The Academic Bubble

Balcon, Ealing, and Institutional Identity

As head of Ealing Studios, Michael Balcon routinely told a story about the studio that cohered with the narratives of the films it made, and helped…

Mar 13 • Dion Georgiou

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February 2026

Stop, Look, and Listen #53

A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past month, on the Global War on Terror; Trump and the international order; the remaking of…

Feb 24 • Dion Georgiou

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Idi Amin: Lion of Africa (2010)

In writing a revisionist account of Idi Amin’s rise to power and expulsion of Uganda’s Asian minority, Manzoor Moghal simultaneously asserted his own…

Feb 17

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Refugee Narratives on The Reunion

Episodes of BBC Radio 4 programme The Reunion have given refugees to Britain opportunities to narrate their stories in dialogue with each other, but…

Feb 10 • Dion Georgiou

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December 2025

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere

This biopic frames the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska in the context of his own psychological turmoil, at the omission of the broader…

Dec 8, 2025 • Dion Georgiou

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November 2025

Stop, Look, and Listen #52

A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past month, on the Horn of Africa; Eastern Orthodoxy; the Balkans; and football, ideology…

Nov 27, 2025 • Dion Georgiou

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Foot and Mouth – The Killing Fields in Wales (2021)

This documentary revisited the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak and ensuing animal cull in Wales, and its impact on the country’s farmers, in part through…

Nov 22, 2025

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October 2025

‘This Is Going to Be Part of Soccer History’

American Samoa’s 2-1 win over Tonga in 2011 ended a lengthy losing streak and was portrayed by international media as completing a redemption arc from…

Oct 31, 2025 • Dion Georgiou

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Honey Don’t!

The second instalment in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s planned ‘lesbian B-movie trilogy’ offers a queer perspective on the detective genre and on class…

Oct 23, 2025 • Dion Georgiou

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Stop, Look, and Listen #51

A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past week.

Oct 4, 2025 • Dion Georgiou

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September 2025

Eddington

This portrayal of a small New Mexico town at the outset of the pandemic meditates on how individual self-interest, ambition, and resentments fuel…

Sep 24, 2025 • Dion Georgiou

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Stop, Look, and Listen #50

A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past week.

Sep 20, 2025 • Dion Georgiou

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