In SPIN’s Spring 2025 newsletter, we’re pleased to share new publications, latest events and welcome new SPIN members.

 

 

Announcements

 

• The SPIN Call for chapter proposals is still open. We are planning a new edited volume, Secrecy Studies: Enduring Themes, New Directions that we hope will be a new and exciting multi-disciplinary offering appealing to secrecy studies scholars and beyond. Abstracts due by 1 June 2025. Full CFP details available here.

 

• Season 2 of the SPIN Podcast series concludes with three final recordings. Stream the latest episodes from this term:
  • In Conversation: Peter Finn on the official government record. Listen here.
  • In Conversation: Lewis Bush on his new project, Depravity’s Rainbow and Trading Secrets. Listen here.
  • Talk: G is for (Secrecy) Games with Elspeth Van Veeren. Listen here.

Planning is underway for a third season to be recorded in spring/summer 2026, please stay tuned for a notice. If you would like to be involved, as participant or ‘host’ do get in touch.

 

 

 

Events

 

• Registration is open for our free online Methods Masterclass, Navigating the Challenges of FOIA, on Wednesday 11 June at 2pm (GMT+1), featuring expert speakers and tailored for PhD and early-career researchers – sign up here.

 

• The recording of the book launch for Professor Brian Rappert’s Revelations: A Sociology of Uncovering, exploring the societal implications of revealing hidden truths, is now available here.

 

• SPIN will be at the British International Studies Association (BISA) 50th Anniversary Conference, 18–20 June 2025 in Belfast. Papers presented by SPIN-sters are listed below. For further details of papers, read the full blog post here.
  • The Paranoid Style in Liberal Politics: Conspiracy Theories and the Crisis of Liberal International Order – Jamie M. Johnson, University of Leicester; Owen D. Thomas, University of Exeter; Victoria M. Basham, Cardiff University
  • Aliens exist: exploring secrecy and revelations through UFOs/UAPs, National Intelligence, and Blink 182 – Louise Pears, University of Leeds; Anna Miller
  • Cybersecurity, trust, and subterfuge at the interfaces of secrecy (infra)structures – Clare Stevens, Cardiff University
  • Scheming Like a State: The Political Logic of Cunning Intelligence – Sam Forsythe, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt / Goethe University Frankfurt
  • Femininum Suspectum: Suspicion, secrecy, and insecurity and the reproduction of global gender order – Elspeth Van Veeren, University of Bristol

 

New Members

 

• SPIN is pleased to welcome Edmund Clark, Reader in the Political Image at the University of the Arts London. Edmund is an artist who connects history, politics, and representation through a variety of forms, including bookmaking, installations, photography, and video. His work explores state power, control in conflict, and often includes reflections on the power of state secrecy.

 

• We are pleased to welcome two SPIN fellows for 2025:

 

• • Yi Wang is a PhD researcher in Sociology at SPAIS, University of Bristol. Her research interests include gender, resistance, feminism, and social movement studies. You can read about her PhD project, Feminist Counterpublics in Authoritarian China: Resisting Repressions While Excluding ‘Weak’ Women, via our Projects page.
• • Dr Zara Bain is a honorary research associate in Philosophy, University of Bristol. Project details to follow.

 

 

New Publications and Press

 

• New article by SPIN member William Walters, co-authored with Travis Van Isacker, titled ‘Rethinking Freedom of Information Research: Selective Flows of Information in Borders and Migration Studies’, is now available in Political Anthropological Research on International Social Sciences. Read the article here.

 

• New article by SPIN member Owen D. Thomas, co-authored with Victoria M. Basham and Rhys Crilley, titled ‘Death and Denial in the City: Making Sense of London Bridge and Grenfell’, is now available in Politics & Space. Read the article here.

 

• New article by SPIN member Elspeth Van Veeren, co-authored with Elisabeth Moerking and Harvey Dryer to be published in the International Feminist Journal of Politics, ‘Taking Taking the Red Pill: Conspiracy Theories, Gender, and the ‘elusive epistemologies’ of the Manosphere‘. Pre-publication version here.

 

• The latest issue of Secrecy and Society is now live, featuring new interdisciplinary research on the politics, practices, and cultures of secrecy. Read the full issue here.

 

• We continue to welcome new 500 to 1000-word contributions to our developing A-Z of Secrecy and Ignorance. Beginning online, we aim to see this published as an edited volume in due course. If you have a core concept and associated research project you would like to draw attention to, please get in touch with Elspeth. You can see examples of existing contributions on the SPIN Blog, such as ‘Assassination‘, ‘Born Secret‘, ‘Curiosity’, ‘Official Record’, ‘Omerta,’ and ‘Conspiracy Theory’.

 

 

As always, do let us know of any news we can share by emailing us at secrecyresearch@gmail.com