On this episode of “Speaking Out of Place” we talk with eminent Middle East historian Joel Beinin on a range of topics that center on the fact that for some scholars, activism and scholarship are not only compatible—they are inextricably linked.Joel will talk about his time as a union organizer in Detriot, working in the automobile industry, and how his learning Arabic was facilitated by talking with Arab autoworkers. He then talks about his first book on labor movements in Egypt. We spend some time talking about the particular challenges of teaching about the Middle East at a place like Stanford, and the effects of its historical conservatism, and current neoliberal trajectory. We end by talking about advice we would give undergraduate and graduate students today. Joel Beinin is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University. His research and writing focus on the social and cultural history and political economy of modern Egypt, Palestine, and Israel, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.He received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1970, A.M. from Harvard University in 1974, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1982. He taught at Stanford from 1983 to 2019 with a hiatus as Director of Middle East Studies and Professor of History at the American University in Cairo in 2006-08. In 2002 he served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America.Beinin has written or edited twelve books, among them: A Critical Political Economy of the Modern Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2021); co-edited with Bassam Haddad and Sherene Seikaly; Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (Stanford University Press, 2016); Social Movements, Mobilization, and Contestation in the Middle East and North Africa, (Stanford University Press, 1st ed. 2011, 2nd ed. 2013); co-edited with Frédéric Vairel; Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954 (Princeton University Press, 1987), co-autho­red with Zachary Lockman; and Intifada: The Palestinian Uprising Against Israeli Occupation (South End Press, 1989) co-edited with Zachary Lockman.His articles have been published in leading scholarly journals as well as Jacobin, Democracy in Exile, Jewish Currents, +972 webzine, Carnegie Papers, The Nation, Le Monde Diplomatique, Middle East Report, Jadaliyya, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, and several blogs. Joel has been interviewed on Al-Jazeera TV, BBC radio, (US) National Public Radio, and many other TV and radio programs throughout the world as well by the global print media.His work has been translated into Arabic, Hebrew, French, and Turkish. 

In today's show I speak with Richard Falk about his recent autobiography—Public Intellectual:  The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim. Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University (1961-2001) and Chair of Global Law, Faculty of Law, Queen Mary University London. Since 2002 has been a Research Fellow at the Orfalea Center of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Between 2008 and 2014 he served as UN Special Rapporteur on Israeli Violations of Human Rights in Occupied Palestine.Falk has advocated and written widely about ‘nations’ that are captive within existing states, including Palestine, Kashmir, Western Sahara, Catalonia, Dombas.He is Senior Vice President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, having served for seven years as Chair of its Board. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. He is co-director of the Centre of Climate Crime, QMUL.Falk has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times since 2008.His recent books include (Re)Imagining Humane Global Governance (2014), Power Shift: The New Global Order (2016), Palestine Horizon: Toward a Just Peace (2017), Revisiting the Vietnam War (ed. Stefan Andersson, 2017), On Nuclear Weapons: Denuclearization, Demilitarization and Disarmament (ed. Stefan Andersson & Curt Dahlgren, 2019.Praise for his autobiography include:“This intimate and penetrating account of a remarkable life is rich in insights about topping ranging from the academic world to global affairs to prospects for livable society. A gripping story, with many lessons for a troubled world.”--Noam Chomsky“Richard Falk is one of the few great public intellectuals and citizen pilgrims who has preserved his integrity and consistency in our dark and deep content times period this wise and powerful memoir is a gift that bestows us with a tear-soaked truth and blood-stained hope.” --Cornel West “Richard Falk recounts a life well spent trying to bend the arc of international law toward global justice. A Don Quixote tilting nobly at real dragons. His culminating vision of a better and even livable future--a necessary utopia--evokes with urgent the slogan of Paris May 1968: ‘Be realistic: Demand the impossible’”--Daniel EllsbergWhile a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Falk wrote his prescient 1972 book, This Endangered Planet: Prospects and Proposals for Human Survival.    

Join the discussion with Liza Featherstone as they analyze political dynamics, addressing social issues like crime, homelessness, and labor. They critique Democrats' lack of care for workers, discuss youth voter engagement, and the importance of tackling climate change in the upcoming election.

Interviews with organizers, strikers, and faculty participating in the University of California strike, and their counterparts at the University and  College Union strike in the UK give us critical background information on both, talk with us from the front lines, and urge for global strikes for decent wages, strong pensions, and an education that teaches us how to work for a better world.  As you listen to these extended conversations, you will be learn how both strikes respond to precarious labor, casualization, wage discrimination against people of color, women, and people with disabilities, and the ballooning salaries of the administrative class, and how both university systems siphon money meant for education into real estate assets and other "fixes" for capital investment. You will the outraged, but also inspired. To contribute to the UC strikers, use PayPal:  feeducrgradstrikers@gmail.com

An in-depth interview with scholar, activist, and poet Dr. Persis Karim, director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University. Karim provides indispensable background information reaching back to 1979, explains the long history of gender apartheid in Iran and why today there has been an explosion of mass protests led by young women joined by tens of thousands of others, including rappers, educators, human rights workers, ethnic minorities, artists, children, and others. She also explains the tremendous gaps in Western media coverage and fills in missing information.  She ends with a reading from her own poetry, and a plea to link these protests to all protests against authoritarian regimes. Karim’s pioneering work in the emerging field of Iranian Diaspora Studies, primarily in literature, has helped to galvanize a wider engagement with transnational and interdisciplinary approaches, as well as to foster the work of younger scholars. She is the editor/co-editor of three anthologies of Iranian diaspora literature: A World Between: Poems, Short Stories and Essays by Iranian-Americans (1999); Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (2006); and, Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian-American Writers (2013). She is currently completing a documentary film project: "The Dawn is Too Far: Stories of Iranian-American Life," which will be released in spring 2023. Her poetry has appeared in a number of national publications including Calalloo, Reed Magazine,The New York Times, the Raven's Perch, and Green Linden Press. 

David Kyuman Kim, an expert in race studies at Stanford University, discusses the challenges of fostering racial justice within academic institutions. The dialogue explores the possibilities of radical work on race, the importance of keeping hope alive, and whether it is best to work within or outside the institution. Future episodes will cover topics such as Iran, Palestine, domestic violence, and surviving institutional betrayal.