Live with ASI: Episode 1 Digest – September 2020

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Sep 12, 2020
Live with ASI: Episode 1 Digest – September 2020

Live with ASI: Episode 1 Digest – September 2020

By : Jadaliyya Co-Editors

Live with ASI, hosted by MK Smith and Bassam Haddad, is a new monthly broadcast program that showcases recently published content from the Arab Studies Institute’s numerous branches. This content includes articles, reviews, pedagogical resources, podcasts, and more. Also featured in the broadcast are brand new interviews and discussions with various authors and contributors.

All of the materials mentioned in the Live with ASI broadcast are listed here, categorized by their themes. Also listed are additional recent materials we highly recommend. Pieces that are relevant to multiple themes are listed under each applicable theme below. 

Watch the broadcasts!

Part A – 8 September 2020


 

00:00 Content on COVID-19

03:43 Bassam Haddad interviews Robert Vitalis on Oilcraft 

10:10 Content on Lebanon, Carly Krakow interviews Mona Harb

20:38 Status Podcast & Syria Content 

26:45 Content on The Maghreb 

34:05 Content on Palestine, Carly Krakow interviews Beshara Doumani 

46:00 Closing Words & Production Team

Part B – 10 September 2020 

00:00 Introduction 

01:10 Content on Egypt 

02:18 Content on Iran 

06:04 Roundtable on “Is Abolition Global?” with Arash Davari, Golnar Nikpour, Naveed Mansouri, and Omid Tofighia 

20:46 Arabic Content Overview with Sinan Antoon

23:56 Pedagogy Content Overview with Mekarem Eljamel 

30:11 Content on Turkey 

33:01 Pedagogy and Secondary Education Module with Susan Douglass

35:53 Internship Opportunities and Closing Words

Read, watch, and listen to content featured in the broadcasts!

Part A – 8 September 2020

COVID-19


Jadaliyya’s new Environment Page has produced content discussing how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the region. Engaging both contemporary and historical perspectives, these pieces offer critical analyses of the relationship between the pandemic, public health, and environmental justice. Also listed are other recent Jadaliyya pieces on the pandemic, including a bouquet on COVID-19 and social mobilization.  


Lebanon


The August 4th explosion in Beirut left the city devastated, and many are still trying to make sense of the catastrophe. In several Jadaliyya pieces and events, our Lebanon experts have grappled with the latest developments. They address the role of Lebanon’s political class in the crisis, relief efforts, how the explosion affected Beirut's urban landscape, unanswered questions about the cause of the explosion, and much more. Also included are two NEWTON (New Texts Out Now) pieces. Watch the episode to hear from Mona Harb! Dr. Harb discusses her Quick Thoughts piece on the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, in conversation with Carly Krakow. 


Status/الوضع


Our Audio-Visual Magazine, Status/الوضع, launched a new podcast series with Jadaliyya’s Environment Page titled “Environment in Context,” and two recent episodes are listed here. Also listed is a Status/الوضع episode on the relationship between gender and Islamic studies, an interview with Ziad Abu-Rish on the Beirut explosion, and an episode on political prisoners and proletarian feminism. 


Syria


Though Syria appears less and less in the news, ASI has continued to keep track and analyze developments there. Most recently, ASI has produced content that reflects on the last two decades of Bashar al-Asad’s rule, summarizes latest developments, and calls for revitalizing an ongoing conversation in the context of these developments. 


Maghreb


Jadaliyya’s new Photography and Audio-Visual Narratives Page, and the Arab Studies Journal, have published several pieces on the Maghreb, ranging from Algerian history and film, to the Moroccan Green March, to post-Qaddafi Libya.


Palestine


ASI’s team grappled with new developments in Palestine and Palestinian Studies, analyzing the implications of Israel’s intended formal annexation of the West Bank, Israel’s extrajudicial killing of Ahmad Erakat, as well as the more hopeful news regarding the creation of the first endowed chair for Palestinian Studies in the US. Also listed are collections of materials regarding Palestinian history and politics. Watch the episode to hear from Beshara Doumani! Dr. Doumani discusses the Mahmoud Darwish Chair in Palestinian Studies, in conversation with Carly Krakow. 


Independent Content


Robert Vitalis’s new book, Oilcraft, takes on conventional beliefs on oil, and offers a corrective analysis that dispels predominant mystifications in economic, military, and diplomatic policy. By exposing suspect fears of oil scarcity and conflict, Vitalis investigates the geopolitical repercussions of those false beliefs. Watch the episode to hear from Robert Vitalis! Dr. Vitalis discusses Oilcraft in conversation with Bassam Haddad. 


 

Part B – 10 September 2020

Peadagogy


ASI’s Middle East Studies Pedagogy Initiative, or MESPI, is an educational resource that curates and collects Middle East studies material for both educators and students of a variety of levels. Listed here are MESPI’s initiatives and recent publications. Watch the episode to hear more about MESPI’s work!


Egypt


Recent materials published include a New Texts Out Now (NEWTON) piece regarding the issues of market-based development, as well as an Essential Readings collection on the Left’s history in Egypt.

Iran


Jadaliyya’s Iran Page published material addressing the history behind the translation of Frantz Fanon’s work into Persian. Other recent publications include a review for a new book addressing the development of Iranian pop music in Southern California, and a roundtable conversation on Iranian prison politics. Also listed are materials on socialism, communism, and feminism in Iran. Watch the episode to hear from the authors of the “Is Abolition Global?” roundtable! 

Turkey


Jadaliyya’s Turkey Page addressed the question of populism in the recent move to reconvert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Other recent publications include a piece on the implications of recent campaigns to address femicide in Turkey. Below you will also find two New Texts Out Now (NEWTON) pieces on masculinity, disability, and political violence in Turkey; and on urban activism, coup d'état, and memory. 

Independent Materials

Call for Interns


ASI is looking for candidates who are self-motivated, prone to collaborative efforts, and eager to develop their skills in a variety of respects. Despite specialization in particular areas, ASI interns will be trained to develop various sets of skills (including writing, typesetting, editing, networking, managing, and/or administrating), especially if they remain on board for more than one term.

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Internships involve a ten- to fifteen-hour weekly commitment, mostly via cyberspace. The location of applicants need not be in Washington DC in most cases. Inquiries may be sent to info@ArabStudiesInstitute.org.

For more information on ASI’s branches and positions available, go to our website.

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Tadween Editors By :
Tadween Editors

Education in the Time of Virality

Widespread access to the internet has facilitated means of acquiring news and information at rates unseen in earlier eras. As individuals, we have the ability to post and spread political information, social commentary, and other thoughts at will. This has caused an information overload for users of social networking sites. In a fight for views, reposts, and clicks, creators, both corporate and not, have been forced to develop new tactics to inform their audiences. This response to a new mode of information consumption also forces a reconsideration of how we understand knowledge production. Much of the information put forth into the world is absorbed passively, such as through characters’ storylines in books, films, and television - and this information accumulates over a lifetime. What, then, happens when knowledge is actively consumed (as is done when reading, watching, or listening to news stories), but the manner through which the information is presented still conforms to the brevity generally associated with more passive knowledge intake?

Pew Research estimates that over 70% of Americans use their phone to read the news. This is nearly a 25% increase since 2013. The constant barrage of advertisements in online articles does not make consuming news easy to do on a phone, thereby forcing media outlets and their competitors to change and adopt new tactics. Applications such as Flipboard have tried to mitigate these frustrations by simply providing the full article without the ads on their own platform, but many people still turn to sources like The Skimm. In attempting to distill a day’s worth of news coverage on domestic affairs, foreign affairs, pop culture, and sports into a few quips, undeniably both texture and nuance are lost. To compete with these services, CNN, the New York Times, and other mainstream news sources are doing the same and producing articles that give the, “Top 5 News Moments to Start Your Day,” or a, “Daily Brief.” Of course, looking at the language differences between the New York Times daily summary versus The Skimm’s, one can tell which is a more comprehensive news source. Even so, slashing the word count still takes a toll on clearly informing the public. The question then becomes, after quickly skimming through these summaries, are people doing more readings to cover what was lost? Or has “the brief” become the new standard for knowledge production and awareness?

It is more than likely that a significant portion of The Skimm’s subscribers do go on to read the full article linked in the email, but the growing popularity of similarly quick and fast news sources has had an impact on how much information viewers and readers actually understand. Between 2011 and 2014, The Skimm was founded, along with AJ+, Now This, Upworthy, and BuzzFeed News’ more serious journalism section. Undeniably, all of these sources produce and publish very important information, and make this information accessible to a larger audience. However, their production and marketing strategies hinge upon condensing very nuanced topics into videos that are, on average, only seven minutes long, as well as optimizing their materials for social media audiences. Now, it is ridiculous to expect highly textured and complicated issues to be thoroughly represented in these videos or posts. Even research based texts do not touch upon all of the complexities of a topic. The problems arise when looking at how viewers perceive themselves and their level of knowledge after actively searching out the products of, for example, AJ+ and Buzzfeed, for information. Carefully refining their materials to fit the shortened attention span of people scrolling through Facebook, social media news organizations have found their niche audience. Their products provide a simple way to deliver information to those who want gather knowledge on the “hot topics of today,” but do not what to do the leg work to be truly informed. These videos are spread throughout Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms in a manner that says, “Watch this, and you will know what is going on in the world.”

Understanding how information is being pushed out into the world is almost as important as the content of the information. None of these outlets claim to provide comprehensive knowledge, but in being popular sites for information, the question becomes: do they have a responsibility to encourage their viewers to continue to inform themselves about these issues? Having a well-informed society is phenomenal, but if in informing society we are also forever altering how we consume knowledge to favor brevity over nuance, what consequences could come with this change? We must ensure that the consumption of these videos does not become a license for people to see themselves as truly informed and thus appropriate for them to take the microphones at protests and speak over those who have a solid and textured understanding of the issues. Information content is incredibly important, as is spreading knowledge, and AJ+, Now This, and the like have become important role models in showing how issues should be accessible to everyone and not clouted in jargon. But we must simultaneously consider the unintended side effects that these styles of videos have on knowledge production. Ultimately, it is a mutual effort. Just as producers must be watchful of their content and method of dissemination, we as consumers must be mindful of how we digest and understand the news we take in.


[This article was published originally Tadween`s Al-Diwan blog by Diwan`s editor, Mekarem Eljamal.]