2010 Conference Program

The pdf versions of the Conference Program and Flyer for the Eighth Biennial Iranian Studies are now available for download.

 

THURSDAY, 27 MAY 2010

DOUBLETREE LOBBY |  2:00-8:00 P.M.

Onsite Registration

PRE-SESSION 1 |GALLERY NORTH | 3:00-5:00 P.M.

AIS Board Meeting

PRE-SESSION 2 | CAROUSEL C | 6:00-7:30 P.M.

AIS General Meeting

PRE-SESSION 3 | MARQUEE BALLROOM | 8:00-9:00 P.M.

Jaleh Amouzegar, University of Tehran
TBA

 

FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2010

DOUBLETREE LOBBY | 8:00 A.M.-8:00 P.M.

Onsite Registration


 SESSION 1 | CAROUSEL A | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Harvard Digital Archive Project: Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran

 

Manoutchehr Eskandari-Qajar, President
International Qajar Studies Association (IQSA)

Nahid Mozaffari, Independent Scholar, WWQI Project 


 

SESSION 2 | CAROUSEL B | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Engagements with Reason: Shi‘ism and Iran’s Intellectual Culture 

CHAIR: Rula Jurdi Abisaab, McGill University
DISCUSSANT: Arash Naraghi, Moravian College

Setrag Manoukian, McGill University
Eclecticism and the Reasoning Individual: Fursat Shirazi’s (d.1923) Journey of Self-Discovery

Aun Hasan Ali, McGill University
Formative Texts and Contexts for Rationalist and Traditionist Shi’ism

Reza Pourjavady, McGill University
Reviving Shi‘i Theology: Najm al-Din al-Nayrizi and His Commentary on Tusi’s Tajrid al-I’tiqad

Rula Jurdi Abisaab, McGill University
Skeptics of Juridical Rationalism: Epistemology and the Structure of Power in Sixteenth Century Iran 


 SESSION 3 | CAROUSEL C | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Mediums of Storytelling: Narratives of 20th Century Iranian Jews 

Chair:Nahid Pirnazar, University of California, Los Angeles

Wendy Wolfe Fine, Independent Scholar
Addressing the Jewish Exodus from Iran in the 70s and 80s through the Medium of Film

Jaleh Pirnazar, University of California, Berkeley
Memoirs and Novels by Iranian Jewish Women: New Voices

Farideh Dayanim Goldin, Old Dominion University
Love and Marriage among Middle Class Iranian Jewish Women in Southern California 


SESSION 4 | MARQUEE 1 | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

TBA

 


 

SESSION 5 | MARQUEE 2 | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Windows On The Past

Chair: Ahmed Alwishah, Pitzer College 

Gholam R. Vatandoust, American University of Kuwait/Shiraz University
Recreating the Past and Embracing the Future: The First Private Museum in Iran

Elaheh Kheirandish, Harvard University
Windows into Early Science: Persian Scientific Traditions on Exhibit

Abbas Hosseini, Artist and Independent Scholar
Historical Background of Copyright in Iran

Tofigh Heidarzadeh, University of California, Riverside
Contextual Displays of Persian Astronomical Books: Samples from 1000 to 1700 AD.

 


 

Break | 10:30-11:00 a.m.


SESSION 6 | CAROUSEL A | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Persian Literary and Cinematic Representations of a Society in Transition I

CHAIR: M. R. Ghanoonparvar, University of Texas at Austin

DISCUSSANT: Nasrin Rahimieh, University of California, Irvine

Ahmad Aminpour, University of Texas at Austin
The Liminal World of The Blind Owl

Nastaran Kherad, University of Texas at Austin
Ahmad Mahmud and Socialist Realism

Hanan Hammad, University of Texas at Austin
Mourning Locality: Community Versus Globalization and Nationalism in The Drowned and Cities of Salt

Sahar Allamezade, University of Maryland
Iraj Mirza’s Sexual Poetics: Writing Like a Man, Reading Like a Man 


SESSION 7 | CAROUSEL B | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Dialogues and Contentions 

Chair: Sharon Baradaran, UCLA

Ali A. Jafarey, The Zarathushtrian Assembly
Zoroastrian Religion and Modernity

Keyvan Geula, Center for Global Integrated Education
Owning the Story of Our Persecution: The Role of Human Rights Efforts in Helping the Baha'is of Iran Claim Real Victory

Ronen Cohen, Ariel University Center
The Hojjatiyeh: The Real Creators of the Islamic Revolution of Iran

Judea Pearl, UCLA
Carving a Dialogue between Muslims and Jews


SESSION 8 | CAROUSEL C | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Rural and Tribal Communities and the State

Chair: Fariba Zarinebaf, University of California at Riverside

James M Gustafson, University of Washington
Land Investment and Household Networks in Southern Iran under the Qajars

Anja Manthey, Yale University
The Iranian Nation-State and Assertions of Khuzistan's Geopolitical Importance Before and After World War I

Gholam Reza Heydari, Islamic Azad University
Agricultural Development and Nomadic Settlement A Case Study of Shahsavan Tribal Community

Bernard Hourcade, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
The Making of a New Society in Rural Iran 


SESSION 9 | MARQUEE 1 | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

The Art of the Book

Chair: Charles Melville, Cambridge University

Raisa Amirbekyan, Yerevan State University
Safavid- Mughal Cultural Interrelations as reflected in Matenadaran’s ‘Bayaz’ Manuscript Illumination

Paul Losensky, Indiana University
The Role of the Anthology in Defining a Literary School: The Maktab-e Voqu' and India Office Ms. 2678.1

Chad Kia, Columbia University
Spinning Pictures: Reading Nizami as Jami 


 

 

SESSION 10 | MARQUEE 2 | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

The Ambit of Printing in Qajar Iran: Continent, Nation & Province

Chair: Nile Green, University of California, Los Angeles
Discussant: Abbas Amanat, Yale University

Nile Green, University of California at Los Angeles
Printing Persian in Saint Petersburg: Eurasian Networks of Evangelical Bible Production, c.1815-30

Arash Khazeni, Pomona College
“Land of the Rising Sun”: Printed Geography and Natural History in Nineteenth-Century Iran

Farzin Vejdani, University of Arizona
Provincial Print Culture in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Iran 


Lunch| 12:30-2:00 p.m.

 Workshop on Dissertation Writing, Gallery South


 

 SESSION 11 | CAROUSEL A | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Persian Literary and Cinematic Representations of a Society in Transition II

Chair: M. R. Ghanoonparvar, University of Texas at Austin
Discussant: Nasrin Rahimieh, University of California, Irvine

Somy Kim, University of Texas at Austin
Mapping Dystopia in Ebrahim Golestan's Mud Brick and Mirror

Mahyar Entezari, University of Texas at Austin
The Ta’ziyeh Topoi of Gholamhoseyn Sa’edi's Drama

Blake Atwood, University of Texas at Austin
Urbanism and the Representation of Reform in Two Films by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad

Sahba Shayani, UCLA
An Exile in Native Soil: An Analysis of Exile in the Later Works of Nader Naderpour 


SESSION 12 | CAROUSEL B | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Shi'i Modernity 

Chair: Bahar Davary, University of San Diego

Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, University of California, Santa Barbara
Shiism, Mullas, and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

Mateen Rokhsefat, University of Toronto
Clerical Modernism Beyond Wahhabsim and Salafism

 Sussan Siavoshi, Trinity University
The Mentor and the Pupil: Montazeri and Kadivar

Arash Naraghi, Moravian College 
Iranian Shiism and the Contemporary Debate on the Human Rights of Sexual Minorities


 

SESSION 13 | CAROUSEL C | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Constitutionalism, Elections, and Factional Politics

Chair: Janet Afary, University of California, Santa Barbara

Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, University of London, UK
The Provisional Revolutionary Government's Draft Constitution of 1979: A Critical Re-appraisal.

Leyla Mostafavi, London School of Economics
From 1906 to 1979: The Role of Constitutions in Democratization in Iran

Luciano Zaccara, Autonoma University of Madrid
Elections and Factional Politics in Iran: Limiting the Change.


SESSION 14 | MARQUEE 1 | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Reconstructing the Forgotten Female: Women in the Realm of the Shahnama

Chair: Alyssa Gabbay, University of Washington
Discussant: Firuza Abdullaeva, University of Oxford

Alyssa Gabbay, University of Washington
From Ill-Starred to Auspicious: Depictions of Daughters in Firdawsi’s Shahnamah

Kumiko Yamamoto, Institute of Iranian Studies, University of Goettingen
Unfolded Self: Women in the Naqqali Tradition

Rana Salimi, University of California, San Diego
A New Voice on the Public Stage: Gordafarid, the First Female Naqqal in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Nahid Pirnazar, UCLA 
Djalal Khaleqi Motlaq's Women of the Shahnameh: An Introduction


SESSION 15 | MARQUEE 2 | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Media and Society

Chair: Shahla Talebi, University of Arizona

David Arn, University of Zurich
The Iranian Drug Discourse. A Case Study on the Impact of the Iranian Reformist Press

Shahla Talebi, Arizona State University
From the Moon to Television: A Story of the Iranian Revolution of 1979

Saeid Golkar, Stanford University
Liberation or Suppression Technology: The Internet, the Green Movement, and the State in Iran

Davar Iran Ardalan, NPR News
You are the Media: How Iran's Women and Youth Reboot Journalism


Break | 3:30-4:00 p.m. 

 SESSION 16 | CAROUSEL A | 4:00-5:30 P.M

The Language of Literature  

Chair: Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland

Dénes Gazsi, University of Iowa
Sa‘di as an Innovator in Arabic Semantics

Jocelyn Sharlet, University of California, Davis
Language Three Ways in the ‘Ushshaqnamah of Fakhr al-DinIraqi

Jeannine Fontaine, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Two Writers, Two Linguistic Worlds: Simin Daneshvar and Shahrnoush Parsipour


SESSION 17 | CAROUSEL B | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Shi‘i Rituals and Beliefs

Chair: Bahar Davary, University of San Diego

Babak Rahimi, University of California, San Diego
Ashura in the Arab-Iranian Community of Bushehr, Iran

Reza Masoudi Nejad, Max-Planck Institute 
The Social Dynamic of Shawl in the Ashura Ritual

Tomoko Morikawa, Hokkaido University
Ziyarat and Ziyaratgah in 19th Century Iran  

Omid Ghaemmaghami, University of Toronto
The Abode of Peace: Mahmud ibn Ja‘far Maythami (d. 1893CE) & the Phenomenon of Encounters with the Hidden Imam 


SESSION 18 | CAROUSEL C | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Modern Iran and the World 

 Chair: Camron Amin, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Jennifer Jenkins, University of Toronto
Iran in the 19th-Century Global Economy

Lior Sternfeld, University of Texas at Austin
Between Abadan and Suez: The Rise of Mossadeghism and the Anti-Colonial Struggle in Egypt

Sam Razavi, University of Montreal
The Eisenhower Administration and the Mossaddegh Overthrow 

Ali Dizboni, Royal College of Canada
Two Irans in two regions? The Eurasia and the Middle East


SESSION 19 | MARQUEE 1 | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

The Borderless World of Premodern Art and Literature 

Chair: Marianna S. Simpson, Baltimore, MD

Iván Szántó, Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences, Hungary
New Evidence on Medieval Hungaro-Khwarazmian Artistic Contacts

Sinem Arcak, University of Minnesota
Ottomans Displaying Safavid Gifts

Keelan Overton, University Of California, Los Angeles
From Rustam to Jami: Persian Heroes and Manuscripts at the Court of Ibrahim Adil Shah II (r.1580-1627)

Nahid Pirnazar, UCLA
The Account of Joseph in the Works of Shahin and Jami: A Parallel Study of a Cross-Cultural Theme   


SESSION 20 | MARQUEE 2 | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Religions of Abbasid Iran: Beliefs and Controversies

Chair: Michael Cooperson, UCLA

David Bennett, UCLA
The Refutation of Dualist Heresies

Awad Awad, UCLA
The Intellectual History of Persian Nestorian Physicians in the Early Abbasid Period

Hassan Hussain, UCLA
Shu‘ubiyyah and Iranians in Contemporary Arabic Literature

Najm al-Din Yousefi, Virginia Tech
The Early Diwan, Persian Mawali and the Miscarriage of a New Discourse 


Break | 5:30-6:00 p.m.


PLENARY SESSION 21 | MARQUEE BALLROOM| 6:00-7:00

Memories and Memoirs

 

Chair: Mahnaz Afkhami 

Goli Taraghi

Roya Hakakian

Tara Bahrampour 

 


Break | 7:00-8:00 p.m.


SESSION 22 | CAROUSEL BALLROOM | 8:00-10:00

Opening Reception

The Lifetime Achievement Award

The Saidi-Sirjani Book Award

The Latifeh Yarshater Award

The Lois Roth Prize
Special Service Recognition Award

 

Saturday, 29 May 2010

DOUBLETREE LOBBY | 8:00 A.M.-8:00 P.M.

Onsite Registration 


SESSION 23 | CAROUSEL A | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Zones of Exploration: Social Studies, Literature, and Film

Chair: Amy Motlagh, American University in Cairo

Parvaneh Hosseini, University of Arizona
Identity Formation as a Means of Bringing Desirous Subject into Being in the Novels of Simin Danishvar 

Mehrak Kamali, University of Arizona
Cinema and the Decline of Iranian Village Life: Khak by Masoud Kimiai 

Philip Grant, University of California, Irvine
Another Birth: Gender, Agency, and Activism in the Contemporary Iranian World

Maryam Ghorbankarimi, University of Edinburgh
Redefining the Filmic Genres Of Iranian Cinema: The Generic Qualities Of New Iranian Cinema

 


SESSION 24 | CAROUSEL B | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Clerics and Esoterics

Chair: Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, UCLA

Mehrdad Shabahang, Ecole Pratique Des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne University
Comparison of Old Iranian Dualism and Shiite Dualism

Maryam Moazzen, University of Toronto
Safavid Madrasas and Framing the Collective Memory of the Shi‘ites in the Early Modern Iran

Mahdi Tourage, University of Western Ontario
Of God And Ayatollahs: Theological Implications Of Contemporary Iranian Jokes 


SESSION 25 | CAROUSEL C | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

The Challenges of Publishing Persian Journals

Chair: Homa Katouzian, Editor of Iranian Studies

Hormoz Hekmat, Editor of Iran Nameh 

Sholeh Shams, Editor of Rahavard

Nahid Tavassoli, Editor of Nafeh

Ali Dehbashi, Editor of Bokhara


SESSION 26 | MARQUEE 1 | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Currirulum Design Guidelines and Persian Materials Development. Part I.

Cosponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Persian

Chairs: Pardis Minuchehr, University of Pennsylvania and Latifeh Hagigi, UCLA

Fereshteh Amanat-Kowsar , Yale University

 

Maryam Borjian, CUNY

Parvaneh Hosseini, University of Arizona

Manouchehr Kasheff, New York University 

Azita Mokhtari, National University

Haideh Sahim,  Hofstra University

Ramin Sarraf, National University

Anousha Sedighi, Portland State University 

Mahvash Shahegh, John Hopkins

Anousha Shahsavari, University of Texas, Austin

Niloufar Yarmohammadi, University of Maryland

Habib Borjian, New York City


 SESSION 27 | MARQUEE 2 | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Issues of Demography and Public Policy

Chair: Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani, University of Toronto

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Virginia Tech and Harvard University
The Changing Pattern of Marriage in Iran: Responses to the Marriage Squeeze

Maryam Rezaee, University of York
Reasons for Not Pursuing Tertiary Education Among Women

Azim Fazilpour, Sorbonne University
Iran Narcotics Control Strategy & Geography of Drugs 


Break | 10:30-11:00 a.m.


SESSION 28 | CAROUSEL A | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Gender and Diaspora in Literature And Film

Chair: Amy Malek, UCLA

Manijeh Mannani, Athabasca University
Censorship and Autobiography: The Plight of Iranian Female Memoirists

Leila Pazargadi, UCLA
What’s so funny?: Investigating Humor in the Memoirs of Firoozeh Dumas and Marjane Satrapi

Nima Naghibi, Ryerson University
Feeling Nostalgic: Remembering Iran in Nahid Persson's The Queen and I

Rivanne Sandler, University Of Toronto
Journeys From the Past: Diaspora Memoirs 


SESSION 29 | CAROUSEL B | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

 

Roundtable Discussion and Readings: Daftarha-ye Shanbeh (Saturday Books) in a Historical Perspective. In Memoriam Mansour Khaksar. 

 (Sponsored by the Persian Flagship Program at the University of Maryland) 

Chair: Majid Roshangar

Participants:

Majid Naficy

Mehrnoush Mazareie

Khosrow Davami

Alireza Tabibzadeh

Shirin-dokht Daghighian

Davoud Gholam-hosseini

Partow Nooriala

Fariba Sedighim

Sheida Mohamadi


 

SESSION 30 | CAROUSEL C | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M

Safavid Persia: Tribal Policies And Travel Narratives 

 Chair: Rudi Matthee, University of Delaware

Akihiko Yamaguchi, University of the Sacred Heart
Shah Tahmasb's Kurdish Policy 

Saeid Hooshangi, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Iberian Travelers in Persia in the Safavid Period

Rudi Matthee, University of Delaware
From Rose Gardens to Bloody Anarchy: European Enlightenment Imagines of Early Modern Iran 


SESSION 31 | MARQUEE 1 | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Currirulum Design Guidelines and Persian Materials Development. Part II

Cosponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Persian

Chairs: Pardis Minuchehr, University of Pennsylvania and Latifeh Hagigi, UCLA

Mahvash Shahegh, John Hopkins

Fereshteh Amanat-Kowsar , Yale University

Ramin Sarraf, National University

Azita Mokhtari, National University

Maryam Borjian, CUNY

Haideh Sahim,  Hofstra University

Parvaneh Hosseini, University of Arizona

Anousha Shahsavari, University of Texas, Austin

Manouchehr Kasheff, New York University

Niloufar Yarmohammadi, University of Maryland

Anousha Sedighi, Portland State University

Habib Borjian, New York City


SESSION 32 | MARQUEE 2 | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Myth, Epic, And Kinship In Iranian Late Antiquity

Chair: Touraj Daryaee, University of California, Irvine

Azadeh Fadaie Tehrani, Tehran University
Stone: Silent Presence in Old Iranian Beliefs

Matthew Canepa, University of Minnesota
Iranian Kingship in Global Context and as a Global Commodity between Alexander and Islam.

Khodadad Rezakhani, UCLA
Prosopography of the Late Sasanian Empire: Sasanian Elite After the Reforms of Khosrow I

Sara Mashayekh, University of California, Irvine
Ancestry and the Myth of Royal Origins: the Sasanian Royal Identity as Reflected in Karnamag-i Ardaxshir-i Pabagan

 


 Lunch | 12:30-2:00 p.m.

Workshop on Academic Publishing, Gallery South

with

Iraj Bagherzade, I.B. Tauris 

Mohammad Batmanglij, Mage Publishers 

A. Kamron Jabbari, Mazda Publishers

Farideh Koohi-Kamali, Palgrave Macmillan

 


 

SESSION 33 | CAROUSEL A | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Family (secrets), Politics, and Nation: Filiations and Affiliations in the Literature of the Iranian Diaspora

Chair: Amy Motlagh, American University in Cairo

Discussant: Babak Elahi, Rochester Institute of Technology

Amena Moinfar, University of Texas at Austin
The Child in European Exile in Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

Manijeh Moradian, New York University
Hyphenated by Politics: Memoirs by Children of Iranian Leftists

Sanaz Raji, University of Leeds
The Mystery of the Past: Gendered Responses to Family History in Jasmin Crowther's Saffron Kitchenand Porochista Khakpour's Sons and Other Flammable Objects

Laetitia Nanquette, School of Oriental and African Languages, London
The Persian Novel in French: A Hybrid Genre 


SESSION 34| CAROUSEL B | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Re-Reading Iranian Shi’ism: International and Transnational Connections and Influence

Chair: M. Ghanoonparvar, University of Texas at Austin

Christine D. Baker, University of Texas at Austin
Rebels, Revolutionaries, and Assassins: A Historiographical Analysis of European Portrayals of Shi’ism

Hanan Hammad, Texas Christian University
Rapprochement of Islamic Sects and Authoritarian Nationalism: Dar al-Taqrib 1948-1980


Banafsheh Madaninejad, University of Texas at Austin
Islamic Hermeneutics in Iran: A Rereading of Revelation 

 Faegheh Shirazi, University of Texas at Austin
When Not Equal in Life, "Almost" Equal in Death  

 SESSION 35 | CAROUSEL C | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

 

 Looking at Each Other: Iran and Russia in the 17th through Early 20th Centuries. 

CHAIR: Jennifer Jenkins, University of Toronto

DISCUSSANT: Firuz Kazemzadeh, Yale University

Rudi Matthee, University of Delaware
Everyone an Orientalist: Russian-Iranian Relations in the Mid-Seventeenth Century

Maziar Behrooz, San Francisco State University
Contradictory Perceptions: Iranian Views of the Russian Myth During the Period 1825-1828

Elena Andreeva, Virginia Military Institute
Visual Representations of Iran in Russian Travelogues of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries


SESSION 36 | MARQUEE 1 | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

The Urban Environment: Public and Private Spaces

 Chair: Pamela Karimi, MIT and Umass Dartmouth

Fariba Kermani, Research Center of Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization 
Safavid Bazaars and the Effects of Climate

Mehrnoush Soroush, New York University
Emad Kazaree, Drexel University
Reconstruction of Kerman under the Governance of Zahir al-Dawlah: A Comprehensive Master Plan in the Traditional Society of Iran

Farhad Roozbehi, University of Versailles
Tehran and Paris, Capitals of the 19th Century: A Historical Comparison

Azita Rezvan, Independent Scholar
Iranian Domesticity in the Houses’ Semi-open Spaces  


SESSION 37| MARQUEE 2 | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Author Meets Critic: The Life and Times of the Shah

 

Author: Golam Reza Afkhami

Critic: TBA 


Break | 3:30-4:00 p.m.


SESSION 38 | CAROUSEL A | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Screening Iran: new approaches to contemporary Iranian film and television

Chair: Nasrin Rahimieh, University of California-Irvine

Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad, University of London
Film Censorship and the Problem of Reception

Saeed Talajooy, University College London
Iranian Cinema and Intercultural Adaptation: The Case of Dariush Mehrjui

Taraneh Dadar, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh
To Laugh or Not to Laugh: A Discussion of Hegemony and Television Comedy in Postrevolutionary Iran 


 

SESSION 39 | CAROUSEL B | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

The Politics of the Possible in Iran

 Chair: Afshin Matin-asgari, California State University, Los Angeles

Discussant: Farzin Vahdat, Harvard University

Mojtaba Mahdavi, University of Alberta
Post-Islamism in Iran: Neo-Shariati’s Post-Liberal Discourse and Soroush’s Liberal Islam

Omid Peyrow Shabani, University of Guelph
Between Revolution and Reform: The Prospect of Non-Violence Politics in Iran

Peyman Vahabzadeh, University of Victoria
The Politicization of Shi’ism in Iran and Its Possible Futures

Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani, University of Toronto
Engendering Ethics: The Production of Ethico-Political Discourse in Post-Revolutionary Iran 


SESSION 40 | CAROUSEL C | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Pre-Modern And Modern Historiography

Chair: Touraj Atabaki, International Institute of Social History

Ghazzal Dabiri, Columbia University
Competitive Impetus and the Representation of Prophets and Kings in Iranian Historiography from the Ninth to Eleventh century

Sholeh Quinn, University of California, Merced
Persian Historiography under the Gunpowder Empires

Yadullah Shahibzadeh, Oslo University
Ideology and Modern Historiography of Iran

Shahram Kholdi, University of Manchester
Agents of Revolution and Agents of History in the Islamic Republic of Iran 


SESSION 41 | MARQUEE 1 | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Issues of Diaspora in North America and in Iran

Chair: Roxanne Varzi, University of California, Irvine

Amy Malek, UCLA
Visual Representations of Iranian-American Subjectivities: Public Contestations and the Influence of the Local 

Janet Alexanian, University of California, Irvine
Engineering the Diaspora: Claims to Authority among Privileged Cultural Producers in Tehran and California

Camron Amin, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Murder, Madness and Assimilation: The Case of Brian Yasipour

Vahideddin Namazi, Université de Montréal
Iranians' Motivations for Immigration to Canada 


SESSION 42 | MARQUEE 2 | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Legacies: Remembered, Living, Preserved

Chair: Rahim Shayegan, UCLA

Haleh Emrani, UCLA
Family Law in the Religious Communities of the Late Sasanian Empire: Indicator of Social Change and Continuity

Dan Sheffield, Harvard University
Calendar Controversies: Collective Memory and Communal Authority in Early Modern Zoroastrianism

Ali Mousavi, Los Angeles County Museum 
Pasargadae: New Research and Restoration Project

Break | 5:30-6:00 p.m.


PLENARY SESSION 43 | MARQUEE BALLROOM| 6:00-7:00

Ehsan Yarshater’s Contribution to Iranian Studies

 

Chair: Richard N. Frye, Harvard University

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland

Charles Melville, University of Cambridge

Oktor Skjaervo, Harvard University

William Hanaway, University of Pennsylvania


 Break | 7:00-8:00 p.m.

SESSION SESSION 44 | CAROUSEL BALLROOM | 8:00-10:00 

The Ehsan Yarshater 90th Birthday Tribute & Reception  

 Sunday, 30 May 2010

SESSION 45 | CAROUSEL A | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Iranian Literature: Reflections on Modernity and Gender

Chair: Kamran Talattof, University of Arizona

Ali Mir-Ansari, Centre for the Great Encyclopeadia of Islam
The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and the Plays of Mirza-zadeh Eshghi

Kourosh Kamali Sarvestani, Fars Encyclopedia
Modernity, Enmity and Infatuation with Sa`di

Azita Hamedani, University of Payam-e Nur 
Early Twentieth Century Persian Literature in Transoxiana and Persia: The Role of History and Modernity in the Rise of New Literature

Lyudmila Yaneva, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Gender and the Creative Impulse in the Short Stories of Zahra Hakimi, Farideh Kheradmand, Moniru Ravanipur and Zoya Pirzad 


SESSION 46 | CAROUSEL B | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Modern Iran And The World II

Chair: Maziar Behrooz, San Francisco State University

Majid Tafreshi, University of London
The first Soviet Ambassador in Persia: Theodore Rothstein and his life and times in Russia, Britain and Persia

Jerzy Kotarba, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Iranian Counterinsurgency Operations in the Sultanate of Oman, 1973-1979

Frik Khatami-Tirgordi, Yerevan State University
Soviet-Iranian Relations and the United States in 1979-1989


SESSION 47 | CAROUSEL C | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Interpretations and Reinterpretations of Myth and History in Premodern Persian Literature

Chair: Mahdi Tourage, University of Western Ontario

Koorosh Angali, Independent Scholar
The Case of Purandokht and Ferdowsi's Chauvinism

Lale Uluc, Bogazici University
Ibrahim Sultan's Iskandarnama and Its Importance

Pegah Shahbaz,University of Strasbourg
Guile and Its Various Symbolic Representations in Touti-Nâmeh 


SESSION 48 | MARQUEE 1 | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Topics on Journalism: Views from Iran (in Persian)

Chair: Fariba Amini, Independent writer and journalist

Discussant: Kazem Alamdari, California State University

Fariba Amini, Independent Writer and Journalist

Interviews with the Interviewers

Soheil Asefi, Independent Journalist
Journalism in Iran: Perspectives and Analyses. Where Do Independent Journalists Stand?

Fereshteh Ghazi, Rooz Online
Journalists: Prisoners of Pen in Iran 


SESSION 49 | MARQUEE 2 | 9:00-10:30 A.M.

Women's Issues In Modern Iran (in Persian)

Chair: Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani, University of Toronto

Nahid Tavassoli, Editor-in-Chief of Nafeh 
Wives Who Kill Their Husbands (Shawhar-kushi)

Soheila Vahdati, Independent Scholar
In Search of Identity: The Iranian Women’s Movement

Partow Nooriala, Poet, Critic, Commentator
The Role of Women in the Presidential Elections of 2009/ 1388 AHSh, and in the Post-Electoral Green Movement

 


Break | 10:30-11:00 a.m.


SESSION 50| CAROUSEL A | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

 

 Counterpoints: Culture, Art, and Society in Modern Iran

 

Chair: Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland 

Golbarg Rekabtalaei, University of Toronto
Iranian Counter Cinema: The Transformation of Pre-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema

Shabnam Rahimi-Golkhandan, University of Toronto
Tufigh Advertisements: The Formation of a Modern Visual Vernacular.

Hamid Rezaeiyazdi, University of Toronto
Fictions of Modernity: A Postcolonial Reading of 20th Century Iranian Novels

Ida Meftahi, University of Toronto
Dance and "Counter-Dance" in Modern Iran


SESSION 51 | CAROUSEL B | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

The Mandate and Experience of Clerical Rule in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Chair: Mojtaba Mahdavi, University of Alberta

Alireza Shomali, Wheaton College
Political Mysticism and Post-Revolutionary Iran

Ebrahim Soltani, Syracuse University
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Idea of Political Representation

Kourosh Rahimkhani, Independent Researcher
The Institutionalization of the Clerical Establishment in Post-Revolutionary Iran: The Case of the Friday Prayer


SESSION 52 | CAROUSEL C | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Farsi Shekar Ast? The Language(s) of Belonging in Iran and its Diaspora

Chair: Guilan Siassi, UCLA.
Discussant: Kamran Talattof, University of Arizona

Guilan Siassi, UCLA
Mother-Tongue and Father-Word in Jamalzadeh’s 'Farsi Shekar Ast'

Amy Motlagh, American University in Cairo
Writing Reform from the Margins: Minor(ity) Voices and the Question of Civil Society

Nasrin Rahimieh, University of California, Irvine
Translating Taghi Modarressi’s Writing with an Accent

Babak Elahi, Rochester Institute of Technology
The Fleshless Word: Defamiliarizing Language and Literature in the Iranian Diaspora 


SESSION 53 | MARQUEE 1 | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Sociolinguistics and Linguistics 

Ramin Sarraf, National University, La Jolla

Negar Davari-Ardakani, Shahid Beheshti University
Iranian Linguistic Attitudes and Persian Language Planning (A Case Study in Tehran)

Ladan Hamedani, University of Ottawa
Pluralization and Mass/Count Distinction in Persian

Pouneh Shabani Jadidi, McGill University/University of Ottawa
Processing Compound Verbs: Evidence from Persian

 


SESSION 54 | MARQUEE 2 | 11:00 A.M.-12:30 P.M.

Debate, Dialect, Magic and Discourse in Late Antique Iran

Chair: Touraj Daryaee, University of California, Irvine

Charles G. Häberl, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey
Aramaic Incantation Bowls and Late Sasanian Mesopotamia

Kevin van Bladel, University of Southern California
Arabic Testimonies Concerning Western Iranian Dialects

Yuhan S.-D. Vevaina, Harvard University
The Zoroastrian Communities’ Response to Islam: Text, Debates and Interaction

Samuel Secunda, Hebrew University
Talmudic and Middle Persian Texts in Late Antiquity: Common Challenges and Discourse 


Lunch | 12:30-2:00 p.m.

Workshop on Academic Employment, Gallery South


SESSION 55 | CAROUSEL A | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Discourses On Self And Other

 

Chair: Rivanne Sandler, University of Toronto 

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, University of Oxford
Self-Orientalisation and Dislocation: The Roots of the Aryan Discourse in Iran 

Mina Yazdani, University of Toronto
The Islamic Revolution’s Internal ‘Other’

Mona Khademi, Independent Scholar
Laura Dreyfus-Barney: An American Woman's Connections with Iran and Iranians


SESSION 56| CAROUSEL B | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Economics and Society

Chair: Roksana Bahramitash, Université de Montréal

Touraj Atabaki, International Institute of Social History 
From Ámalah to Kargar: The Making of Working Class in the Iranian Oil Industry

Pamela Karimi, MIT and Umass Dartmouth
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company as Cultural Enterpreneur: Architecture and Urban Space in Abadan

Mikiya Koyagi, University of Texas at Austin
An Iranian Project? The Trans-Iranian Railway and Nation-Building in the Reza Shah Period

Thierry Coville, Negocia
The Foundations in Iran: An Obstacle to the Globalization of the Iranian Economy ? 


SESSION 57 | CAROUSEL C | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

War in Persian Literature

Chair: Faridoun Farrokh, Texas A&M International University

Discussant: Paul Sprachman, Rutgers University

Mohammad-Reza Ghanoonparvar, University of Texas at Austin
Modern Warfare in Persian Literature

Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland
Russo-Iranian Wars of the Early 19th Century in Persian Poetry

Mehdi Khorrami, University of New York
Moments of Silence: The Authentic Narratives of War in Recent Persian Fiction

Faridoun Farrokh, Texas A&M International University
The Nobility of Battle and the Scourge of War 


SESSION 58 | MARQUEE 1 | 2:00-3:30 P.M.

Cultural Politics and Urban Poetics 

 Chair: Nima Naghibi, Ryerson University

Alice Bombardier, University of Geneva
Cultural Policy and Painting under Reza Shah Pahlavi (1925-1941)

Gai Bray, Ethnomusicologist
‘Waking Up the Colours’: Candour and Allegory in Women’s Rap Music

Afsaneh Kalantary, Loyola University, Chicago
The Spirit of Carnival in the Iranian Presidential Election Campaign of 2009

Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Univeristy of Toronto
Cultural Engineering in Contemporary Iran


SESSION 59| MARQUEE 2 | 2:00-3:30 P.M.


Dissemination of Iranian Languages and Iranian Studies

Chair: Afshin Matin-asgari, California State University, Los Angeles

Dariush Borbor, Arya International University, Yerevan
The Diachrony, Synchrony, Etymology and Gloss of the New Persian bōr as a Category of Color

Byung-Ock Chang, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Iranian Studies in Korea 

Yashar Abdulselyamoglu, University of Sofia, Bulgaria
Kurdish Studies: The Need for a New Approach


Break | 3:30-4:00 p.m.


SESSION 60 | CAROUSEL A | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Women without Men: Novel to Film


Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland


SESSION 61 | CAROUSEL B | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

The Nation and its Ethno-Religious Communities

Chair: Afshin Matin-asgari, California State University, Los Angeles

Discussant: Nikki Keddie, UCLA

Nayereh Tohidi, California State University, Northridge
Ethnic and Religious Minority Politics in Contemporary Iran

Fereydoun Safizadeh, Boston University
Ya Hussein: Religion, Ethnic Identity, Ethnic Relations and Ethnicity in Iran

Rasmus Christian Elling, University of Copenhagen
National Unity, Ethnic Diversity and the Islamic Republic of Iran

Mehrdad Amanat, Independent Scholar
Set in Stone: Religious Ambiguity and Postmortem Identity 


SESSION 62 | CAROUSEL C | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

TBA

 Chair: TBA



Session 63 | Marquee 1 | 4:00-5:30 p.m.

Information Communication Technology, Politics, Social Movements and Post-Revolutionary Iran

Chair: Babak Rahimi, University of California at San Diego

Elham Gheytanchi, Santa Monica College
ICT and the 2009 Electoral Politics in Iran

Mahmood Enayat, University of Oxford
Converging or Diverging Weblogistan?

Adam Greenfield, Nokia
Network City and Citizenship in Post-Revolutionary Tehran

Mehdi Yahyanejad, Balatarin
Blogging Iran 


SESSION 64 | MARQUEE 2 | 4:00-5:30 P.M.

Sufism: Poetry And Practice

Chair: Reza Pourjavady, McGill University

Eliza Tasbihi, Concordia University
Nay Nameh or "The Song of the Reed" in Rumi’s Mathnawi through the Prism of the Comentators

Chad Lingwood, Grand Valley State University
The Political Significance of Jami’s Salaman va Absal, an Allegorical Persian Romance Addressed to the Aq Qoyunlu Court

Firoozeh Papan-Matin, University of Washington
An Early Chishti Leader of the Deccan and the Twelfth-Century Mystics of Iran  


 Break: 5:30-6:00



PLENARY SESSION 65 | MARQUEE BALLROOM| 6:00-7:00 

Boundaries between Scholarship and Activism: A Public Discussion

Chair: Nahid Mozaffari, Independent Scholar

Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, University of Toronto

Nayereh Tohidi, California State University, Northridge

Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani, University of Toronto 


Break | 7:00-8:00 p.m.


SESSION 66 | CAROUSEL BALLROOM | 8:00-10:00

Special Reception