Ajam Podcast #47: Towards An Environmental History of Modern Iran
In this episode, Belle interviews James Gustafson, Associate Professor of History at Indiana State University, about his new book, The Lion and the Sun: Environmental History and the Formation of Modern Iran (I.B. Tauris, 2025).
In The Lion and the Sun (and our podcast episode), Gustafson presents an overview of Iran’s environmental history from the Safavid Empire (1501-1722) to the rise of Reza Khan in the 1920s. Weaving together threads of local history alongside and within regional and global trajectories and environmental trends, he illustrates how the environment shaped histories of labor, revolution, and empire. He argues that the relationship between people and place that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries shapes what we know as Iran today.
3 Mar 2025
Ajam Podcast #46: Sufi Communities in Afghanistan
In this episode, Belle interviews Dr. Annika Schmeding, Senior Researcher at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and a Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), about her first book, Sufi Civilities: Religious Authority and Political Change in Afghanistan (Stanford University Press, 2023). In Sufi Civilities (and in our podcast episode), Schmeding examines how contemporary urban Sufi communities in Afghanistan deal with violence and transition. She addresses how threads from Afghanistan’s history shape the experiences and practices of Sufi communities in the present, particularly through ongoing poetic traditions, and she examines how they navigate tensions and ambiguities internally as well as amid the wider political and social context. Schmeding shows how Sufis in Afghanistan have adapted to political changes in recent decades, demonstrating resilience by creatively responding to and navigating historic shifts rather than remaining unchanged.
17 Nov 2024
Ajam Podcast #45: Toward a Relational Understanding of the Persian Gulf
In this episode, Belle interviews Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University, about his recent book, Making Space for the Gulf: Histories of Regionalism and the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2024). In Making Space for the Gulf (and in our podcast episode), Keshavarzian offers a relational understanding of the Persian Gulf that foregrounds the entangled histories of its shores, as well as the body of water itself.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
32 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 22 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
7
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
92
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