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 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 Arabic and Persian literary production among learned Muslim men was crucial to the development of Gujarat as a coherent region between the 15th and 17th centuries, plugging it in to developments across South Asia and beyond. Sufis were particularly important in this endeavor, and she urges us to seriously consider why and how different genres such as taẓkira or manāqib were chosen by these writers instead of dismissing them all under the imposed category of hagiography. Balachandran shows how textual histories and the tomb complexes of Sufi scholars contribute another source for history beyond that of the court, serving as two poles that reinforced one another’s place in time as well as a specific region. Sufis allowed Sultans to ensure that the Muslim community expanded and prospered, and just as the Sultans militarily defined their kingdoms, Sufis sketched out realms of spiritual rule through these institutions and narratives about the past. One important example that Dr. Balachandran touches on is the figure of Shaykh Ahmad Khattu, a 15th century Sufi who became the Shaykh of Ahmad Shah I of the Muzaffarids of Gujarat. While there is little contemporary writing about ...
In 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 line from "white" to "brown." After discussing the major themes and reception of her book, Dr. Maghbouleh talks about her latest project focusing on the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Canada since 2015. The five-year study follows newcomer mothers and their teenage children as they adjust to their new environment and deal with a wide variety of stressors Rustin closes out the episode with "Chiftetelli," a 1949 Armenian song by the Nore Ike Orchestra. ...
