Join us in our final episode where Amanda talks to each production team about their takeaways from the project and course. Love and Geese!

Join Amanda and Cat as they discuss the origins of the Arabic word for America, Amreeka. They wrap up the course's content by engaging with Hamid Dabashi's argument on breaking binaries. The episode connects earlier readings and Dabashi's conclusion that there isn't an "East" nor a "West" after all. The works referenced in the episode include Alia Malek's A Country Called Amreeka: U.S. History Retold Through Arab-American Lives (New York: Free Press, 2009) and Hamid Dabashi's "Breaking the Binary," and "But There is Neither East nor West," in Being a Muslim in the World (Palgrave Pivot, 2013).

Join Raisya and Isabella in a discussion about the meaning of the Hajj. They engage with a variety of voices starting off with Omar Ibn Said, an enslaved Muslim scholar, who penned an early 19th century memoir. Another voice is that of Malcolm X and his Hajj experience in the 1960s. The episode ends with a discussion of the documentary Sacred Journeys. The works referenced in the episode include Omar Ibn Said's A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said (University of Wisconsin Press, 2011); Dawn-Marie Gibson's The Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, and the Men Who Follow Him (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016); ⁠“Mecca”⁠⁠ in The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Ballantine Books, 2015); and Craig Clements's 2016 Sacred Journeys, The Hajj (2020).

Join Amanda and Cat as they explore Giuseppe Verdi's grand 19th century opera, Aida, through the lens of three different analytical texts. Each author examines the opera through a different perspective, from the music and the libretto to the greater context behind the writing of Aida in 1870, which was first performed in 1871 for the opening of the Cairo Opera House. The works referenced in the episode include Edward Said's “The Empire at Work: Verdi’s Aida” in Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage Books, 1993); Paul Robinson's “Is Aida an Orientalist Opera?” in Opera, Sex, and Other Vital Matters (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2002); and Christopher R. Gauthier and Jennifer McFarlane-Harris's “Nationalism, Racial Difference, and ‘Egyptian’ Meaning in Verdi’s Aida,” in Blackness in Opera, Naomi André, Karen M. Bryan, and Eric Saylor, eds. (University of Illinois Press, 2012).

Join Matt and Sierra as they provide a brief engagement with the complicated relationship between Mozart’s opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) and the opera’s connection to the Ottoman military marching band mehter. The works referenced in the episode include Eve R. Meyer's “The Image of the Turk in European Performing Arts” in Süleyman the Second and his Time, Halil İnalcık and Cemal Kafadar, eds. (ISIS Press, 1993); Herbert Lindenberger's "On opera and society (assuming a relationship)" in Situating Opera: Period, Genre, Reception (Cambridge Studies in Opera) (Cambridge University Press, 2010); Libretto: The Abduction from the Seraglio, Music by W.A. Mozart, Original text by C.F. Bretzner, English version, John W. Bloch (G. Schirmer, 1962); and Larry Wolff's “Osmin in Vienna: Mozart’s Abduction and the Centennial of the Ottoman Siege” in The Singing Turk (Stanford University Press, 2016).

For the episode, Nico and Isaac have read through the introductory piece of Ottoman historian Daniel Goffman’s The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe in addition to a letter composed by Austrian ambassador to the Ottoman court Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq on his travels throughout the Ottoman realm. This is a continuation of the discussion opened by Jayda and Kerry on what it means to understand the history of the Ottoman Empire as perceived by the Ottomans. The works referenced in the episode include Daniel Goffman's "Introduction: Ottomancentrism and the West" in The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge UP, 2002); "The Third Letter Dated Constantinople, 1 June 1560" in The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople, 1554-1562 (Clarendon Press, 1968, first edition 1927); and Eve R. Meyer's "The Image of the Turk in European Performing Arts" in Süleyman the Second and his Time, Halil İnalcık and Cemal Kafadar, eds. (Istanbul: ISIS Press, 1993).

Join Kerry and Jayda as they continue to discuss the Ottoman Empire further by engaging with historian Daniel Goffman’s notion of Ottomancentrism. The question is what does it mean to understand the history of the Ottoman Empire as perceived by the Ottomans as opposed to outside observers. The works referenced in the episode include Daniel Goffman's "Introduction: Ottomancentrism and the West" in The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge UP, 2002); "The Third Letter Dated Constantinople, 1 June 1560" in The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople, 1554-1562 (Clarendon Press, 1968, first edition 1927); and Eve R. Meyer's "The Image of the Turk in European Performing Arts" in Süleyman the Second and his Time, Halil İnalcık and Cemal Kafadar, eds. (Istanbul: ISIS Press, 1993).

Join Jayda and Kerry as they venture into a discussion on what the Ottoman Empire was, and why it is still important. The works referenced in the episode include Donald Quataert's “Why Study Ottoman history?” in The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922, New Approaches to European History series (Cambridge University Press, 2005); Daniel Goffman's "Introduction: Ottomancentrism and the West" in The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2002); "The Third Letter Dated Constantinople, 1 June 1560" in The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople, 1554-1562 (Clarendon Press, 1968, first edition 1927); and Eve R. Meyer's "The Image of the Turk in European Performing Arts" in Süleyman the Second and his Time, Halil İnalcık and Cemal Kafadar, eds. (ISIS Press, 1993).

Join Isabella and Raisya in thinking about what it means to be a public intellectual. They consider the legacy of Edward Said’s work Orientalism (1978) and the controversy with historian Bernard Lewis. The works referenced in this episode include Alan Lightman’s essay about “The Role of the Public Intellectual," in the MIT Communications Forum; Bernard Lewis's “The Question of Orientalism” in The New York Review of Books, 24 June 1982; Douglas Martin, "Bernard Lewis, Influential Scholar of Islam, Is Dead at 101" in The New York Times (21 May 2018); Edward W. Said and Oleg Grabar's “Orientalism: An Exchange” in The New York Review of Books, 12 August 1982; and Adam Shatz, “'Orientalism,’ Then and Now” in The New York Review of Books, 20 May 2019.

Join Matt and Sierra as they engage with Edward Said’s seminal text Orientalism (1978). Matt and Sierra consider the impact of Edward Said’s work and his framing of power, which draws upon French philosopher Michel Foucault’s work. The works referenced in the episode include an excerpt from Edward W. Said’s Orientalism (1978) as found in Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman, eds. (Columbia University Press, 1994); Richard Bernstein's “Edward W. Said. Literary Critics and Advocate for Palestinian Independence, Dies at 67” in New York Times, 26 September 2003; and Gauri Viswanathan's “Orientalism and After” in Power, Politics, and Culture: Interviews with Edward W. Said (Vintage Books, 2001).