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Middle Eastern Studies
Darts & Letters August 9, 2022

Letters from Herzl

Settler Colonialism at work in Palestine

Hosted by Gordon Katic
Today’s episode originally aired in May of 2021, while violence was erupting all along the Gaza Strip. Israeli airstrikes had left over 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis dead. It …

Middle Eastern Studies

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

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast August 8, 2022

Sonorous Desert

What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us

Kim Haines-Eitzen

Hosted by Mark Klobas
For the hermits and communal monks of antiquity, the desert was a place to flee the cacophony of ordinary life in order to hear and contemplate the voice of God …
Jewish Studies August 8, 2022

The Idea of 'Israel' in Second Temple Judaism

A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity

Jason A. Staples

Hosted by Michael Morales
How did the concept of Israel impact early Jewish apocalyptic hopes of restoration? How diverse was Israelite identity in antiquity? Tune in as we talk with Jason A. Staples about …
Middle Eastern Studies August 5, 2022

Oil, the State, and War

The Foreign Policies of Petrostates

Emma Ashford

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates (Georgetown University Press, 2022) by Dr. Emma Ashford presents a comprehensive challenge to prevailing understanding of international implications of oil …
Anthropology August 5, 2022

Sextarianism

Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon

Maya Mikdashi

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
The Lebanese state is structured through religious freedom and secular power sharing across sectarian groups. Every sect has specific laws that govern kinship matters like marriage or inheritance. Together with …
Middle Eastern Studies August 3, 2022

Second-Generation Liberation Wars

Yaniv Voller

Hosted by Dilan Okcuoglu
The formation of post-colonial states in Africa, and the Middle East gave birth to prolonged separatist wars. Exploring the evolution of these separatist wars, In Second-Generation Liberation Wars Cambridge UP, 2022),Yaniv …
Middle Eastern Studies August 2, 2022

The Horrors of Adana

Revolution and Violence in the Early Twentieth Century

Bedross Der Matossian

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
In April 1909, two waves of massacres shook the province of Adana, located in the southern Anatolia region of modern-day Turkey, killing more than 20,000 Armenians and 2,000 Muslims. The …
Genocide Studies August 2, 2022

British Responses to Genocide

The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923

Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray

Hosted by Kelly McFall
When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's …
Middle Eastern Studies August 1, 2022

The Italian Empire and the Great War

Vanda Wilcox

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
The Italian Empire and the Great War (Oxford UP, 2021) by Vanda Wilcox brings an imperial and colonial perspective to the Italian experience of the First World War. Italy's decision for …
Mobilities and Methods July 29, 2022

The Diasporic Condition

Ethnographic Explorations of the Lebanese in the World

Ghassan Hage

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Bridging the gap between migration studies and the anthropological tradition, Ghassan Hage illustrates that transnationality and its attendant cultural consequences are not necessarily at odds with classic theory. In The …
Education July 27, 2022

Missions Impossible

Higher Education and Policymaking in the Arab World

John Waterbury

Hosted by Shu Cao Mo
John Waterbury's book Missions Impossible: Higher Education and Policymaking in the Arab World (American U in Cairo Press, 2020) is a rigorous examination of higher education policymaking in the Arab world …
Intellectual History July 27, 2022

The Discovery of Iran

Taghi Arani, a Radical Cosmopolitan

Ali Mirsepassi

Hosted by Kaveh Rafie
The Discovery of Iran: Taghi Arani, a Radical Cosmopolitan (Stanford UP, 2021), opens with a fascinating passage about the 1934 decree whereby foreign delegates were instructed to refer to the country as …
Middle Eastern Studies July 27, 2022

Unknown Past

Layla Murad, the Jewish-Muslim Star of Egypt

Hanan Hammad

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
Layla Murad (1918-1995) was once the highest-paid star in Egypt, and her movies were among the top-grossing in the box office. She starred in 28 films, nearly all now classics …
National Security July 27, 2022

The Influence of Foreign Wars on U.S. Domestic Military Policy

The Case of the Yom Kippur War

Robert W. Tomlinson

Hosted by Samuel Canter
How do military organizations learn? Robert W. Tomlinson's book The Influence of Foreign Wars on U.S. Domestic Military Policy (Lexington, 2022) covers an important instance of military learning in which the …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones July 26, 2022

The Future of Al Qaeda

A Discussion with Nelly Lahoud

Nelly Lahoud

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
The 9/11 attacks mean Al Qaeda will always have a place in history. But it that it? Or might it have the capacity to endure? Its striking that the UN …
Asian Review of Books July 21, 2022

The Kushnameh: The Persian Epic of Kush the Tusked

A Discussion with Kaveh Hemmat

Kaveh Hemmat

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The Kushnameh is unique, literally. Only one copy of the “Epic of Kush”exists, sitting in the British Library. Hardly anything is known about its author, Iranshah. It features a quite …
Middle Eastern Studies July 18, 2022

South Yemen's Independence Struggle

Generations of Resistance

Anne-Linda Amira Augustin

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
At its beginning in 2007, the Southern Movement in South Yemen was a loose merger of different people, most of them former army personnel and state employees of the People’s …
Mobilities and Methods July 15, 2022

Victims of Commemoration

The Architecture and Violence of Confronting the Past in Turkey

Eray Çayli

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
“Confronting the past” has become a byword for democratization. How societies and governments commemorate their violent pasts is often appraised as a litmus test of their democratization claims. Regardless of …
Israel Studies July 11, 2022

Reenvisioning Israel Through Political Cartoons

Visual Discourses During the 2018-2021 Electoral Crisis

Matt Reingold

Hosted by Akin Ajayi
Reenvisioning Israel Through Political Cartoons: Visual Discourses During the 2018-2021 Electoral Crisis (Lexington Books, 2022) by Matt Reingold, published by Lexington Books as part of its Lexington Studies in Jewish Literature …
Islamic Studies July 8, 2022

The Sufi Saint of Jam

History, Religion and Politics of a Sunni Shrine in Shi'i Iran

Shivan Mahendrarajah

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
Shivan Mahendrarajah’s book, The Sufi Saint of Jam: History, Religion, and Politics of a Sunni Shrine in Shi‘i Iran (Cambridge UP, 2021), which explores the history and politics of Ahmad-i-Jam’s …