Hauntologies by Elia Ayoub
The Fire These Times
102/ On the Need to Shape the Arab Exile Body w/ Amro Ali
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102/ On the Need to Shape the Arab Exile Body w/ Amro Ali

This is a conversation with Amro Ali, author of the essay "On the Need to Shape the Arab Exile Body in Berlin." He is also co-president of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities, research fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin, and lecturer in sociology at the American University in Cairo (AUC).

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What we talked about:

  • Moving from the centers to the peripheries

  • Why Berlin? And not London, Paris, New York or Istanbul

  • Berlin as an incomplete city and Germany's past

  • Germany and the Arabs

  • The Koblenz trial, accountability in Germany (but not in the Arab world)

  • January 25 and the legacy of the Arab Spring for the exile body

  • Home as the place where all attempts to escape cease

  • Valuing public spaces

  • Survivor's guilt and impostor's syndrome

  • Challenges faced by Arabs and other non-white people in Berlin

  • Meeting other Arabs for the first time in Europe

  • The need for a connection between Berlin and other capitals, such as Beirut or Tunis

  • Politics of language and the use of Arabic in the diaspora

Recommended Books:

  • City of Exiles: Berlin from the outside in by Stuart Braun

  • Representations of the Intellectual by Edward W. Said

  • Exile, Statelessness, and Migration: Playing Chess with History from Hannah Arendt to Isaiah Berlin by Seyla Benhabib

Resources Mentioned:

  • The Der Spiegel article: https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/witness-defendant-deserter-case-in-germany-raises-questions-about-how-to-try-assad-s-atrocities-a-43d2817e-d85b-4378-b158-0c5001c345eb

  • Branch 251 Podcast

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