Workshop: Work, War and Commerce

Workshop: Work, War and Commerce with Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter

Friday, April 30, 2027 • 10:00am - 12:00pm

Location: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 340 Stephens Hall 
Free & open to UC Berkeley faculty and graduate students. Interested in joining? Email Lily at lilygee@berkeley.edu

In this workshop, we will read about the intertwined lives of war and commerce, and the people who work and whose work is defined by them. The workshop will engage with theoretical as well as empirical research works that engage with the work of trade, communication and transportation and the central role violence plays in their working and asks how do we research these intertwined subjects?

Close-up portrait of a woman with wavy dark hair, red lipstick, and hoop earrings against a black background, conveying warmth and confidence.

Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter

About the Instructor:

Laleh Khalili is a professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter, and the author or editor of seven books including most recently Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula (Verso 2020) and Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy (Profile 2025).

On Thursday, April 29th, Dr. Khalili will be delivering lecture The Afterlives of Resource Sovereignty in Maude Fife Room on UC Berkeley's campus. Click here to learn more about the event.

Possible readings for the workshop:

Rosa Luxemburg, 1913, "International Loans" in The Accumulation of Capital 
Darius Banaji, 2020, "British Mercantile Capitalism and the Cosmopolitanism of the Nineteenth Century" in his Brief History of Commercial Capitalism
Laleh Khalili, 2023, The Corporeal Life of Seafaring (browse)
Tejasvi Nagaraja, 2025, "Gotta Study War Work More", in Studies in Working Class History

Presented by the Critical Iranian & Persianate Studies Program and co-sponsored by the Palestinian & Arab Studies Program

Topics

2026/27 Lecture Series topic page