In this episode, Dr Ali Kassem and Dr Nadeen Dakkak discuss how their scholarship relates to practices and theories of decoloniality and broader issues of coloniality in the Arabic-speaking majority world. 

You can find out more about the Institute Project on Decoloniality at: https://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/ipd

Timestamps

2:17: Ali and Nadeen’s conversation begins, discussing the terminology each use to describe the region they work on, and why it’s important.

10:46: The two discuss: What does it mean to be Arab? Has what it means to be Arab changed over time?

26:10: Ali and Nadeen discuss languages and coloniality, and the internalized inferiority it can produce.  Why aren’t there more published works about the region in Arabic?  Why is publishing research in Arabic difficult? And why is this important? They also touch on differences in the education systems of Lebanon and Kuwait.

40:12: Ali introduces the differences he’s noticed about decolonising in English vs decolonising in Arabic, and the two discuss. How do we actually decolonise? What role does language play? They also share frustrations they have in common.

Transcript

We would like to thank everyone involved in making this episode possible:

Speaker - Dr Nadeen Dakkak, Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellow at IASH

Speaker - Dr Ali Kassem, Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellow at IASH

Series Production - Ben Fletcher-Watson, Administrative Manager at IASH

Branding and Production - Lucien Staddon Foster, Communications and Events at IASH

Recording and Editing - Eric Berger, Podcast Technician at IASH

Theme music composed and performed by Saber Bamatraf. Please visit https://soundcloud.com/saber-bamatraf to hear more of his music.