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Rahul Rao

@rahulraothariel.bsky.social
478 followers 332 following 120 posts

losing faith in social media and not here very much 📚 'The Psychic Lives of Statues: Reckoning with the Rubble of Empire' (Pluto Press, 2025) | www.plutobooks.com/9780745350769/th… 💻 www.rahulrao.net

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Reposted by Rahul Rao
Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is great: Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social reading Esmat Elhalaby’s 'Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization' to counter Pankaj Mishra's equivocations in 'The World After Gaza'
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Vindhya Buthpitiya @vindi-b.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The limits of Pankaj Mishra’s reckoning with Zionism and the Gaza genocide www.himalmag.com/pankaj-mishr... @rahulraothariel.bsky.social for @himalsouthasian.bsky.social
himalmag.com
The limits of Pankaj Mishra’s reckoning on Gaza and Zionism
Pankaj Mishra’s ‘The World After Gaza’ searches for common ground between diverse histories of suffering, but his centring of Jewish trauma leaves Palestine diminished. Esmat Elhalaby, by contrast, re...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
on how the NHS is locked into Palantir ('vendor lock-in'), and how Peter Mandelson and Oswald Mosley's grandson amongst others got us there 🤮
lrb.co.uk
Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin · ‘This looks absolutely rubbish’: Palantir and the NHS
A decade ago Palantir was largely unknown in the UK. It now holds public contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
fantasized about an encounter between James Joyce and Kneecap while reading this (would he have thought differently about the Irish Literary Revival if the only available model wasn’t Yeats?) Starveling Rabblement www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Terry Eagleton · Starveling Rabblement: Joyce’s Politics
Joyce stands out​ among the great modernist writers for his belief in tolerance, equality, democracy, progress and the...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
finally, another person who looks at Matt Damon and thinks of Leonardo di Caprio! An Uncomplicated Man www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Man
As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
if you're in Glasgow next weekend, I'll be speaking at the Govanhill Book Festival – the programme for which features lots of brilliant speakers including the one and only Jeremy Corbyn! govanhillbaths.com/what-we-do/g...
govanhillbaths.com
Govanhill Book Festival - Govanhill Baths
Two days of literature, politics and ideas at the heart of the Govanhill International Festival. Featuring Jeremy Corbyn, Josie Long, Rahul Rao, Frances Crawford, Hannah Lavery and more. Tickets from ...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
“Just because it’s easy to demonise Infantino doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t” 😂 (If you read one thing about the World Cup) www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Simon Skinner · ‘I wouldn’t pay it either’: World Cup Wallcharts
Infantino, who once pronounced that ‘it’s very clear that politics should stay out of football and football should...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
JOB 📣 Lecturer in International Political Economy in the School of IR, University of St Andrews www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk
Lecturer (International Political Economy) - AC2880
Lecturer (International Political Economy) - AC2880, School of International Relations Salary: £47,389 - £58,226 per annum Start Date: 01 January 2027 , <p style="text-align: justify;">We wish to appo...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
just released: new podcast on 'The Psychic Lives of Statues' with Gargi Bhattacharyya – we recorded this conversation several months ago, and it ended up fuelling some of my thinking for the new preface to the paperback shows.acast.com/ucl-sarah-pa...
shows.acast.com
SPRC In conversation with Rahul Rao: Statues, idols and why we love the idea of an animate object | UCL Sarah Parker Remond Centre Podcast
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
loved having this wide-ranging conversation with Timothy Stacey and Annick van Rinsum on living in a more-than-human world
open.spotify.com
Room to explore... living in a more than human world
NIAS — Room to explore · Episode
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
'the task facing a mature society is to adapt its methods of financing universities to sustaining the purposes for which such institutions exist'
lrb.co.uk
Stefan Collini · Squadrons of Pigs: Bonfire of the Universities
The problems with Britain’s universities are systemic and deep-rooted, not just local or contingent. Yet political and...
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Anupama Ranawana @msamrc.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Also some excellent reflections on this in @rahulraothariel.bsky.social 's the psychic lives of statues.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
1. Caste. Most people in the west don’t understand that the waves of engineers and doctors who immigrated out of India in the 70s and onwards were ‘high’ caste folks, who resented the Indian equivalent of affirmative action for caste. Caste solidarity is very powerful…/
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Natalia Cecire @ncecire.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Academic departments deserve to be saved, supported, resourced, allowed to grow even if they're not "best in the country," "first in the REF," "top-ranked," "at a Russell Group uni," or whatever other austerity-brained nonsense senior managers have been using to flimflam you out of solidarity
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Drawing History www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
history.ac.uk
Drawing History
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
a short commentary from me responding to Andrew Smith's ‘What post-colonial sociology forgets: Recovering the materialist tradition of anti-colonial critique’ in Dialogues in Sociology doi.org/10.1177/2976...
doi.org
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
made a list of my favourite books about the politics of statues, all of which informed the writing of 'The Psychic Lives of Statues' bookdna.com/best-books/t...
bookdna.com
Rahul Rao's favorite books about the politics of controversial statues
Rahul Rao wrote The Psychic Lives of Statues. These are their favorite books on the politics of controversial statues.
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
enjoyed talking to Lalita du Perron on SASSpod about ‘The Psychic Lives of Statues’, the world it was written in, and the state we’re in now
player.captivate.fm
The Psychic Lives of Statues
Quickly and easily listen to SASSpod for free!
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
glad to see OfS ‘free speech’ crusaders with egg on their face
theguardian.com
Sussex University overturns £585,000 fine as high court rejects free speech breach claim
Ruling is blow to Office for Students after it issued record fine for allegations over professor’s trans rights views
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Sunil Kashyap: "The UGC regulations and the Supreme Court injunction capture the essence of the tightrope the BJP is walking: to announce measures to show Bahujan communities that it has their interests at heart, while not enforcing them in order to avoid alienating its loyal upper-caste base."
caravanmagazine.in
UGC’s equity regulations test BJP's Hindutva social arithmetic ahead of UP elections
The protests, both in support and against the UGC regulations, which were stayed by the Supreme Court, bring to fore the delicate caste equation that the BJP needs to manage to ensure electoral succes...
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Pluto Press @plutopress.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
“Rich theoretical intervention in a debate that is impossible to avoid: these statues, after all, occupy public space and cannot easily be ignored” The Psychic Lives of Statues by @rahulraothariel.bsky.social reviewed in The Wire India: m.thewire.in/article/book...
m.thewire.in
Reading Gandhis Afterlives in an Age of Toppling Statues - The Wire
A new book explores the global politics of statues and memory, placing Gandhi at the centre of debates on race, caste and postcolonial history.
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Pluto Press @plutopress.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
“Rich theoretical intervention in a debate that is impossible to avoid: these statues, after all, occupy public space and cannot easily be ignored” The Psychic Lives of Statues by @rahulraothariel.bsky.social reviewed in The Wire India: m.thewire.in/article/book...
m.thewire.in
Reading Gandhis Afterlives in an Age of Toppling Statues - The Wire
A new book explores the global politics of statues and memory, placing Gandhi at the centre of debates on race, caste and postcolonial history.
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
“Experts say the algorithm failed to take into account key cultural issues, including that there is no standard form of transcribing Bengali names into English script, and that Bengali surnames have been adapted over generations, leading to small spelling inconsistencies between family documents.”
theguardian.com
Millions in India stripped of vote before critical state election, as government seeks to ‘purify’ electoral roll
Experts say Muslims and other minorities have been disproportionately deleted from the electoral roll ahead of the West Bengal elections this week
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Pluto Press @plutopress.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
“Rich theoretical intervention in a debate that is impossible to avoid: these statues, after all, occupy public space and cannot easily be ignored” The Psychic Lives of Statues by @rahulraothariel.bsky.social reviewed in The Wire India: m.thewire.in/article/book...
m.thewire.in
Reading Gandhis Afterlives in an Age of Toppling Statues - The Wire
A new book explores the global politics of statues and memory, placing Gandhi at the centre of debates on race, caste and postcolonial history.
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Anupama Ranawana @msamrc.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
If you're close to Edinburgh highly recommend the Writing as Resistance exhibit at the Palestine museum.
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
the paperback edition of ‘The Psychic Lives of Statues’ is out in June 2026, with a new preface describing how India anticipated the fascination that authoritarian strongmen and tech bros have with immortalizing their ideals and idols in statues preorder here: www.plutobooks.com/product/the-...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
"when did they put us in Madame Tussauds?"
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
i learned so much about the city I'm from by reading Hemangini Gupta's wonderful book 'Experimental Times: Startup Capitalism and Feminist Futures in India' (University of California Press, 2024)
gender.ed.ac.uk
Book Forum: Rahul Rao on Hemangini Gupta's Experimental Times | GENDER.ED
Earlier this year, GENDER.ED, CRITIQUE and the Critical Data Studies Cluster of EFI hosted a book launch for Hemangini Gupta’s new book Experimental Times. In this blog post, Dr Rahul Rao engages with...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
if, like me, you’ve been feeling AI illiterate, consider spending two very worthwhile hours listening to @nsrnicek.bsky.social talk about what the hell is going on
podcasts.apple.com
Silicon Empires w/ Nick Srnicek
Podcast Episode · The Dig · 26 January · 2h 24m
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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 08/04/2026
all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
when charismatic species are in danger of extinction, you know we’re truly fucked
theguardian.com
Mass drowning of chicks puts emperor penguins at risk of extinction
Record low levels of Antarctic sea ice are having grim consequences for penguins yet to grow waterproof feathers
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Emotions in Politics and IR (EPIR) BISA Working Group @epir-bisa.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
🚨NEXT EVENT🚨 📖 Book talk: ‘The psychic lives of statues: reckoning with the rubble of empire’ Discussion of Rahul Rao’s (@rahulraothariel.bsky.social) latest book 🗓️ Monday 20 April, 4pm BST (online) 🔗Register here: www.bisa.ac.uk/members/work...
bisa.ac.uk
Book talk - The psychic lives of statues: reckoning with the rubble of empire- Emotions in Politics and International Relations (EPIR) | BISA
- Emotions in Politics and International Relations (EPIR) Working Group
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
a wonderful bracingly critical review by Arko Dasgupta of 'The Psychic Lives of Statues' in @thewire.in - so grateful for this thoughtful engagement with the book in one of my favourite corners of independent media
thewire.in
Reading Gandhi's Afterlives in an Age of Toppling Statues
A new book explores the global politics of statues and memory, placing Gandhi at the centre of debates on race, caste and postcolonial history.
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
if you work in a UK uni, drop everything and read this (not news to many of us, but sobering to have the dots joined up; the stories are outrageous and heartbreaking)
theguardian.com
‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK
The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
interesting and difficult listening, particularly the quite persuasive bit about why arguments from historic responsibility (every poco theorist’s bread and butter) for climate catastrophe are so politically ineffective in Europe at the moment
podcasts.apple.com
On Politics: Iran and the Oil Crisis
Podcast Episode · The LRB Podcast · 3 April · 1hr 10min
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Free the Brize Norton Five Campaign chuffed.org/project/1728...
chuffed.org
Free the Brize Norton Five Campaign
We are the loved ones of the Brize Norton 5. Five people are currently on remand/pre-trial detention until their trial in Jan 2027 for allegedly spray painting two war planes at Royal Air Force (RAF) ...
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Tony Lang @proftonylang.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Journal of International Political Theory now has a Bluesky account! Follow us and get updates on some of our great articles: @j-ipt.bsky.social
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
please join us in St Andrews for an urgent conversation on ‘Queer lives in Palestine’ with the brilliant Omar Khatib
events.st-andrews.ac.uk
Queer lives in Palestine: settler colonialism and resistance
After many years of organizing and research in a context marked by extreme violence under a brutal settler-colonial regime, Omar
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Anupama Ranawana @msamrc.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Fab event coming up at St Andrews Queer lives in Palestine: settler colonialism and resistance In conversation with Omar Khatib events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/queer...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
📢JOB: Lecturer in IR of Russia at the University of St Andrews www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQY935/l...
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer - AC2864 at University of St Andrews
Recruiting now: Lecturer - AC2864 on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
📢JOB: Lecturer in IR of Russia at the University of St Andrews www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQY935/l...
jobs.ac.uk
Lecturer - AC2864 at University of St Andrews
Recruiting now: Lecturer - AC2864 on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Britain’s version of ICE… is even called the same thing
theguardian.com
‘They singled out non-white, foreign-born workers’: the restaurants raided by Britain’s version of ICE
They’re not armed and they keep a relatively low profile. But the Home Office’s immigration compliance and enforcement officers have searched thousands of business in pursuit of illegal workers. Are t...
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
the statement by India’s former chief of naval staff, Adm Arun Prakash is pretty pathetic NOT they shouldn't have sunk a ship that was on a training exercise BUT they shouldn't have done it on our doorstep. “They could have delayed this action to spare India this embarrassment.”
theguardian.com
‘Bit of treachery’: US attack on IRIS Dena undermines Indian security ties
Defence analyst says torpedo strike is a ‘humiliation’ for Modi’s government that disregarded a US defence partner
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
highly informative episode
podcasts.apple.com
Israel's forever war in Lebanon w/ Nathaniel George
Podcast Episode · Politics Theory Other · 12 March · 1h 3m
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
on the once magnetic appeal of the American academy, the place of Third World migrants in its political economy, and its descent into the current hellishness (peppered with poignant anecdotes about Said and Spivak)
equator.org
From Calcutta to Columbia • EQUATOR
A memoir of disenchantment
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
very illuminating conversation
m.youtube.com
Can Iran Survive? An urgent discussion on the US-Israel War
YouTube video by Verso Books
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
theguardian.com
Prison sentences for pair who attacked gay men hailed as sign of hope for Kenya’s LGBTQ+ community
The perpetrators were jailed for 15 years for robbery with violence in the east African country, where homophobic attacks are increasing
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Rahul Rao @rahulraothariel.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
I got one of these too, from the ‘Arlington Books and Wine Club’
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Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
This is what ecocide looks like.
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