http://hdl.handle.net/1893/51 This community contains the ePrints and eTheses produced by the History and Politics staff and students. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 17:31:47 GMT 2026-10-25T17:31:47Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38397 Title: Political responses to a second Scottish independence referendum: Deferral, denial and delegitimisation Author(s): Brown Swan, Coree; Anderson, Paul Abstract: This paper examines how the UK state has responded to Scottish demands for a second independence referendum, treating those demands as constitutional contestation and asking whether the state has converted that contestation into deliberative engagement or managed it through deferral, denial, and delegitimisation. Drawing on a longitudinal analysis of ministerial discourse between 2016 and 2026, the paper traces how successive UK Governments – Conservative and Labour – have justified their consistent refusal to sanction a second referendum. It identifies three overlapping phases: conditional deferral under Theresa May, in which the question was postponed around Brexit; assertive denial under Johnson, Truss and Sunak, in which crisis conditions were instrumentalised and the 2022 Supreme Court ruling used to normalise refusal; and managed delegitimisation under Starmer, in which a softer tone masked an effort to render independence constitutionally illegitimate. The UK state has deployed a consistent repertoire – democratic finality, crisis conditions, mandate contestation – to close off rather than structure debate. The paper concludes that while these strategies have prevented a second referendum, they have not resolved the underlying tension, raising fundamental questions about deliberation and democratic legitimacy in multinational states. Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38397 2026-10-05T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38396 Title: The Akwesasne Notes: A Catalyst of Cold War Native American Transnational Protest Author(s): Toth, Gyorgy Abstract: Launched by the longhouse faction of the Mohawk of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy in 1969 after Native American activists reasserted their transnational passage rights by blockading the International Bridge connecting the U.S. state of New York and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, the Akwesasne Notes soon became one of the Native North American papers with the largest circulation and served as the flagship periodical of the American Indian radical sovereignty movement through the end of the Cold War. Through a close-reading of content, multi-sited archival research, and mapping out of the biographies of key activists, this study goes beyond establishing that the Notes was transnational in its geography, politics of production, and coverage, and will investigate whether the newspaper developed from an organ into a catalyst for Cold War Native transnational protest. Using a framework from Performance Studies, the article argues that, in its coverage, Akwesasne Notes both recorded and provided scripts for protest performances that challenged and articulated alternatives to the current Native American/First Nations status and rights. Thereby and through its circulation across and beyond settler colonial borders, the Notes helped catalyse transnational alliances for American Indian sovereignty that over time spanned the Western hemisphere, reached across the Atlantic, and entered the United Nations. Thu, 01 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38396 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38394 Title: Introduction to Special Issue: Native American History through Newspapers Author(s): Toth, Gyorgy; Hosmer, Brian Abstract: Our special journal issue brings together scholars who examine the potential of newspapers, periodicals, and related media for a diversity of interpretations of Native American history. Our contributions range from critiques of settler colonialism and its subversions in periodical cultures to the decolonization of interpretation with Indigenous methodologies—by Indigenous as well as non-Native scholars. Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38394 2026-10-09T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38391 Title: The “Vexed” Status of Guru Images: Visuality, Circulation and Iconographic Conflicts Author(s): Duggal, Koonal Abstract: In 2007, the Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS) guru Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan wore an attire similar to calendar image of tenth Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, and performed a ritual baptism, which became controversial. This article will show how this controversy opens up two significant issues: first, questioning the egalitarian ethos of caste equality upheld by the Sikh religion, and second, with regard to authenticity of religious practice – of what is deemed Sikh and non/un-Sikh practices. The controversy became the fulcrum for questions of visuality and material practices around imageries of Sikh gurus in the domain of popular religiosity and visual culture. This historically relates to the much-debated status of images around gurus in contemporary Punjab. The image and ritual become a crucial site of conflict with regard to questions of Sikh identity, religion and caste. Questions of iconoclasm, authenticity and representation have emerged around the images—largely audio-visual in nature--of the Sikh gurus. In this article I will analyse music video/s that engages with the genre of Sikhi (Sikh principles or faith) highlighting crisis in Sikh identity through lyrical and visual references, for instance to the institutions of popular religion, such as Deras. I then mainly argue that the DSS event cannot be grasped without understanding the modes of engagement and ritual practices around images of Sikh gurus. Such an analysis will not only underline contestations around the ‘vexed’ status of images comprising both Sikh and Dera gurus but will also critique the normative understanding of Sikh identity and religion. Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1893/38391 2022-04-26T00:00:00Z