Middle East Studies Program

At a moment when US progressive politics have been reshaped by movements such as Black Lives Matter, End Asian Hate, and LGBTQ+ rights activism, Karam Dana argues that new understandings of equity and inclusion have expanded the space in which Palestinian narratives can be heard. Yet he also highlights the limits of this shift, pointing to the persistence of “progressive except for Palestine” dynamics, where even within broadly progressive intellectual and activist circles, the full recognition of Palestinian humanity remains contested and uneven.

Find out more in Episode 11 of Middle East Talks with Karam Dana.

Listen now on…

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/eg/podcast/middle-east-talks/id1822931558?i=1000746006730

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WwhEPQCiCKrEDE7WKdS1U?si=OJ3gl5N1R_6Opb-uOesjQw

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/bevAVDFAZGanrQkOlw

At a moment when social media platforms are widely imagined as open spaces for political expression, Karam Dana highlights how platform ownership, institutional values, and algorithmic governance shape what is amplified or suppressed online. While certain Palestinian narratives face practices such as shadow banning and reduced visibility, he argues that these mechanisms have not contained their circulation; instead, the question of Palestine has increasingly entered mainstream political discourse in the United States, reshaping public debate despite ongoing attempts at control.

Find out more in Episode 11 of Middle East Talks with Karam Dana.

Listen now on…

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/eg/podcast/middle-east-talks/id1822931558?i=1000746006730

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WwhEPQCiCKrEDE7WKdS1U?si=OJ3gl5N1R_6Opb-uOesjQw

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/bevAVDFAZGanrQkOlw

In episode 11, Karam Dana reflects on how pro-Palestinian narratives in the United States operate within a political and cultural environment shaped by long-standing media gatekeeping, ideological framing, and cultural affinity toward Israel. He explains how these narratives must “work against the grain” of dominant discourses that have historically marginalized and often demonized Palestinian perspectives, and argues that such representations are embedded within broader structures of meaning in which Israel is often aligned with core elements of the American national story, making Palestinian counter-narratives structurally difficult to advance.

Find out more in Episode 11 of Middle East Talks with Karam Dana.

Listen now on…

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/eg/podcast/middle-east-talks/id1822931558?i=1000746006730

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WwhEPQCiCKrEDE7WKdS1U?si=OJ3gl5N1R_6Opb-uOesjQw

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/bevAVDFAZGanrQkOlw

Francesca Biancani reflects on how the history of s*x work in colonial Egypt can be reconstructed through fragmented and heavily mediated archival sources such as court and police records. She explains the methodological challenge of “working against the grain” to recover glimpses of the lives of women navigating migration, urban poverty, and colonial regulation, while also cautioning against overly expansive interpretations of “agency” that ignore the structural constraints of survival.

Find out more in Episode 10 of Middle East Talks with Francesca Biancani.

Listen now on...

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/kzOXSn4L8uEvaj0zuj

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1-e10-s*x-work-in-colonial-egypt-with-francesca-biancani/id1822931558?i=1000742752611

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/39pYXYXBY9JWUtqWXgdqwF?si=9631de2d58574f69

*xwork

Merely six weeks after occupying Egypt in 1882, British authorities introduced the first law regulating s*x work in the country. Francesca Biancani argues that this was not simply a matter of public morality, but a colonial strategy of governance that reflected broader concerns about public health, social order, migration, and imperial control. The resulting system exposed the contradictions of empire: while Britain was moving away from regulated prostitution at home, it continued to enforce it across its colonies.

Find out more in Episode 10 of Middle East Talks with Francesca Biancani.

Listen now on...

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/kzOXSn4L8uEvaj0zuj

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1-e10-s*x-work-in-colonial-egypt-with-francesca-biancani/id1822931558?i=1000742752611

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/39pYXYXBY9JWUtqWXgdqwF?si=9631de2d58574f69

*xwork

In the late 19th century, following the opening of the Suez Canal and increasing Mediterranean migration, Egypt experienced a major influx of people from southern Europe and across the region. In this episode Francesca Biancani explains that many s*x workers in Cairo and Alexandria at the time were migrants, and that prostitution became deeply entangled with urban growth, global economic change, and shifting imperial hierarchies. In the eyes of colonial authorities, however, this visibility was less about numbers than about what it revealed and disrupted within the racial and social order of empire.

Find out more in Episode 10 of Middle East Talks with Francesca Biancani.

Listen now on...

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/kzOXSn4L8uEvaj0zuj

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1-e10-s*x-work-in-colonial-egypt-with-francesca-biancani/id1822931558?i=1000742752611

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/39pYXYXBY9JWUtqWXgdqwF?si=9631de2d58574f69

*xwork

Following the Nakba, Qudsiyya Khurshid continued to play an active role in civic and community life in the United States. Reflecting on her activities in Pennsylvania during the 1950s, Andrea Stanton suggests that her story offers a window onto early forms of Palestine-centered advocacy that challenged prevailing American understandings of Palestine, Arabs, and Muslims while remaining rooted in the institutions and networks of middle-class civic engagement.

Find out more in Episode 9 of Middle East Talks with Andrea Stanton.

Listen now on...

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45XavHPUEyGQG7p3QHdQ7f?si=361b6b73ef164711

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/E7ucObmp4hQLwCdWdZ

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1e9-recovering-palestinian-lives-with-andrea-stanton/id1822931558?i=1000741966728

At a moment when radio was widely imagined by colonial officials as a powerful tool of political persuasion, British authorities in Mandate Palestine closely regulated what could be broadcast on the Palestine Broadcasting Service. Political and religious content was tightly controlled, and even in the case of scripts associated with Qudsiyya Khurshid, Stanton notes that censor stamps marked materials as “approved for broadcasting,” revealing how radio operated within a wider system of oversight and constraint.

Find out more in Episode 9 of Middle East Talks with Andrea Stanton.

Listen now on...

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45XavHPUEyGQG7p3QHdQ7f?si=361b6b73ef164711

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/E7ucObmp4hQLwCdWdZ

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1e9-recovering-palestinian-lives-with-andrea-stanton/id1822931558?i=1000741966728

In this episode of Middle East Talks, Andrea Stanton reflects on Qudsiyya Khurshid’s life as part of the first generation of Palestinian broadcasters at the Palestine Broadcasting Service after its launch in 1936, and what her trajectory reveals about gender, media, and intellectual life in Mandate-era Palestine. Stanton discusses how women’s participation in intellectual circles at the time was neither unprecedented nor fully normalized, capturing a space in between visibility and exception.

Find out more in Episode 9 of Middle East Talks with Andrea Stanton.

Listen now on...

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45XavHPUEyGQG7p3QHdQ7f?si=361b6b73ef164711

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/E7ucObmp4hQLwCdWdZ

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1e9-recovering-palestinian-lives-with-andrea-stanton/id1822931558?i=1000741966728

The message isn't always in what's said. Sometimes it's in the performance itself.

In this episode, Sonali Pahwa discusses how social media creators in Dubai use comedy to express forms of belonging that remain politically and legally unresolved. While avoiding overt discussions of politics, religion, or s*xuality, their content quietly challenges conventional ideas about citizenship, national identity, and who gets to call a place home.

Find out more in Episode 8 of Middle East Talks.

Listen on...

SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/zzRhqcaImqO4sMLXKt

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4AVXjgUk4rpcUT4gpjk8c8?si=91fdadcc38654075

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1-e8-social-media-and-the-politics-of-ironic/id1822931558?i=1000740976100