Ben Fried

Yesterday's @IES_London symposium on "Migrant Institutions" was marvellous. Full of fascinating papers, keen conversations, fizzing ideas. Huge thanks to the Institute and @BritishAcademy_ for their support, to @BeneCarnaghi for running the tech, and to our generous presenters.

I’m thrilled to announce the UK edition of Dictionary of Fine Distinctions! Pre-orders are now available (link below) and are the best way, I'm told, to kickstart a book's success. Huge shoutout to @ProfileBooks for their support! #FineDistinctions #Books waterstones.com/book/dictionar…

Join us in London to celebrate the launch of Wasafiri 122: The UAE Issue! Tuesday, 15 July, 2025, 7-11pm Where: Reference Point, 2 Arundel St, London, WC2R 3DA Tickets: Full price £12, with a Pay what you can option. buff.ly/L3kdNSS

Huge thanks to Amanda Hsieh and Friedemann Pestel for inviting me to participate in a workshop that brings together historians and musicologists! We reflect on the recent global turn in fascism studies, and we do it in the most beautiful place! #Tübingen #twitterstorians

The PENGUIN BOOK of POEMS on the INDIAN CITY is out for pre-orders now! Profoundly grateful to the poets, translators, estates and @PenguinIndia @Ram_Guha @ae_stallings @sorcerical @nathan_archana for helping make this mammoth book a reality! amazon.in/dp/014347068X

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. A leading light of African and world literature, he was a distinguished Kenyan writer, scholar, and playwright, who served on Wasafiri's Advisory Board for several years. Please join us in remembrance 🕊️

@MukomaWaNgugi Thinking of you, dear Mukoma

It tears my heart to say that my father, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o passed away earlier today. I am me because of him in so many ways, as his child, scholar and writer. I love him - I am not sure what tomorrow will bring without him here. I think that is all I have to say for now.

🚨🌱 The Chancellor is currently reviewing all public spending from scratch. Please join me in signing the @_CFTA petition to remind the UK Government: the arts make our lives happier and our communities stronger. Now is the moment to invest in them. campaignforthearts.org/petitions/spen…

I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be in conversation with Banu Mushtaq, winner of the 2025 International @TheBookerPrizes for HEART LAMP (@andothertweets), on 16 June @WstoneIslington Get your ticket here: waterstones.com/events/heart-l…

Wonderful to speak about antifascist satire in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany & Vichy France, in conversation with Olga Galanova’s paper on political laughter in the GDR, contemporary Russia, Belarus & China. Humor makes the unbearable bearable @CentreMarcBloch #twitterstorians

What is close reading? @dan_sinykin in @booksandthearts on the history and future of close reading. bit.ly/43qRYag

Delighted to present my research on ‘Persecuted Satirists: How Anti-Fascist Laughter Could Get You in Trouble, 1922-45’ at the ‘Power of Laughter. Laughing about Power’ conference at the @CentreMarcBloch. We even have a box of jokes that is going around! #twitterstorians

One last tempo session with the lovely #AdidasRunners bunch yesterday and… I am marathon ready! I am so excited to run the @Marathon_Mcr for #TeamMND @mndassoc. Here is the link to my fundraiser: justgiving.com/page/benedetta… We’re at 82% of the goal. I truly appreciate your help! 🙏

@danielmalanski @Researchirel @routledgebooks @UnivLyon1 @UCDHistory Congrats, Daniel!

My first book, Olympic Opening Ceremonies: Memory and Modernity, is now available for purchase! Official release: April 25 routledge.com/.../Malanski/p… Grateful to Research Ireland @Researchirel, mentors, and colleagues who made this possible @routledgebooks @UnivLyon1 @UCDHistory

Happy Registration Day, Bulls! Our updated Course Offerings page contains links to the Department of English's Course Bulletins for Summer and Fall 2025. If needed, please don't hesitate to attend a drop-in appointment with our Advisor. Check the link in our bio for more info.

@serevandi @BeneCarnaghi @Dr_Helen_Roche Thank you, Serena! It was just terrific to meet you and listen to your paper. I'm looking up Gadda in the library catalogue right now

Thank you so much @BeneCarnaghi @Dr_Helen_Roche, and @fried_ben for such a wonderful conference! I’ve learned a lot and met amazing people.

A wonderful conference comes to an end. We laughed, we learned, we ranged across media, languages, and periods. It was such a pleasure to listen to our participants and their groundbreaking research. Deep thanks to them, to our audience, to @durham_uni and @durham_history!

And the last speaker of our conference on “Laughter as a Political Coping Mechanism”: Aidan Jones! Aidan is presenting on “The Death Penalty, Humour, and the United States.”

A. Austin Garvey deepens our focus on Ukraine, comparing wartime Punch cartoons and contemporary Ukrainian memes in “Visual Humour in European Home Fronts: Britain and Ukraine.”