
Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought
From Women, Gender, and Sex in the Ottoman World by Ottoman History Podcast
September 30, 2024
About this episode
The episode explores the contributions of women authors to modern Arab political thought through the lens of Susanna Ferguson's new book.
with Susanna Ferguson hosted by Chris Gratien | What does the history of modern Arab political thought look like from the perspective of women authors? In this podcast, we sit down with longtime Ottoman History Podcast contributor Susanna Ferguson to explore this question, which animates her new book Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought . Previous scholarship has focused on the role of women in discussing the roles of women, but as Prof. Ferguson argues, women writers of the 19th and 20th century can also be studied as producers of social theory and commentators on the important matters of their era. In our conversation, we use the lens of public discourse about child-rearing or tarbiyah as a window onto ideas about a wide range of topics, including morality, labor, and democratic governance. In doing so, we consider the importance of seeing the Arab world as a source of portable ideas about modern society, as opposed to a merely passive recipient of Western modernity. « Click for More »
People in this episode
Host: Chris Gratien
Guest: Susanna Ferguson
Topics covered
- modern Arab political thought
- women authors
- social theory
- child-rearing
- democratic governance
Keywords
- Arab thought
- gender
- capitalism
- democracy
- 19th century
- 20th century
- public discourse
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought
More episodes of Women, Gender, and Sex in the Ottoman World
- Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison · October 31, 2025
- Paraskevi Kyrias, Albania, and the US at the Paris Peace Conference · January 21, 2021
- Freedom and Desire in Late Ottoman Erotica · February 7, 2020
- Osmanlı İstanbul'unda Evlilik ve Boşanma · November 29, 2019
- Population and Reproduction in the Late Ottoman Empire · August 7, 2019
- The Story Has It · July 18, 2019
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Women, Gender, and Sex in the Ottoman World podcast page.