The 2024 uprising in Bangladesh: More than just quota reform | SOAS : Why has the student protest against unfair civil service recruitment in Bangladesh escalated? What are the students demanding now? Important analysis here from SOAS Development Studies postgraduate student and University of Dhaka graduate Rafid Hossain.

SOAS presents the best blogs, for publication, from this year’s Feminist Political Economy and Global Development course (MSc Global Development (Gender) | SOAS)

Pick your weapon: Reflections on the radical black woman and the black liberation struggle | SOAS : The first of these is ‘Pick Your Weapon: Reflections on the Radical Black Woman and the Black Liberation Struggle’, in which Megan Morgan (MSc Environment, Politics & Development Studies) asks: “How will I embody the Black radical woman? What weapon will I pick up to join the ongoing armed resistance? Will it be the pen or will I exercise the power of the tongue?”

What Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Poor Things’ has to say about female sexual desire and the commodification of bodies | SOAS : Is ‘Poor Things’ about women’s sexual liberation as emancipation? As part of our Feminist Political Economy of Development course in the Development Studies Department SOAS University of London, students write a blog and we publish a selection of the best. From an exceptionally strong field this year, today we are delighted to share Valentina Frassa Bolognese‘s challenging and brilliant feminist political economy analysis of the equally challenging and brilliant award-winning film ‘Poor Things.  Valentina writes: “Poor Things is revolutionary in its fearless portrayal of unapologetic feminine sexual desire. However, it falls short in advocating for societal transformation beyond the individual rejection of these norms. In spite of this and, in the face of a stark reality, spending time within the confines of this beautifully crafted utopia can prove personally and intellectually liberating.”

Naomi Hossain has been interviewed on the ongoing crisis in Bangladesh by BBC News. She is also quoted in the New York Times and in Liberation

Anna Lindley’s latest brief on her research project: Home Beyond the Home Office? Evicted from asylum accommodation into the UK housing crisis

Carlos Oya: Prioritising the Skill Development of Local Production Managers in Ethiopia’s Apparel industry

A Thousand Cuts: Social protection in the age of austerity  by Alexandros Kentikelenis and Thomas Stubbs.

The recordings of SOAS Development Studies Seminar Series are available here .