Author: Bradley L Garrett

More Immigration Horror Stories

Since publishing my piece yesterday at The Conversation about the Conservatives’ war on foreign intellectuals in Britain, I have been flooded with phone calls and emails from people with their own stories of dealing with the constantly shifting goalposts set out by the UK Home Office. One American sent me a photo of a teabag chucked into a glass of water, a nod to the American Revolution and the fight over “taxation without representation”. He was clearly frustrated not to be voting today, despite paying taxes here for over two years. Another called me to say that they had not had any specific...

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Why I’m resisting the Conservatives’ war on foreign intellectuals in Britain

Academics doing battle with the Home Office. Photo via FotograFFF/www.shutterstock.com  Earlier this year, the UK lost a great scholar through a “soft deportation” when Miwa Hirono voluntarily left the country after an extended legal battle with the Home Office that left her and her family financially and psychologically exhausted. Hirono, a Japanese citizen, worked for the University of Nottingham for nearly seven years as an expert in UK-China relations, had a child born in the UK, and had every intention of permanently residing here. However, she had been “absent” from the UK for more than 180 days over the past five...

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Labyrinth Review

In the new issue of the Times Literary Supplement (20th March 2015), I have reviewed Mark Wallinger’s new book Labyrinth: A Journey Through London’s Underground.  The piece was edited down a bit for print. Below is the unedited text for those interested. Louise Coysh, editor LABYRINTH A journey through London’s underground by Mark Wallinger 320pp. Art/Books Publishing. £24.99. 978 1 908970 16 9 In 2010, Banksy’s agent placed an advertisement inside London Bridge station for his new film Exit Through the Gift Shop. The print depicted a young boy praying in front of a brush and bucket under a...

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Experimental Geographies

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been putting together a 3rd year undergraduate course here at the University of Southampton. This is my first time putting together an entire course and I’m pleased to say I’ve finally got a draft syllabus together. I’m now going to start working on the individual lectures. It looks like it’s spinning up to be an interesting term here on the south...

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