The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective

About The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective

The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC) is a group of scholars committed to challenging US-led imperialism and supporting liberation movements of the Global Majority through critical knowledge production and international solidarity.

Publisher

Anti-Imperialist Scholar Collective

Category

education · news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Oct 2025

Latest episode

4 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

36 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   4 Sept 2026

   Art, Anti-Imperialist Resistance & the Coloniality of Western Left Solidarity w/ susan abulhawa

   This Friday, Sept. 4, at 3pm, join our livestream with Palestinian writer and activist susan abulhawa in conversation with AISC member Corinna Mullin. The discussion will explore the role of art in resistance, the ongoing struggle for Palestinian national liberation in the face of zionist-imperialist genocide, the coloniality of Western "left" solidarity, and the repression of Palestine solidarity in the belly of the beast—including recent attacks on abulhawa by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other zionist organizations engaged in a witchhunt following announcements by Simon & Schuster subsidaries to republish her backlist. The conversation will cover abulhawa's oeuvre—including her debut novel Mornings in Jenin (2010), which has been translated into thirty languages, sold over a million copies worldwide, and is considered a classic in Palestinian literature. Her other works include The Blue Between Sky and Water (2015) and Against the Loveless World (2020), an Aspen Words Literary Prize and Atheneum Prize finalist and winner of the Arab American Book Award and the Palestine Book Award. She is also the editor of the incredibly moving collection Every Moment Is a Life: Gaza in the Time of Genocide (2026), featuring firsthand essays from 18 young Palestinian writers enduring the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children's organization dedicated to uplifting Palestinian children. The discussion will also address the recent counterinsurgent Guardian letter—a document that abulhawa describes as creating a "wholly unfair representation of what is in reality a profound asymmetry of power" by equating a besieged Iran with the imperialist powers attacking it. As abulhawa insists: "Iran owes no one an explanation. The Islamic Republic is the last bastion of true anti-imperial resistance, and the whole world is rooting for them." The conversation will further draw on her recent Mondoweiss piece examining the politics of translation and solidarity surrounding Sally Rooney's work in Hebrew translation. As part of the background for this discussion, we urge everyone to read the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective's response to The Guardian letter, which condemned the document for creating a "false and dangerous equivalence" and providing "ideological cover for the intensification of the ongoing war against Iran." Links: https://www.presstv.co.uk/Detail/2026/08/24/774969/iran-is-last-bastion-true-anti-imperial-resistance-owes-no-one-explanation-writer https://mondoweiss.net/2026/05/on-972-magazine-sally-rooney-and-the-centering-of-israelis-in-an-anti-colonial-movement/ https://www.anti-imperialists.com/statements/dc121068-bd7d-4408-8a5f-c23c8f70e4d1/ Watch the video edition on the AISC YouTube channel https://youtube.com/live/eXMqOz58cEo Follow AISC X (@penandmachete) Instagram (@penandmachete) Visit our website to join the newsletter and find our blog, The Pen is My Machete. (https://www.anti-imperialists.com/magazine) Donations to the producer of this show, Sina Rahmani, are welcome at www.patreon.com/east_podcast

2. 

   3 Sept 2026

   Imperialism on the Korean Peninsula

   On this episode, Ju-Hyun Park (Nodutdol) and Christine Hong (Korea Policy Institute and author of A Violent Peace:  Race, U.S. Militarism, and Cultures of Democratization in Cold War Asia and the Pacific) join AISC members Betsy Yoon (Nodutdol) and Nina Farnia to talk about the recent Jaju Solidarity Brigade to South Korea, organized by Nodutdol with participation from dozens of anti-imperialist organizations. The brigade visited cities and villages impacted by US militarism and built solidarity with organizers on the frontlines of Korea's ongoing struggle for national liberation at a time when the US is readying the Pacific for war against China, with South Korea as a lynchpin in the US military strategy in the region. South Korea hosts the third largest overseas presence of the US military, with 80 US military installations and bases, 28,500 troops, and the largest overseas base in the world hosted in Pyeongtaek. Dangerous US-ROK joint military exercises which began in 1955, are now conducted annually with such regularity that it has become a part of everyday life. As the US drive towards the Pacific War ramps up, people-to-people exchanges and solidarity across movements are needed now more than ever. The Jaju Solidarity Brigade is part of this broader effort to bridge international struggles and to bring back lessons from our homeland to fortify our fight here. Link to Christine Hong's book: A Violent Peace:  Race, U.S. Militarism, and Cultures of Democratization in Cold War Asia and the Pacific https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/violent-peace Watch the video edition on the AISC YouTube channel https://youtube.com/live/nF2cTriHIq0 Follow AISC X (@penandmachete) Instagram (@penandmachete) Visit our website to join the newsletter and find our blog, The Pen is My Machete. (https://www.anti-imperialists.com/magazine) Donations to the producer of this show, Sina Rahmani, are welcome at www.patreon.com/east_podcast

3. 

   2 Sept 2026

   The Guardian Letter: AISC Responds

   The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC) strongly condemns "To Iran's political prisoners, trapped 'between two blades of a scissors'," the open letter published on 20 August 2026 in The Guardian and signed by Western academics and cultural workers in the imperialist core. The letter distorts history, obfuscates the current geopolitical conjuncture, and provides ideological cover for the intensification of the ongoing war against Iran.[1] Similar to accusations against the Palestinian resistance that equate the zionist genocide to resistance-to-genocide, the letter creates a false and dangerous equivalence between the defensive actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the aggressions of the United States and Israel, the most powerful and genocidal imperialist forces in world history. The letter names multiple historical events without analysis, context, or citations. The absence of Iran's resistance to the century-long genocide of the Palestinian people is deeply troubling. Additionally, the letter does not address the past century of imperialist intervention, during which Europe, the United States and most recently, Israel, have undermined Iranian and Arab sovereignty through coup attempts, kinetic wars, mercenaries, information warfare, sanctions, economic violence, and sabotage. Instead of addressing this execrable record, the authors offer a vague reference to "the anniversary of the 1988 mass executions in Iran" and a deracinated acknowledgement of the 1953 US-backed coup. As US imperialism accelerates and the resistance against it strengthens, the battle of ideas continues to intensify. This is the time when the responsibility of the anti-imperialist intellectual is to be rigorous and vigilant. We therefore find it necessary to name the stakes and clarify the distortions and obfuscations in the Guardian letter. The claims must be challenged and the motivations for its publication unearthed, especially because, as of the writing of this response, the letter's authors remain obscured, the social media page that originally posted the letter is erased, while imperialist war drums continue apace. What follows is AISC's initial response to this alarming, pro-imperialist document." Watch the video edition on the AISC YouTube channel https://youtube.com/live/nF2cTriHIq0 Follow AISC X (@penandmachete) Instagram (@penandmachete) Visit our website to join the newsletter and find our blog, The Pen is My Machete. (https://www.anti-imperialists.com/magazine) Donations to the producer of this show, Sina Rahmani, are welcome at www.patreon.com/east_podcast

Contact The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.