In 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 Islamic Republic. Throughout the discussion, Dr. Sadeghi-Boroujerdi outlines how the reformist movement was not only shaped by their members' political marginalization, but also by a global network of post-cold-war theoretical writings championing incrementalism, economic liberalism, and strengthening civil society. The conversation concludes with current state of reformism--of its contradictions, lessons learned, and opportunities missed. ...
In 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 the youth, how they understood their own life trajectories, and tellingly, their deep anxieties about the future and their place in it. She also explains how she takes a “3D look at power in Iran” and its relation to the ethics of fieldwork, particularly among subjects that one disagrees with. This book offers a multilayered story about what it means to be pro-regime inside the Islamic Republic of Iran, challenging what we think we know about those who continue to support its revolution. ...
In 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 down through folklore rather than texts. Dr. Lutfi reminds us that in the past, states frequently relied on “mercenary” outsiders to staff their armies, and professional citizen soldiers only became the norm in the last century. He explains that although the Baloch have been perceived by many as a diaspora group, they see themselves as critical parts in the formation of the nation itself. In this vein, their work as soldiers and more recently policemen, has created deep, highly mobile Baloch networks between the shores for centuries. ...
