New Books Network

About Asad Dandia

Asad Dandia is a graduate student of Islamic Studies at Columbia University

NBN Episodes hosted by Asad:

Middle Eastern Studies May 7, 2021

Turkey, Egypt, and Syria

A Travelogue

Shibli Numani

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Turkey, Egypt, and Syria: A Travelogue (Syracuse UP, 2019) vividly captures the experiences of prominent Indian intellectual and scholar Shibli Nu'mani (1857-1914) as he journeyed across the Ottoman Empire and Egypt in …
Middle Eastern Studies May 7, 2021

Between Muslims

Religious Difference in Iraqi Kurdistan

J. Andrew Bush

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Between Muslims Religious Difference in Iraqi Kurdistan (Stanford UP, 2020) by J. Andrew Bush asks what it means to be Muslim, yet not pious, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Though Islam is …
Middle Eastern Studies May 5, 2021

Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life

The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World

Jörg Matthias Determann

Hosted by Asad Dandia
The Muslim world is not commonly associated with science fiction. Religion and repression have often been blamed for a perceived lack of creativity, imagination and future-oriented thought. However, even the …
Middle Eastern Studies November 12, 2020

Muhammad's Body

Baraka Networks and the Prophetic Assemblage

Michael Muhammad Knight

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Muhammad's Body: Baraka Networks and the Prophetic Assemblage by Michael Muhammad Knight (UNC Press, 2020) joins the emerging subfield of literature in Islamic Studies exploring embodiment and materiality as concepts …
Middle Eastern Studies September 15, 2020

Studying the Qur’an in the Muslim Academy

Majid Daneshgar

Hosted by Asad Dandia
“Consider the works of the renowned Nobel-prize-winning African American writer, literary and social critic, and activist Toni Morrison (b. 1931),” writes Majid Daneshgar. “Hers—like Said’s—are popular in the West and …
Middle Eastern Studies August 5, 2020

Preserving Islamic Tradition

Abu Nasr Qursawi and the Beginnings of Modern Reformism

Nathan Spannaus

Hosted by Asad Dandia
What were some of the major transformations taking place for Muslim communities in the Russian Empire of the eighteenth century? How did the introduction of a state-backed structure for Muslim …
Middle Eastern Studies August 3, 2020

Believing Women in Islam

Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an

Asma Barlas

Hosted by Asad Dandia
In this revised edition of her classic and groundbreaking work, Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an (University of Texas Press, 2019), Asma Barlas demonstrates how a …
Middle Eastern Studies February 4, 2020

Modernism on the Nile

Art in Egypt between the Islamic and the Contemporary

Alex Dika Seggerman

Hosted by Asad Dandia
With scholarship in the discipline of history witnessing a shift toward global approaches to local historical processes, new questions are being raised about how to identify commensurate theoretical methods and …
General History January 7, 2020

Modern Things on Trial

Islam’s Global and Material Reformation in the Age of Rida, 1865-1935

Leor Halevi

Hosted by Asad Dandia
How did Muslims respond to foreign goods in an age characterized by global exchange and European imperial expansion? What sort of legal reasoning did scholars apply in order to appropriate …
Intellectual History December 24, 2019

Philosophy in the Islamic World

A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, Volume 3

Peter Adamson

Hosted by Asad Dandia
It is no easy task to survey and present a comprehensive history of philosophy of an entire intellectual tradition to a broad public audience without compromising on the scholarly rigor …
Middle Eastern Studies December 18, 2019

Modern Muslim Theology

Engaging God and the World with Faith and Imagination

Martin Nguyen

Hosted by Asad Dandia
What precisely is “Muslim theology?” What would a “Muslim theology” in the present day look like? And what then is a “Muslim theology of engagement?” In Modern Muslim Theology: Engaging …
American Studies December 16, 2019

When Islam Is Not a Religion

Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom

Asma T. Uddin

Hosted by Asad Dandia
What happens when a religion is demonized to such an extent that it is no longer deemed a religion – but an ideology? What effect does such a political refashioning …
General History December 9, 2019

Both Eastern and Western

An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity

Afshin Matin-Asgari

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Following the Iranian Revolution of 1978—79, public and scholarly interest in Iran have skyrocketed, with a plethora of attempts seeking to understand and explain the events which led up to …
General History December 3, 2019

Between Iran and Zion

Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran

Lior Sternfeld

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth-Century Iran (Stanford University Press, 2019) by Lior Sternfeld presents the first systematic study of the rich and variegated history of Jews in …
Middle Eastern Studies November 29, 2019

Medieval Islamic Sectarianism

Christine D. Baker

Hosted by Asad Dandia
How do contemporary events shape the ways in which we read, understand, and interpret historical processes of identity formation? How can we resist framing conflicts of the past through frameworks …
Middle Eastern Studies November 26, 2019

In a Pure Muslim Land

Shi’ism between Pakistan and the Middle East

Simon Wolfgang Fuchs

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Scholarly and public discourse on Islamic intellectual thought in the modern period tend to frame it narrowly through the concept of “influence” as it emanates from the Middle Eastern “center” …