In this episode, Shahram Khosravi, Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, reflects on a lifetime of theorizing from outside the law, and his ongoing urge to create otherwise.
When Shahram talks about theorizing from outside the law, he is not using a metaphor, he is referring to his experiences growing up Bakhtiari, and the refusal of his people to be dominated by colonial powers, whether in Tehran, or European. Shahram also talks about being Young and Defiant in Tehran, to name one of his books, and about crossing borders as a so-categorized Illegal Traveler, to name his auto-ethnography, or auto-theory of borders. And, he talks about refusing modes of knowledge production that are hostile to him and his people. As Shahram explains, coming from Indigenous People, such refusals are not about negation, but rather about creation, and walking in the fog of the unknown
At the time of this recording, in June 2025, Israel and the United States were bombing Iran, putting people outside of the law, again. In the episode, we take this moment to reflect on how deep we are falling, and how dark the times are, in which we are again witnessing genocide in the name of freedom, human rights, and democracy. But, we also talk about how we can build on the movements that came before us, and from other places, to fight these dark times.
And, in this spirit, we listen to music that transports into those other worlds. We listen to Aida Shahghasemi, who sings the song Gole Bavineh, taking us to the Bakhtiari world of Shahram’s youth. We then listen to Parvin, who sings the song Ghoghaye Setargan, which carries different Iranian revolutions in it. Finally, we listen to Soheil Nafisi, who sings Nima Yushij’s poem Ay Adamha, in which a person drowning in the sea cries out to a festive crowd on the shore and the old world they represent, demanding to be seen, and demanding a liveable world.
Enjoy listening.
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In this episode, Shahram Khosravi, Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, reflects on a lifetime of theorizing from outside the law, and his ongoing urge to create otherwise.
When Shahram talks about theorizing from outside the law, he is not using a metaphor, he is referring to his experiences growing up Bakhtiari, and the refusal of his people to be dominated by colonial powers, whether in Tehran, or European. Shahram also talks about being Young and Defiant in Tehran, to name one of his books, and about crossing borders as a so-categorized Illegal Traveler, to name his auto-ethnography, or auto-theory of borders. And, he talks about refusing modes of knowledge production that are hostile to him and his people. As Shahram explains, coming from Indigenous People, such refusals are not about negation, but rather about creation, and walking in the fog of the unknown
At the time of this recording, in June 2025, Israel and the United States were bombing Iran, putting people outside of the law, again. In the episode, we take this moment to reflect on how deep we are falling, and how dark the times are, in which we are again witnessing genocide in the name of freedom, human rights, and democracy. But, we also talk about how we can build on the movements that came before us, and from other places, to fight these dark times.
And, in this spirit, we listen to music that transports into those other worlds. We listen to Aida Shahghasemi, who sings the song Gole Bavineh, taking us to the Bakhtiari world of Shahram’s youth. We then listen to Parvin, who sings the song Ghoghaye Setargan, which carries different Iranian revolutions in it. Finally, we listen to Soheil Nafisi, who sings Nima Yushij’s poem Ay Adamha, in which a person drowning in the sea cries out to a festive crowd on the shore and the old world they represent, demanding to be seen, and demanding a liveable world.
Enjoy listening.
Ep 26: Abandoned seafarers. With Miriam Matthiessen (English).
De Verbranders
1 hour 14 minutes 16 seconds
1 year ago
Ep 26: Abandoned seafarers. With Miriam Matthiessen (English).
In this episode, we speak to Miriam Matthiessen, who takes us to the world of shipping, through the phenomenon of so-called Abandoned Seafarers. As it happens, because of the way in which the shipping industry is organized, ship owners sometimes have an incentive to abandon their ships, and the crew on it. Formally, a ship and its crew are considered abandoned when the ship owner does not pay wages, or fails to provide adequate supplies for two months, but in practice, abandonments carry on for many months, and even years.
Miriam’s own entry point into this is her work for Abandoned Seafarer’s Map, which was created by Eliza Ader, and which Eliza and Miriam now maintain together with Jacob Bolton. This map uses databases by the International Labor Organization, the ILO, and the International Maritime Organization, the IMO, to show where and how often abandonments take place. These databases structure what the map does and does not show, but either way, by logging case after case, you’ll learn what kind of vessels typically get abandoned, and how nationality structures who gets abandoned, and how an abandonment then subsequently unfolds.
In this episode, Miriam shares the lessons that she learned, while also bringing abandonments to live, by describing the situations seafarers may find themselves in, and the effects that abandonments may have on their extended families.
Throughout the conversation, Miriam references the book Sweatshops at Sea, by Leon Fink, as well as the work of anthropologists Johanna Markkula on the labor of Filipino Seafarers, and that of economist Hercules Haralambides on container shipping, ports, and global logistics. She also references Jacob Bolton’s dissertation, parts of which he has now published in his article Supply Nets: The Logics of Seafarer Abandonment
We end the episode with a conversation on the value of staying with an issue for a prolonged period of time, the need to create counter-hegemonic infrastructures that we can actually maintain, and the need to recognize such maintenance work as making possible the work of trying to change everything.
We recorded this in April 2024. So, as we speak about the structural violence inflicted upon seafarers, and the total disregard of their lives, we are thinking of mass murdering of Palestinians by the same powers that be. And when we speak about wanting to change everything, this includes ending the illegal occupation, and the incarceration of Palestinians in open air prisons.
Enjoy listening
De Verbranders
In this episode, Shahram Khosravi, Professor of Social Anthropology at Stockholm University, reflects on a lifetime of theorizing from outside the law, and his ongoing urge to create otherwise.
When Shahram talks about theorizing from outside the law, he is not using a metaphor, he is referring to his experiences growing up Bakhtiari, and the refusal of his people to be dominated by colonial powers, whether in Tehran, or European. Shahram also talks about being Young and Defiant in Tehran, to name one of his books, and about crossing borders as a so-categorized Illegal Traveler, to name his auto-ethnography, or auto-theory of borders. And, he talks about refusing modes of knowledge production that are hostile to him and his people. As Shahram explains, coming from Indigenous People, such refusals are not about negation, but rather about creation, and walking in the fog of the unknown
At the time of this recording, in June 2025, Israel and the United States were bombing Iran, putting people outside of the law, again. In the episode, we take this moment to reflect on how deep we are falling, and how dark the times are, in which we are again witnessing genocide in the name of freedom, human rights, and democracy. But, we also talk about how we can build on the movements that came before us, and from other places, to fight these dark times.
And, in this spirit, we listen to music that transports into those other worlds. We listen to Aida Shahghasemi, who sings the song Gole Bavineh, taking us to the Bakhtiari world of Shahram’s youth. We then listen to Parvin, who sings the song Ghoghaye Setargan, which carries different Iranian revolutions in it. Finally, we listen to Soheil Nafisi, who sings Nima Yushij’s poem Ay Adamha, in which a person drowning in the sea cries out to a festive crowd on the shore and the old world they represent, demanding to be seen, and demanding a liveable world.
Enjoy listening.
