Ruth Craggs
Biographic Data
| ID | 129533 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ruth Craggs |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ruth |
| FAMILY NAME | Craggs |
| SIGNATURE | CRAGGS R |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6606-1381 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 211 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Rethinking the late colonial state in Africa through diplomatic training
This paper focuses on diplomatic training as a site for exploring the tensions in late colonialism around sovereignty and self-government. Training for the diplomats of soon to be independent states was understood by imperial governments as an ambiguous issue in this period immediately pre-independence: it offered the potential for the former metropole to sustain power and influence within a rapidly changing world, whilst at the same time challen…
Diplomatic Training and Spaces of Anticolonial Worldmaking
Focusing on training for African diplomats from newly independent countries in Cameroon, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, this paper makes the case for spaces of diplomatic training as sites for anticolonial “worldmaking” (Getachew 2019; Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self‐Determination ). Recent scholarship has highlighted the value of African leaders’ visions but largely overlooked the actors, spaces, and practices through which these visio…
The unnamed but dominant delegate’
Tracing Diplomatic Tutelage
Throughout the twentieth century, colonies emerged from the so-called tutelage of European imperial powers to represent themselves as sovereign states. One consequence of this change was an expansion in overseas diplomatic training, aimed at inducting into international life the hundreds of diplomats required to staff new foreign services. This paper interrogates the pedagogical and (geo)political practice of tutelage-where guardianship and instr…
Understanding Diplomatic Training from the Global South
Modern diplomacy is a Western and colonial project.1 Nevertheless, as a growing body of work is demonstrating, diplomacies and diplomats of the Global South have had a distinct influence on the development of global international relations through the second half of the twentieth century.2
What Happens If We Start from Nigeria? Diversifying Histories of Geography
This article asks this question: What if, rather than starting from the United States or the United Kingdom in histories of geography, we start from Nigeria? Focusing on Nigerian geographers working in Nigeria’s first university from 1948 to 1990 and drawing on archival evidence and new oral history interviews, this article argues that the view from Nigeria offers significant new perspectives on the history of geography. First, it highlights the …
Britain and the End of Empire
Two recent books explore the question of how decolonization impacted upon Britain through a focus on British charitable, educational, and financial institutions. The first is Sarah Stockwell’s The British End of the British Empire (2018), which uses case studies of institutions ‘situated on the margins of the state or beyond’: The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; The Bank of England, the Royal Mint and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst…
Decolonising The Geographical Tradition
The Geographical Tradition played a key role in highlighting geography's imperialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries and prompted a wave of necessary research into the discipline's colonial and racist past. However, both the book itself and the scholarship it subsequently inspired have overlooked the role of geographers from the Global South almost entirely, reinforcing geography's exclusionary traditions. More inclusive disciplinary histori…
Post-colonial careering and the discipline of geography
The 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Windrush Scandal and the Legacies of Empire
The 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Windrush Scandal and the Legacies of Empire." The Round Table, 107(3), pp. 361–362
Derek Ingram
Subaltern geopolitics and the post-colonial Commonwealth, 1965-1990
Between 1965 and 1990, the Commonwealth - an association of independent states emerging out of the decolonisation of the British Empire - took on an increasingly activist role focusing on racial and social justice and developing new subaltern (geo)political cultures. Drawing on a rich collection of new oral histories with politicians and diplomats from within the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth governments, this article focuses on the p…
Cultures of decolonisation
Cultures of Decolonisation
What were the distinctive cultures of decolonisation that emerged in the years between 1945 and 1970, and what can they uncover about the complexities of the ‘end of empire’ as a process? Cultures of Decolonisation brings together visual, literary and material cultures within one volume in order to explore this question. The volume reveals the diverse ways in which cultures were active in wider political, economic and social change, working as cr…
Cultures of Decolonisation
Post‐colonial careering and urban policy mobility
This paper sets out the value of the concept of ‘careering’ to understanding the global mobility of urban policy across historical and contemporary contexts. Through a case study of one colonial and post‐colonial career in urban development, we demonstrate the material and ideological connections between late colonial development in Nigeria, British reconstruction and international consultancy. Empirically, the paper provides novel post‐colonial …
Managing enthusiasm
Postcolonial geographies, decolonization, and the performance of geopolitics at C ommonwealth conferences
Research in postcolonial geography has overlooked the period, practices and spaces of political decolonization in favour of studies of high imperialism and ongoing contemporary colonialism. Here, I suggest geographers should look more carefully at the mid‐twentieth century era during which people, institutions and states negotiated, performed and experienced becoming postcolonial. I make this case by focusing on the modern C ommonwealth which eme…
Losing an Empire and Building a Role
The queen's role as the head of the commonwealth has evolved over the last 60 years. In this article, we explore the ways in which this position was constructed and negotiated through the queen's presence (and absence) at commonwealth conferences. Utilising the example of the Lusaka Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1979—a highly fraught meeting, the queen's attendance at which was hotly contested—we examine narratives present in newspa…
Hospitality in geopolitics and the making of Commonwealth international relations
The Geographies of the Conference
Conferences are an ubiquitous and important part of political and academic life, acting as key sites of knowledge creation, public performance, legitimation and protest. Reviewing the current literature and drawing on our own work, this paper suggests that geographers are well‐placed to provide insight into conferences through the concepts of visibility, performance and space. We explore the politics of academic, climate and geopolitical conferen…
Memories of Empire Volume 1
Memories of Empire Volume I
Bill Schwarz Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. xiii + 584, ISBN 9780199296910 (hardback) Memories of Empire Volume I: The White Man’s World is the first of a three-volume series that explo
Architectural Enthusiasm
In this paper we put forward the concept of architectural enthusiasm-a collective passion and shared emotional affiliation for buildings and architecture. Through this concept and empirical material based on participation in the architectural tours of The Twentieth Century Society (a UK-based architectural conservation group), we contribute to recent work on the built environment and geographies of architecture in three ways: first, we reinforce …
Who killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa
What Happens If We Start from Nigeria? Diversifying Histories of Geography
This article asks this question: What if, rather than starting from the United States or the United Kingdom in histories of geography, we start from Nigeria? Focusing on Nigerian geographers working in Nigeria’s first university from 1948 to 1990 and drawing on archival evidence and new oral history interviews, this article argues that the view from Nigeria offers significant new perspectives on the history of geography. First, it highlights the …
Post‐colonial careering and urban policy mobility
This paper sets out the value of the concept of ‘careering’ to understanding the global mobility of urban policy across historical and contemporary contexts. Through a case study of one colonial and post‐colonial career in urban development, we demonstrate the material and ideological connections between late colonial development in Nigeria, British reconstruction and international consultancy. Empirically, the paper provides novel post‐colonial …
The Geographies of the Conference
Conferences are an ubiquitous and important part of political and academic life, acting as key sites of knowledge creation, public performance, legitimation and protest. Reviewing the current literature and drawing on our own work, this paper suggests that geographers are well‐placed to provide insight into conferences through the concepts of visibility, performance and space. We explore the politics of academic, climate and geopolitical conferen…
Hospitality in geopolitics and the making of Commonwealth international relations
Subaltern geopolitics and the post-colonial Commonwealth, 1965-1990
Between 1965 and 1990, the Commonwealth - an association of independent states emerging out of the decolonisation of the British Empire - took on an increasingly activist role focusing on racial and social justice and developing new subaltern (geo)political cultures. Drawing on a rich collection of new oral histories with politicians and diplomats from within the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth governments, this article focuses on the p…
Working-with
Decolonising The Geographical Tradition
The Geographical Tradition played a key role in highlighting geography's imperialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries and prompted a wave of necessary research into the discipline's colonial and racist past. However, both the book itself and the scholarship it subsequently inspired have overlooked the role of geographers from the Global South almost entirely, reinforcing geography's exclusionary traditions. More inclusive disciplinary histori…
Architectural Enthusiasm
In this paper we put forward the concept of architectural enthusiasm-a collective passion and shared emotional affiliation for buildings and architecture. Through this concept and empirical material based on participation in the architectural tours of The Twentieth Century Society (a UK-based architectural conservation group), we contribute to recent work on the built environment and geographies of architecture in three ways: first, we reinforce …
The Britannic Vision
The long and dusty road
This article explores the Comex expeditions founded in 1965 to allow young people to understand Commonwealth ideals through travelling by road to India. Comex drew on optimistic narratives about the possibilities of the Commonwealth as an antidote to the perceived problems of race and declining values in the modern world, attempting to produce enlightened Commonwealth citizens through the travel culture prescribed on route. The article argues tha…
Situating the imperial archive
Towards a political geography of hotels
This article sets out the case for taking account of hotels in political geography. It argues that hotels, as key spaces of welcome, association, and entertainment between public and private, are important political sites. They provide space for the performance of political ideologies and identities, where political campaigns can be made visible, where political relations can be illuminated and translated for international audiences, and where th…
Managing enthusiasm
Post-colonial careering and the discipline of geography
Understanding Diplomatic Training from the Global South
Modern diplomacy is a Western and colonial project.1 Nevertheless, as a growing body of work is demonstrating, diplomacies and diplomats of the Global South have had a distinct influence on the development of global international relations through the second half of the twentieth century.2
Tracing Diplomatic Tutelage
Throughout the twentieth century, colonies emerged from the so-called tutelage of European imperial powers to represent themselves as sovereign states. One consequence of this change was an expansion in overseas diplomatic training, aimed at inducting into international life the hundreds of diplomats required to staff new foreign services. This paper interrogates the pedagogical and (geo)political practice of tutelage-where guardianship and instr…
The 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Windrush Scandal and the Legacies of Empire
The 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Windrush Scandal and the Legacies of Empire." The Round Table, 107(3), pp. 361–362
Losing an Empire and Building a Role
The queen's role as the head of the commonwealth has evolved over the last 60 years. In this article, we explore the ways in which this position was constructed and negotiated through the queen's presence (and absence) at commonwealth conferences. Utilising the example of the Lusaka Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1979—a highly fraught meeting, the queen's attendance at which was hotly contested—we examine narratives present in newspa…
Memories of Empire Volume 1
Situating the imperial archive
The Britannic Vision
Working-with
The long and dusty road
This article explores the Comex expeditions founded in 1965 to allow young people to understand Commonwealth ideals through travelling by road to India. Comex drew on optimistic narratives about the possibilities of the Commonwealth as an antidote to the perceived problems of race and declining values in the modern world, attempting to produce enlightened Commonwealth citizens through the travel culture prescribed on route. The article argues tha…
Who killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War and White Supremacy in Africa
Towards a political geography of hotels
This article sets out the case for taking account of hotels in political geography. It argues that hotels, as key spaces of welcome, association, and entertainment between public and private, are important political sites. They provide space for the performance of political ideologies and identities, where political campaigns can be made visible, where political relations can be illuminated and translated for international audiences, and where th…
Memories of Empire Volume 1
Memories of Empire Volume I
Bill Schwarz Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. xiii + 584, ISBN 9780199296910 (hardback) Memories of Empire Volume I: The White Man’s World is the first of a three-volume series that explo
Architectural Enthusiasm
In this paper we put forward the concept of architectural enthusiasm-a collective passion and shared emotional affiliation for buildings and architecture. Through this concept and empirical material based on participation in the architectural tours of The Twentieth Century Society (a UK-based architectural conservation group), we contribute to recent work on the built environment and geographies of architecture in three ways: first, we reinforce …
Postcolonial geographies, decolonization, and the performance of geopolitics at C ommonwealth conferences
Research in postcolonial geography has overlooked the period, practices and spaces of political decolonization in favour of studies of high imperialism and ongoing contemporary colonialism. Here, I suggest geographers should look more carefully at the mid‐twentieth century era during which people, institutions and states negotiated, performed and experienced becoming postcolonial. I make this case by focusing on the modern C ommonwealth which eme…
Losing an Empire and Building a Role
The queen's role as the head of the commonwealth has evolved over the last 60 years. In this article, we explore the ways in which this position was constructed and negotiated through the queen's presence (and absence) at commonwealth conferences. Utilising the example of the Lusaka Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1979—a highly fraught meeting, the queen's attendance at which was hotly contested—we examine narratives present in newspa…
Hospitality in geopolitics and the making of Commonwealth international relations
The Geographies of the Conference
Conferences are an ubiquitous and important part of political and academic life, acting as key sites of knowledge creation, public performance, legitimation and protest. Reviewing the current literature and drawing on our own work, this paper suggests that geographers are well‐placed to provide insight into conferences through the concepts of visibility, performance and space. We explore the politics of academic, climate and geopolitical conferen…
Cultures of decolonisation
Cultures of Decolonisation
What were the distinctive cultures of decolonisation that emerged in the years between 1945 and 1970, and what can they uncover about the complexities of the ‘end of empire’ as a process? Cultures of Decolonisation brings together visual, literary and material cultures within one volume in order to explore this question. The volume reveals the diverse ways in which cultures were active in wider political, economic and social change, working as cr…
Cultures of Decolonisation
Post‐colonial careering and urban policy mobility
This paper sets out the value of the concept of ‘careering’ to understanding the global mobility of urban policy across historical and contemporary contexts. Through a case study of one colonial and post‐colonial career in urban development, we demonstrate the material and ideological connections between late colonial development in Nigeria, British reconstruction and international consultancy. Empirically, the paper provides novel post‐colonial …
Managing enthusiasm
Post-colonial careering and the discipline of geography
The 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Windrush Scandal and the Legacies of Empire
The 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the Windrush Scandal and the Legacies of Empire." The Round Table, 107(3), pp. 361–362
Derek Ingram
Subaltern geopolitics and the post-colonial Commonwealth, 1965-1990
Between 1965 and 1990, the Commonwealth - an association of independent states emerging out of the decolonisation of the British Empire - took on an increasingly activist role focusing on racial and social justice and developing new subaltern (geo)political cultures. Drawing on a rich collection of new oral histories with politicians and diplomats from within the Commonwealth Secretariat and Commonwealth governments, this article focuses on the p…
Britain and the End of Empire
Two recent books explore the question of how decolonization impacted upon Britain through a focus on British charitable, educational, and financial institutions. The first is Sarah Stockwell’s The British End of the British Empire (2018), which uses case studies of institutions ‘situated on the margins of the state or beyond’: The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; The Bank of England, the Royal Mint and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst…
Decolonising The Geographical Tradition
The Geographical Tradition played a key role in highlighting geography's imperialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries and prompted a wave of necessary research into the discipline's colonial and racist past. However, both the book itself and the scholarship it subsequently inspired have overlooked the role of geographers from the Global South almost entirely, reinforcing geography's exclusionary traditions. More inclusive disciplinary histori…
What Happens If We Start from Nigeria? Diversifying Histories of Geography
This article asks this question: What if, rather than starting from the United States or the United Kingdom in histories of geography, we start from Nigeria? Focusing on Nigerian geographers working in Nigeria’s first university from 1948 to 1990 and drawing on archival evidence and new oral history interviews, this article argues that the view from Nigeria offers significant new perspectives on the history of geography. First, it highlights the …
Political science (23 works) · Law (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Politics (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Colonialism (11 works) · History (9 works) · Empire (8 works) · Geopolitics (8 works) · History (8 works)