research project Global Socio-Economic Rights, Local Contexts Work in East Africa and Western Europe, 1880 to the Present, has now fully started! We will be using this page to share some of our exciting work over the coming years. Check out the website here: glosoc.org

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