This paper draws on the letters and messages and newspaper clipping held by the BBC Written Archives Centre in relation to the 1954 adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four as a case study for considering how we understand the historical reception of programming. This production is particularly useful in this regard because it achieved a certain…[Read more]

‘Folk horror’ has often been considered, following Mark Gatiss’ description of the genre, as centrally focused on a particular ‘obsession with the British landscape, its folklore, and superstitions’. While these elements are clearly significant, they become more problematic when opening up the genre to include texts from beyond Britain. Not only…[Read more]

The Marxist geographer talks with Tom Gann and josie sparrow about world ecology, Marxist beef, and what it means to be in solidarity with oppressed and devalued natures.
Jason W. Moore’s work—from A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature and the Future of our Planet (co-written with Raj Patel), to the huge ran…[Read more]

In reality, the role of surveyors and cartographers throughout history was often far from peaceful. It was their initial explorations that paved the way for destructive waves of colonising armies and civilians. At each stage of mapping an area, clues are preserved about the priorities and prejudices of the person wielding the pencil, and those…[Read more]

This week, a farmer in the Belgian town of Erquelinnes caused an international ruckus when he moved a stone standing in his tractor’s path. This stone marked the boundary between Belgium and France. By moving it 2.29 metres, he expanded Belgium’s territory.

Talk to any surveyor, conveyance lawyer, or farmer in Tasmania today and you will hear stories of troublesome property boundaries that date back to the colonial period. These complaints are nothing new – from almost the beginning of the British colony, accusations were made against the Survey Office and the quality of its work. Two charges were…[Read more]

(non-refereed) For the Europeans at Risdon Cove, 16 October 1803 looked like a normal day for their fledgling camp. Normal, of course, being a relative term here. The site was probably bustling, as the newcomers set about making their presence permanent on the edge of the River Derwent. Without fanfare, the 29-year-old Irishman James Meehan…[Read more]

When the British landed on the island of Van Diemen’s Land in 1803, they found lands seemingly prepared for them. Abundant open plains drew the newcomers further inland, attracted by the prospects of further pastoral and agricultural success. What they neither understood nor acknowledged were the thousands of years of cultivation prior to their a…[Read more]

The phenomenon of settlements moving away from their churches, towards the edges of surrounding commons is known as ‘common-edge drift’. Existing literature emphasises the ‘isolated church’, but this not the only indication of common-edge drift – an ‘embedded’ church will often have been constructed after drift, within the new settlement. U…[Read more]

This blog post describes five steps for post-graduates trying to survive the conference season.