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Middle Eastern Studies
British Studies May 30, 2023

Friends of Israel

The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity

Hilary Frances Aked

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
Is there such a thing as “the Israel lobby,” and how powerful is it really? Hilary Frances Aked's book Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity (Verso, 2023) provides a forensically researched …

Middle Eastern Studies

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

Indian Ocean World May 29, 2023

Histories of Health and Materiality in the Indian Ocean World

Medicine, Material Culture and Trade, 1600-2000

Anne Gerritsen and Burton Cleetus

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Histories of Health and Materiality in the Indian Ocean World: Medicine, Material Culture and Trade, 1600-2000 (Bloomsbury, 2023): Introducing materiality into the study of the history of medicine, this volume hones …
Madison's Notes May 28, 2023

Martyrs in Mosul

A Conversation on Christian Persecution with Father Benedict Kiely

Father Benedict Kiely

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
With Christmas approaching, in this episode we reflect on Christian persecution in the Middle East, the historic cradle of Christianity and the birthplace of Jesus, and the very different challenges …
Middle Eastern Studies May 28, 2023

Revolutions Aesthetic

A Cultural History of Ba'thist Syria

Max Weiss

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
The November 1970 coup that brought Hafiz al-Asad to power fundamentally transformed cultural production in Syria. A comprehensive intellectual, ideological, and political project—a Ba'thist cultural revolution—sought to align artistic endeavors …
Jewish Studies May 27, 2023

The Shamama Case

Contesting Citizenship Across the Modern Mediterranean

Jessica M. Marglin

Hosted by Geraldine Gudefin
In the winter of 1873, Nissim Shamama, a wealthy Jew from Tunisia, died suddenly in his palazzo in Livorno, Italy. His passing initiated a fierce lawsuit over his large estate …
Indian Ocean World May 27, 2023

Cargoes in Motion

Materiality and Connectivity Across the Indian Ocean

Burkhard Schnepel and Julia Verne

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Cargoes in Motion: Materiality and Connectivity Across the Indian Ocean (Ohio University Press, 2022) is an innovative collection of essays that foregrounds specific cargoes as a means to understand connectivity and …
Jewish Studies May 26, 2023

Undesirables

A Holocaust Journey to North Africa

Aomar Boum

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In the lead-up to World War II, the rising tide of fascism and antisemitism in Europe foreshadowed Hitler's genocidal campaign against Jews. But the horrors of the Holocaust were not …
Indian Ocean World May 23, 2023

Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf

Daniel Martin Varisco

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Seasonal Knowledge and the Almanac Tradition in the Arab Gulf (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) is the first in English to survey indigenous knowledge of seasonal, astronomical, and agricultural information in Arab Gulf almanacs …
Military History May 22, 2023

A Stranger in Your Own City

Travels in the Middle East's Long War

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
The history of reportage has often depended on outsiders--Ryszard Kapuściński witnessing the fall of the shah in Iran, Frances FitzGerald observing the aftermath of the American war in Vietnam. What …
American West May 22, 2023

Arid Empire

The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia

Natalie Koch

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The iconic deserts of the American southwest could not have been colonized and settled without the help of desert experts from the Middle East. For example: In 1856, a caravan …
Indian Ocean World May 22, 2023

Droughts, Floods, and Global Climatic Anomalies in the Indian Ocean World

Philip Gooding

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Droughts, Floods, and Global Climatic Anomalies in the Indian Ocean World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) explores histories of droughts and floods in the Indian Ocean World, and their connections to broader …
Islamic Studies May 19, 2023

We'll Play Till We Die

Journeys Across a Decade of Revolutionary Music in the Muslim World

Mark LeVine

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In We'll Play till We Die: Journeys across a Decade of Revolutionary Music in the Muslim World (University of California Press, 2022), Mark LeVine, Professor at University of California, Irvine, dives …
Anthropology May 19, 2023

Istanbul Appearances

Beauty and the Making of Middle-Class Femininities in Urban Turkey

Claudia Liebelt

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
In the past two decades, the consumption of beauty services and cosmetic surgery in Turkey has developed from an elite phenomenon to an increasingly common practice, especially among younger and …
International Horizons May 18, 2023

Algeria and France

Grievances and the Effects of Decolonialism

Laetitia Bucaille

Hosted by International Horizons
In this episode of International Horizons, RBI's director, John Torpey interviewed Laetitia Bucaille about the factors that explain variation in resentment and grievances in former colonies drawing from the cases …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 17, 2023

Impossible Takes Longer

75 Years After Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders' Dreams?

Daniel Gordis

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
In 1948, Israel’s founders had much more in mind than the creation of a state. They sought not mere sovereignty but also a “national home for the Jewish people,” where …
Jewish Studies May 11, 2023

Living with the Law

Gender and Community Among the Jews of Medieval Egypt

Oded Zinger

Hosted by Drora Arussy
Living with the Law: Gender and Community Among the Jews of Medieval Egypt (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023) explores the marital disputes of Jews in medieval Islamic Egypt (1000-1250), relating medieval gossip …
Literary Studies May 10, 2023

Arab and Muslim Science Fiction

Critical Essays

Hosam A. Ibrahim Elzembely and Emad El-Din Aysha

Hosted by Iqra Shagufta Cheema
How is science fiction from the Arab and Muslim world different than mainstream science fiction from the West? What distinctive and original contributions can it make? Why is it so …
Middle Eastern Studies May 6, 2023

Iranian Literature After the Islamic Revolution

Production and Circulation in Iran and the World

Laetitia Nanquette

Hosted by Connor Christensen
In Iranian Literature After the Islamic Revolution: Production and Circulation in Iran and the World (Edinburgh UP, 2021), Dr. Laetitia Nanquette explores how Iranian literature has functioned and circulated from …
Middle Eastern Studies May 5, 2023

Erdoğan's War

A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria

Gönül Tol

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's pugnacious president, is now the country's longest-serving leader. On his way to the top, he has fought many wars. This book tells the story of those …
Library Science April 30, 2023

Moroccan Other-Archives

History and Citizenship After State Violence

Brahim El Guabli

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
Moroccan Other-Archives: History and Citizenship After State Violence (Fordham UP, 2023) investigates how histories of exclusion and silencing are written and rewritten in a postcolonial context that lacks organized and …