The Everyday Orientalism Podcast explores how Orientalism continues to have deep ramifications in our everyday lives, for how we think about settler-colonialism, liberation, and how empire and capitalism continue to exploit and dehumanize the majority of us. Defined by Palestinian American literary scholar Edward Said, Orientalism is “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” The podcast is hosted by anthropologist Dr. Girish Daswani and features a stellar line-up of academics and thinkers from across the globe. It celebrates the 10th anniversary of Everyday Orientalism, a public platform through which students, academics, and citizens reflect on how history and power shape the ways in which human societies define themselves.
Episodes
Orientalism and the MediaJun 8, 20264592In this episode we are joined by Samira Mohyeddin to discuss the many ways in which contemporary news outlets are complicit in the orientalizing of Palestine and Iran. She shares with us the harms of legacy media, the power of informed, ethical journalism, and some of the work she’s done as the founder of On the Line Media.Samira Mohyeddin is an award winning journalist and documentary filmmaker.
Migration as Anchorage: A Palestinian Family in LondonJun 22, 20263927In this episode we are joined by Michelle Obeid to discuss her book, Migration as Anchorage: Ethnography of a Palestinian Family in London, and what it was like to write about a Palestinian family seeking anchorage while abroad in London—both before and after the escalation of the Palestinian genocide in October of 2023. She shares with us more about the Gazzawi family, the role of food in cultura
The Corporate UniversityJul 7, 20263963In this episode we are joined by Muhannad Ayyash, Heidi Matthews, and Nathan Kalman-Lamb to discuss the corporatization of North American universities and their crisis of legitimacy in the wake of the pro-Palestinian encampments that protested the ongoing genocide of October 7th, 2023. Warning us against false hope, they share with us the challenges and potentialities for academics working from wi
Archaeology, Apartheid, and WarJul 21, 20264229This week we are joined by Nelly Abboud and a member of the collective Archaeologists Against Apartheid, to discuss the ongoing destruction of cultural heritage in Lebanon and Palestine by Israeli forces. We dive into the colonialist and imperialist roots of archaeology as a discipline, the ways in which Zionists have mobilized archaeology to legitimize settler-colonialist agendas, the effectivene
Capitalism, Fascism, and the UniversityAug 4, 20264227This week we are joined by Beverly Bain, Rinadlo Walcott, and Uahikea Maile who talk with us about the university as a key pillar of capitalism and the state. We discuss the lip service paid to decolonization efforts, the ways in which Black and indigenous scholars are co-opted and captured by university institutions, and what possibilities exist for envisioning knowledge sharing beyond the framew
Water and Oil: On Environmental OrientalismsAug 18, 20263274This week we welcome Joanne Leow and Yasmine Hafez to discuss the ways in which water in Egypt and oil in Singapore function as expressions of extractive capitalism. We talk about what hides between the fictive narratives of Singapore’s gardens, the ways in which ecocide and environmental destruction elsewhere enable tourism and growth at home, and how state battles over the control of the Nile ne
