📚 Book of the Week 📚 In ‘Nations before the nation-state', Anna Marisa Schön disentangles the nation from the nation-state and offers a new history of this concept. Read Annie Hsu’s review: doi.org/10.1093/ia/iia…

Why is it always men debating what women should wear? Bikini or the Burqa it’s always the men who get offended. Let women wear what they want. If a nurse wants to wear a hijab with her uniform what is the issue?

A man has been arrested after groping and trying to kiss Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum as she greeted people on the streets. The incident has renewed debate about the harassment faced by women in the country.

In Sri Lanka, the lack of sex and relationship education has resulted in children gang-raping other children. That is the true state of our “culture” and “සදාචාරය”. The best way to protect children is by educating them. No sermon by any Cardinal or Mahanayake will save them.

🚨🚨New article available online! 🚨🚨 "Colonial trade linkages: Trade policy and imports in South and Southeast Asia colonial markets (1874–1913)" by Alejandro Ayuso Díaz & Antonio Tena-Junguito tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

When silence feels safer than speaking up, the problem is not individual weakness but the environment that we have created. In our DailyFT op-ed on Daniel Naroditsky, we ask why standing up to bullying is so costly & what it will take to change that. ft.lk/columns/Silenc…

MAGA has correctly said they don't need more Asian IT people. They were right all along. Turns out, they just needed history teachers.

How did empire, war, and displacement shape the modern world? Join us for a discussion on War, Empire, and Displacement — Register: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regist… 🗓️ Nov 19 | 🕑 2–3:30 PM | 📍 Room 20.501, Schwarzman Centre #GlobalHistory #TGHS #oxfordstudy

Sandalwood and Carrion is an innovative book on premodern India (mainland South Asia). But it is interesting that a book focused entirely on premodern India features the Sigiriya frescoes on its cover, unacknowledged and without a single mention of Sri Lanka or Sigiriya.

Enjoying this immensely, especially Cherniss's plea to resist the embrace of cruelty and ruthlessness in politics. "Many political evils, of course, stem from garden variety villainy – ambition, venality, the appetite for domination or longing for submission. But..."

Sirasa news sucks because it's blatantly pro-govt and cannot be trusted to report in good faith. Derana news sucks because it's blatantly anti-govt and cannot be trusted to report in good faith. If your only source of news is prime time television, what on earth do you watch?

Pathetic. We are insufferable for WAY more reasons.

The X location reveal feature reinforces certain lessons. Social media can't be used to infer public opinion trends. Even our own echo chambers are deceptive spaces shaped less by genuine ideas and interactions and more by algorithmic curation that distorts what we think we see.

ICE arrested our beloved professor Vahid Abedini. He is Farzaneh Family Assistant Prof of Iranian Studies at the University of Oklahoma's Oklahoma University 's Boren College of International Studies OU College of International Studies Dr. Abedini was boarding a flight on his way to attend the Middle East Studies

Our people ALWAYS step up but disaster to disaster, various governments are caught on the back-foot, slow to act and yet to improve disaster mechanisms. Thank God for people’s generosity.

A government has one basic job: to protect the people. Natural disasters test governments and this government failed that test.

‼️‼️Drinking water is a massive issue in Kandy. If you are sending items please consider sending more of these.

It's worth being cautious when amplifying stories about a few bad actors in Kandy & other affect areas. This deters donors. As with any situation, a handful of people will misuse donations. Amplifying such posts risks making it seem like it is the norm rather than the exception.

I write with Harindra B. Dassanayake to Economic & Political Weekly on "One Year of the NPP in Sri Lanka: Realising the Anti-corruption Dividend'": epw.in/journal/commen… The full article can be also downloaded at muragala.lk/articles/one-y…