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Priya Lal

@priyalalista.bsky.social
139 followers 79 following 7 posts

Historian of Africa and the world

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Reposted by Priya Lal
Todd Wolfson @proftwolf.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
My PhD advisor, Peggy Sanday, published Fraternity Gang Rape (1990). She found gang rape functions as male bonding through domination: men use women to prove masculinity, gain status, & demonstrate loyalty. Group norms normalize coercion, erase consent, & institutional privilege shields perpetrators
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Priya Lal @priyalalista.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Pre-ordered copies of my new book will be mailed out next month. Here's what other scholars have to say about Ambition and Adjustment... press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
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Reposted by Priya Lal
Alex White @alexjwhite.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
This is a stunning article by @faisalahali.bsky.social, covering the radical history of Radio Mogadishu and ongoing efforts to protect its extraordinary archive. There's also embedded audio, if you're curious about how its broadcasts sounded! www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/...
aljazeera.com
Somalia races to save Radio Mogadishu’s fading archive
A small team is working to digitise decades of Somali history in the country's main public radio station.
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Priya Lal @priyalalista.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Historians: read this, circulate this, sign this, and vote! "Amid pivotal elections underway, a growing coalition of historians are demanding accountability for war crimes in Gaza and election interference at the oldest historical association in the United States." www.usscholarsspeak.org
usscholarsspeak.org
US Scholars Speak
Confronting the AHA's Palestine Exception July 2026
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Reposted by Priya Lal
Stacy Fahrenthold @sfahrenthold.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
AHA members, the elections are open till July 15! I was eager to support this year's Democracy Slate! This graphic introduces those petition candidates.
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Priya Lal @priyalalista.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Historians! This is a great overview of what an undemocratic disaster our professional association has become, and how we can take it back: www.instagram.com/p/DY5MxxqGse...
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Reposted by Priya Lal
Rabih Alameddine @rabihalameddine.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
The Thinker, by Hiromu Kira c. 1930.
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Priya Lal @priyalalista.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Cover reveal! And table of contents now up: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
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Priya Lal @priyalalista.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
My book is coming to life! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
press.uchicago.edu
Ambition and Adjustment
How the best intentions of African socialism became the useful tools of capitalism.In the mid-twentieth century, skilled labor was seen as the key to national development. For newly independent Africa...
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Reposted by Priya Lal
Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 13/01/2026
'Writing the History of Neoliberalism: A Comment' bit.ly/3LKB8NF - new article in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'. With contributions from Quinn Slobodian, Priya Lal, Gary Gerstle & Tehila Sasson. @quinnslobodian.com, @priyalalista.bsky.social @tsasson.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2
Opening page for the Royal Historical Society article 'Writing the History of Neoliberalism: A Comment'. 

Full abstract: This series of comments brings together four historians of neoliberalism, each of whom focuses on a different part of the world but whose work has implications that are transnational if not global. Quinn Slobodian reconstructs the rise of the category of neoliberalism among historians and identifies the different paths of inquiry it is generating. Priya Lal, offering an Africanist’s perspective, moves beyond the reduction of the neoliberal narrative of the continent to one of linear declension and abjection by way of structural adjustment to show continuities from the colonial era to early independence. Gary Gerstle, an Americanist by training, offers a macro take on the move from a Keynesian and social democratic order to a neoliberal one while insisting we attend to the diverse ways policies and elite neoliberal ideas are taken up by populations for whom promises of freedom may mean something different from what intellectuals intended. Finally, Tehila Sasson, a historian of modern Britain and the world, explores the left-wing features of what has come to be called neoliberalism, insisting we keep a keen eye out for unintended consequences and unlikely origins. Together, the comment offers a satellite’s eye view of a subfield reaching maturity."
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Priya Lal @priyalalista.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
Happy to share that my book, Ambition and Adjustment: The Making and Unmaking of Postcolonial Development in Africa, will be published by the University of Chicago Press next year! More soon about this project that I am very proud of and have been working on for a very long time.
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Reposted by Priya Lal
The Continent @thecontinent.org · 17/06/2025
We Built This City is a limited series of photo essays by The Continent on African cities. This week, we are in Lagos with Victor Adewale.
continent.substack.com
Lagos, unbound tempest beneath your feet
We Built This City is a limited series of photo essays by The Continent on African cities. This week, we are in Lagos with Victor Adewale.
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Progressive International @progintl.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
100% of Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine.
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The Continent @thecontinent.org · 25/05/2025
We Built This City is a limited series of photo essays by The Continent on African cities. This week, we are in Addis Ababa with Amanuel Sileshi.
continent.substack.com
Addis, alive and unrelenting
We Built This City is a limited series of photo essays by The Continent on African cities. This week, we are in Addis Ababa with Amanuel Sileshi.
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The Continent @thecontinent.org · 19/05/2025
We Built This City is a limited series of photo essays by The Continent on African cities. This week, we are in Algiers with Fethi Sahraoui.
continent.substack.com
The strange sadness of Algiers
We Built This City is a limited series of photo essays by The Continent on African cities. This week, we are in Algiers with Fethi Sahraoui.
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