New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
Islamic Studies April 9, 2021

Transformations of Tradition

Islamic Law in Colonial Modernity

Junaid Quadri

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In his much anticipated and equally brilliant book Transformations of Tradition: Islamic Law in Colonial Modernity (Oxford UP, 2021), Junaid Quadri explores the productive tensions, fissures, and creative interpretive projects …

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Middle Eastern Studies April 7, 2021

Stories My Father Told Me

Memories of a Childhood in Syria and Lebanon

Helen Zughaib and Elia Zughaib

Hosted by Valerie Saint-Rossy
Family stories are the texture of the human fabric. From every land, from every time, they bring the past to life for young ears. In the beginning of the twentieth …
History April 7, 2021

Embodying Geopolitics

Generations of Women’s Activism in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon

Nicola Pratt

Hosted by Jennifer Davis Cline
Dina Hassan (Lecturer, Modern Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, University of Oklahoma, USA) speaks with Nicola Pratt (Associate Professor, International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick, UK) about Pratt’s …
Islamic Studies April 2, 2021

Ambient Sufism

Ritual Niches and the Social Work of Musical Form

Richard C. Jankowsky

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Ambient Sufism: Ritual Niches and the Social Work of Musical Form (University of Chicago Press, 2021) by Richard C. Jankowsky (an Associate Professor of music at Tufts University) is a …
Indian Ocean World April 2, 2021

Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds

Smriti Srinivas, Bettina Ng'weno, and Neelima Jeychandran

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Reimagining Indian Ocean Worlds (Routledge, 2020), coedited by Smriti Srinivas, Bettina Ng'weno, and Neelima Jeychandran, breaks new ground by bringing together multidisciplinary approaches to examine contemporary Indian Ocean worlds. It …
Military History March 31, 2021

War of Shadows

Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East

Gershom Gorenberg

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942, he led …
Middle Eastern Studies March 30, 2021

The Kizilbash-Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia

Sufism, Politics and Community

Ayfer Karakaya-Stump

Hosted by Deren Ertas
In today's program, Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary, discusses her recently-published monograph, The Kizilbash-Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia: Sufism, Politics, and Community (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).  …
History March 26, 2021

Visions of Deliverance

Moriscos and the Politics of Prophecy in the Early Modern Mediterranean

Mayte Green-Mercado

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we hear from Mayte Green-Mercado, Assistant Professor of History at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey to talk about Visions of Deliverance: Moriscos and the Politics of Prophecy in …
Islamic Studies March 26, 2021

Islam and the Culture of Modern Egypt

From the Monarchy to the Republic

Mohammad Salama

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Egypt is often the focus of religious and political histories of early twentieth century. The striking hardening of nationalist and Islamic movements within Arab societies during this period is frequently …
Christian Studies March 25, 2021

The Reception of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Britain

East Comes West

Brendan McNamara

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Brendan McNamara, who teaches religion at University College Cork, Ireland, has published an excellent new book on the expansion of the Bahá’í faith into western Europe. In the late nineteenth …
Middle Eastern Studies March 24, 2021

The Literary Qur'an

Narrative Ethics in the Maghreb

Hoda El Shakry

Hosted by Nadirah Mansour
Hoda El Shakry’s book The Literary Qurʾan: Narrative Ethics in the Maghreb (Fordham University Press, 2019) was awarded the ACLA’s 2018 Helen Tartar Book Subvention Award and the MLA’s 202 …
Middle Eastern Studies March 23, 2021

Egypt's Occupation

Colonial Economism and the Crises of Capitalism

Aaron G. Jakes

Hosted by Nancy Ko
The story is a familiar one. In 1882, the British invaded Egypt to secure payment on the country’s crippling foreign debts and quash the movement for fiscal sovereignty and constitutional …
Middle Eastern Studies March 23, 2021

How the West Stole Democracy from the Arabs

The Syrian Arab Congress of 1920 and the Destruction of Its Historic Liberal-Islamic Alliance

Elizabeth F. Thompson

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
When Europe’s Great War engulfed the Ottoman Empire, Arab nationalists rose in revolt against their Turkish rulers and allied with the British on the promise of an independent Arab state …
Political Science March 22, 2021

Turkey–West Relations

The Politics of Intra-alliance Opposition

Oya Dursun-Özkanca

Hosted by Susan Liebell
How do we make sense of Turkey’s recent turn against the West – after decades of Turkish cooperation and desire to be integrated into the European and wider Western community …
Genocide Studies March 22, 2021

The Politics of Mass Violence in the Middle East

Laura Robson

Hosted by Kelly McFall
My students are generally 19 or 20 or 21. They have never known the Middle East without American boots on the ground. They have never turned on the news and …
Middle Eastern Studies March 22, 2021

Women, Writing and the Iraqi Ba'thist State

Contending Discourses of Resistance and Collaboration, 1968-2003

Hawraa Al-Hassan

Hosted by Nadirah Mansour
Hawraa Al Hassan’s Women, Writing and the Iraqi Ba’thist State: Contending Discourses of Resistance and Collaboration, 1968-2003 (University of Edinburgh Press, 2020) is unique because it both explores discourse concerning women …
Archaeology March 19, 2021

Wonderful Things

A History of Egyptology

Jason Thompson

Hosted by Samuel Pfister
When asked what he saw after reverently peering into the freshly opened tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, Egyptologist Howard Carter could only find the words the say “Wonderful Things.” These words …
Islamic Studies March 19, 2021

Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice

Processes of Canonization Subversion and Change

Nevin Reda and Yasmin Amin

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
In their groundbreaking new book, Islamic Interpretive Tradition and Gender Justice: Processes of Canonization, Subversion, and Change (McGill, 2020), Nevin Reda and Yasmin Amin raise excellent questions about the existence …
French Studies March 17, 2021

Lethal Provocation

The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria

Joshua Cole

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Joshua Cole's Lethal Provocation: The Constantine Murders and the Politics of French Algeria (Cornell University Press, 2019) appeals to a few of the different readers in my head: the one who admires …
Middle Eastern Studies March 3, 2021

Islam, réforme et colonisation

une histoire de l'ibadisme en Algérie (1882-1962)

Augustin Jomier

Hosted by Julian Weideman
Islam, réforme et colonisation: une histoire de l'ibadisme en Algérie (1882-1962) by Augustin Jomier is an important study of colonial North Africa, Islamic reform, and Ibadi Islam. Jomier, a professor …