New Books in Middle Eastern Studies
Interviews with Scholars of the Middle East about their New Books
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- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 56 minutes
- Episodes
- 1278
- Years Active
- 2010 - 2025
Wendy Pearlman, "The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora" (Liveright, 2024)
War forced millions of Syrians from their homes. It also forced them to rethink the meaning of home itself.
In 2011, Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom. Brutal government repression transf…
01:04:34 |
Tue 10 Dec 2024
Persistent Pastoralism: Monuments and Settlements in the Archaeology of Dhofar
Today I talked to Joy McCorriston about Persistent Pastoralism: Monuments and Settlements in the Archaeology of Dhofar (Archaeopress Publishing, 2023).
In the Dhofar region of southern Oman, pastoral…
00:49:15 |
Sat 07 Dec 2024
Yochai Ataria, "Not in Our Brain: Consciousness, Body, World" (Magnes Press, 2019)
Yochai's book, Not in Our Brain: Consciousness, Body, World (Magnes Press, 2019), examines the meaning of psychology and life based on the premise (following Merleau-Ponty's theory) that we are prese…
00:51:12 |
Wed 04 Dec 2024
Ibn al-Muqaffaʿs "Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice"
Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice by Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, translated by Michael Fishbein and James E. Montgomery, with a foreword by Marina Warner (Library of Arabic Literature, NYU Press, 20…
01:13:51 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
Middle East on the Brink: Escalation, Diplomacy, and the Search for Stability
Recent developments in the Middle East have raised concern about the potential for a wider regional war. What do escalating tensions in Gaza, Lebanon, and beyond mean for the future? Join RBI Directo…
00:38:13 |
Sun 24 Nov 2024
Phillip Lieberman, "The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East: Tracing the Demographic Shift from East to West" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
In The Fate of the Jews in the Early Islamic Near East: Tracing the Demographic Shift from East to West (Cambridge UP, 2022), Phillip Lieberman revisits one of the foundational narratives of medieval…
01:25:30 |
Sat 23 Nov 2024
Allen James Fromherz, "The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present" (U California Press, 2024)
Whether it’s in commerce or conflict, today’s world pays rapt attention to the Persian Gulf. But the centrality of the Gulf to world history stretches far beyond the oil age–its ancient ports created…
00:52:04 |
Thu 21 Nov 2024
Masha Kirasirova, "The Eastern International: Arabs, Central Asians, and Jews in the Soviet Union's Anticolonial Empire" (Oxford UP, 2024)
In the first few years after the Russian Revolution, an ideological project coalesced to link the development of what Stalin demarcated as the internal "East"—primarily Central Asia and the Caucasus—…
00:58:30 |
Tue 19 Nov 2024
Scott J. Weiner, "Kinship, State Formation and Governance in the Arab Gulf States" (Edinburgh UP, 2024)
Tribe-state relations are a foundational element of authoritarian bargains in the Middle East, and in particular in the Gulf States. However, the structures of governance built upon that foundation e…
00:44:01 |
Wed 13 Nov 2024
Lisa Nielson, "Music and Musicians in the Medieval Islamicate World: A Social History" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
During the early medieval Islamicate period (800–1400 CE), discourses concerned with music and musicians were wide-ranging and contentious, and expressed in works on music theory and philosophy as we…
01:54:16 |
Tue 12 Nov 2024
Amín Pérez, "Bourdieu and Sayad Against Empire: Forging Sociology in Anticolonial Struggle" (Polity Press, 2023)
How did the Algerian war of independence shape contemporary sociology? In Bourdieu and Sayad Against Empire: Forging Sociology in Anticolonial Struggle (Polity Press, 2023), Amin Perez, an Assistant …
00:36:34 |
Sat 09 Nov 2024
Parker Palmer on the Israel-Gaza War
In times of profound crisis, when violence and hatred seem to dominate our world, we often search for voices that can help us navigate through the darkness while holding onto our humanity. Today's co…
00:55:55 |
Sat 09 Nov 2024
Roni Henig, "On Revival: Hebrew Literature Between Life and Death" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
On Revival: Hebrew Literature Between Life and Death (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) is a critique of one of the most important tenets of Zionist thinking: "Hebrew revival," or the idea that Hebrew--a l…
00:51:10 |
Thu 07 Nov 2024
Doyle D. Calhoun, "The Suicide Archive: Reading Resistance in the Wake of French Empire" (Duke UP, 2024)
A note about content:
This episode involves discussion of suicide, specifically in the contexts of slavery, colonization and empire. Please use your discretion and take care if you decide to listen. …
01:11:07 |
Wed 06 Nov 2024
The Failed Concepts That Brought Israel to October 7
The essay "The Failed Concepts That Brought Israel to October 7" (Mosaic Magazine) by Shany Mor, dated October 7, 2024, examines the intellectual and policy failures leading up to the October 7 attac…
00:37:49 |
Tue 05 Nov 2024
Avi Shlaim, "Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew" (Oneworld, 2024)
In July 1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile, fleeing from their beloved Iraq into the new state of Israel.
Now the rump of a once flourishing community of over 150,000,…
00:59:37 |
Sun 03 Nov 2024
Toni Alimi, "Slaves of God: Augustine and Other Romans on Religion and Politics" (Princeton UP, 2024)
Augustine believed that slavery is permissible, but to understand why, we must situate him in his late antique Roman intellectual context. Slaves of God: Augustine and Other Romans on Religion and Po…
01:04:58 |
Mon 28 Oct 2024
Arash Azizi, "What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom" (Oneworld, 2024)
On Tuesday 13 September 2022, all Mahsa Amini has planned is a day shopping in Tehran. Her birthday is next week. But she is arrested as she comes out of the subway – the Guidance Patrol deem her hij…
00:56:24 |
Wed 23 Oct 2024
Emrah Yildiz, "Zainab's Traffic: Moving Saints, Selves, and Others Across Borders" (U California Press, 2024)
Emrah Yildiz's new book Zainab’s Traffic: Moving Saints, Selves, and Others Across Borders (University of California Press, 2024) is a masterful ethnographic study that maps the religious, political,…
01:10:55 |
Tue 22 Oct 2024
Eran Ortal, "Battle Before the War: The Inside Story of the IDF's Transformation" (Dado Center, 2023)
A critical challenge for militaries is preparing for future, not past, wars. History shows that success often depends on accurately interpreting and harnessing technological and societal changes. In …
00:59:55 |
Sun 20 Oct 2024
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