Recent Publications

Prepared with assistance from Aisha Jitan, Reilly Polka, and Bilal Shafi Sheikh

EGYPT

Modern Egypt: What Everyone Needs to Know, by Bruce K. Rutherford and Jeannie L. Sowers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 208 pages. $74. Bruce Rutherford and Jeannie Sowers draw on their own experiences as researchers in Egypt, and those of their colleagues who participated in its 2011 uprising, to craft a thorough introduction for readers unfamiliar with the country and its importance in the region. The book begins with an in-depth look at the causes and effects of the 2011 uprising and the role of the military and internal security services. The following chapters discuss central political figures in Egypt's history, from Gamal 'Abd al-Nasser to 'Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, setting the stage to discuss the systemic structural flaws that plague Egyptian society: from human development, poverty, and unemployment to environmental concerns like resource scarcity and pollution. Rutherford and Sowers build a complete overview of recent Egyptian history and give the reader context to the important role the country plays in peacebuilding in the region. (RP)

The Stillborn: Notebooks of a Woman from the Student-Movement Generation in Egypt, Arwa Salih, translated by Samah Selim. New York: Seagull Books, 2018. 168 pages. $25. First published just months after her 1997 suicide, al-Mubtasarun—translated by Samah Selim as The Stillborn—is a personal account of Arwa Salih's experiences during the 1972–73 student protests in Egypt. Salih broadens her focus to discuss what she calls the aborted ambition of her generation, analyzing the downfall of the socialist left in Egypt through a feminist frame. (RP)

IRAN

Whisper Tapes: Kate Millett in Iran, by Negar Mottahedeh. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019. 224 Pages. $14. A professor of literature at Duke University, Negar Mottahedeh contextualizes the work and primary sources of American researcher Katie Millett while offering a fresh perspective on the women's movement in the Iranian Revolution. By embedding her analysis in responsible histories of Iran and its place on the international stage, Mottahedeh masterfully deconstructs the biases of American feminism and how they have influenced Millett's understanding of the experiences of Iranian women in a postrevolutionary society. Lyrical in style and poetic in meaning, Whisper Tapes challenges readers to adopt an intersectional view of Iranian feminist movements while adding layers and dimensionality to Millett's preexisting literature. (AJ)

SYRIA

Different Perspectives on the Syrian Reality: Research in the Diverse Fields of Syrian Culture, by Ettijahat-Independent Culture. Stuttgart, Germany: ibidem Press, 2018. 240 pages. $35. This collection of four research papers by writers from the Syrian cultural organization Ettijahat covers different aspects of culture and art as they relate to the current Syrian conflict. The papers include an analysis of social structures and gender constructs in a Lebanese refugee camp, a study of trends in political stereotypes since 2011, a look at the way violence has historically been interpreted in Syrian art via the human body, and a sociological study of children and child recruitment under the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham. (RP)

TURKEY

Your Freedom and Mine: Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish Question in Erdogan's Turkey, edited by Thomas Jeffrey Miley and Frederico Venturini, foreward by Dilar Dirik. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 2018. 407 pages. $32.99. This anthology offers insights on Turkey's "Kurdish question" from 25 contributors, including Iceland's former justice minister of justice, veteran war correspondent Jonathan Steele, and key leaders inside the Kurdish freedom movement. By combining different frameworks of analysis—such as historical survey, human rights reports, interviews, geopolitical analysis, and political philosophy—Your Freedom and Mine explores the political solution proposed by Kurdistan Workers Party leader Abdullah Öcalan to the interminable Turkish-Kurdish conflict, while using a multitude of sources to shed light on the systems of oppression and injustice faced by Kurds as the largest stateless population in the world. (BSS)

MODERN HISTORY AND POLITICS

Leaks, Hacks, and Scandals: Arab Culture in the Digital Age, by Tarek El-Ariss. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. 239 pages. $24.95. Dartmouth College associate professor of Middle Eastern Studies Tarek El-Ariss conceptualizes...