Radical Histories of the Middle East

26th May, 2016

EDITORIAL BOARD

Dr Abdel Razzaq Takriti, University of Houston

Dr Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, University of Manchester

Dr Mezna Qato, University of Cambridge

Dr Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, University of Exeter

Dr Omar Alshehabi, Gulf University of Science and Technology

This series commissions outstanding original monographs which set out to examine radical histories of the Middle East. It also offers a space for publishing radical interpretations of major events in the region’s modern history, viewing them from the prism of critical perspectives. In an intellectual climate often centred on the study of sectarian polarisation and primordial clashes within and between civilizations, the series endeavours to invigorate the study of the region’s popular struggles for social justice, national self-determination and anti-colonial liberation, telling their story in light of the latest scholarship and the highest academic standards.

The ‘radical’ has often been conflated with the Orientalist trope of the irrational “other.” This series reclaims the term, providing a forum for a critical interrogation of the worlds of Middle Eastern intellectuals, activists, and organisations, as well as the social, political and cultural movements and transformations that they created and shaped. Our geographic scope covers modernIran, Turkey, and the Arab world from the Gulf to the Atlantic. Our thematic range is also broad, and we welcome works that address the domination of imperial powers, incorporation into the global economy, and authoritarian retrenchments, casting light on the region’s active women and men which have often been understudied and erased from the historical record. The intention is to bring dispossessed and marginalised movements and narratives into the heart of historiographical contention and thus highlight the nature of local struggles and transnational solidarities, as well as provide space for comparisons beyond the region in the wider global South.

The editorial board also invites works which provide alternative perspectives and draw upon radical methodologies in a rigorous manner. We welcome submissions from scholars working in the areas of political, intellectual, and social history, historical sociology and anthropology, and in the fields of political economy and historical materialism, anti-colonialtheory, gender and queer theory, critical race studies, urbanism, and critical theory. Crucially, we aspire to introduce these challenging works to the broadest readership possible, both in academic circles and beyond.