Unlocking Academia

Lambros Fatsis, 'Policing the Beats: Black music, racism and criminal injustice', (Manchester University Press, 2026)

In this episode of Unlocking Academia, host Tarin Ahmed is joined by Dr. Lambros Fatsis, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at City St George’s and author of 'Policing the Beats: Black music, racism and criminal injustice', (Manchester University Press, 2026). Drawing on cultural criminology, Black radical thought and the study of music, Dr. Fatsis’ work examines how Black musical expression has been surveilled, regulated and criminalised from the era of empire to the present day. The conversation explores the book’s engagement with the colonial origins of British policing, the entanglements between policing and capitalism, and the long history through which Black music has been reframed as “noise,” “disorder,” or a public threat. Moving across sound system culture, reggae dances, grime and drill, the discussion considers how music becomes a site where belonging, exclusion and state power are negotiated, and how policing performs cultural work as much as legal work. The episode also reflects on the criminalisation of Blackness, the use of rap lyrics as evidence in contemporary courtrooms, and the narratives that link drill to violence in media and political discourse. Dr. Fatsis discusses the moral logic that has shaped institutional responses to Black culture, the politics of positionality, and the role of listening in understanding policing, race and public life in Britain today.

Victor Kattan and Amit Ranjan, "The Breakup of India and Palestine: The Causes and Legacies of Partition" (Manchester University Press 2023)

In the latest episode of Unlocking Academia, host Tarin Ahmed is joined by legal scholar Victor Kattan and researcher Amit Ranjan to discuss their co-edited volume The Breakup of India and Palestine (Manchester University Press). Bringing together a range of contributors, the book examines how two major political ruptures of the twentieth century, the partition of British India and the proposed partition of Palestine in 1947, can be understood not as isolated or parallel events, but as part of a wider set of imperial strategies, legal frameworks and political transformations shaped by the end of empire. Kattan and Ranjan guide us through the historical and institutional contexts that gave rise to these partitions, from British imperial governance and debates over federation to the role of international organisations and evolving ideas of self determination and majority rule. Along the way, they reflect on how partition functioned both as a technique of imperial control and as a mechanism of decolonisation, challenging the notion of 1947 as a definitive rupture and instead emphasising longer processes of political and legal change. Drawing on insights from history, international law and political thought, the conversation explores key themes and contributions from the volume, while remaining attentive to both the parallels and the differences between the Indian and Palestinian cases. It also considers how a transnational and interdisciplinary approach can reshape our understanding of partition and its global significance.

Introducing Unlocking Academia with Tarin Ahmed

Welcome to Unlocking Academia, a podcast from Clavis Aurea Podcasts. Unlocking Academia opens the door to the world of scholarship, inviting listeners to engage with the research and ideas driving today's intellectual conversations. In this upcoming season, we explore the latest research in the humanities and social sciences through conversations with the scholars behind recently published books. Each episode will bring you inside the ideas, inspirations, and debates that shape contemporary academic scholarship. Produced by the team at Clavis Aurea in the historic publishing city of Leiden, the podcast connects listeners with scholars and research shaping fields such as history, literature, and culture, and works with publishers worldwide to help academic voices reach wider audiences. For publishers, authors, and institutions interested in collaborating, or for individuals keen to host an episode, we encourage you to reach out via our Clavis Aurea social media channels or by contacting the team directly.

Mikkel Krause Frantzen, "The Birth of the Financial Thriller" (Edinburgh University Press, 2025)

In the latest episode of Unlocking Academia, host Tarin Ahmed is joined by historian and cultural critic Mikkel Frantzen to explore his new book The Birth of a Financial Thriller: Making a Killing in the 1970s (Edinburgh University Press, 2025). Together they explore how the financial thriller genre emerged in the tumultuous economic climate of the 1970s and why its narrative strategies still shape how we imagine markets, risk and the drama of capital today. Frantzen guides us through the historical forces that gave rise to the genre, from the breakdown of Bretton Woods and oil crises to the rise of speculative finance and the globalisation of markets. Along the way, he shows how early works such as Paul Erdman’s The Billion Dollar Sure Thing set the template for novels where financial systems themselves become sites of mystery and suspense.   Drawing on literary analysis, economic history and cultural critique, the conversation unpacks key moments and texts that defined the genre, and considers how thrillers about markets both reflect and influence broader cultural understandings of power, uncertainty and crisis. Listeners will come away with a deeper appreciation of how fiction and finance have been entwined since the late twentieth century, and why the financial thriller continues to resonate in an era of ongoing economic upheaval.They explore how the financial thriller genre emerged in the tumultuous economic climate of the 1970s and why its narrative strategies still shape how we imagine markets, risk and the drama of capital today.

Hind Elhinnawy, "Secular Muslim Feminism: An Alternative Voice in the War of Ideas" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025)

In the latest episode of Unlocking Academia, your host, Tarin Ahmed, is joined by guest Dr Hind Elhinnawy, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Nottingham Trent University and co-director of the Critical Criminology and Social Justice Research Group. Discussing her book, Secular Muslim Feminism: An Alternative Voice in the War of Ideas (Bloomsbury 2024), they unpack the intellectual and personal motivations behind this work, tracing how over two decades of feminist activism and scholarship across the Middle East and Europe have informed Elhinnawy’s thinking.    Secular Muslim Feminism explores how simplistic narratives of oppression and empowerment obscure the lived complexities of Muslim women’s experiences, and how the selective celebration of religious agency can sometimes reinforce the very patriarchal structures feminism seeks to dismantle. The episode also examines how the language of women’s rights has been appropriated by far-right and Islamophobic actors, and what it means to actively resist that co-option.   At its core, Secular Muslim Feminism insists on a feminist politics that refuses easy alignment: one that will not be absorbed into Western liberal paternalism, nor constrained by conservative religious authority. This episode invites listeners behind the scenes of that argument, opening up the tensions, risks, and possibilities of staking out a feminist position that sits deliberately at the margins, yet speaks urgently to some of the most pressing debates of our time.