New Books Network
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies December 3, 2021

Suspect Communities

Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror

Nicole Nguyen

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror (University of Minnesota Press, 2019) is a powerful reassessment of the U.S. government’s “countering violent extremism” (CVE) program that has …

Islamic Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Islam about their new books.

Sociology November 24, 2021

Agents of God

Boundaries and Authority in Muslim and Christian Schools

Jeffrey Guhin

Hosted by Nafeesa Andrabi
Jeff Guhin joins us today to talk about his book Agents of God: Boundaries and Authority in Muslim and Christian Schools (Oxford University Press, 2020). Jeff, an Assistant Professor of …
General History November 23, 2021

The Rise of the Civilizational State

Christopher Coker

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
In recent years the resurgence of great power competition has gripped the headlines, with new emerging powers (such as Russia and China) seeking to challenge the American and Western hegemony …
Food November 22, 2021

Feeding Iran

Shi`i Families and the Making of the Islamic Republic

Rose Wellman

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Since Iran's 1979 Revolution, the imperative to create and protect the inner purity of family and nation in the face of outside spiritual corruption has been a driving force in …
Islamic Studies November 19, 2021

Mosques of Colonial South Asia

A Social and Legal History of Muslim Worship

Sana Haroon

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In her multilayered and thoroughly researched new book The Mosques of Colonial South Asia: A Social and Legal History of Muslim Worship (I. B. Tauris, 2021), Sana Haroon examines the interaction …
Israel Studies November 15, 2021

A City in Fragments

Urban Texts in Modern Jerusalem

Yair Wallach

Hosted by Avery Weinman
In the mid-nineteenth century, Jerusalem was rich with urban texts inscribed in marble, gold, and cloth, investing holy sites with divine meaning. Ottoman modernization and British colonial rule transformed the …
Islamic Studies November 5, 2021

Minarets on the Horizon

Muslim Pioneers in Canada

Murray Hogben

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Minarets on the Horizon: Muslim Pioneers in Canada (Mawenzi House 2021) by Murray Hogben is an incredible archive of some of the early Muslim settlers in Canada. The book is …
Middle Eastern Studies November 5, 2021

The Ka'ba Orientations

Readings in Islam's Ancient House

Simon O'Meara

Hosted by Miguel Monteiro
The Kaʿba is the famous cuboid structure at the center of the Great Mosque in Mecca. In his book The Kaʿba Orientations: Readings in Islam's Ancient House (Edinburgh University Press …
Middle Eastern Studies November 5, 2021

Revealed Sciences

The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco

Justin K. Stearns

Hosted by Christopher Rose
Islam's contributions to the natural sciences has long been recognized within the Euro-American academy, however, such studies tend to include one of a number of narrative tropes, either emphasizing the …
Middle Eastern Studies November 2, 2021

God’s Property

Islam, Charity, and the Modern State

Nada Moumtaz

Hosted by Julian Weideman
Nada Moumtaz’s God’s Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State (University of California Press, 2021) is an ethnography anchored in deep study of the Muslim scholarly tradition, the urban landscape, and …
General History October 25, 2021

Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe

Emily Greble

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Dr. Emily Greble, Associate Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, is the author of Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe (Oxford University Press, 2021). Focusing on the Muslim inhabitants of …
Islamic Studies October 22, 2021

The Beauty of the Houri

Heavenly Virgins and Feminine Ideals

Nerina Rustomji

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In her scintillating new book, The Beauty of the Houri: Heavenly Virgins, Feminine Ideals (Oxford UP, 2021), Nerina Rustomji presents a fascinating and multilayered intellectual and cultural history of the category …
Ideas Roadshow Podcast October 22, 2021

Apocalypse Then

The First Crusade

Jay Rubenstein

Hosted by Howard Burton
Apocalypse Then: The First Crusade is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jay Rubenstein, Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Premodern World …
African Studies October 21, 2021

The Muridiyya on the Move

Islam, Migration, and Place Making

Cheikh Anta Babou

Hosted by Sara Katz
The construction of collective identity among the Muridiyya abroad is a communal but contested endeavor. Differing conceptions of what should be the mission of Muridiyya institutions in the diaspora reveal …
African Studies October 19, 2021

Global Nomads

An Ethnography of Migration, Islam, and Politics

Susanna Fioratta

Hosted by Sara Katz
Countering the traditional narrative of "migration as crisis," Global Nomads tells the story of a group of people for whom migration is not a symptom of a disordered world, but …
Islamic Studies October 15, 2021

Elusive Lives

Gender, Autobiography, and the Self in Muslim South Asia

Siobhan Lambert-Hurley

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Muslim South Asia is widely characterized as a culture that idealizes female anonymity: women's bodies are veiled and their voices silenced. Challenging these perceptions, Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, University of Sheffield, highlights …
General History October 13, 2021

The Last Muslim Conquest

The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe

Gábor Ágoston

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
The image of the Ottoman Turks and their interaction with the Christian West, has undergone many changes in the past: from William Gladstone's famous comment that: “[The Turks] one and …
Islamic Studies October 8, 2021

Islam and the Devotional Object

Richard J. A. McGregor

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In Islam and the Devotional Object: Seeing Religion in Egypt and Syria (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Richard J. A. McGregor, Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University, offers a history of Islamic …
Indian Ocean World October 4, 2021

Indonesians and Their Arab World

Guided Mobility Among Labor Migrants and Mecca Pilgrims

Mirjam Lücking

Hosted by Irene Promodh
Indonesians and Their Arab World: Guided Mobility Among Labor Migrants and Mecca Pilgrims (Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2021) teases out the complex, often uneasy relationship between contemporary Indonesians and the Arab …
Islamic Studies October 1, 2021

Believing in South Central

Everyday Islam in the City of Angels

Pamela J. Prickett

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Believing in South Central: Everyday Islam in the City of Angels (University of Chicago Press, 2021) by Pamela J. Prickett is an ethnographic study of an African American Muslim community …