The Arabic Freud ... does not aim to augment the literature on psychoanalysis by contributing yet another reading of Freud (merely…
Translation, tradition, and the ethical turn: A reply to Bardawil and Allan
Book blog
Scholars from varying disciplines engage in critical discussions of recent books. Additionally, scholars introduce their books with an original essay or, occasionally, an original essay reviews an important new book, connecting it to other threads of conversation in the academy and beyond.
You can read our very first book forum, on Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age and the continued discussion around Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age here.
Knot of the Soul: Voices, textures, resonances
More than any other book I have read recently, Stefania Pandolfo’s Knot of the Soul made me ask myself time…
Listening to the torment of existence
On the one hand, the story of modern Islam across multiple disciplines has for decades been organized by a figure…
In-capacities of the soul: A reply to Largier and Iqbal
“It is the other who can see my form.” My friend Omnia El Shakry, also a participant in this forum,…
Rethinking the history of the astral sciences in modern Egypt with The Lighthouse and the Observatory
How the history of science can inform histories of the modern Middle East (and vice versa) is precisely what The…
Encountering another science
The Lighthouse and the Observatory’s learned account of nineteenth-century Egyptian astronomy’s imbrications with religion, empire, and the social realities and…
On continuity and rupture: A reply to Elshakry and Quadri
By pulling at different threads of the book’s argument, Elshakry and Quadri expose a basic tension between the book’s emphasis…
A liturgy of the soul
Reading and responding to Knot of the Soul deeply signifies a longstanding dialogue with my friend and interlocutor Stefania Pandolfo.…
Compulsory things: Some reflections on Hirschkind and Doostdar
In an illuminating exchange, Charles Hirschkind and Alireza Doostdar debate the compulsory quality of modern scientific reasoning. Doostdar, in The…
On intellectual hospitality and the plenitude of time: A response to Bardawil
It is undeniable that colonialism and post-colonial nationalism have wreaked havoc on many forms of life. I am acutely aware…