New Books Network

About Alize Arıcan

NBN Episodes hosted by Alize:

Mobilities and Methods November 18, 2020

Beyond Exception

New Interpretations of the Arabian Peninsula

Ahmed Kanna, Amélie Le Renard, and Neha Vora

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Over the nearly two decades that they have each been conducting fieldwork in the Arabian Peninsula, Ahmed Kanna, Amélie Le Renard, and Neha Vora have regularly encountered exoticizing and exceptionalist discourses about the region and its people, political systems, and prevalent cultural practices. These persistent encounters became the springboard for Beyond Exception: New Interpretations of the Arabian Peninsula (Cornell UP, 2020), a reflection on conducting fieldwork within a "field" that …
Middle Eastern Studies November 6, 2020

Return to Ruin

Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia

Zainab Saleh

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraqis abroad, hoping to return one day to a better Iraq, became uncertain exiles. Return to Ruin: Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia (Stanford …
African American Studies November 4, 2020

Black in Place

The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City

Brandi Thompson Summers

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
While Washington, D.C., is still often referred to as “Chocolate City,” it has undergone significant demographic, political, and economic change in the last decade. In D.C., no place represents this …
American Studies October 23, 2020

Love in the Drug War

Selling Sex and Finding Jesus on the Mexico-US Border

Sara Luna

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Sex, drugs, religion, and love are potent combinations in la zona, a regulated prostitution zone in the city of Reynosa, across the border from Hidalgo, Texas. During the years 200 …
Middle Eastern Studies September 28, 2020

Street Sounds

Listening to Everyday Life in Modern Egypt

Ziad Fahmy

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
As the twentieth century roared on, transformative technologies—from trains, trams, and automobiles to radios and loudspeakers—fundamentally changed the sounds of the Egyptian streets. The cacophony of everyday life grew louder …
Middle Eastern Studies August 17, 2020

Disruptive Situations

Fractal Orientalism and Queer Strategies in Beirut

Ghassan Moussawi

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Disruptive Situations: Fractal Orientalism and Queer Strategies in Beirut (Temple UP, 2020) challenges representations of contemporary Beirut as an exceptional space for LGBTQ people by highlighting everyday life in a …
African Studies August 10, 2020

The Fixer

Visa Lottery Chronicles

Charles Piot

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
In the West African nation of Togo, applying for the U.S. Diversity Visa Lottery is a national obsession, with hundreds of thousands of Togolese entering each year. From the street …