Invited Talk @ University of Manchester History Dept., 12 May 2022.

I'll be giving a paper to the Faculty History Seminar, on the topic 'From Relief to Development: Post-War Humanitarian Intervention and the Making of the French Mandate in Syria'

Abstract:

This paper looks at French imperial food relief operations in Beirut at the end of WW1, with a particular focus on the role of humanitarian brokers and intermediaries. Drawing notably on the archives of a Lebanese businessman who moved between food relief operations and business activities after 1918, the paper argues that humanitarian interventions always carried within themselves a vision of economic development and worked to bring that vision into being.

Building on the anthropologist Didier Fassin's influential work on the politics of virtue, it shows how humanitarian relief efforts empowered humanitarians to direct aid to groups and individuals they deemed to have “merit,” but also enabled humanitarians to influence - and benefit from - the longer-term dynamics of reconstruction and economic development. 

News

Conference Presentation: '1922-2022: The Centenary of the End of the Ottoman Empire, History, Political Change, and Legacy.’ University of Bologna, 24-25 October 2022. I'll be speaking about the politics of capitalism and friendship in the post-WW1 Eastern Mediterranean.
 

Conference Presentation: 'Who is Public Space For? A Roundtable Discussion.’ University of Birmingham, 12 October 2022. I'll be speaking about my research on space and mobility in French imperial Beirut, and connecting this to today's politics of public space and transport.
 

Review Published: I reviewed a new article on the League of Nations, for the website H-Diplo, 1 July 2022. The article was by Dr Pablo Laporte, titled “Dissenting Voices: The Secretariat of the League of Nations and the Drafting of Mandates, 1919–1923”
 

Conference Presentation: 'What is History For?' University of Birmingham, 12 May 2022. I'll be speaking about my research on phosphate extraction and colonial empire, on a panel titled 'Race and Colonialism in an Age of Climate Crisis'
 

Invited Talk @ University of Manchester History Dept., 12 May 2022. I'll be giving a paper to the Faculty History Seminar, on the topic 'From Relief to Development: Post-War Humanitarian Intervention and the Making of the French Mandate in Syria'
 

Grant Funding: British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, March 2022. I was lucky to be awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, worth £9,600, which will support a research project titled 'Fertile Futures: Phosphate, Farming and Food between France and Morocco, 1921-2008'
 

PhD Committee, External Examiner Service: Mehdi Sakatni (Aix-Marseille University, France). I will be serving as external examiner for Mehdi Sakatni's PhD at Aix Marseille University, on French policy towards nomadic peoples in the Syrian Mandate. 26 March 2022.
 

Invited Talk @ Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, 16 March 2022. I'll be giving a paper to the Faculty Global & Transnational History Seminar, on the topic 'From Khouribga to the World: Problems and Possibilities for a Global History of Phosphate'
 

Book Chapter Published: Cross-Border Ford Distribution in French Mandate Syria. This appeared in 'Regimes of Mobility: Borders and State Formation in the Middle East, 1918-1946'. 1 February 2022.
 

Symposium: 'Empire & Ecologies: Transimperial, transhistorical and transregional natures from the 17th to the 21st century,' UC Dublin, 1-2 July 2021. I will be taking part in the closing roundtable, on the theme 'Methodologies for Analysing Extractivism'
 

Conference: 'La nature sous contrat: Concessions, histoire et environnement,' EHESS, 7-8 June 2021. I will be giving a paper titled 'A Concessionary Archipelago: North African Phosphate Mining, Colonial Capitalism and the Making of Modern Agriculture'
 

Workshop: 'Ressources : Enjeu Global, Declinaisons Locales' Paris, 7 December 2021. I will be giving a paper titled "Les phosphates: une ressource impériale."
 

Workshop: 'The Raw and the Refined: Commodities, Processing and Power in Global Perspective' 2-3 September 2021. I will be serving as discussant on a panel titled 'The processing of mineral resources'
 

Book Contract with Cornell University Press. I'm delighted that my book, provisionally titled 'Mandatory Development: French Colonial Empire, Global Capitalism and the Politics of the Economy after World War One', is under contract with Cornell University Press.
 

Book Chapter Published: Mandatory Expertise After the League of Nations Mandates. This appeared in the edited volume 'Experts & Expertise in the League of Nations Mandates: Experts, Fields & Tools, August 2020
 

Conference: 'New Political Economies of the French Empire 19th-20th centuries', Columbia University, 28 February 2020. I will be giving a paper titled: 'The Intimacies of Purchase: Global Fordism, French Colonial Empire and Capitalist Friendship, 1921-1928'
 

TV & Radio Interviews about D-Day, 6 June 2019. I gave interviews to Sky News and to LBC Radio about the history and memory politics of D-Day, in the context of the 75th Anniversary.
 

Article published: 'The Global Middle East in the Age of Speed: From Joyriding to Jamming, and from Racing to Raiding'. This essay appeared in the journal 'Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa & the Middle East' (May 2019).
 

Past & Present Blog Post: Empire, Race, Humanitarianism. I wrote a short blog for Past & Present about an IHR/Centre for Modern & Contemporary History roundtable. 27 Nov 2018
 

Review published: 'Économie et Développement Durable: Héritage Historiques et Défis Actuels au sein du Monde Francophone' . This co-authored review essay appeared on H-France, August 2018.
 

Review published: 'Wine, Sugar and the Making of Modern France' by Elizabeth Heath. In French Politics, Culture & Society, vol 37, no 3 (November 2019).
 

Conference: 'Borders, Mobility and State Formation in the Middle East, 1920-1945,' Université de Neuchâtel, 10-11 Oct. 2019. I will be giving a paper titled: 'Personal Boundaries and Regional Crossings: the Emotions of Capitalism in the post-war Eastern Mediterranean'
 

Article Published in 'History Today': 100 Years of Greater Lebanon. This essay appeared in the popular magazine 'History Today', 3 September 2020
 

Roundtable Review Published: 'Empire of Guns' by Priya Satia. I edited and contributed to this roundtable review published in the Journal of Global History, October 2019.
 

Panel Discussion & Film Screening: The Battle of Algiers . I'll be speaking on a panel after the screening at Midlands Arts Centre, 24 Sept 2018
 

Article published: 'From Beirut to Berlin (via Geneva): The New International History, Middle East Studies and the League of Nations'. This essay appeared in the journal 'Contemporary European History', July 2018.
 

Edited book published: The Institution of International Order: From the League of Nations to the UN. I am pleased to have co-edited and contributed to this volume, now published with Routledge July 12 2018.
 

Conference: 'Empires & Natural Resources: Contestation, Exploitation and Protection, 1800-Present' University Of Warwick, 28 June 2019. I will be giving a paper titled: '"A Spacious Wound": North African Phosphates, Racialised Extraction and Late-Imperial Rule.
 

Membership: Centre for the Study of Internationalism (Birkbeck UL) Membership. I have accepted (February 2018) an invitation to become a member of the Centre for the Study of Internationalism at Birkbeck (UL)
 

Conference: Pragmatism for Social Scientists: Histories, Criticisms & Opportunities (Ghent, Feb-June 2018). I am taking part in and serving on the scientific committee for a series of inter-disciplinary workshops on how social scientists and humanities scholars can work with insights from Pragmatic philosophy.
 

Conference: Sovereignty, Economy and the Global Histories of Natural Resources (Cambridge, UK, 18-19 Dec. 2017). Past & Present has published a summary of this conference, at which I gave a paper titled 'Mining History: French Colonial North Africa, Phosphate, and the Origins of Global Agro-Industry'
 

Article Published: 'Imperial Humanitarianism and Transformative Development in Syria-Lebanon, 1915-1925'. I published an article in Humanity Journal 8.2 (Summer 2017) and co-edited a dossier, with Prof. A. Dirk Moses, on Transformative Occupation in the Modern Middle East.
 

Blogpost @ Past & Present: 'Everyday Empires: Descriptive or Analytical Category', 17 July 2017. I have published a blogpost at Past & Present with Dr. Nathan Cardon, reflecting on the 'Everyday Empires' conference we organised back in May.
 

British Academy 'Commodities of Empire' Network. I am the new co-ordinator for this exciting research network. Check out our website!
 

TV Interview on Sky News, discussing French diplomatic policy, 14 July 2017. I was interviewed on Sky News Live, discussing French-American diplomacy and French Middle East policy. Clip by permission and copyright Sky News.
 

Conference: ASEH 2017, Chicago 'Colonial and Post-Colonial Development: Continuities, Discontinuities, Interconnections'. I am taking part in this exciting roundtable at ASEH 2017 on 30 March, 10:30, Huron room (mezzanine level)
 

Article Published: 'Why is the United Nations still so misunderstood?' . I co-authored this Op-Ed in 'The Conversation', 6 October 2016, with Dr. Alanna O'Malley
 

Article Published: 'How Moroccan Phosphate Feeds the Planet' 28 June 2016. This op-ed was published in the French newspaper Libération.