This is a conversation with Shareah Taleghani, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies and Arabic at Queens College at the City University of New York and the author of the book "Readings in Syrian Prison Literature: The Poetics of Human Rights" published by Syracuse University Press.

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Topics Discussed:

Background and context, Syrian prison literature
Poetics of human rights, and how Syrian prison literature affected her view of human rights
On Tadmor military prison
On censorship, arbitrariness and tanfis in Syria
Arab critics, literature and human rights
Effects of truth
Universality of prison literature
Syrian prison literature and the 2011 revolution
Selective solidarity and global prison abolitionism (US, Iran, Syria)

Also Mentioned:

Faraj Bayrakdar
Human Rights, Inc by Joseph Slaughter
Supreme Court Justices Make a Surprising Proposal in Torture Case
Hasiba Abdelrahman
Mustapha Khalifa
Rosa Yassin Hassan
Malek Daghestani
Ali Abu Dahan
Heba Al-Dabbagh
Tadmor film by Monica Borgmann & Lokman Slim
Memory, violence and fear: Why Lokman Slim’s murder must not be depoliticized - my L'Orient Le Jour piece
Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria by Lisa Wedeen
Miriam Cooke
The Politics of Love: Sexuality, Gender, and Marriage in Syrian Television Drama & Mediating the Uprising: Narratives of Gender and Marriage in Syrian Television Drama by Rebecca Joubin
Nazih Abu Nidal
Ghassan al-Jaba'i
Maher Arrar
'Anticipating' the 2011 Arab Uprisings: Revolutionary Literatures and Political Geographies by Rita Sakr

Recommended Books:

The Shell by Mustafa Khalifa
A Dove in Free Flight by Faraj Bayrakdar
Forced Passages by Dylan Rodríguez