Shows
Ajam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #47: Towards An Environmental History of Modern IranIn this episode, Belle interviews James Gustafson, Associate Professor of History at Indiana State University, about his new book, The Lion and the Sun: Environmental History and the Formation of Modern Iran (I.B. Tauris, 2025).
In The Lion and the Sun (and our podcast episode), Gustafson presents an overview of Iran’s environmental history from the Safavid Empire (1501-1722) to the rise of Reza Khan in the 1920s. Weaving together threads of local history alongside and within regional and global trajectories and environmental trends, he illustrates how the environment shaped histories of labor, revolution, and empire. He argu...
2025-04-0736 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #46: Sufi Communities in AfghanistanIn this episode, Belle interviews Dr. Annika Schmeding, Senior Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and a Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), about her first book, Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan (Stanford University Press, 2023). In Sufi Civilities (and in our podcast episode), Schmeding examines how contemporary urban Sufi communities in Afghanistan deal with violence and transition. She addresses how threads from Afghanistan’s history shape the experiences and practices of Sufi communities in the present, particularly through ongoing poetic traditions, and she examines how they navigate tensions and amb...
2025-03-0334 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #45: Toward a Relational Understanding of the Persian GulfIn this episode, Belle interviews Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, about his recent book, Making Space for the Gulf: Histories of Regionalism and the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2024). In Making Space for the Gulf (and in our podcast episode), Keshavarzian offers a relational understanding of the Persian Gulf that foregrounds the entangled histories of its shores, as well as the body of water itself.
2024-11-1741 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #44: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Modern IranIn this episode, Belle interviews Niloofar Haeri, Anthropology Professor at Johns Hopkins University, about her recent book, Say What Your Longing Heart Desires: Women, Prayer, and Poetry in Iran (Stanford University Press, 2021).
In Say What Your Longing Heart Desires (and in our podcast episode), Haeri illustrates how poetry shaped and transformed the religious lives and practices of a group of women in contemporary Iran. The ethnography traces how the historic and culturally-ingrained practice of poetry reading and recitation of mystic poetry in particular, intertwined with prayer, helped these women situate their relationship to the divine.
2024-10-0537 min
Bluffton BibleCastSep 30: Ezekiel 32-36Exile -- Week 22Readings this week:Ezekiel 32Ezekiel 33Ezekiel 34Ezekiel 35Ezekiel 36Show Notes:https://ajammc.com/2019/03/03/ezekiels-tomb-jewish-iraq-muslim/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WikEgAUj260For more information, please see the Reading Plan
2024-09-2811 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #43: Histories of Blackness, Enslavement, and Erasure in IranIn this episode, Belle interviews Dr. Beeta Baghoolizadeh, Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University, about her recent book, The Color Black: Enslavement and Erasure in Iran (Duke University Press, 2024). They discuss the history of enslavement in Iran, and the erasures surrounding those histories of enslavement following abolition in Iran in 1929, particularly of enslaved Black people, in the archives and in collective memory.
2024-09-0739 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #42: The 2009 Green Movement and Legacies of Protest in Modern IranIn this episode, Belle interviews Dr. Pouya Alimagham, a Lecturer at MIT, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative, about his recent book, Contesting the Iranian Revolution: The Green Uprisings (Cambridge University Press, 2020). This June marks 15 years since millions of Iranians took to the street in protest after Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was announced as the winner of the 2009 presidential elections. Now known as the 2009 Green Movement, the mass protests spread under the slogan “Where is my vote?” amid widespread suspicions that the election had been rigged. In Contesting the Iranian Revolution: The Green Uprisings (and our...
2024-06-1249 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #41: The Incarcerated Modern in Iran & Global SolidarityIn this episode, Belle interviews Golnar Nikpour, Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College, about her recent book, The Incarcerated Modern: Prisons and Public Life in Iran (Stanford University Press, 2024). In The Incarcerated Modern (and our podcast episode), Nikpour addresses the history of imprisonment and incarceration in Iran, and how it is intertwined with threads of carceral infrastructures traversing the globe from the late nineteenth century to today. We also discuss global solidarity movements in honor of May Day.
2024-04-301h 13Ajam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #40: Sufism, Knowledge, and Unknowing in Contemporary IranIn this episode, Belle interviews Seema Golestaneh, Associate Professor in Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University, about her recent book, Unknowing and the Everyday: Sufism and Knowledge in Iran (Duke University Press, 2023).
2024-04-1847 min
The IntellectualAjam Podcast #39: Persianate Verse and the Poetics of Eastern Internationalism Podcast: Ajam Media Collective Podcast (LS 35 · TOP 3% what is this?)Episode: Ajam Podcast #39: Persianate Verse and the Poetics of Eastern InternationalismPub date: 2024-03-14Get Podcast Transcript →powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarizationIn this episode, Belle interviews Samuel Hodgkin, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Yale University, about his recent book, Persianate Verse and the Poetics of Eastern Internationalism (Cambridge University Press, 2023).The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ajammc, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated wit...
2024-03-2741 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #39: Persianate Verse and the Poetics of Eastern InternationalismIn this episode, Belle interviews Samuel Hodgkin, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Yale University, about his recent book, Persianate Verse and the Poetics of Eastern Internationalism (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
2024-03-1441 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #38: Iran's Alternative Art SceneIn this episode, Dr. Belle Cheves interviews Pamela Karimi, Professor of Art Education, Art History & Media Studies at UMass Dartmouth, about her book, Alternative Iran: Contemporary Art and Critical Spatial Practice (Stanford University Press, 2022).
2024-02-2647 min
Surviving Society ProductionsE129 Zavier Wingham: The Ottoman Empire, race & slavery (1840-1914)Zavier joined us to discuss his ongoing research on how changing Ottoman elite conceptions of race, slavery, and blackness in the Ottoman Empire contributed to new forms of racialization of enslaved and manumitted Africans between the 1840s and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
Useful links:
https://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/departments/meis/people/students/zavier-wingham.html
https://twitter.com/zwingham/status/1303346717715247109
https://twitter.com/AjamMC/status/1267806300618006528
https://csalateral.org/forum/cultural-constructions-race-racism-middle-east-north-africa-southwest-asia-mena-swana/myths-haji-firuz-racist-contours-iranian-minstrel-baghoolizadeh/#fn-7891-4
https://csalateral.org/forum/cultural-constructions-race-racism-middle-east-north-africa-southwest-asia-mena-swana/opposing-spectacle-blackness-arap-baci-kalfa-dad-african-presence-turkey-willoughby/#fn-7954-6
2021-06-0847 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #37: Sufi Miracle Workers of MalayaIn this episode, Lindsey, Rustin, and Ali interview Dr. Teren Sevea, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard Divinity School about his recent book, Miracles and Material Life: Rice, Ore, Traps and Guns in Islamic Malaya (Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Dr. Sevea reveals the significance of Islamic miracle workers, called pawangs or bomohs, in the Malay world from the 19th century to the present. He maps out the spiritual economy of the Indian Ocean world and its many human and non-human actors. These figures, steeped in the practice and cosmology of Sufism, were instrumental to the material life of the societies...
2021-04-2634 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #36: Being Persian before Modern IranIn this episode, Ali interviews Dr. Mana Kia, an Associate Professor in Columbia University’s department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies about her book, [Persianate Selves: Memories of Place and Origin Before Nationalism](http://https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29033) (Stanford University Press, 2020).
If contemporary notions of being Persian are rooted in recent history, what did it mean to be Persian before nationalism? In the interconnected spaces of premodern Asia, Persian served as a language of learning and shared communication that facilitated the exchange of texts, practices, goods, and ideas, creating a Persianate cultural sphere. Persian no...
2021-04-1243 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #35: Creating India, Forgetting HindustanIn this episode, Ali interviews Dr. Manan Ahmed Asif, an Associate Professor in Columbia University’s History department, about his book, [The Loss of Hindustan, the Invention of India](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674987906) (Harvard University Press, 2020).
Before nationalism—before even the European colonization of South Asia—the term Hindustan signified a regional identity that spanned the length of modern Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. It referred both to a geography with shifting and porous boundaries as well as to a shared physical and mental space inhabited by peoples with overlapping literatures, music, food, and even dress.
To approa...
2021-03-0842 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #34: Finding Home through Armenian Music with Joseph BohigianIn this episode, Kamyar and Rustin interview Armenian-American composer and performer Joseph Bohigian about his latest musical composition, “The Water Has Found Its Crack” (2020), which explores concepts of displacement, dispersion, and cultural preservation in Armenian music.
The composition’s title refers to an anecdote shared by Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink about a French-Armenian woman who died while visiting the village of her youth in Turkey. When the question of where she should be buried arose, a man from the village responded “Let her be buried here...the water has found its crack.” It is a story of Armenians longing to be reunite...
2021-02-2233 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #33: Muslim Narratives of the Formation of Premodern GujaratIn this episode, Lindsey and Ali interview Dr. Jyoti Gulati Balachandran, Assistant Professor of History at Penn State, about her book [Narrative Pasts: The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400-1650](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/narrative-pasts-9780190123994?cc=us&lang=en) (Oxford University Press, July 2020)
The Gujarat region of western India has a long role as a maritime and commercial center in the Indian Ocean, but the rich history of its Muslim community - and the important role of Sufis in developing Gujarat’s identity as a distinct region - has been overlooked. Dr. Balachandran argues that Ar...
2021-02-0840 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #32: Chinese Muslims and Imperial JapanIn this episode, Rustin and Ali interview Dr. Kelly Anne Hammond, Assistant Professor of East Asian History in the Department of History at the University of Arkansas, about her book, China’s Muslims and Japan’s Empire: Centering Islam in World War II (University of North Carolina Press, November 2020).
During World War II, Sino-Muslims (Hui Muslims) were an important focal point for Imperial Japanese propaganda. Japanese imperial officials saw Sino-Muslims as crucial intermediaries that could help not only defeat nationalist and communist opposition in China, but also help bolster an image of the empire as anti-Western protectors of Islam. Building on a...
2021-01-2534 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #31: The Life & Times of Sufi-Flamenco Star Aziz BalouchIn this episode, Kamyar and Rustin welcome back Dr. Stefan Williamson Fa to talk about the extraordinary life and music of Sufi-Flamenco star, Aziz Balouch. Stefan has re-issued Balouch's EP, *Sufi Hispano-Pakastani*, originally produced in 1962, with [Death is Not the End Records ](https://deathisnot.bandcamp.com/album/sufi-hispano-pakistani) in 2020.
Dr. Williamson Fa traces Aziz's biography, from a young boy born in Baluchistan in 1910, to studying in Sindh at a sufi shrine, before making his way to Gibraltar and falling in love with Flamenco music. Balouch became a student of legendary Flamenco master, Pepe Marchena, and spent the rest of his...
2021-01-1138 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #30: Histories of Migration and Exchange between Iran and the DeccanIn this episode, Ali and Lindsey are joined by Dr. Keelan Overton, an independent scholar in Santa Barbara, and Dr. Subah Dayal, Assistant Professor at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU, to talk about [Iran and the Deccan: Persianate Art, Culture, and Talent in Circulation, 1400-1700 (Indiana University Press, 2020)](https://iupress.org/9780253048912/iran-and-the-deccan/).
They highlight the shared and oft overlooked history of Iran and the Deccan plateau of southern India over a three-hundred-year period. During this time, the sea routes between Iran and the Deccan became a major point of exchange for not only trade, but also the...
2020-12-2141 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #29: Nostalgic Desire & the Restoration of Kabul’s Darul Aman PalaceIn this episode, Rustin interviews Dr. Huma Gupta, the Neubauer Junior Research Fellow at Brandeis University, about her 2017 article, “['Nostalgic Desire': The Restoration of Dar ul-Aman Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan"](https://www.academia.edu/41646389/_Nostalgic_Desire_The_Restoration_of_Dar_ul_Aman_Palace_in_Kabul_Afghanistan) (Thresholds Journal, MIT Press).
Gupta shows how the Darul Aman Palace’s restoration, which was initiated by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016, transformed the palace into an object of collective nostalgic belonging-- a symbol of Afghanistan’s gloried past and constantly interrupted history. Originally constructed in 1927 to serve as the seat of Parliament, the Darul Aman P...
2020-12-0725 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #28: Institutionalizing Persian Literature in Iran & AfghanistanIn this episode, Rustin interviews Dr. Aria Fani, Professor of Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Washington, about his upcoming book project, **Making Persian Literature: Iran and Afghanistan in the Age of Romantic Nationalism**.
Dr. Fani’s research explores how literature was utilized in the nation-building process in both Iran and Afghanistan during the turn of the twentieth century. His work pushes back against the narrative that the Persian language was in decline as a lingua franca across large swaths of Central and South Asia in the nineteenth century. While Persian did in fact have to compete with Ru...
2020-11-2235 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #27: Monsoon Mobilities in the 19th CenturyIn this episode, Lindsey is joined by Dr. Johan Mathew, Assistant Professor of History at Rutgers University, to talk about the circulation of goods and people in the 19th century Indian Ocean. He is the author of **[Margins of the Market: Trafficking and Capitalism across the Arabian Sea](https://history.rutgers.edu/people/faculty/publications/publication-details/1093-margins-of-the-market-trafficking-and-capitalism-across-the-arabian-sea)** (University of California Press, 2016).
The seasonal monsoon winds drew its distant shores together over the centuries, - and places as far afield as Burma and Bandar Abbas relied on one another for staples like rice and dates. Dr. Mathew explains how these flows...
2020-11-1141 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #26: Rüya with Murat KeyderIn this episode, Kamyar is joined by Murat Keyder, a New York City-based musician and composer, to talk about his recent album, *[Rüya](https://open.spotify.com/album/1UgDWDZVXJRKhyhH7FjBVm?highlight=spotify:track:5OqTvH0D8t0vZBnMDR7rCd)* (2019). He is also the author of *[Learning Balkan and Middle Eastern Music on Guitar](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N6M5YYE/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0)* (2016).
Originally from Turkey, Keyder is a guitarist and oud player, whose music is influenced by many different types of contemporary and classical music from Turkey, the Balkans, S...
2020-10-2533 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #25: Rebels, Imams, and the Problems of History in Early IslamIn this episode, Rustin and Ali are joined by Professor Najam Haider, Professor of Religion at Barnard College, to talk about his recent book, The Rebel and the Imām in Early Islam: Explorations in Muslim Historiography.
The lack of contemporary sources for the first century of the Islamic period poses many challenges for historians past and present. Engaging with many of the impasses that still animate the study of early Islam, Professor Haider proposes that one way forward is to explore the rules that governed historical writing among early Muslims as well as their intended audiences. Instead of remaining p...
2020-10-1136 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #24: Imperial MeccaIn this episode, Lindsey is joined by Dr. Michael Christopher Low, Assistant Professor of History at Iowa State University, to talk about his new book, Imperial Mecca: Ottoman Arabia and the Indian Ocean Hajj (Columbia University Press, 2020).
Dr. Low discusses the challenges the Ottomans faced in administering the province of Hijaz and the hajj in the rapidly transforming 19th century. He explains how steamships boosted the number of visitors to the Hijaz, carrying pilgrims, passports, contagious diseases, and even the specter of legal imperialism and colonial intervention. As those who traveled to the Hijaz by steamship were primarily from British...
2020-09-2837 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #23: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic RepublicIn this episode, Rustin is joined by Dr. Neda Maghbouleh and Dr. Amy Malek to interview Dr. Narges Bajoghli, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, about her new book, [“Iran Re-Framed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic.”](http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29666)
Dr. Bajoghli talks about how she came to spend ten years in the field as an anthropologist studying members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Ansar Hezbollah, and Basij paramilitary organizations. Through a study of their media production, she explores how these men developed strategies to reach...
2020-09-2031 min
Daniel K's Let's PlaysBrendan Keogh's Putting Challenge 02. |[Itch bundle game]| (Season -08 episode -17).Brendan Keogh's Putting Challenge 02. |[Itch bundle game]| (Season -08 episode -17).
Episode Two listeners! Once again, please pay for an play Brendan Keogh's game Brendan Keogh's Putting Challenge here: https://brkeogh.itch.io/brendan-keoghs-putting-challenge
And I do recommend the championship edition. I think it's a cool edition.
Music in this game was Very Large Green Triangles by Matmos, and then a bunch of Kurdish Grani music.
The Grani musicians featured were:
Grani Lezgin,
Hazrolu Bager Emin, and
Tufan Derince
and you can check out their music here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hE9LXMwFqg
https://www.youtube.com/watch...
2020-09-1853 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #22: Paradoxes of Dual CitizenshipIn this episode, Rustin is joined by Dr. Neda Maghbouleh and Dr. Narges Bajoghli to interview Dr. Amy Malek, Assistant Professor of International Studies at the College of Charleston about her latest article, [“Paradoxes of Dual Nationality: Geopolitical Constraints on Multiple Citizenship in the Iranian Diaspora.”](http://muse.jhu.edu/article/745776)
Dr. Malek invites listeners to consider how, despite popular notions that dual citizenship leads to greater mobility and rights, it can sometimes lead to the opposite. After giving us an overview of the concept of dual citizenship and its normalization after the 1990s, she highlights how citizenship scandals have been...
2020-08-3026 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #21: Reimagining Baloch “Mercenaries” in the Western Indian OceanIn this episode Lindsey interviews Ameem Lutfi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.
The legacy of the Baloch in Indian Ocean historiography has been confined to their role as soldiers or “mercenaries” of various rulers. Dr. Lutfi’s work is interested in interrogating what it meant for the Baloch to conquer on behalf of rulers without ever ruling those territories themselves. He grapples with the tension between the power that they have as conquerors - precluding them from being categorized as subaltern - and the fact that their history has been primarily passed...
2020-08-1735 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #20: Metaphysics and the Occult in IranIn this episode, Rustin and Ali interview Alireza Doostdar, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religion at the University of Chicago. He is the author of [The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691163772/the-iranian-metaphysicals), published by Princeton University Press in 2018.
Dr. Doostdar explores the neglected aspects of religion and spirituality in Iran, specifically practices that are often categorized in the realm of superstition, magic, and the occult. The interview opens with a discussion of two different yet entangled traditions that engage with the immaterial world in contemporary Iran...
2020-08-0231 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #19: A Cinematic History of Iranian CosmopolitanismIn this episode, Rustin interviews Golbarg Rekabtalaei, an Assistant Professor of History at Seton Hall University. She is the author of [Iranian Cosmopolitanism: A Cinematic History](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/iranian-cosmopolitanism/729C8936B157EC6DA38BE4), published by Cambridge University Press in 2019.
Dr. Rekabtalaei traces how the diverse ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds of cinematographers, cinema owners, and cinema goers shaped Iran's urban culture and its citizenry's understanding of modernity. The interview opens with a discussion of the first films produced in Iran: what they looked like, where they were shown, and who was watching them. Then, Dr...
2020-07-1930 min
Worldwide Jew PodcastBukharian Jews Part 2Hey everybody, Worldwide Jew here and on this episode of the Worldwide Jew Podcast we are concluding the 2 part episode on talking about Bukharian Jews. Here are some time stamps and links for further reading.
Timestamps
Bukharian Jews in Bukhara, Uzbekistan- 00:00:00
Bukharian Jews in the USA- 00:11:21
Bukharian Jews in Austria- 00:25:46
Bukharian Jews in Israel- 00:29:50
Bonus- 00:34:22
Personal Experiences/Conclusions- 00:52:07
Links for further learning
Bukharian Boy getting beaten in Forest Hills New York- https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/forest-hills-jewish-community-on-edge/article_6513d1d6...
2020-06-1053 min
Yine Yeni Yeniden 90'larBölüm 15 - Klipli HikayelerDinlemek istediğimiz şarkıyı Kral TV başında bekler gibi sirasini beklediğimiz klipler bölümlerine sonunda başlıyoruz. Serimizin ilk bölümü “Hikayeli Klipler,” yani bize şarkının yanında bir de hikaye anlatan klipler üzerine. Ölünce sevemeyeceğinizden korkuyorsanız, rüyalarınıza arnavut kaldırımları giriyorsa ya da bi’ daha yapmam dediğiniz günahlarınızdan vazgeçemiyorsanız, sizi bu bölüme bekliyoruz. Kliplerin ve bahsettiğimiz makalenin linkleri şöyle: Ayna - Ölünce Sevemezsem Seni https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLSIYrGYn_IDemet Sağıroğlu - Arnavut Kaldırımı http...
2020-02-1300 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #18: Of Gardens and Graves in KashmirIn this episode, Teren Sevea, an Assistant Professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, interviews Suvir Kaul, the A. M. Rosenthal Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kaul is the the author of the book: [Of Gardens and Graves: Essays on Kashmir](https://www.english.upenn.edu/publications/2015/suvir-kaul/gardens-and-graves), published by Duke University Press in 2017.
Dr. Sevea and Dr. Kaul open the episode with a discussion about the political history of Kashmir's division and occupation, as well as how India's BJP-majority government has recently revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status, dramatically affecting the...
2019-11-0440 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #17: Framing the Indian Ocean*The Indian Ocean series explores topics related to the Islamo-Arabic and Persianate world from the perspective of the Indian Ocean littoral and the people who traversed its waters. These conversations aim to rethink narratives of history and culture, which have been traditionally boxed in by land-based territorial demarcations and regional studies frameworks. This series invites listeners to imagine the complex interconnectedness of life from East Africa to Southeast Asia and beyond.
*
In this introductory episode, Indian Ocean series host Lindsey Stephenson speaks with Fahad Bishara, who is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Bishara discusses...
2019-10-1436 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #16: Persian Gulf Modernities Before OilIn this episode, Rustin speaks with Lindsey Stephenson, who is currently conducting postgraduate research at Princeton University, and the new host of Ajam's Indian Ocean podcast series.
The Indian Ocean series explores topics related to the Islamo-Arabic and Persianate world from the perspective of the Indian Ocean littoral and the people who traversed its waters. These conversations aim to rethink narratives of history and culture, which have been traditionally boxed in by land-based territorial demarcations and regional studies frameworks. This series invites listeners to imagine the complex interconnectedness of life from East Africa to Southeast Asia and beyond.
In the...
2019-09-0431 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #15: In Defense of SatanIn this episode, Rustin speaks with Mohammed Rustom, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Carleton University. He is the author of The Triumph of Mercy: Philosophy and Scripture in Mulla Sadra (State University of New York Press, 2012).
Dr. Rustom sheds light on the figure of Iblis (or Satan) in the writings of 'Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, the 12th century Sufi mystic and jurist. While many believe Iblis to be a force of evil in Islamic theology, 'Ayn al-Quzat argued that he is, in fact, the ultimate embodiment of selfless divine love.
After outlining the role of Iblis in Islamic mysticism, Dr...
2019-06-2428 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #14: Reformist Political Thought in IranIn this episode, Rustin speaks with Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, Lecturer in Comparative Political Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of [Revolution and its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019).](https://www.cambridge.org/ge/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/revolution-and-its-discontents-political-thought-and-reform-iran?format=HB#contentsTabAnchor)
Dr. Sadeghi-Boroujerdi gives an overview of the history and ideological development of Reformism in Iran. Following the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, left-leaning factions of the Islamic Republic's political elite found themselves sidelined and kicked out of the corridors of power in the...
2019-06-0328 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #13: Saving Baku's Salaam CinemaIn this episode, Rustin speaks with Leyli Gafarova, an independent filmmaker and the co-creator of Salaam Cinema, a community-driven independent cinema space showcasing non-commercial, locally-made, and historical films in Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital. Named after Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s [1995 movie of the same name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_Cinema) , Baku’s Salaam Cinema is a venue for the performing arts and offers a wide program of exhibitions and educational workshops.
Following their opening in January 2019, Salaam Cinema moved into their current venue, a [historic Molokan prayer house](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Salaam+Cinema/@40.3801135,49.8436259,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4...
2019-05-0717 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #12: The Rise & Fall of KhoqandCentral Asianists rejoice! In this episode, Rustin speaks with Scott Levi, Professor and Chair of History at Ohio State University. He is the author of [The Rise and Fall of Khoqand, 1709-1876: Central Asia in the Global Age (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017)](https://www.upress.pitt.edu/books/9780822965060/)
Dr. Levi gives an overview of the history of the Khoqand Khanate, a dynastic polity centered around the Ferghana Valley in the heart of Central Asia. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Uzbek Ming rulers extended their rule across and beyond the fertile valley, establishing important political and economic linkages with...
2019-04-0836 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #11: Nowruz ReflectionsHappy Nowruz/Nawriz/Navruz/Novruz/Newroz everyone!
Nowruz is an ancient festival marking the arrival of Spring, celebrated across the Middle East, Central Asia, the Caucasus, South Asia, and the Balkans. Dating back at least 3,000 years, Nowruz is a celebration of rebirth and renewal, of the end of winter and the flowering of the Earth that warm weather brings. In the Iranian calendar, this Nowruz marks the beginning of the year 1398.
In this episode, Kamyar and Rustin talk reflect on the first year since Ajam's successful kickstarter, which has given the project enough funds to pay writers and launch new...
2019-03-2855 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #10: Between Iran and ZionIn this episode, Rustin speaks with Lior Sternfeld, Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Penn State University. Dr. Sternfeld is another alumnus from the Emerging Scholarship podcast, when he joined us for a conversation about [Polish Jewish Refugees in Iran during World War II](https://ajammc.com/2015/01/22/lior-sternfeld-polish-refugees-iran/). His new book is called [Between Iran and Zion: Jewish Histories of Twentieth Century Iran (Stanford University Press, 2018).](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27883)
Lior gives an overview of the history of the Jewish community in Iran from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Dr. Sternfeld starts...
2019-02-1726 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #9: Soundtrack of the RevolutionIn this episode, Kamyar and Rustin reunite in New York to speak with Nahid Siamdoust, Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer and the Ehsan Yarshater Fellow at Yale University. She is the author of [Soundtrack of the Revolution: the Politics of Music in Iran (Stanford University Press, 2017) ](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24949)
Nahid gives an overview of the role of music in Iran’s social and political movements throughout the 20th century, before discussing how music became one of the first causalities of the Islamic Republic before it was slowly reintroduced, albeit with many restrictions on what can be played an...
2019-02-031h 00Ajam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #8: Iranian Internationalism and Student Groups in the United StatesIn this episode, Rustin is joined by Manijeh Nasrabadi, Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Neither Washington, Nor Tehran: Iranian Internationalism in the United States (Duke University Press, 2020).
Manijeh speaks about her research on the Iranian Students Association, which was founded in 1952 by the Iranian Embassy and the CIA to support and monitor Iranian students studying at American universities. Over the course of the 1960s, leftist students maneuvered to take control of the leadership positions of the ISA, and gradually transformed the organization into a radical Anti-Shah op...
2019-01-2038 min
The East is a PodcastScholarship in the service of Empire w/ Eskandar Sadeghi-BoroujerdiDr. Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. Original article available here: https://ajammc.com/2017/03/06/ann-lambton-in-iran/ Please support the show https://www.patreon.com/east_podcast created by Sina Rahmani (@urorientalist) eastisapodcast@gmail.com https://twitter.com/east_podcast
2018-12-2320 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #7: The Limits of WhitenessIn this episode, Rustin is joined by Neda Maghbouleh, Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Toronto. She is the author of [The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race (Stanford University Press, 2017).](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24756)
Neda is a long-time friend of Ajam and an early guest of the first iteration of the Ajam podcast back in 2014. Since our first conversation, she has published her book, which explores the history of ethnic and racial classification in the United States and how Iranians and other Middle Eastern Americans have moved across the color...
2018-12-2033 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #7: The Limits of WhitenessIn this episode, Rustin is joined by Neda Maghbouleh, Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of Toronto. She is the author of [The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian Americans and the Everyday Politics of Race (Stanford University Press, 2017).](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=24756)
Neda is a long-time friend of Ajam and an early guest of the first iteration of the Ajam podcast back in 2014. Since our first conversation, she has published her book, which explores the history of ethnic and racial classification in the United States and how Iranians and other Middle Eastern Americans have moved across the color...
2018-12-1633 min
KnOshO's TheaterEpi-Soul: Knosho's 3 Wishes TrailerThank you for stopping by. On this Epi-soul Let us walk down the line of truth and entertainment as we shine some light on what a Genie, Jinni, Genii etc. are. The history is rich but let us look at where the history began to what we have here now. Also, check out the newest Aladdin movie coming out in 2019 starring Will Smith as "THE GENIE".. Enjoy the Audi-SHO SHO'S notes below Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWO2kUPd-sQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdG--ezY5ek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8vj5BeFov4 https://www...
2018-12-0519 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #6: Social Welfare in IranIn this episode, Rustin is joined by Kevan Harris, Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of[ A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran (University of California Press, 2017)](https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520280823).
Kevan challenges commonly-held notions about the ideological rigidity of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He charts the development of social programs during the Pahlavi period, their continuation throughout the 1979 Revolution, and expansion during the Iran-Iraq War and Reconstruction Era.
Additionally, Dr. Harris talks about the current challenges facing healthcare, social security, and other aid...
2018-11-3036 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #5: Urbanism & Informality in TbilisiIn this episode, we discuss urban development in post-Soviet Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. Rustin is joined by Elena Darjania, a Tbilisi-based architect and urban planner, and Otar Nemsadze, an architect and organizer of the first [Tbilisi Architecture Biennale ](biennial.ge/).
The conversation covers the transformation of the Georgian capital during the 19th and 20th centuries-- from a medieval walled city, to a Tsarist administrative center, a Soviet capital, and finally a post-soviet city undergoing privatization and attempting to attract foreign investment.
The guests address problems and issues facing urbanists and activists, such as traffic congestion, deregulation in the construction...
2018-11-0529 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #4: Gender and Tajik Labor Migration to RussiaWhile Kamyar is traveling for work, Rustin is joined by guest co-host Yan Matusevich in Tbilisi, Georgia. Yan is a Vienna-based researcher and journalist focusing on issues of migration in the post-Soviet space. He is also the host of the [ZamZaman](https://cba.fro.at/series/zamzaman) podcast, which showcases music from Eastern Europe and Eurasia at large.
Yan and Rustin talk to Mariana Irby, a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on nationalism, gender, and post-socialism in Tajikistan and Tajik migrant communities in Russia. She is also the author of a recent Ajam article, ["Dressing...
2018-10-2434 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #3: Musical Dialects of the CaucasusIn this episode, Kamyar and Rustin talk to Stefan Williamson Fa, co-founder of [Mountains of Tongues](https://www.facebook.com/mountainsoftongues/), a project documenting and promoting musical dialects in the South Caucasus.
Mountains of Tongues showcases traditions that defy normal categorizations of "national" or "folk" music through the use of non-conventional instruments, multiple languages, and a blending of different musical genres. Stefan shares three songs from the Mountains of Tongues archive and from his most recent fieldwork in Georgia: a Georgian-Azeri bilingual Kamancha song by Sergo Kamalov, Aşıq Nargile's rendition of the Aşıq Qərib story, and a Azeri...
2018-10-1549 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #2: Ahvaz & XinjiangIn this episode, Kamyar and Rustin parse out the different narratives circulating around the September 22 terrorist attack in Ahvaz/Ahwaz. They discuss Narges Bajoghli's recent article in Foreign Policy, ["Did a Terrorist Attack Just Save the Iranian Regime?"](http://https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/26/did-a-terrorist-attack-just-save-the-iranian-regime/). Dr Bajoghli is a friend of Ajam, and has appeared on the Emerging Scholarship Series to discuss her research on the [media and cultural production of Iran-Iraq War paramilitary veterans](http://https://ajammc.com/2015/09/27/emerging-scholarship-bajoghli-paramilitary-media/).
Joshua Sooter, a PhD candidate in History and East Asian Studies at New York University joins the show to talk about the...
2018-10-0440 minAjam Media Collective PodcastAjam Podcast #1: Welcome to the AjamilyThanks to our amazing supporters of our recent crowdfund, Ajam will now be producing and releasing podcasts. We expect a wide variety of formats, but we wanted to use our first episode as a chance to update our listeners and introduce our new series. Remember to visit us at ajammc.com to learn more or contact us!
Check out the article from Nir Shafir that we discussed: https://aeon.co/essays/why-fake-miniatures-depicting-islamic-science-are-everywhere
2018-09-2638 min