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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

For top tier storytelling about the Middle East, my mind always immediately goes to Kerning Cultures.

Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“Commotion” indeed! Cultural critics held Adawiya responsible for the “death” of public taste and declared “war” on cassettes carrying popular music they deemed to be “vulgar” and posing a greater danger to citizens than cocaine. guq.qatar.georgetown.edu/news/preview...

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

A @dukepress.bsky.social book on archives and reimagining the stories we tell about the past in the present that I will be reading!

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Is there anything better than two of your former students sharing a meal together in Cairo, a city they now call home after graduating? News of this outing in Zamalek made my day.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Is there anything better than two of your former students sharing a meal together in Cairo, a city they now call home after graduating? News of this outing in Zamalek made my day.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Bookmarking this new IJMES article on Turkey and Mickey Mouse to read later! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Bookmarking this new IJMES article on Turkey and Mickey Mouse to read later! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What an amazing series of upcoming talks on the Middle East!

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A forthcoming book on “care's material and moral complexities” from a leading scholar of Egypt.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A forthcoming book on “care's material and moral complexities” from a leading scholar of Egypt.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Next month, I'll have the chance to share how "Media of the Masses" came to be and where my research on media in Middle East history is going at Wesleyan University. To be able to do so down the road from where my journey with Arabic began two decades ago is special. @stanfordpress.bsky.social

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A book I will absolutely be reading. "Reconstructing patient histories, Beth Baron traces how medical knowledge was created through women's bodies and by those treating them. The result is a new understanding of the body, medicine, and colonialism in Egypt."

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Seeing readers share photos like this one never grows old : )

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Out of curiosity, what was the kids’ book?

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

An exciting event on public history, taking place next month, for those who will be in Qatar! www.uni.lu/c2dh-en/even...

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

There is nothing better than arriving back on campus to teach your first class of the fall and finding handwritten letters in your mailbox from students the prior spring. Notes like these are such a treasure.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Thanks for sharing! I first encountered the dog in early papers for the Gramophone Company’s operations in the Middle East : )

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Easily the coolest thing I’ve found at a flea market in the U.S. A doorstop turned bookend of the gramophone dog listening to a record player.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

An exciting, fully-funded opportunity for graduate students to present their work on the Arab World at NYU Abu Dhabi!

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A position at my grad school alma mater for a historian of the modern Middle East “with a focus on the history of Israel/Palestine after 1917.” Candidates are expected to be fluent in both Arabic and Hebrew.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

One of only a handful of Arabic language classes to be offered in public high schools across the US at the time, this course introduced me not only to new words, but a region with a rich history that was routinely reduced to conflict in contemporary media.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Looking back, I now think it is significant that my knowledge of the Middle East gradually grew in the aftermath of 9/11 through my study of Arabic, in classes where culture featured prominently, communication was a guiding principle, and the wider world came into greater focus.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

After graduating, I continued my Arabic studies at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad in Cairo in the midst of the Arab Spring.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

It piqued my intellectual curiosity and, upon graduating, pushed me to continue with elementary Arabic at Duke University. In North Carolina, I went on to major in Arabic, Middle East, and Islamic Studies and had the opportunity to study abroad every summer, first in Yemen and later in Egypt.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

As our teacher would later share with us, when the Connecticut school board approved our Arabic textbook, its director was holding the book upside-down. This incident, in our instructor’s eyes, only served to confirm the need for such a course to exist in the first place.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Going into my senior year, this would change. A Moroccan teacher, who had long taught French, petitioned to offer an Arabic language course as Islamophobia intensified across the US. Eager to learn more about the Middle East, I enrolled.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

As I entered high school, the American public’s preoccupation with the Middle East only intensified. During my freshman year, in 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq and the war raged at a distance from both my small New England town and the content we covered in class, where the Middle East seldom surfaced.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

At the time, I could not comprehend the gravity of what had transpired. The Middle East was a region I knew next to nothing about. It was at once ever-present, a staple on the nightly news, yet oddly absent, existing only in relation to the attacks.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

There are certain events where most people can recall exactly what they were doing when they happened. One such moment, for me, is 9/11. When the attacks occurred, I was in the 8th grade in Connecticut, and I had classmates whose parents worked in the towers.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

An exciting event, featuring @annygaul.bsky.social, in DC later this month.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Rashid Khalidi’s latest book for young adults readers.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Rashid Khalidi’s latest book for young adults readers.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

When you check out the Middle East Studies catalog for @stanfordpress.bsky.social and want to read every forthcoming book.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

When you check out the Middle East Studies catalog for @stanfordpress.bsky.social and want to read every forthcoming book.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Out next March! “Through this rich micro-history of a city in transition, Dallasheh restores Palestinians as active players in their own history, not merely passive victims of the colonial states under which they live—and shows what it cost Palestinians to survive in their homeland after 1948.”

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Taking place at Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies on the horizon!

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Tuesday morning is for editing. Reviews of these three books will soon appear in the International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES). @stanfordpress.bsky.social, @utexaspress.bsky.social, @universitypress.cambridge.org

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

An exciting event! "The Making of Armenian America" at Columbia this fall.

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

An exciting new prize offered by @markaz-review.bsky.social! To learn more: themarkaz.org/literarypriz...

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

This week, I acquired my first book for the Africa catalog at Lynne Rienner Publishers: an engaging exploration of Nigeria's National Assembly from someone who served in it. If you're writing a book, don't hesitate to reach out! I'd love to learn more about it. 📚

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A new call for abstracts from the Arab Council for the Social Sciences. To learn more: us11.campaign-archive.com?u=8834e9808a...

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Andrew Simon @simongandrew.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The Arabic translation of “Media of the Masses” is now available at the Istanbul International Arabic Book Fair! Now if I only I could accompany the book there.

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