In 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 not only provided a shared language but also gave access to a whole series of broader ideas and practices. In this older sense of being Persian, Dr. Kia has uncovered a conception of selfhood based on a very different understanding of place and origin. In it, people always understood themselves in relation to multiple collectives, not singular nations, origins, or ethnicities. Her study argues that the wide range of possible Persianate selves allowed for a type of pluralism that the nation state has been unable to provide, a pluralism that has more promise than the eurocentric notion of tolerance. The types of kinship that are produced through these shared lineages all center around the vast notion of adab. Adab is “aesthetic in ethical form,” a notion of the proper form of things that guides seeing, experiencing, thinking, and even desiring. It was adab, she argues, that kept Persianate worlds together even as their societies collapsed-- providing a shared pluralistic moral order and language that allowed them to reconstitute after each collapse. Key to this were literary genres like poetry or tazkira writing, serving as acts of commemoration in ...
In 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 mobilized for political gain in liberal democracies like Canada, Australia, and the United States. She then turns to significant examples from the Iranian diaspora. Cases like those of Sam Dastyari in Australia and Sahar Nowrouzzadeh in the U.S. show how shifting geopolitical constraints can make dual citizenship a significant liability, particularly for public-facing or politically charged figures. ...
In 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 ongoing conflict in China's Xinjiang Province. The conversation covers the history of Chinese western expansion and current-day state repression of the Uyghur population. Recommended Readings: [China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia](http://http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674057432), by Peter C. Perdue [Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia-China Frontier](http://http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674660373), by David Brophy ...
