Comrades Estranged

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The Institute for Middle East Studies is proud to host Professor Alex Boodrookas, author of Comrades Estranged: Labor and Citizenship in the Twentieth-Century Persian Gulf.

In 1975, Kuwaiti workers orchestrated arguably the most powerful citizen-led movement for noncitizen rights in the history of the Persian Gulf. Their efforts built on decades of wide-ranging struggle over the meanings and outlines of citizenship. During the twentieth century, anti-colonial nationalists, pro-democracy reformers, feminists, and labor organizers joined forces to fight for a more equitable citizenship regime. In so doing, they won a remarkable series of victories: political independence, constitutional rights, and oil nationalization, reshaping not just Kuwait, but the global petroleum order.

Comrades Estranged reframes the history of labor activism, citizenship, and decolonization in Persian Gulf by centering the history of social movements—especially organized labor. Alex Boodrookas traces how workers and their allies shaped the world-historic transformations witnessed across the region: the consolidation of British sovereignty, formation of autocratic states, inrush of hydrocarbon wealth, onset of decolonization, and rise of both mass migration and mass politics. But unions failed to incorporate noncitizens into their movement, and as Boodrookas argues, this fatally undermined the movements' strength. The contradictions of nationalist and internationalist visions proved insurmountable. Comrades Estranged thus sheds light on both the power, and the limits, of citizenship and the nation-state as the framework for political action.

We hope you will join the Institute for Middle East Studies, Professor Alex Boodrookas, and discussant Professor Attiya Ahmad, for this conversation about labor relations and citizenship in the twentieth century Persian Gulf region. All are welcome to attend this event in-person or online.

Speakers:

• Alex Boodrookas, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of History at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He teaches World History since 1500, Modern Middle East and History of Islam. His areas of expertise are in labor, migration, politics and the Persian Gulf. Boodrookas’ teaching interest involve how ordinary people and mass popular movements have transformed global politics, the economy, everyday life and ideas of justice, equality and morality. He has had the opportunity to present at numerous conferences such as the Middle Eastern Studies Association Conference, the Eurasian Connections Conference and the Gulf Studies Symposium. Additionally, he is currently working on a book that compasses citizenship and political protest in the Persian Gulf, with a focus on Kuwait. Boodrookas received his Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and his master’s in Near Eastern Studies from New York University. He received his bachelor’s in History and American Studies from George Washington University.

• Dr. Attiya Ahmad is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs. Broadly conceived, her research focuses on the gendered interrelation of Islamic reform movements and political economic processes spanning the Middle East and South Asia, in particular the greater Arabian Peninsula/Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean regions.  Dr. Ahmad is currently examining the development of global halal tourism networks.