Ulas Ince
Associate Professor of political theory at SOAS; British Academy Senior Research Fellow; author of Colonial Capitalism and the Dilemmas of Liberalism (Oxford 2018; bit.ly/3a8F0mr); writes on colonialism, capitalism, race; www.ulasince.com
- It's a book, I guess. *Before the Color Line* is ready to leave the building for clearance review.
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- This lot makes Gwyneth Paltrow look like Neil DeGrasse Tyson. FUBAR.
- Let's see how well this ages.
- Reposted by Ulas InceAN #EARLYMODERN POST!! They still exist! And a lovely one at that, for five years and with the brilliant people at KCL who have turned that place in quite the hub of exciting early modern research. Run, don’t walk.
- APSA 2025 impression: academic conference receptions are practically Hieronymous Bosch paintings.
- Reposted by Ulas InceAs an anthropologist, I'm inclined to try to understand stuff that looks like magical thinking rather than mock it, but proposing to build a God and then expecting him to tell you how to get rich is really testing all of my professional training...
- From the replies (bsky.app/profile/dasb...) here's Sam Altman doing what the quoted post described. He seems serious about it.
- I have reviewed Inés Valdez's book, Democracy and Empire: Labor, Nature, and Social Reproduction of Capitalism, for Political Theory journal. I highly recommend it on its integration of political economy into political theorizing. 👇
- Here's your "fiscal headroom."
- Reposted by Ulas InceExcited to see the website is now live for my forthcoming book, The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism (PUP, March 2026) press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
- My article on capitalist racialization and Chinese migration in British Asia received an Honorable Mention for the Outstanding Article Award from APSA's International History and Politics Section. Open access👇
- Reposted by Ulas InceNominations are now open for BIAPT’s Early and Mid-career prizes. Please consider nominating someone’s whose contribution to our field you really value. Note that self-nominations *are* permitted. Deadline is May 23rd. Details 👇 www.associationforpoliticalthought.ac.uk?p=4842&previ...
- A useful overview of the state of the art on "racial capitalism." www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
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- Join us on 11 April at SOAS for the workshop, "Globalizing Political Economy: Uneven Topographies of Capitalism." Full program below. Attendees need to register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/globalizin...
- "“We are living through the nightmare edition of ‘Great Men Make History’,” wrote the leftwing theorist Mike Davis shortly before his death in 2022. “... there are few safety switches between today’s maximum leaders and Armageddon." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- "I'm an American prince with 10 million dollars that I need to get out of the country. I will give you one million dollar if you help me. Please send me your bank account information. God bless you."
- Last call -- happening tomorrow "Empire and Emancipation"
- An excellent initiative. "The Return of Political Economy to Intellectual History."
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- Join us on 11 April at SOAS for the workshop, "Globalizing Political Economy." Details and registration here: www.eventbrite.com/e/globalizin...
- I wish I was "junior" enough to attend this. Hopkins has a terrific group of scholars working on race, capitalism, and political economy.
- Happening in a few hours.
- I'm giving an online lecture next week at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, based on my critique of Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson. Zoom link and details: www.csds.in/saving_capit... And the critique itself: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
- "Empire and Emancipation" Panel organized by London Political Theory Network 4 April, 3pm. SOAS, Senate House Rm 104. Register at the link:👇
- Once the legitimate preserve of the boomers and an object of cringe for everyone else, mustaches are back - presumably in the quasi-ironic mode just as plaid shirts and beards were once the rage amongst hipsters. In that spirit, I'll leave this gem of a song here for the newly 'tached. We love you.
- I'm giving an online lecture next week at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, based on my critique of Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson. Zoom link and details: www.csds.in/saving_capit... And the critique itself: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
- Reposted by Ulas InceI made a meme. Americans unhappy with Trump need to accept there is not a normal to go back to.
- Reposted by Ulas InceBeing able to drop a quarterly US GDP prediction by 5.1% from +2.3% to -2.8% in a single week is one of the most impressive economic developments in the history of the world.
- Racial Capitalism in the History of Political Thought. This is a good occasion to take stock of the state of the subject in the field of political theory, though my take is admittedly bit of an outlier . Conference details 👇 uchv.princeton.edu/events/racia...
- Racial Capitalism in the History of Political Thought Conference Princeton UCHV, 22 February. Details and program here: uchv.princeton.edu/.../racial-c.... Featuring Charisse Burden-Stelly, Inés Valdez, and others.
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- Me, staring at London's bleak skies: - No wonder they invented the pub. My partner: - Yeah, and the Spain.
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- Racial Capitalism in the History of Political Thought Conference Princeton UCHV, 22 February. Details and program here: uchv.princeton.edu/.../racial-c.... Featuring Charisse Burden-Stelly, Inés Valdez, and others.
- Recent reclamations of Smith as a skeptical cosmopolitan do so by overlooking his sanctioning of the visible hand of the imperial state to bring the recalcitrant within the fold of commercial civilization. 1/4
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- Nugget from the book I'm currently writing, attesting to the dynamics of capitalist racialization in the long 19th century: "In his 1902 Romanes Lecture on race relations, James Bryce argued, “for economic purposes, all mankind is fast becoming one people, in which the hitherto backward nations ...
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- Huge if true. “I thought the AI chatbots would do a lot better,” said del Rio-Chanona, corresponding author of the study and assistant professor at University College London. “History is often viewed as facts, but sometimes interpretation is necessary to make sense of it.”
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- A brilliant article on how the German state mobilizes international law to resist colonial reparation claims. Out now in @internatltheory.bsky.social, #OpenAccess.
- Ever alive to the prospect of the tired but convenient charge of "reductionism" flying from an audience member, I always have this slide handy in my deck. With enduring thanks to @kjhealy.co.
- Reposted by Ulas InceFinal day at the @biapt.bsky.social political thought conference, starting with a terrific keynote by @ulasince.bsky.social on his new project 'Before the Colour Line" #BIAPT2025
- Had a bracing conversation at @biapt.bsky.social 2025 on why political theorists should take political economy seriously.
- Final day at the @biapt.bsky.social political thought conference, starting with a terrific keynote by @ulasince.bsky.social on his new project 'Before the Colour Line" #BIAPT2025
- Reposted by Ulas InceNEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold. We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940. 2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.
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- Re: the academic habit of confusing life with work, I imagine the following exchange - What are you working on? - I'm moving the bathroom in a Victorian conversion. You? - I'm rewiring the electrical in a council flat. - Oh, I'm thinking of rewiring a flat one day. Maybe we should do some co-wiring.
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- I have tried to outline a "capital theory of race" here. The paper's historical argument in a nutshell: "even though the panic over the “yellow peril” was coded in the language of insurmountable difference, that is, race, the social logic of that threat was one of equivalence, that is, capital."
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- The book review we all dream of writing one day: "This is a book that clatters around in a dark closet of irrelevancies for 450 pages before it bumps accidentally into its index and stops."
- "... research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, published in 2023, concluded that parental earnings are a much stronger predictor of incomes for those born in the 1970s and after, than they were for previous generations." www.ft.com/content/4b7e...
- This is a very valuable attempt to bring some conceptual clarity and consistency to the emergent field of racial capitalism, the conceptual disarray of which leaves it open to dismissal. I highly recommend it along with Go's previous essay, "Three Tensions of Racial Capitalism."
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