Hannah Lucinda Smith on “Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers” (Profile Books).
The book is based on vivid reporting from Eastern Europe, the East Mediterranean and the Caucasus, as places like Kosovo, Bosnia, Karabakh, Transnistria and Cyprus become geopolitical hotspots with ambitious revisionist powers like Russia and Turkey looki ... Show More
May 12
Brett Wilson on the myth and reality of modern Turkey's religious reforms
Brett Wilson on his article "Sufi Leaders in the early Turkish Republic: Profession, Privilege, and Persecution (1925-1950)". The piece studies the impact of the 1925 outlawing of Islamic religious orders, challenging the traditional idea of harsh secularist persecution. Please s ... Show More
39m 56s
Mar 2025
Turmoil in Turkey: the people vs Erdogan
<p>The arrest and jailing of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, Turkey’s main political challenger to President Erdogan, has sent shockwaves across the country. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest his detention and express growing concerns over Turkey's shift ... Show More
32m 34s
Jul 2024
Introducing LEPHT HAND: Examining Georges Bataille's "The Psychological Structure of Fascism" (Part 1)
In this inaugural episode of LEPHT HAND, we delve into Georges Bataille's seminal essay, "The Psychological Structure of Fascism." We explore Bataille's analysis of the social and psychological dynamics underpinning fascist regimes. Key concepts discussed include: Marxism, anarch ... Show More
58m 10s
Aug 2025
Lucia Sorbera, "Biography of a Revolution: The Feminist Roots of Human Rights in Egypt" (U of California Press, 2025)
It is not Egypt's 2011 revolution that opened a space for women's and feminist activism, but—as Biography of a Revolution: The Feminist Roots of Human Rights in Egypt (U of California Press, 2025) shows—the long history of women's activism that created the intellectual and politi ... Show More
43m 18s
Sep 2019
Charlie Laderman, "Sharing the Burden: The Armenian Question, Humanitarian Intervention, and Anglo-American Visions of Global Order" (Oxford UP, 2019)
In Sharing the Burden: The Armenian Question, Humanitarian Intervention, and Anglo-American Visions of Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2019), Charlie Laderman exposes the way that imperial ambitions suffused the ideas and practices of turn-of-century humanitarian intervent ... Show More
1h 12m
Aug 2023
EP 28 - Sharan Grewal: Soldiers of Democracy? Military Legacies and the Arab Spring
<p>Dr. Sharan Grewal is an Assistant Professor of Government at the College of William & Mary, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy. </p>
<p><br>In episode 28 of Tahrir Podcast, we discussed ... Show More
34m 5s