In 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 transformed in the 19th century with new technologies and power dynamics. These connections were simultaneously strengthened through technological innovations like steamships while also being hindered by political changes that rerouted trade. Yet even with the disruptive influence of European imperialisms, Mathew suggests that even they were incapable of curtailing the circulation, passage, and interconnectivity that continues to defines the Indian Ocean today. ...
In 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 opposition group. Within the Cold War context, members of the ISA found themselves entrenched in the anti-war, anti-imperialist, and civil rights movements of the day. Utilizing first-person interviews and archival work, Dr. Nasrabadi not only traces these intersections, but she also highlights how ISA members recall their hopes for the 1979 Iranian Revolution and their disappointments in its aftermath. Rustin closes out the episode with “[Lalai](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZ2QkDY0ng),” a political song performed by the Confederation of Iranian Students Choir in Munich in 1969. ...
Central 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 Imperial China, Russia, and the Indian Subcontinent. Throughout the discussion, Dr. Levi stresses the importance of "connected history" and highlights how globalizing forces, environmental changes, and demographic shifts brought about the rise and fall of the Khoqand Khanate. Rustin closes out the episode with one of his favorite Soviet-era Uzbek songs, [Bugmacha Bilagim by Rano Sabirova (1979)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awdWWNpqGio) ...
