New Books Network
Middle Eastern Studies
Political Science January 25, 2021

Delta Democracy

Pathways to Incremental Civic Revolution in Egypt and Beyond

Catherine E. Herrold

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Ten years from the uprising in Egypt, Dr. Catherine E. Herrold, an associate professor at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and a Faculty Affiliate of the Indiana …

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Central Asian Studies January 21, 2021

Polymaths of Islam

Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia

James Pickett

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
James Pickett's new book, Polymaths of Islam: Power and Networks of Knowledge in Central Asia (Cornell University Press, 2020) analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who created a …
Anthropology January 20, 2021

Channeling Moroccanness

Language and the Media of Sociality

Becky L. Schulthies

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
What does it mean to connect as a people through mass media? This book approaches that question by exploring how Moroccans engage communicative failure as they seek to shape social …
Literature January 20, 2021

I'll Go

War, Religion, and Coming Home, From Cairo to Kansas City

Alexs Thompson

Hosted by Eric LeMay
Today I interview Alexs Thompson about his new memoir, I'll Go: War, Religion, and Coming Home, from Cairo to Kansas City (2020). Let me begin with a moment of honesty …
Islamic Studies January 15, 2021

The Bruce B. Lawrence Reader

Islam Beyond Borders

Bruce B. Lawrence and Ali Altaf Mian

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
For more than four decades, Bruce Lawrence’s multivalent and fulsomely prolific scholarship has influenced and imprinted the Western study of Islam and Religious Studies more broadly in singularly profound ways …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery January 13, 2021

Intoxicating Zion

A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel

Haggai Ram

Hosted by Lucas Richert
When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation …
Interpretive Political and Social Science January 11, 2021

Authoritarian Apprehensions

Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria

Lisa Wedeen

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
How has the Syrian regime been able to bear the brunt of the challenges raised against it? And, what can we learn about the seductions of authoritarian politics more generally …
Indian Ocean World January 11, 2021

The Impoverishment of the African Red Sea Littoral, 1640–1945

Steven Serels

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
The African Red Sea Littoral, currently divided between Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, is one of the poorest regions in the world. But the pastoralist communities indigenous to this region …
Political Science January 11, 2021

Understanding and Explaining the Iranian Nuclear 'Crisis'

Theoretical Approaches

Halit M. E. Tagma and Paul E. Lenze Jr.

Hosted by Susan Liebell
How can multiple theoretical approaches yield a better understanding of international political politics? In Understanding and Explaining the Iranian Nuclear 'Crisis': Theoretical Approaches (Lexington Books, 2020), Dr. Halit M. E. Tagma …
Islamic Studies January 8, 2021

Say What Your Longing Heart Desires

Women, Prayer and Poetry in Iran

Niloofar Haeri

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women, Prayer & Poetry in Iran (Stanford University Press, 2020) by Niloofar Haeri is a stunning and absorbing ethnography of the lived ritual experiences …
Middle Eastern Studies January 7, 2021

The Sword is Not Enough

Arabs, Israelis, and the Limits of Military Force

Jeremy Pressman

Hosted by Aaron Hagler
Jeremy Pressman is Associate Professor of Political Science and the Director of Middle East Studies at the University of Connecticut. Jeremy is the author of The Sword is Not Enough …
Middle Eastern Studies January 5, 2021

The Lost Archive

Traces of a Caliphate in a Cairo Synagogue

Marina Rustow

Hosted by Nancy Ko
What does it mean that our single greatest source of medieval Islamic government documents comes from the attic of a Jewish synagogue in Cairo? This is the seeming paradox that …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel January 4, 2021

Till We Have Built Jerusalem

Architects of a New City

Adina Hoffman

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
A remarkable view of one of the world's most beloved and troubled cities, Adina Hoffman's Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City (FSG, 2017) is a gripping …
Genocide Studies December 31, 2020

Genocide in Libya

Shar, a Hidden Colonial History

Ali Abdullatif Ahmida

Hosted by Jeff Bachman
This original research on the forgotten Libyan genocide specifically recovers the hidden history of the fascist Italian concentration camps (1929-1934) through the oral testimonies of Libyan survivors. Ali Abdullatif Ahmida's …
Islamic Studies December 31, 2020

Muhammad and the Empires of Faith

The Making of the Prophet of Islam

Sean Anthony

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Contemporary historians have searched for the historical Muhammad along many paths. In Muhammad and the Empires of Faith: The Making of the Prophet of Islam (University of California Press, 2020) …
Islamic Studies December 24, 2020

The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender

Justine Howe

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
The Routledge Handbook of Islam and Gender (Routledge, 2020), edited by Justine Howe, includes an excellent introduction to Islam and gender as well as to the volume and 31 content chapters …
Middle Eastern Studies December 22, 2020

Sacrificial Limbs

Masculinity, Disability, and Political Violence in Turkey

Salih Can Aciksoz

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Sacrificial Limbs: Masculinity, Disability, and Political Violence in Turkey (University of California Press, 2020) is an exploration of “the ways in which . . .veterans’ gendered and classed experiences of warfare …
Indian Ocean World December 21, 2020

Land and Maritime Empires in the Indian Ocean

Beatrice Nicolini and Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Land and Maritime Empires in the Indian Ocean (Educatt, 2017) reconceptualizes the history of the Indian Ocean through the themes of mobility, encounters, empires, and slavery. The book aims to …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast December 15, 2020

Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages

A Discussion with Roland Betancourt

Roland Betancourt

Hosted by Allison Leigh
In Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 2020), Roland Betancourt reveals the fascinating, little-examined conversations in medieval thought and visual culture around matters …
Political Science December 14, 2020

Outsiders at Home

The Politics of American Islamophobia

Nazita Lajevardi

Hosted by Susan Liebell
What is the status of Muslim Americans in American democracy? Dr. Nazita Lajevardi’s superb new study concludes they are ‘outsiders at home.’ In Outsiders at Homes: The Politics of American …