I am an active public historian. I was co-host of the New Books in Middle Eastern Studies podcast channel, part of the New Books Network, as well as a founding co-host of the 15 Minute History podcast, which I ran for eight years.
I have been interviewed by media outlets, both regarding some of my projects as well as to provide commentary on events.
A selection appears below:
Press Interviews and Citations
Fronteras: ‘Life and Death on the Border’ exhibit highlights the buried history of anti-Mexican violence in Texas, Texas Public Radio, December 29, 2023.
“Pandemics: A Teachable Moment,” Stranger’s Guide, September 21, 2020. (Interview with me.)
Nael M. Shama “In Egypt, the Coronavirus Poses a Political Threat.” Foreign Policy, April 30, 2020.
Declan Walsh, “In Old Cairo, A Subdued Ramadān Looms as Virus Shutters the City,” The New York Times, April 20, 2020.
.17 ، محمد أبو الغار الأنفلونزا قتلت عشرات الآلاف ومهدت لثورة 1919، المصري اليوم، 14 ابريل 2020
Muhammad Aboulghar, “The influenza killed tens of thousands and set the stage for the 1919 revolution,” (in Arabic) Al-Masry al-Yawm, April 14, 2020, 17.
Religion News Service, “Academics criticize Department of Education probe of Middle East Studies program,” September 26, 2019 (interviewed).
Al Jazeera English, The Stream, September 25, 2019, “Why is the U.S. government probing a Middle East Studies course?” (I provided video commentary and my tweets/blog were quoted).
Inside Higher Education: “Federal Inquiry into Middle East Studies Program Raises Academic Concerns,” September 25, 2019 (interviewed).
Academe Blog (American Association of University Professors): “Wading into the Duke-UNC Consortium Mess” (September 23, 2019; repost of my blog post of the same title.)
Podcasts (as guest)
American Rhapsody, Episode 2: The Spanish Flu
Don Carleton speaks with Ben Wright about the Briscoe Center’s Texas Oil Industry records, which help document the miseries of the Spanish Flu pandemic between 1918 and 1920. Austin American-Statesman columnist Michael Barnes and Christopher Rose Ph.D., a lecturer at St. Edwards University, join later in the episode to discuss the pandemic’s effects in the city of Austin, across America and around the globe.
15 Minute History, episode 124: The “Spanish” Influenza of 1918-1920
In the age of coronavirus and COVID-19, comparisons are being made to an unusually long-lived and virulent epidemic of influenza that occurred a century ago. The so-called “Spanish” flu went around the world in three waves, claiming more than fifty million lives–more than perished in the just-ended First World War. What was the Spanish flu? Why was it called that? And can we learn anything about what’s in store during the coronavirus pandemic of 2019-20 by casting our eyes back a century?
This is Democracy podcast, episode 7: Gender and Democracy (September 27, 2018; featured guest, with Augusta Dell’Omo).
FIR on Higher Education podcast, episode 48: How to Create a Successful Podcast Within your Department (December 19, 2015; featured guest)
15 Minute History, Episode 75: The Birmingham Qur’an
In the summer of 2015, an obscure Qur’ān manuscript hidden in the far reaches of the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham grabbed attention worldwide when carbon dating revealed that the book was one of the oldest Qur’āns known to exist. In fact, it might have been written during the lifetime of the Prophet Muḥammad … or might it even have been written before Muḥammad’s lifetime?
Guest Christopher Rose (yes, our regular co-host) has been following the headlines and puts the discovery of the Birmingham Qur’ān within the larger field of Islamic and Qur’ānic Studies, and explains how the text might raise as many questions as it answers.
Christopher S Rose 