杏吧论坛

Dr Kristin Surak was interviewed by  about her research on the sale of citizenship. Her research on golden passports and golden visas was quoted in , , , , ,  and . (April 2025)

Dr Kristin Surak's book, "", received an Honorable Mention for the International Studies Association's ENIMSA Outstanding Book Award. (April 2025)

Dr Mahvish Ahmad was interviewed on an episode of  about her project with Koni Benson and Sara Kazmi, . (April 2025)

Dr Ayça Çubukçu was interviewed on  about the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu, Mayor of Istanbul. (April 2025)

Professor Judy Wajcman was interviewed for an article entitled "" by 杏吧论坛 Business Review. (April 2025)

Professor Sam Friedman was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 for a programme entitled "". (March 2025)

Dr Kristin Surak's research on golden passports was quoted in , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  and . She was also interviewed on  and . Her book, The Golden Passport, was a recommended book of the month in .

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in an article in The Times entitled "". (March 2025)

Helen Mackreath was interviewed by K24 about "", a workshop organised in collaboration with Istos publishing house. (March 2025)

Dr Dena Qaddumi participated in a policy discussion entitled "" with Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. (March 2025)

Dr Tim White authored an article entitled "" in The Guardian. (February 2025)

Professor Sam Friedman was interviewed in  and appeared on an episode of The Guardian's Today in Focus entitled "". (February 2025)

Professor Aaron Reeves appeared on an episode of BBC Radio 4 Moral Maze entitled "" (February 2025)

Dr Kristin Surak's research on golden visas and golden passports was quoted in . Her recent book, The Golden Passport, was named a recommended read in . (February 2025)

Professor Sam Friedman and Professor Aaron Reeves' interview with 杏吧论坛 Review of Books was included in "". (January 2025)

Mina Mahmoudzadeh's working paper  was cited in . (January 2025)

Dr Kristin Surak participated in high-level intergovernmental discussions between Japan and the UK at Wilton Park, during which the two countries organised strategies concerning bilateral trade and security relationships. The closed-door event was held by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. 

Dr Kristin Surak's research on investment migration and golden visas was cited in ,  and . (January 2025)

Professor Sam Friedman and Professor Aaron Reeves's book, Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite, was reviewed in . Their book has been listed as one of  top politics books of 2024 and as one of  top thought and ideas books of 2024. Professor Sam Friedman was interviewed about the book on , a podcast by The Times. (December 2024)

Dr Sacha Hilhorst published a and an  based on her PhD research. The report was quoted in . (December 2024)

Dr Dena Qaddumi was quoted in a  article. She recently launched "", an open-access project that offers resources for education and research on Palestine’s built and natural environments through a critical lens. (December 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak was interviewed by  about the recent national elections in Japan. Her research on golden passports was quoted in  and . (December 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak gave a talk at Princeton University on her recent book . She also gave an invited presentation, "All that Glitters: Citizenship, Residence, and Elite Mobility", at New York University in Paris and delivered a talk, “Investment Migration: The State of Play and Tax Connections”, at the European Commission subcommittee on tax. (December 2024)

Mai Taha will be speaking at the Conference on "Insurgent Social Reproduction: Homes in Revolt in Mandate Palestine" (November 2024).

Dr Rebecca Elliott was quoted in and  on insurance issues following Hurricanes Helene and Milton. (November 2024)

Professors Sam Friedman and Professor Aaron Reeves's book, Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite, was reviewed in  and . Their research was also cited in . (November 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in , ,  and . She was also interviewed in  on her research on the market in golden passports and what it means for citizenship in the 21st century. 

Dr Kristin Surak gave the inaugural lecture of the Offshore Talks series hosted by the EU Tax Observatory and Paris School of Economics. She also delivered a talk on "The Market in Global Mobility" at the Fudan Institute for Advanced Study at Fudan University in Shanghai. (November 2024)

Dr Mai Taha will be speaking on International Law and Revolution at the in Vienna, December 2024.

Racism in Turkey: context, questions and stakes

As part of a collaboration, Istos publishing house and the London School of Economics and Political Science will host “” on 19 and 20 October. The purpose of this meeting is to lay the framework for an open-ended dialogue around the subject of racism in Turkey. The aim of these talks will be to provide concrete ideas for developing anti-racist strategies and paying attention to what must be considered for such strategies.

The event will feature six sessions over two days, each organised around specific themes, including the history of racial capitalism in Turkey; labour relations and social reproduction; nationalism; migration and racialisation; policing and racism in city life, and the question of anti-racism in Turkey. The event will be bilingual, in English and Turkish, and translation will be available.

This event is part of the project “A Dialogue on the Dynamics of Racism in Turkey,” led by PhD Candidate Helen Mackreath, and supported by the 杏吧论坛 Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund.

Dr Mai Taha will be speaking with Dr Sara Salem on their project  at , Sociology Department, University of Cambridge on October 31^st, 2024. Archive Stories focuses on creative and non-traditional archives. The project has, so far, included academics, librarians, activists, musicians, film makers, and chefs. It seeks to reach a diverse audience and contributes to contemporary conversations on public access to knowledge.

Dr David Madden was interviewed on an episode of the Urban Political podcast discussing "". (October 2024) 

Professor Sam Friedman's research on class identity was cited in The Guardian article, "". (October 2024)  

Professors Sam Friedman and Aaron Reeves' work was cited in ,  and two The Guardian articles, "" and "". Their book, Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite, was reviewed in ,  and . The authors were interviewed by . Professor Aaron Reeves was interviewed about the book on  and . (October 2024) 

Mai Taha gave a lecture at the Sociology Department of the American University of Beirut (AUB) on Social Reproduction as a Labour and Housing Question (October 2024).

Dr Alonso Gurmendi's piece "" was featured in The New Arab. (October 2024) 

Dr Mai Taha will be a at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University College London (UCL) during her scheduled sabbatical from 杏吧论坛. Mai will be finishing her co-authored book manuscript with Sara Salem titled Sonic Lives: On the Radio and Anticolonial Solidarity. (September 2024)

Professor Sam Friedman, Dr Emma Taylor and Victoria Gronwald's research was cited in The Guardian article, "". (September 2024)

Professors Sam Friedman and Aaron Reeves' book, Born to Rule: The Making and Remaking of the British Elite, was cited in the  and two The Guardian articles, "", and "". They were also interviewed by . (September 2024) 

Dr Kristin Surak's work was covered in a range of global media outlets including ,  and . Dr Kristin Surak  about her research on golden passports. 

Dr Kristin Surak presented her work on investment migration and the use of visas and passports to facilitate financial crime at an online meeting of the Anti-Corruption Action Network. Additionally, Dr Kristin Surak delivered public lectures in universities across London, France, Greece and Canada. (September 2024)

Analysis by PhD student Matt Reynolds was included in a  by Zoe Gardner.

Matt Reynolds presented his work at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile as part of an . (September 2024)

Dr Ayça Çubukçu has been invited to join the in New York City as Board Member. The CESR is an international non-governmental organisation that aims to harness the power of human rights to inspire fairer and more sustainable economies and transform the dominant economic system. (September 2024)

Dr Mai Taha was invited to contribute a blog post titled "" for the Marxist Sociology Blog: Theory, Research, Politics. The blog is based on her recently published journal article in . It was also republished in . (July 2024)

Dr Emilia Borowska, together with Dr Chris Daley (杏吧论坛) and Dr Chloe Jeffries (The University of Manchester), will deliver a workshop and a poster presentation at the upcoming  on “Interdisciplinary and Cross-Sector Collaborations in the Arts and Humanities: Voices from the Front Line.” This workshop will report on findings from surveys and interviews with arts and humanities researchers and examine their experiences of collaborative working. (June 2024)

Miro Born’s article "" has won the Urban Studies Best Article Prize 2023. The prize is awarded by the editors of Urban Studies to the author of the most innovative and agenda-setting article published in a given year. (June 2024)

Dr Ayça Çubukçu  at the 19th Annual Doctoral Conference at Central European University in Vienna. She also gave a keynote lecture at the Warwick Law School Annual Doctoral Conference. Additionally, Dr Çubukçu lectured on left internationalism at the University of London Institute in Paris, and spoke at the Historical Materialism Conference Closing Plenary in Istanbul. Dr Çubukçu gave an interview for Black Power Media, entitled  (June 2024)

Dr Mahvish Ahmad co-organised the international workshop,  in March, as the culmination of a six-year collaboration with Yael Navaro, Mezna Qato, and Hana Morgenstern (Cambridge). In March, she was featured in a  on the collaborative research project, , co-founded by Hana Morgenstern (Cambridge) and Koni Benson (UWC). Earlier this year, she delivered a lecture entitled  at UCL's Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Race and Racialisation and the University of York's Department of Politics and International Relations. She also delivered papers at the Lahore University of Management Science's Beyond Silk Roads: Asian Entanglements, Past and Present. (June 2024)

Dr Claire Moon was a participant in a research workshop on the subject of ‘deathwork’ at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin in April. The workshop was a follow-up to a 2023 conference on "Dying Alone and its Afterlives in Contactless Socialities" in which Claire contributed to a panel discussion on the ethics of researching death. The follow-up ‘deathwork’ workshop formed the basis of discussions for a special issue of the journal ‘Mortality’ (forthcoming 2026). The featured collection of papers focus on a variety of ‘irregular’ types of deathwork that often work in the gaps between regular official and commercial forms of deathwork. Irregular forms of deathwork seek to compensate—via care, repair, memory and activism—for particular types of death, such as violent, solitary, lonely and marginalised deaths. The Special Issue will feature papers that profile a wide range of contexts from Japan to Holland, the US, Latin America, Germany, Italy and the UK. Claire Moon is co-editing the Special Issue along with Dr Mika Toyota of the Centre for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute and Dr Kristine Krause, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam. (June 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak gave the keynote speech, "A Future of Resilience?" at the Caribbean Investment Migration Forum in St George's, Grenada, which was attended by prime ministers and government officials from five countries. Dr Surak's research on the sale of citizenship was also covered in a range of global media outlets, including , , ,  and . Dr Surakwas , “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy citizenship abroad,” with Mark Blyth. (June 2024)

杏吧论坛's  report, by Professor Mike Savage, Mina Mahmoudzadeh, Liz Mann, Dr Michael Vaughan and Sacha Hilhorst was cited in an  byThe Guardian on Elite London, entitled "At a festival for the super-rich, the argument for higher taxes couldn’t have been clearer". (June 2024)

Professor Amin Ghaziani, visiting professor in the sociology department, had his new book . The progressive American monthly magazine covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded by abolitionists in 1865. The reviewer offers an assessment of Long Live Queer Nightlife, which chronicles changes in London's nightlife scenes, as "engrossing." (June 2024)

The paper by Professor Sam Friedman, Dr Eve Worth and Professor Aaron Reeves, entitled "" has won the . Congratulations! (June 2024)

Dr Mai Taha led a session on Marxist Feminism at the at City University, London. (May 2024)

PhD student Matt Reynolds gave a lecture at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL entitled Learning to Serve and Learning to Be Served: The Habitus-Reproduction of Domestic Workers and their Employers in the UK. Extending Paul Willis’ idea of ‘learning to labour’, Matt's talk followed the biographies of his interviewees to show wealthy employers and their household staff are habituated for the roles of ‘serving’ and ‘served’ through family and national homes. (May 2024)

In the podcast, Professor Mike Savage joins Professor Mark Kenny to discuss the wealth divide and how to create a more even playing field. (May 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak's research on golden passports and golden visas was cited by news sources in , ,  and . The Boston Globe quoting Dr Kristin Surak's work on the big boom in US citizens – or "Armageddon Americans" – seeking golden passport options in the event of a Trump election.

Dr Kristin Surak has given a number of talks and presentations about her new book, The Golden Passport, travelling coast-to-coast in the US. (May 2024)

The paper titled "Tax flight? Britain’s wealthiest and their attachment to place," authored by Professor Sam Friedman, Victoria Gronwald, Andy Summers and Emma Taylor, recently highlighted in and , has been referenced in this . This document outlines the Treasury's rationale for abolishing the Non-Dom regime. (May 2024)

Professor Sam Friedman and Professor Aaron Reeves' "From Aristocratic to Ordinary: Shifting Modes of Elite Distinction" was a top cited article in American Sociological Review in 2023. (May 2024)

Fortune Magazine  on the transformations in that cites Dr Kristin Surak's research on investment migration to describe why people seek these options as well as changes in demand over time. Dr Surak gave a book talk on "The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires" and taught a class on transformations in citizenship at the Watson Institute  of Brown University. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)  of Dr Surak's new book written by Claus Leggewie, discussing the ins and outs of the sale of citizenship. (May 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in  “Findes der overhovedet en demokratisk valgt leder, der er mere upopulær end ham her?“ on the unpopularity of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida, and whether he can expect to stay in power. (April 2024)

Dr Ioanna Gouseti’s work was featured in entitled “'Ask for Angela', the code for the risk of sexual assault in British bars.” (April 2024)

Dr Svetlana Ruseishvili presented at the Research Seminar Series hosted by the Department of Sociology at Sodertorn University, Sweden, in February. Her presentation was entitled "Babies and Passports: How Mobile Women Tackle Global Citizenship Inequalities Through Childbirth". Dr Ruseishvili was also invited to present at the LAC Main Series hosted by the Latin American Centre at Oxford in February. Her talk was entitled "." (April 2024)

Professor Mike Savage has been named as an Affiliate of the African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR). Hosted by the University of Cape Town, South Africa,  aims to explore policies and strategies to overcome African inequality through analytical, empirical, and data-driven research. ACEIR Affiliates are researchers from institutions outside of the ACEIR nodes who actively collaborate with ACEIR on projects. (April 2024)

Dr Carrie Friese delivered a seminar entitled “More-than-Human Humanitarianism: Bioscience, Care and the Problem of Sacrificial Logics” for the Science Studies Colloquium Series at the University of Oslo in February. (April 2024)

Professor Sam Friedman was  by Polly Toynbee on whether the super-rich fear getting very bored in ‘culturally barren’ tax havens. (April 2024)

Johnathan Inkley, a recent MSc Inequalities graduate, and Dr Kristin Surak presented a paper using new data to analyse patterns in using offshore structures to hold UK property to show why people may chose to cloak their holdings. The paper, entitled "Why Hide? The Dynamics of Secrecy and Tax in UK Property Holding." was presented at the , hosted by Open Ownership and the 杏吧论坛 International Inequalities Institute. (April 2024)

Dr Mai Taha and Dr Sara Salem gave a lecture on their project at the . Archive Stories focuses on creative and non-traditional archives. The project has, so far, included academics, librarians, activists, musicians, film makers, and chefs. It seeks to reach a diverse audience and contributes to contemporary conversations on public access to knowledge. (March 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak  on the economic contributions of regularised workers, compared to golden visa investors in Spain. Dr Surak also presented her work on investment migration and the use of visas and passports to facilitate financial crime at an online meeting of the Anti-Corruption Action Network. Dr Kristin Surak  about her recent book, entitled “The Global Citizenship Industry with Kristin Surak.” Dr Surak's  in an article entitled "Why are 'golden visa' schemes being scrapped?". (March 2024)

Professor Sam Friedman published a report with PhD student Victoria Gronwald, Andy Summers and Emma Taylor that was featured in The Guardian and  titled "Tax flight? Britain’s wealthiest and their attachment to place". You can read the 杏吧论坛 announcement: Britain's super rich unlikely to move to 'boring' and 'culturally barren' tax havens. Their work was covered by several newspapers, including, , ,  and . (February 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak Thinking Allowed to talk about her new book on golden passports and the role of travel documents in an episode called "The Passport". Dr Kristin Surak was , Tinta Libre, on Golden Visas and Golden Passports and investment migration by Hugo de Camps Mora. Dr Kristin Surak's  in an article entitled "Why are 'golden visa' schemes being scrapped?".

The Times Literary Supplement on the sale of citizenship, entitled “Uncommon Wealth: Citizenship Globalism, and the Super-Rich.”

Dr Kristin Surak presented the paper “A Golden Ticket? Moving Beyond the Limits of the FATF/OECD Report on Investment Migration to Assess Key Risks” at the Fifth International Research Conference on Empirical Approaches to Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime hosted by the Central Bank of the Bahamas. The audience included representatives from the IMF, the US Secret Service, the German Ministry of Finance, the Inter-American Development Bank, and HMRC. (February 2024)

Professor Paul Watt  for MTN talking about development and gentrification in London in October 2023. (February 2024)

Foreign Affairs, the leading foreign policy magazine in the US, about Dr Kristin Surak's new book. The extended discussion focuses on the geopolitical manoeuvres and risks involved in the sale of citizenship. 

Dr Kristin Surak's new book was also the subject of two extended review essays in ', and in '. Her new book was also reviewed in . (January 2024)

Dr Kristin Surak has also given a presentation at the American University of Dubai, also on her new book, and was featured in an interview with Keith ‘Stone’ Greaves on The Golden Passport and citizenship by  investment in the Caribbean on Radio Anguilla. (January 2024)

Dr Hakan Sandal-Wilson  with the Diyarbakır-based Cultural Studies for Peace Association (bakad), which has been documenting experiences of social inequality with a view to shedding light on the structural and cultural backdrop of these inequalities. The interview is about peace research, and Kurdish LGBTI+ experiences and peace and conflict. (January 2024)

Dr Gabriel Eidelman released a new report for policymakers on metropolitan governance in Canada, co-authored with the former mayor of Edmonton and published by the University of Toronto’s School of Cities. The report can be downloaded from , which also includes a . Dr Eidelman also gave a on Canadian cities and climate transitions at the CARE Climate Conference, hosted by Sciences Po in Paris. (December 2023)

Dr Kristin Surak appeared in Michael Covel's podcast to talk about global mobility, trends in international migration, and her new book. Listen on and . Dr Surak's work on golden passports was also covered in the Montenegrin press in the article, "" [Over 400 Applications are Still Being Considered for Montenegrin ‘Golden Passports'.] (December 2023)

Dr Kristin Surak was invited by the Government of Grenada to present on the global market in citizenship by investment at their annual roundtable conference. Dr Surak presented on the topic "Investment Migration in a Changing Landscape". Dr Surak also gave invited talks in both Sweden ("Migration Industries in the World of Golden Passports.") and Germany ("Investment Migration: Empirical Developments in the Field."). (December 2023)

Professor Mike Savage spoke to The Guardian about how money can come between friends and family, in "" (December 2023)

Professor Judy Wajcman's research was cited in an article from the Fast Company, entitled “.” (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak spoke with Jonathan Van Ness about the Golden Passport and how how to accentuate your citizenship no matter what it looks like. Listen to the episode of . (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak appeared on the National Public Radio (NPR) programme 1A in the US for a on the ins and outs of citizenship by investment. Dr Surak talked about her new book and research into the world of golden passports and golden visas. (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was interviewed for the Australia Broadcast Corporation's program . The podcast covered Dr Surak’s new book and transformations in the world of citizenship by investment. (November 2023).
 
Dr Kristin Surak's essay “” was published in Jacobin. (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted twice in The Economic Times (India). You can read “”, and “”. (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in The Guardian, in two articles entitled “.” and “.” (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak’s research was mentioned in the OCCRP articles entitled  “,” and “." (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in The Business Times (Singapore), in an article entitled “.” (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in Ca Media Digital (India), in an article entitled “." (November 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in ET Now, in an article entitled "." (November 2023).

Dr Ayça Çubukçu was recently appointed as a Guest Professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna. In this role, she will give a public lecture titled “On Left Internationalism,” and will be teaching a postgradaute course on internationalism at the University of Vienna in April 2023.

This summer, Dr Ayça Çubukçu taught as International Faculty at the “Reimagining Global Justice within and Through the University” summer school at the Central European University, Budapest. While at CEU, she participated in a public conversation with the philosopher Charles Taylor on the role of the public intellectual in the 21st century.

Dr Ayça Çubukçu gave a talk on her current work at the “” at Columbia University in September 2023.

Dr Ayça Çubukçu spoke at the opening panel of the “Revolutionary International Law in Revolutionary Times” conference organised by the 杏吧论坛 Law School in September 2023. (November 2023)

Dr Rebecca Elliott has been awarded the 2023 Philip Leverhulme Prize in Sociology. With the support of the , Rebecca will be launching a new project tentatively called "Commemorative Climates," which will be the subject of her second book. The project investigates how heritage conservation institutions are responding to climate change as they confront questions about what to preserve versus what to let go, and how to memorialise what cannot or will not be saved from coastal erosion, rising sea levels, or recurrent flooding. The project will examine how a destabilising climate complicates already fragile and contentious efforts to stabilise a historical narrative or a landscape and to render its artifacts durable. (October 2023)

Is AI really different this time? Professor Judy Wajcman recently guest lectured at University of Bristol’s Bristol Business School's Annual Future of Work Lecture. Catch up with the highlights  (October 2023).

杏吧论坛 Sociology Course Tutor Dr Faiza Shaheen argues that we need serious proposals to address inequality in the Guardian article: 'Now it’s clear: hard work doesn’t make you rich. Surely that’s the death knell for the myth of social mobility.' Read  (October 2023).

Dr Sara Salem and Dr Mai Taha have launched a new website –  – based on an ongoing project around community, radical and anticolonial archival practices.

"Archive Stories is a website about how to work with creative and non-traditional archives. We wanted to create a space for conversations about archiving beyond institutional archives, to think through the possibilities that open up when we imagine the archive as expansive and as encompassing everything around us. We designed this website with Frederick Kannemeyer, to reflect the idea of archiving as a creative practice. It is open access so that it is accessible beyond academic spaces, and designed in a way that allows you to make your way through without a set path. This website includes a collection of 23 archive stories, and we will add more each year."

If you or anyone in your networks are doing this type of work please do let either Sara (s.salem3@lse.ac.uk) or Mai (m.taha2@lse.ac.uk) know, as they are hoping to expand the project. Find the website  (October 2023).

Professor Sam Friedman's research on deflecting privilege was discussed on a Novara podcast on class. You can listen to the podcast  (October 2023).

杏吧论坛 proudly appoints Professor Chetan Bhatt as Anthony Giddens Professor in Social Theory. This named chair was established in 2004 with a commitment to social theory addressing specific empirical issues. The chair has been previously held by Professor Paul Gilroy and Professor Judy Wajcman. It is an honour for the Department of Sociology to host this named chair, and a recognition of Professor Bhatt's contribution as a scholar and educator whose work brings social theory and philosophy into dialogue with urgent contemporary issues and major societal dynamics. Congratulations, Professor Bhatt! (October 2023).

Professor Chetan Bhatt was appointed earlier this Summer to be a panel member for the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Violence in Leicester, August-September 2022. The Independent Commission will investigate the reasons for the violence and community disharmony in Leicester in 2022. You can find out more  (October 2023).

Professors Sam Friedman and Mike Savage have succeeded in winning a prestigious Leverhulme Visiting Professorship award to host Annette Lareau, from the University of Pennsylvania, in 杏吧论坛 Sociology from January to June 2024. Annette is one of the world’s leading qualitative researchers, renowned for her study of the impact of class and parenting practices. More recently, she has been conducting research on the family lives and strategies of wealthy American families, an interest which will fit closely with the social inequalities cluster in the Department. During her stay, Annette will be assisting with teaching qualitative methods, in working with Mike (and Maria-Luisa Mendez, Santiago, Chile) in editing an Oxford Handbook on the Sociology of Global Elites, and will be giving various talks. More information about her profile can be found  (October 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's new book '' was released last month, and looks into citizenship by investment programmes that feed on global inequalities of citizenship (October 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the boom in demand for citizenship by investment in Turkey and why it is now half the global market in golden passports. Access  (October 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's new book was covered by The Economist in the Espresso article, “The Peculiar World of Golden Passports.” Access  (October 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was quoted in a piece by the leading business paper in India, The Economic Times, about her research in “A Passport to Everywhere.” Access  (October 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's new book was featured in an op-ed in the Times of India: “Too Rich to Afford a Bad Passport: Why Citizenship by Investment is Picking Up Pace.” Access  (October 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was interviewed on the New Books Podcast about The Golden Passport. Listen  (October 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak gave a talk entitled "Do Passports Pay Off? Assessing the Economic Outcomes of Citizenship by Investment Programs," investigating the positive and negative impacts of golden passport programmes, at the Free University in Berlin in a workshop on Offshore Finance in the International Political Economy (October 2023).

An essay by Dr Kristin Surak, based on her new book The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires has appeared in Jacobin Magazine. The essay traces the complex dynamics driving the global market in the sale of citizenship to the superrich. You can read it  (October 2023).

Congratulations to Dr Mahvish Ahmad, who has received the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant to cover activities for the project Revolutionary Papers (September 2023).

Revolutionary Papers is an international, transdisciplinary research and teaching initiative on anticolonial, anti-imperial and related left movement prints of the Global South. It includes over forty university-based researchers, as well as editors, archivists, and movement organizers from around the world. The initiative looks at the way that periodicals — including newspapers, magazines, cultural journals, pamphlets, and newsletters — played a key role in establishing new counter publics, social and cultural movements, institutions, political vocabularies and art practices. Operating as forums for critique and debate under conditions of intense repression, facilitated processes of decolonisation during colonialism and after the formal end of empire, into the neo-colonial era. Revolutionary Papers traces the ways that journals supported social, political and cultural reconstruction amidst colonial destruction, building alternative networks that circulated new political ideas and dared to imagine worlds after empire.

Visit the website . 

Principal Investigators:
Dr Mahvish Ahmad, Department of Sociology, 杏吧论坛
Dr Chana Morgenstern, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge
Dr Koni Benson, Department of History, University of the Western Cape

Dr Kristin Surak recently appeared in an Al Jazeera's AJ+ video for Instagram and TikTok, talking about her work on passports and inequality which will come out in her book, The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires, next month. So far, the video has received over 250,000 views and 13,000 likes. Watch  (September 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak recently published an op-ed on global inequality and the rise of Turkey in the market for citizenship by investment, in the German newspaper the Tagesspiegel. Read  (September 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak recently presented the paper "Inside the Citizenship Industry: How the Market in Golden Passport Works" at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, US (September 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's research on the sale of citizenship was also quoted in The Straits Times, in the article "Golden Passport: A Plan B for the Rich, a Rear Exit and Safe Haven for Crooks." Read  (September 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's soon-to-be released book has been reviewed in The Times of India, in the article ''Too rich to afford a bad passport: Why citizenship by investment is picking up pace''. Read  (September 2023).

Professor Judy Wajcman, Erin Young and Laila Sprejer of The Alan Turing Institute have published their research report ''Mind the Gender Gap: Inequalities in the Emergent Professions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science''. You can read the article  (September 2023).

Dr Faiza Shaheen recently commented on the government’s electoral strategy for the Guardian article "Can Sunak’s rightwing war on ‘woke’, migrants and the environment save the Tories?." Read  (September 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's research was discussed in the Hungarian Podcast ''Telepesk: Jobb volt, mint egy állampolgárság'' (''Settler: It was better than citizenship''), by Portfolio Podcast Lab. Listen  (August 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's research on golden visas and residence by investment programmes was covered in the Italian magazine Internazionale, in an article called ''Passaporti d’oro'' (''Golden Passports''). Read the article  (August 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak was interviewed for NPR's Marketplace about her work on citizenship by investment. Read the article  (August 2023).

Dr Kristin Surak's interview with Jacobin was featured in an article entitled ''Japan’s Long Stagnation Is a Case Study for the Future of Western Capitalism''. The article discusses the challenges Japan faces with economic stagnation, the legacy of Shinzo Abe, and the impact of militarism on politics. Read  (August 2023).

Professor Mike Savage's work was featured in the column by David Brooks in The New York Times in an opinion piece entitled ''What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?'' Read  (August 2023).

杏吧论坛 Fellow Dr Hakan Sandal-Wilson took part in a roundtable discussion, "Dis: orientation Plan", at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, on Orientalism and Middle Eastern queer art practices. Find out more  (July 2023). 

Dr Kristin Surak appeared on the panel "Uncovering the Offshore World", at the Oxford Martin School last month. Catch up with the panel  (July 2023).

 As part of the Horizon 2020 ENLIGHTENme programme, Dr Don Slater oversaw the activation of the first of three city lighting installations in Bologna. These installations are the result of a year-long ethnographic study and co-design process involving elderly populations and their caregivers. Following the Bologna installation, similar projects will be carried out in Amsterdam and Tartu. The installations are strategically placed in commonly frequented public areas and serve as experimental spaces for citizens to investigate the influence of lighting on their daily lives. Additionally, they aim to generate guidelines for municipal lighting specifically catered to the needs of the elderly (July 2023).

Dr Don Slater was interviewed on Today, Radio 4. Following the death by stabbing of a 15-year-old boy in Gateshead, local youth mounted a campaign for lighting along the well-used route where it occurred. Configuring Light is now working with the local community centre to support the campaign and offer research and design backup. Find the programme  (July 2023).

As part of Professor Mike Savage’s Siegfried Landshut Prize awarded by the Hamburg Institute for Social Research, two early career researchers have been nominated to visit Hamburg, with stipend and free accommodation. Following discussions with the Director, PhD students Maya Adereth and Marta Pagnini have been selected. Congratulations! (July 2023).