Talks

I will happily discuss my research at any opportunity and over the last decade I have given talks in Australia, Austria, Britain, Belgium, DR Congo, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, United States and Zambia.

Please get in touch if you would like me to speak at your event.

See below for a list of upcoming talks, and where I’ve previously given talks.

Upcoming talks

‘Long-term Labour Trends in Extractive Industries’, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2 May 2023.

‘Are we Entering the Copper Age?’, Mines and Money Connect London, 26 April 2023.

‘Whose Heritage? Railway History, Industry and Settler Colonialism in Southern Africa’, National Railway Museum, 25 April 2023.

Previous talks

2023

‘Book discussion: White Mineworkers on Zambia’s Copperbelt’, University of Vienna, 20 March 2023.

‘Partnerships and Pitfalls: Lessons from Digitising the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia Archive’, University of Vienna, 17 March 2023.

2022

‘Imperial Legacies and Global Connections of Mining in Southern Africa’, Research Centre for Area Studies, Jakarta, 4 November 2022.

‘Researching Twentieth Century Global Ordering’, Archives and Methods of Global Ordering in the Twentieth Century, Leiden University, 13 October 2022.

‘Fiery Collieries’ and Explosive Situations: Towards a History of the 1972 Hwange Colliery Disaster’, International Conference on Labour and Social History, Linz, 23 September 2022.

‘Racial Nationalism, Defamation of the President, and the Roy Clarke Satirical Affair in Zambia’, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town, 18 August 2022.

‘Lessons from the Rise and Decline of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines’, Maximising Benefits from Mining in Zambia Conference, Copperbelt University, 26 July 2022.

‘Empire of Labour: Impact and Legacy of Migration from Cumberland to the South African Rand’, Social History Society conference, Lancaster University, 2 July 2022.

‘Labour and Capital in South Africa, ca. 1600-1900’, General Labour History of Africa workshop, Leiden University, 10 June 2022.

‘Mining and Migration in Southern Africa. Where do Lions Fit in?’, Gaping Holes: Towards multi-species histories and ethnographies of mining in Southern Africa, African Studies Centre Leiden, 3 June 2022.

‘Empire of Labour: The Consequences and Legacy of Migration of Migration between Northern England and the Rand, Department of Historical’, Department of Historical and Heritage Studies Seminar, University of Pretoria, 30 May 2022.

‘Book discussion: White Mineworkers on Zambia’s Copperbelt’, Humanities Research Seminar, University of South Queensland, 10 May 2022.

‘Immobile Nations: Independence and the Collapse of Labour Migration Systems in Southern Africa, c.1960-2020’, Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminar, Leiden University, 29 April 2022.

‘Devouring the Past: How White Ants Have Shaped the Records of Zambia’s Recent History’, After the Fire: Loss, Archive and African Studies, University of Cape Town, 19 April 2022.

‘Book launch: White Mineworkers on Zambia’s Copperbelt’, African Studies Centre Leiden, 27 March 2022.

2021

‘Using Social Media as an Academic’, Centre for African Studies, University of Edinburgh, 18 November 2021.

‘Beyond Discipline and Place in African Studies’, LeidenGlobal lecture, Leiden University, 9 November 2021.

‘Bad Judgement or Bad Timing? Reassessing the Legacy of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines’, Remembering Kaunda: His Life and Legacies in Southern Africa and Beyond, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, Lusaka, 3 November 2021.

‘Copper Processing on the Central African Copperbelt, 1907-1975’, Commodities of Empire Workshop, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2 September 2021.

‘Decolonization at Work: A Comparative History of Mining Labour on the Central African Copperbelt and the Fushun Coalfields, c. 1946-1970’, European Labour History Network conference, University of Vienna, 31 August 2021.

‘Global Processes and the Formation of the Central African Copperbelt, c.1890-1970’, Inland Empires in Modern World History symposium, University of Oxford, 22-23 July 2021.

‘Labour and Capital in South Africa, ca. 1600-1900’, General Labour History of Africa conference, Leiden University, 17-19 June 2021.

‘Roundtable Discussion on Rethinking White Societies in Southern Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies seminar, 1 June 2021.

‘Mining and Labour Migration in a Regional Perspective in Southern Africa, c. 1886-2012’, European Conference on Social Science and History, International Institute of Social History, 26 March 2021.

2020

All talks cancelled due to Covid-19!

2019

‘Rebalancing the narrative or perpetuating bias? Digitizing the archives of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia’, Ramblers seminar, University of the Free State, 30 October 2019.

‘Rebalancing the narrative or perpetuating bias? Digitizing the archives of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia’, African Studies Association of Africa conference, United States International University in Africa, Nairobi, 25 October 2019.

‘American Mining Engineers and the Global Copper Industry, c.1880-1945’, A Global History of Copper workshop, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 16 August 2019.

‘Divergence and Convergence on the Copperbelt: White communities in comparative perspective, 1911-63’, Comparing the Copperbelt conference, University of Lubumbashi, 23 July 2019.

‘‘A Second Arizona’: Global Connections, Commodity Production and the Creation of the Urban Copperbelt, 1926-69’, The Pursuit of Global Urban History conference, University of Leicester, 12 July 2019.

‘Rebalancing the historical narrative or perpetuating bias? Digitizing the archives of the Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia’, Southern African Historical Society conference, Rhodes University, 26 June 2019.

‘What Work Counts? Understanding and Classifying Zambia’s Labour Force, c.1900 to the present’, European Conference on African Studies, Edinburgh University, 14 June 2019.

‘In a Class of Their Own? Researching White Mineworkers’ on Zambia’s Copperbelt’, Anthropological Conversations Seminar, University of the Free State, 19 March 2019.

‘Compounding Errors: Workers’ Housing in Mining Regions Across Southern Africa, c.1880s-1980s’, Stanley Trapido Seminar, University of the Free State, 4 March 2019.

2018

‘Accident and Death Rates on the Central African Copperbelt in Comparative Perspective, c.1910-1970’, African Studies Association UK Conference, University of Birmingham, 11 September 2018.

‘Changes in Occupational Structures in Zambia, c. 1930-2000’, World Economic History Congress, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 August 2018.

‘The World of Mining Camps: International and Regional Labour Migration on the Central African Copperbelt, c. 1910-1975’, Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminar, Leiden University, 19 April 2018.

‘Occupational Structures in Zambia, c.1911-2011’, Comparative History of Occupational Structures Across Africa Conference, University of Cambridge, 12 April 2018.

‘The Dog That Didn’t Bark: The Mufulira Strike and White Mineworkers’ at Zambia Independence’, Rethinking White Societies Workshop, University of the Free State, 15 February 2018.

‘Crafting the Copper Spoon: Creating and Controlling Value Chains in Zambia’s Copper Industry’, Symposium on the History of Extractive Industries and African Development, University of Ghana, 2 February 2018.

2017

‘‘A Second Arizona’: American Mining Engineers and the Development of the Copperbelt, 1926-39’, Mining in Comparative Perspective Conference, Ghent University, 13 December 2017.

‘Race at Work: Migration and Labour in the Mining Industry in Southern Africa and Beyond’, Centre for the Study of the Inland Seminar, La Trobe University, 4 October 2017.

‘‘A Second Arizona’: American Mining Engineers and the Development of the Copperbelt, 1926-39’, Australasian Mining History Association Conference, Federation University, 26 September 2017.

‘”Ain’t I a bastard, well I received my training in Aussie”: The life of Frank Maybank, an Australian trade unionist on the Central African Copperbelt’, Fifteenth Biennial Labour History Conference, University of Queensland, 24 September 2017.

‘Integrating or disaggregating economic histories? Changing occupational structures in Zambia and regional dynamics, c.1911-2010’, European Conference on African Studies, University of Basel, 1 July 2017.

‘Urbanisation in Zambia’, Literature and Sources About African Cities workshop, University of Basel, 28 June 2017.

‘‘The North Union will go down’: White workers, industrial relations, and the state during and after Zambian independence, 1958-1970’, Southern Africa Historical Society conference, University of the Witwatersrand, 22 June 2017.

‘Choking on a Copper Spoon? The mining industry and economic development in Africa’, Young Scholars Initiative conference, University of the Free State, 9 June 2017.

‘‘Aliens’ on the Copperbelt: Citizenship, national identity and non-Zambian Africans in the mining industry’, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town, 6 June 2017.

‘Underground struggles: the early life of Jack Hodgson’, History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand, 20 April 2017.

‘Underground struggles: the early life of Jack Hodgson’, History Department, University of Pretoria, 19 April 2017.

2016

‘Whites on the Copperbelt in Connected and Comparative Perspective’, Comparing Africa’s Copperbelt workshop, Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 5 December 2016.

‘“Artisans can get a bare living anywhere”: White labour mobility and wartime movement restrictions on the Zambian Copperbelt’, The (Un)making of Southern Africa Beyond and Across Borders conference, University of the Witwatersrand, 3 November 2016.

‘National Archives and Transnational Subjects: the dispersal of archival documents on Zambia’s past’, Endangered and Post-Colonial Archives workshop, Southern African Institute for Policy and Research, Lusaka, 13 October 2016.

‘Underground struggles: the early life of Jack Hodgson’, African Dynamics: The Individual in African History workshop, Leiden University, 30 September 2016.

‘The Wild West in Central Africa: Authority, justice, and white miners in the Copperbelt mining camps’, Association for African Studies in Italy, University of Catania, 24 September 2016.

‘Trouble in Paradise: White industrial unrest on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1956-60’, African Studies Association UK conference, University of Cambridge, 9 September 2016.

‘”Do we fight or Do we surrender?”: Settlers, resistance, and decolonisation in Zambia, 1959-64’, International History Seminar, London School of Economics, 10 February 2016.

2015

‘White labour migration and the 1944-46 wildcat strikes on the Zambian Copperbelt’, European Labour History Network conference, University of Turin, 14 December 2015.

‘Trouble in Paradise: Wildcat strikes and white labour migration on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1944-48’, African History and Politics Seminar, University of Oxford, 19 October 2015.

‘The ‘Black Squad’ and white labour: Glaswegian riveters on the Zambian Copperbelt’, History Research Seminar, Sheffield Hallam University, 7 October 2015.

‘‘Even if we are the highest paid workers in the world, the fact remains we are entitled to fight’: White mineworkers on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1930-1950’, European Conference on African Studies, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 9 July 2015.

‘‘Even if we are the highest paid workers in the world, the fact remains we are entitled to fight’: White mineworkers on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1930-1950’, Southern Africa Historical Society conference, University of Stellenbosch, 3 July 2015.

‘Suitable subjects? Radical and social history on the Zambian Copperbelt’, Unofficial Histories conference, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, 5 June 2015.

‘Empire of Labour: White workers and internationalism on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1930-45’, Nationalism and Internationalism in Labour History conference, University of Newcastle, 25 April 2015.

‘Who is a radical in history? Problems of definition on the Zambian Copperbelt’, What is Radical History? conference, Birkbeck, University of London, 24 March 2015.

‘‘Money doesn’t buy you happiness’: Welfare and leisure on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1947-1966’, Researching Africa Day conference, University of Oxford, 7 March 2015.

‘“They can’t settle down”: White miners and migration on the Zambian Copperbelt’, Race and Resistance seminar, University of Oxford, 18 February 2015.

2014

‘Transnational white labour migration, industrial militancy and racial exclusivity on the Copperbelt, 1930-1946’, African Studies Association UK conference, University of Sussex, 10 September 2014.

‘The eyes of the world are on the Copperbelt tonight: The world of European labour on the Zambian Copperbelt, 1940-46’, History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand, 30 July 2014.

Transnational white labour migration, industrial militancy and racial exclusivity on the Copperbelt, 1930-1946’, History Department, Rhodes University, 25 July 2014.

‘The use of a cutting torch remains a vital point of principle’: The significance of race in the history of the Copperbelt, 1948-1966′, Stanley Trapido seminar, University of the Free State, 24 July 2014.

‘‘The wealth is there; do you get your share?’ Unlikely and unintended consequences of white trade unionism in post-independence Zambia’, Mining and Political Transformations in Africa conference, University of Edinburgh, 24 April 2014.

‘Industrial militancy, egalitarianism and racial exclusivity: white miners on the Copperbelt, 1929-1953’, African Studies Centre seminar, University of Oxford, 29 January 2014.

2013

‘‘Every profiteer for himself is the manager’s idea of patriotism’: White labourism and industrial unrest on the Copperbelt during the Second World War’, Stanley Trapido seminar, University of the Free State, 2 October 2013.

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