The Academic Bubble

The Academic Bubble The Academic Bubble is the newsletter of historian Dion Georgiou. I also maintain a regular record of all these in the ‘Notes’ section of my website.

Subscribers to The Academic Bubble will receive regular posts about recent and contemporary politics and culture. There are two models of subscription:

Free subscription:

All free subscribers will receive posts from the following series:

Historical Currents (monthly): A series of posts putting current affairs in their historical contexts. Present Pasts (monthly): A series of posts examining con

temporary representations of history (as well as of the future, and of time and memory more generally). Stop, Look, and Listen (weekly): A digest of articles and podcasts (and occasionally programmes and films) that I’ve enjoyed over the past week. Paid subscription:

In addition to these, paid subscribers will receive posts from the following series, for £2.50 a month for the first 12 months:

The Long Nineties (monthly): A series of posts reflecting on the culture and politics of the period roughly between the end of the Cold War and the start of the Great Recession, and its ongoing legacies. Comparisons and Connections (monthly): A series of posts reflecting upon cultural and political phenomena across different locations and periods, or within a more broadly regional and transnational framework. Long Reads (twice monthly): A series of more extended posts based upon my ongoing academic research projects.

My new piece on children's TV theme tunes, and how the changes in the music, lyrics, and credit sequences opening and cl...
07/09/2025

My new piece on children's TV theme tunes, and how the changes in the music, lyrics, and credit sequences opening and closing shows like Postman Pat, Fireman Sam, and Thomas & Friends reflect huge shifts in the ideas and structures behind their production.

The evolution of the theme tunes of popular British children’s television programmes offers a useful prism for looking through at processes of ideological change and globalisation.

Having decided I want my public scholarship to be properly public, rather than behind a paywall, I've decided to make ev...
04/09/2025

Having decided I want my public scholarship to be properly public, rather than behind a paywall, I've decided to make everything I've written for my newsletter - going back over two years - free to read for the foreseeable future.

This archive index provides a breakdown of everything I've written for it by section, topic etc. So please do check it out, share my work, let me know if you find anything I write for it especially interesting or useful, and consider subscribing for regular updates.

There remain free and paid subscription options. As a precariously employed academic, paid subscriptions are vital to helping me keep up my writing, and my newsletter free to read. Paid subscribers can also opt in to being listed on the site for their contribution as a token of my gratitude.

Alternatively, if for whatever reason you do not want to take out a full paid subscription, you can also show your appreciation by making a one-off payment directly via Stripe. Thank you. x

This is the index for the full archive of posts on The Academic Bubble, organised by series, topic, and theme.

My new deep dive into some interviews conducted in 1996 with the director and cast of Beautiful Girls, and what they tel...
25/08/2025

My new deep dive into some interviews conducted in 1996 with the director and cast of Beautiful Girls, and what they tell us about the gender politics of the film and 1990s culture more broadly.

Television interviews conducted with the director and cast of the 1996 film Beautiful Girls further captured the gender dynamics not just of the film, but of mid-1990s American culture more broadly.

My new piece on the new Superman film, and its engagement with themes of geopolitics and polarisation.
20/08/2025

My new piece on the new Superman film, and its engagement with themes of geopolitics and polarisation.

The latest big-screen carnation of the Man of Steel defies some of the dominant conventions of superhero movies, while concerning itself explicitly with corporate power, geopolitics, and polarisation.

My latest weekly round up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in (post-)Yugoslav politics, genre filmmaking...
16/08/2025

My latest weekly round up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in (post-)Yugoslav politics, genre filmmaking, association football, and international relations between state and non-state actors, among other topics.

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

My new piece on Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service, and the neoliberalisation of Britain’s postal service.
14/08/2025

My new piece on Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service, and the neoliberalisation of Britain’s postal service.

The BBC’s readaptation of the adventures of Britain’s most famous fictional postman mirrored many concurrent neoliberal transformations of its postal service.

NEW: My weekly round-up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in Labour Party politics past and present, Amer...
09/08/2025

NEW: My weekly round-up of reading and listening recommendations, taking in Labour Party politics past and present, American ideological realignments, cinematic remakes, among other topics.

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

My latest article for the Saturday Evening Post: On Jesus Jones, ‘Right Here, Right Now’, and post-Cold War geopolitics ...
24/12/2024

My latest article for the Saturday Evening Post: On Jesus Jones, ‘Right Here, Right Now’, and post-Cold War geopolitics in popular music.

After Jesus Jones wrote a song about an era of grand historical transformation, they learned that you can’t control how people interpret it.

NEW: 15(!) years on, I reflect in this piece on the 2009 UK Christmas No 1 chart battle, which pitted Rage Against the M...
24/12/2024

NEW: 15(!) years on, I reflect in this piece on the 2009 UK Christmas No 1 chart battle, which pitted Rage Against the Machine and a Facebook campaign against X-Factor winner Joe McElderry.

The 2009 battle to be UK Christmas No 1 pitted competing ideas of musical tradition against each other, as well as bringing legacy and new media together.

NEW: My piece on Conclave and its depiction of ideological schisms, political manoeuvres, and scandalous revelations in ...
18/12/2024

NEW: My piece on Conclave and its depiction of ideological schisms, political manoeuvres, and scandalous revelations in the Catholic Church (and beyond).

In its depiction of the Vatican in flux following the death of the Pope, Conclave explores the ideological schisms, political workings, and impact of scandal in the contemporary Catholic Church.

NEW: My piece on the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster, its diabolical view of contracts, and reimagining of Americ...
14/12/2024

NEW: My piece on the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster, its diabolical view of contracts, and reimagining of American history, in the wake of the New Deal.

In pitting the celebrated nineteenth-century politician against the devil himself, this film reimagines the economic and legal transformations of that era through the prism of the New Deal.

NEW: Latest weekly round-up of reading and listening recommendations, covering contemporary American, German, Romanian, ...
01/12/2024

NEW: Latest weekly round-up of reading and listening recommendations, covering contemporary American, German, Romanian, and Cypriot politics, among other topics.

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

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