New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
Middle Eastern Studies January 25, 2022

Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder

Jason Pack

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
Libya stands out as an example of a complex, internecine Middle Eastern and North African conflict in which regional and global powers as well as jihadists exploit tribal and sectarian …

Middle Eastern Studies

Subscribe:

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

General History January 19, 2022

Quagmire in Civil War

Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In Quagmire in Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Dr. Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl provides the first treatment of quagmire in civil war, moving beyond the notion that quagmire is intrinsic to …
Middle Eastern Studies January 18, 2022

Embattled Dreamlands

The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish Memory

David Leupold

Hosted by Ronay Bakan
Embattled Dreamlands: The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish Memory (Routledge, 2020) explores the complex relationship between competing national myths, imagined boundaries and local memories in the threefold-contested geography …
The Common Magazine January 14, 2022

Who Writes the Arabian Gulf?

Noor Naga

Hosted by Emily Everett
Noor Naga speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about co-editing The Common’s first-of-its-kind portfolio of writing from the Arabian Gulf, which appeared in Issue 22. Noor penned an introduction to …
Literary Studies January 13, 2022

Places of Mind

A Life of Edward Said

Timothy Brennan

Hosted by Bryant Scott
Timothy Brennan is Professor of Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, and English at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of several seminal books in literary studies, including Borrowed Light …
Anthropology January 12, 2022

Becoming Palestine

Toward an Archival Imagination of the Future

Gil Z. Hochberg

Hosted by Fulya Pinar
In Becoming Palestine: Toward an Archival Imagination of the Future (Duke UP, 2021), Gil Z. Hochberg examines how contemporary Palestinian artists, filmmakers, dancers, and activists use the archive in order …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 11, 2022

State and Religion in Israel

A Philosophical-Legal Inquiry

Gideon Sapir and Daniel Statman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Mahatma Gandhi said, “Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either.” The relationship between religion and state presents complex challenges to liberal democracies around the world. In …
Art January 5, 2022

Tree of Pearls

The Extraordinary Architectural Patronage of the 13th-Century Egyptian Slave-Queen Shajar Al-Durr

D. Fairchild Ruggles

Hosted by Tanja Tolar
Shajar al-Durr--known as "Tree of Pearls"--began her remarkable career as a child slave, given as property to Sultan Salih of Egypt. She became his concubine, was manumitted, became his wife …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 5, 2022

Gaza Conflict 2021

Jonathan Schanzer

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
Today I talked to Jonathan Schanzer about his new book Gaza Conflict 2021 (Foundation for Defense of Democracies, 2021). The May 2021 conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas generated …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast December 29, 2021

From Linear A to Linear B

Suggestive Continuity

Ester Salgarella

Hosted by Howard Burton
In this episode, Howard Burton talks with Ester Salgarella, Junior Research Fellow at St John's College, University of Cambridge, about her groundbreaking work on the intriguing relationship between Linear A …
Literary Studies December 27, 2021

World Literature Decentered

Beyond the 'West' Through Turkey, Mexico and Bengal

Ian Almond

Hosted by Bryant Scott
Ian Almond is Professor of World Literature at Georgetown University in Qatar, and author of six books, including Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims Marched with Christians across Europe’s Battlegrounds …
Early Modern History December 24, 2021

The Dragoman Renaissance

Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism

E. Natalie Rothman

Hosted by Ian Hathaway
The Dragoman Renaissance: Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism (Cornell UP, 2021) is a fascinating study of a crucial early modern cadre of "go-betweens:" the Istanbul-based diplomatic translator-interpreters, known …
Islamic Studies December 17, 2021

Leaving Iberia

Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa

Jocelyn Hendrickson

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In her landmark new book Leaving Iberia: Islamic Law and Christian Conquest in North West Africa (Harvard UP, 2021), Jocelyn Hendrickson launches a searingly brilliant legal history centered on the …
Anthropology December 17, 2021

The Moral Triangle

Germans, Israelis, Palestinians

Sa'ed Atshan and Katharina Galor

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
Berlin is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian diaspora community and one of the world’s largest Israeli diaspora communities. Germany’s guilt about the Nazi Holocaust has led to a public disavowal …
Islamic Studies December 15, 2021

The Prophet's Heir

The Life of Ali ibn Abi Talib

Hassan Abbas

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Ali ibn Abi Talib is arguably the single most important spiritual and intellectual authority in Islam after prophet Mohammad. Through his teachings and leadership as fourth caliph, Ali nourished Islam …
Middle Eastern Studies December 13, 2021

Trials of Resilience

How Covid-19 Is Driving Economic Change in the Arab Gulf

Jarmo T. Kotilaine

Hosted by Mark Klobas
The Gulf region can no longer rely on the traditional growth drivers – oil, government spending, and large infrastructure projects. The anticipated rise in living standards must come by other …
National Security December 9, 2021

The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East

James Shires

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
How has “cybersecurity” become a catch-all for everything that touches our digital world? In his new book, The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East (Hurst, 2021), Dr. James Shires …
Middle Eastern Studies January 12, 2022

The Egyptian Labor Corps

Race, Space, and Place in the First World War

Kyle J. Anderson

Hosted by Christopher Rose
During World War I, the British Empire enlisted half a million young men, predominantly from the countryside of Egypt, in the Egyptian Labor Corps (ELC) and put them to work …
Anthropology December 24, 2021

Visions of Beirut

The Urban Life of Media Infrastructure

Hatim El-Hibri

Hosted by Mathew Gagné
In Visions of Beirut: The Urban Life of Media Infrastructure (Duke UP, 2021), Hatim El-Hibri explores how the creation and circulation of images has shaped the urban spaces and cultural imaginaries …
Middle Eastern Studies December 20, 2021

Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War

Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Eighteen months after Iran’s Revolution in 1979, hundreds of thousands of the country’s women participated in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) in a variety of capacities. Iran was divided into women …