Middle Eastern Studies

Middle Eastern Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of the Middle East about their new books.

Nadine A. Sinno, "A War of Colors: Graffiti and Street Art in Postwar Beirut" (U Texas Press, 2024)

May 2, 2024

A War of Colors

Nadine A. Sinno
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Over the last two decades in Beirut, graffiti makers have engaged in a fierce “war of colors,” seeking to disrupt and transform the city’s physical an…

Harry Pettit, "The Labor of Hope: Meritocracy and Precarity in Egypt" (Stanford UP, 2023)

May 2, 2024

The Labor of Hope

Harry Pettit
Hosted by Yadong Li

Capitalism is not only an economic system but also a system of production and allocation of hope. In Egypt, a generation of young men desire fulfillin…

The Rhetoric of Crisis in Israel-Palestine: A Discussion with Amos Goldberg

May 1, 2024

The Rhetoric of Crisis in Israel-Palestine

Amos Goldberg

This week, RBI Director John Torpey speaks with Amos Goldberg, Professor of Holocaust History at the Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jew…

Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil, "The Gulf Migrant Archives in Kerala: Reading Borders and Belonging" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 1, 2024

The Gulf Migrant Archives in Kerala

Mohamed Shafeeq Karinkurayil
Hosted by Khadeeja Amenda

The Indian state of Kerala is one of the largest blocs of migrants in the oil economies of the Arab Gulf. Looking closely at the cultural archives p…

Maha AbdelMegeed, "Literary Optics: Staging the Collective in the Nahda" (Syracuse UP, 2024)

April 28, 2024

Literary Optics

Maha AbdelMegeed
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

In Literary Optics: Staging the Collective in the Nahda (Syracuse UP, 2024), Maha AbdelMegeed offers a compelling and far-reaching alternative to the …

Tarek El-Ariss, "Water on Fire: A Memoir of War" (Other Press, 2024)

April 24, 2024

Water on Fire

Tarek El-Ariss
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

In this evocative, insightful memoir, a leading voice in Middle Eastern Studies revisits his childhood in war-torn Lebanon and his family’s fascinatin…

Nora E. H. Parr, "Novel Palestine: Nation Through the Works of Ibrahim Nasrallah" (U California Press, 2023)

April 23, 2024

Novel Palestine

Nora E. H. Parr
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

Palestinian writing imagines the nation, not as a nation-in-waiting but as a living, changing structure that joins people, place, and time into a dist…

Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, "Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State" (Stanford UP, 2024)

April 23, 2024

Empire of Refugees

Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky
Hosted by Reuben Silverman

Between the 1850s and World War I, about one million North Caucasian Muslims sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire. This resettlement of Muslim refugees…

M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence, "The Qur'an: A Verse Translation" (Liveright, 2024)

April 23, 2024

The Qur'an

M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

In their landmark new translation of the Qur’an, The Qur’an: A Verse Translation (LIveright, 2024), M. A. R. Habib and Bruce B. Lawrence translate the…

Ahmed M. Abozaid, "Undesired Revolution: The Arab Uprising in Egypt--A Three Level Analysis" (Brill, 2023)

April 20, 2024

Undesired Revolution

Ahmed M. Abozaid
Hosted by Ibrahim Fawzy

Ahmed M. Abozaid’s Undesired Revolution: The Arab Uprising in Egypt--A Three Level Analysis (Brill, 2023) introduces new non-Western perspectives on …

Huda J. Fakhreddine, "The Arabic Prose Poem: Poetic Theory and Practice" (Edinburgh UP, 2021)

April 20, 2024

The Arabic Prose Poem

Huda J. Fakhreddine
Hosted by Miguel Monteiro

The Arabic Prose Poem: Poetic Theory and Practice (Edinburgh UP, 2021), by Huda Fakhreddine, examines one of the most controversial poetic forms in Ar…

Ihsan Abdel Kouddous, "A Nose and Three Eyes" (Hoopoe, 2024)

April 14, 2024

A Nose and Three Eyes

Ihsan Abdel Kouddous
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

Written by iconic Egyptian novelist Ihsan Abdel Kouddous, this classic of love, desire, and family breakdown smashed through taboos when first publish…

Jae Hee Han, "Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

April 13, 2024

Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East

Jae Hee Han
Hosted by Michael Motia

In Prophets and Prophecy in the Late Antique Near East (Cambridge UP, 2023), Jae Han investigates how various Late Antique Near Eastern communities—Je…

Cristiana Strava, "Precarious Modernities: Assembling State, Space and Society on the Urban Margins in Morocco" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

April 12, 2024

Precarious Modernities

Cristiana Strava
Hosted by Yadong Li

What does living “precariously” mean in Casablanca? In 2014 it meant being labeled tcharmil (seeming to endanger public order) and swept up by the po…

Catholic in Palestine (with Fr Firas Abedrabbo)

April 11, 2024

Catholic in Palestine (with Fr Firas Abedrabbo)

Firas Abedrabbo

There have been Christians in the Holy Land for two thousand years; “we are the first church,” says Father Firas Abedrabbo who is from Bethlehem and w…

Robert D. Kaplan, "The Loom of Time: Between Empire and Anarchy, from the Mediterranean to China" (Random House, 2023)

April 11, 2024

The Loom of Time

Robert D. Kaplan
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

The Middle East remains one of the world’s most complicated, thorny—and, uncharitably, unstable—parts of the world, as countless headlines make clear.…

Emily Drumsta, "Ways of Seeking: The Arabic Novel and the Poetics of Investigation" (U California Press, 2024)

April 9, 2024

Ways of Seeking

Emily Drumsta
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

In Ways of Seeking: The Arabic Novel and the Poetics of Investigation (U California Press, 2024), Emily Drumsta traces the influence of detective fict…

Sumita Pahwa, "Politics as Worship: Righteous Activism and the Egyptian Muslim Brothers" (Syracuse UP, 2023)

April 9, 2024

Politics as Worship: Righteous Activism and the Egyptian Muslim Brothers

Sumita Pahwa
Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty

Despite expectations that the deeply held political and religious organizing principles at the heart of the Muslim Brotherhood would prove incompatibl…

Eric Calderwood, "On Earth Or in Poems: The Many Lives of Al-Andalus" (Harvard UP, 2023)

April 8, 2024

On Earth Or in Poems

Eric Calderwood
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

During the Middle Ages, the Iberian Peninsula was home not to Spain and Portugal but rather to al-Andalus. Ruled by a succession of Islamic dynasties,…

Annika Schmeding, "Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan" (Stanford UP, 2023)

April 7, 2024

Sufi Civilities

Annika Schmeding
Hosted by SherAli Tareen

Annika Schmeding’s new book Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan (Stanford UP, 2023) is a deeply sensitive and ric…