Episodes
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On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Jamie Allinson, Senior Lecturer in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh. Jamie is a scholar of politics and international relations with a particular interest in the contemporary Middle East. I am especially interested in how forms of political power - within, across and beyond borders - interact with people and movements originating in the realms more commonly thought of as 'society' and 'the economy.' He is the author of The Age of Counter-revolution: States and Revolutions in the Middle East and The Struggle for the State in Jordan: The Social Origins of Alliances in the Middle East.
On this episode, Simon and Jamie talk about politics, Thatcher, the Beano and the Dandy, Palestine, the transformation of Ramallah, Game Theory and Japan, Jordan, counter-revolutions and the Arab Uprisings, sovereignty and much more. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Abdolrasool Farzam Divsallar and Eyad Al Refai about the Saudi-Iran deal.
Eyad is a Fellow with SEPAD and a PhD Student at Lancaster University. He is the author of a number of articles and opinion pieces on regional security in the Middle East including on transforming the Saudi-Iranian rivalry (with Samira Nasirzadeh). He is on twitter at @eyadalrefaei.
Abdolrasool Divsallar is a visiting professor at the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, focusing on Iran’s military affairs, Russia-Iran relations, and Persian Gulf security architecture. He is also a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington. Dr. Divsallar co-founded and led the Regional Security Initiative at the European University Institute (EUI) from 2020-22. He is on twitter at @divsallar.
On this episode Simon, Farzam and Eyad talk about the deal and its impact on security and defence policies, how to transform relations, the nuclear question, the role of the US and China, Yemen, Syria and much more. -
Missing episodes?
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On this episode of SEPADPod - the first (that we are aware of) to bring Saudi and Iranian scholars together - Simon speaks with Banafsheh Keynoush and Aziz Alghashian about recent diplomatic developments between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Banafsheh is a scholar of international affairs who has conducted fieldwork in the Middle East for two decades, including in Saudi Arabia and Iran. She is the author of Saudi Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes? (Palgrave, 2016) and The World Powers and Iran: Before, During and After the Nuclear Deal (Palgrave, 2022). She is on twitter @banafshehkeynoush.
Aziz is a Saudi researcher who is fascinated with the elusively of Saudi foreign policy. He obtained a PhD from the University of Essex in 2019 where he taught International Relations, and Politics and Middle Eastern Studies for several years. He is on twitter @azizalghashian.
On this episode, Simon, Banafsheh and Aziz talk offer a critical reflection on the normalisation agreement, the drivers of the agreement, how it was received in both countries, the US role, and the importance of scholars and civil society actors in helping transform perceptions of the other. Truly not to be missed. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Youssef Cherif, Director of CGC Tunis and a political analyst who specializes in Maghreb affairs. A member of Carnegie's Civic Research Network, Youssef contributes to a number of think-tanks on Maghreb affairs. Youssef is a Researcher at Leiden University - Institute of Area Studies. He is on twitter at @Faiyla.
On this episode Simon and Youssef talk about Indiana Jones, classics, IR, studying the Maghreb/North Africa and why people don't, the MENA/SWANA/WA debate, recent developments across the Maghreb and much more. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Youssef Cherif, Director of CGC Tunis and a political analyst who specializes in Maghreb affairs. A member of Carnegie's Civic Research Network, Youssef contributes to a number of think-tanks on Maghreb affairs. Youssef is a Researcher at Leiden University - Institute of Area Studies. He is on twitter at @Faiyla.
On this episode Simon and Youssef talk about Indiana Jones, classics, IR, studying the Maghreb/North Africa and why people don't, the MENA/SWANA/WA debate, recent developments across the Maghreb and much more. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Maya Mikdashi, an interdisciplinary scholar of the state at Rutgers University. Maya is the author of the wonderful Sectarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon, published by Stanford University Press. She is the co-founder of Jadaliyya and the director of About Baghdad (2004) and Notes on the War (2006) , a feature length documentary film on the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, and others. You can find her on twitter @mayamikdashi.
On this episode, Simon and Maya talk about becoming interested in the state and the politics of difference, travelling to Baghdad, filming documentaries, the importance of human experience, anthropology and political science, sectarianism and sex, sectarianism and the state, the process of ‘un-seeing’, Jadaliyya, trust, and much more! -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Ibrahim Halawi and Ruba Ali Al-Hassani about their recent report Desectarianization and the End of Sectarianism? Funded by The Henry Luce Foundation the report looks at desectarianization in Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain.
In the discussion, Simon, Ibrahim and Ruba reflect on desectarianization as 're-imagining', sectarianism and episteme, bottom up and top down processes, and the role of violence.
The full report is available here: https://www.sepad.org.uk/report/desectarianization-and-the-end-of-sectarianism -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Edward Wastnidge, Deputy Director of SEPAD and Senior Lecturer at the Open University about SEPAD's activities across 2022 and into 2023. Picking out some of their memorable moments from the year, Simon and Eddie reflect on the conference, various reports, the successes of our Fellows and some things to look out for in 2023.
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n this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Gabriel Garroum, Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Researcher at abriel is an interdisciplinary researcher specialized in International Relations and Middle East Politics. Born into a Syrian-Catalan family, his main research areas include political violence, critical IR theory, contemporary security issues, and critical geopolitics. He is also a member of the Research Centre in International Relations (King's College London) and co-director of "Això era casa meva/This Was My Home "(2019), a documentary on the Syrian civil war premiered at the British Film Institute. You can find him on twitter @gabrielgarroum
On this episode Simon and Gabriel talk about political identities, double minorities, political subjectivities, affect, sovereign power, Aleppo, urban politics, modernity and much, much more. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Maria Kastrinou, Lecturer in (Social) Anthropology at Brunel University. Maria's research focuses on sectarian politics and national belonging, religion, state, conflict and energy in the Middle East and South-Eastern Mediterranean. She is the author of Power, sect and state in Syria: The politics of marriage and identity amongst the Druze (IB Tauris, 2016).
On this episode, Simon and Maria talk about activism and politics, the importance of people, Palestinians, Druze, Syria, statelessness and much more. -
On this episode, Simon speaks with Javier Guirado, PhD candidate at Georgia State University, a Visiting Doctoral Researcher at the Orient-Institut Beirut, and a SEPAD Fellow. His work explores the historically changing relation between society, urban space, and narratives of modernity in the Gulf. He is writing his dissertation about social movements and urbanization in Qatar during the Long Sixties.
Javier is a the editor of a new report on the political economy of infrastructure in the Middle East which can be accessed here: https://www.sepad.org.uk/files/documents/infrastructure_sepad-compressed.pdf
On this episode, Simon and Javier discuss the report at length, the importance of infrastructure and the need for an approach that focusses on the social components of infrastructural projects. -
On this episode of SEPADDiscusses, Simon speaks with Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Vincent Durac and Azal Alsalafi about Stacey's wonderful new book Yemen in the Shadow of Transition: Pursuing Justice Amid War. Over the course of the discussion, Stacey sets out the main argument of the book while Vincent and Azal reflect on the many strengths of the text. This is not to be missed.
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On this episode of SEPADPod, Simon speaks with Mariam Mabrouk, an Egyptian artist and former Lancaster University student, who is acting as our first ‘artist in residence’. Mariam has produced some amazing pieces of art for forthcoming SEPAD publications and you can see her work on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/studiomabrouk/
On this episode Simon and Mariam talk about artistic influences, the importance of urban environments, the 2011 uprisings in Egypt, Mariam's work 'hanged' (https://www.instagram.com/p/BtfrCkEg966/) and her new piece 'entangled', which is on the cover of Simon's new book. This is a little bit different, but a fascinating conversation! -
On this episode of SEPADPod with Jillian Schwedler, Professor of Political Science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Jillian is the author of a huge number of books, articles, opinion pieces and more. She is on twitter @DrJSchwedler.
On this episode Simon and Jillian talk about Broadway, travelling across the Middle East as a student, working with Augustus Richard Norton, civil society, Jordan, Yemen and Jillian's wonderful new book protesting Jordan. During this conversation Simon and Jillian reflect on the importance of space and spatial approaches to the study of the Middle East. This is not to be missed. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Ali Bakir, assistant professor at Qatar University’s Ibn Khaldon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences and nonresident senior fellow with the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs. Ali has extensive experience of working within the foreign policy and security realms, consulting with senior officials, decisionmakers, and stakeholders for governmental, nongovernmental, and private-sector institutions. He is on twitter @alibakeer.
On this episode, Simon and Ali talk about Ali’s childhood across the region, fusing the academic and the personal, the evolution of Turkish foreign policy, Turkish-Russian relations, the importance of an Islamic approach to IR theory and much more. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Jannis Grimm, head the Research Group Radical Spaces at the INTERACT Center for Interdisciplinary Peace and Conflict Research at Freie Universität Berlin. Jannis' work centres on political violence and state repression in the Middle East and North Africa as well as on processes of mass mobilization and regime contestation from below. He is the author of Contested Legitimacies: Repression and Revolt in Post-Revolutionary Egypt (University of Amsterdam Press, 2022) which is open access here: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/52656.
On this episode, Simon and Jannis talk about being in Egypt during the Arab Uprisings, the ensuing coup, studying social movements and authoritarianism, legitimacy, meaning making, interdisciplinary and much more. -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Sharri Plonski, Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Queen Mary University of London. Her work, which is anchored in the political terrain of Palestine and the Israeli state, focuses on the materiality (and mobility) of colonial relations and the struggles that reveal and challenge them. She also co-produces the podcast series ‘Surviving Society Presents: Material Crimes’ and she loves to tell stories – the current one she is working on is about a train.
She is on twitter @SharriPlonski.
On this episode, Simon and Sharri talk about the lives leading to a PhD, the amazing people Sharri studied with, anti-Zionism, the Palestinian cause, infrastructure, space, Doreen Massey, normalisation, the train to nowhere and so much more! -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Diana Galeeva, Non-Resident Fellow with Gulf International Forum. Diana was previously an Academic Visitor to St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford (2019-2022). She is the author of two books “Qatar: The Practice of Rented Power” (Routledge, 2022) and “Russia and the GCC: The Case of Tatarstan’s Paradiplomacy” (I.B. Tauris/ Bloomsbury, 2022). She is also a co-editor of the collection “Post-Brexit Europe and UK: Policy Challenges Towards Iran and the GCC States” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). You can find her on twitter at @diana_galeeva.
On this episode, Simon and Diana talk about a desire to study Qatar and the Gulf, hard/soft/smart/subtle power, Rented Power, Tatarstan, the 2022 World Cup, covid19, and Russian links to the Gulf. A wide ranging conversation not to be missed! -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon is joined by Edward Wastnidge, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at the Open University where he is also the Director for the International Studies programme. Eddie is the author of a range of publications on Iran and the Middle East and co-director of SEPAD.
On this episode, Simon and Eddie talk about their new edited volume with Manchester University Press titled 'Saudi Arabia and Iran: The Struggle to Shape the Middle East'. In a wide ranging conversation Simon and Eddie talk about relationships and rivalries, sectarianism and Islam, moving beyond proxy wars, the importance of time and space, the complexities and contingencies of political life across the Middle East, approaching the study of Saudi-Iranian relations and much more! -
On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Anoush Ehteshami, Professor of International Relations in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University. Anoush is also the Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Chair in International Relations and Director of the HH Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah Programme in International Relations, Regional Politics and Security. Anoush is the author of myriad books, articles and chapters on Iran, international political economy, the Persian Gulf and more. He is on twitter @AnoushEhteshami.
On this episode Simon and Anoush talk about the evolution of Anoush's engagement with Iran, IPE and the Middle East. They focus on the motivating forces for Anoush's scholarship, his work with Ray Hinnebusch, his broader contribution to the field - and the huge number of successful PhD students he has supervised - and a burgeoning interest in China. This is not to be missed. - Show more
