New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
Geography December 2, 2021

Transecting Securityscapes

Dispatches from Cambodia, Iraq, and Mozambique

Till F. Paasche and James Derrick Sidaway

Hosted by Catriona Gold
In this interview, I speak with Till F. Paasche and James D. Sidaway about their new book, Transecting Securityscapes: Dispatches from Cambodia, Iraq, and Mozambique (University of Georgia Press, 2021) …

Middle Eastern Studies

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

Art November 26, 2021

A History of Arab Graphic Design

Bahia Shehab and Haytham Nawar

Hosted by Holiday Powers
Arab graphic design emerged in the early twentieth century out of a need to influence, and give expression to, the far-reaching economic, social, and political changes that were taking place …
General History November 23, 2021

The Rise of the Civilizational State

Christopher Coker

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
In recent years the resurgence of great power competition has gripped the headlines, with new emerging powers (such as Russia and China) seeking to challenge the American and Western hegemony …
Food November 22, 2021

Feeding Iran

Shi`i Families and the Making of the Islamic Republic

Rose Wellman

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Since Iran's 1979 Revolution, the imperative to create and protect the inner purity of family and nation in the face of outside spiritual corruption has been a driving force in …
Middle Eastern Studies November 22, 2021

The Rise of the Arabic Book

Beatrice Gruendler

Hosted by Miguel Monteiro
How did it happen that, in the 13th century, Europe's largest library owned fewer than 2,000 volumes while Baghdad alone boasted of several libraries holding from 200,000 to 1,000,000 books …
Women's History November 18, 2021

Tunisia's Modern Woman

Nation-Building and State Feminism in the Global 1960s

Amy Aisen Kallander

Hosted by Rebecca Turkington
Following Tunisian independence in 1956, President Habib Bourguiba centered women’s liberation as part of the identity of the new nation. In Tunisia’s Modern Woman: Nation-Building and State Feminism in the …
Jewish Studies November 18, 2021

Judah Magnes

The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist

David Barak-Gorodetsky

Hosted by Bar Guzi
In this episode, I interview David Barak-Gorodetzky about his new book, Judah Magnes: The Prophetic Politics of a Religious Binationalist (U Nebraska Press, 2021). This comprehensive intellectual biography of Judah …
Israel Studies November 18, 2021

EU Diplomacy and the Israeli-Arab Conflict, 1967-2019

Anders Persson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Nearly 50 years since the European Foreign Ministers issued their first declaration on the conflict between Israel and Palestine in 1971, the European Union continues to have close political and economic …
Middle Eastern Studies November 17, 2021

The Armenians of Aintab

The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province

Ümit Kurt

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Ümit Kurt, born and raised in Gaziantep, Turkey, was astonished to learn that his hometown once had a large and active Armenian community. The Armenian presence in Aintab, the city’s …
Intellectual History November 16, 2021

The Greek Revolution

1821 and the Making of Modern Europe

Mark Mazower

Hosted by Thomas Kingston
In the exhausted, repressive years that followed Napoleon's defeat in 1815, there was one cause that came to galvanize countless individuals across Europe and the United States: freedom for Greece …
Middle Eastern Studies November 15, 2021

The Algerian Dream

Youth and the Quest for Dignity

Andrew Farrand

Hosted by Christopher Rose
"Algeria is different." Africa's largest country is a place that few western academics have studied or been able to travel to. The modern nation, forged in the anticolonial struggle against …
Israel Studies November 15, 2021

A City in Fragments

Urban Texts in Modern Jerusalem

Yair Wallach

Hosted by Avery Weinman
In the mid-nineteenth century, Jerusalem was rich with urban texts inscribed in marble, gold, and cloth, investing holy sites with divine meaning. Ottoman modernization and British colonial rule transformed the …
Gender Studies November 10, 2021

Politics of Rightful Killing

Civil Society, Gender, and Sexuality in Weblogistan

Sima Shakhsari

Hosted by Sohini Chatterjee
In the early 2000s, mainstream international news outlets celebrated the growth of Weblogistan—the online and real-life transnational network of Iranian bloggers—and depicted it as a liberatory site that gave voice …
Middle Eastern Studies November 5, 2021

Revealed Sciences

The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco

Justin K. Stearns

Hosted by Christopher Rose
Islam's contributions to the natural sciences has long been recognized within the Euro-American academy, however, such studies tend to include one of a number of narrative tropes, either emphasizing the …
Middle Eastern Studies November 5, 2021

The Ka'ba Orientations

Readings in Islam's Ancient House

Simon O'Meara

Hosted by Miguel Monteiro
The Kaʿba is the famous cuboid structure at the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca. In his book The Kaʿba Orientations: Readings in Islam's Ancient House (Edinburgh University Press …
Architecture November 4, 2021

The Architecture of Ramses Wissa Wassef

Conchita Anorve-Tschirgi and Ehsan Abushadi

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
The pioneering Egyptian architect and teacher Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911–74) is best known for his founding in 1951 of the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre in Harraniya, a small village …
Israel Studies November 3, 2021

Mystical Vertigo

Contemporary Kabbalistic Hebrew Poetry Dancing Over the Divide

Aubrey L. Glazer

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Aubrey L. Glazer's Mystical Vertigo: Contemporary Kabbalistic Hebrew Poetry Dancing Over the Divide (Academic Studies Press, 2013) immerses readers in the experience of the contemporary kabbalistic Hebrew poet, serving as …
Middle Eastern Studies November 2, 2021

Midnight in Cairo

The Divas of Egypt's Roaring 20s

Raphael Cormack

Hosted by Christopher Rose
One of the world’s most multicultural cities, twentieth-century Cairo was a magnet for the ambitious and talented. During the 1920s and ’30s, a vibrant music, theater, film, and cabaret scene …
Middle Eastern Studies November 2, 2021

God’s Property

Islam, Charity, and the Modern State

Nada Moumtaz

Hosted by Julian Weideman
Nada Moumtaz’s God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State (University of California Press, 2021) is an ethnography anchored in deep study of the Muslim scholarly tradition, the urban landscape, and …
Human Rights October 28, 2021

Limits of Supranational Justice

The European Court of Human Rights and Turkey's Kurdish Conflict

Dilek Kurban

Hosted by Rine Vieth
Dilek Kurban’s Limits of Supranational Justice: The European Court of Human Rights and Turkey's Kurdish Conflict (Cambridge UP, 2020) considers the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) engagement with Turkey’s ongoing …