CONFERENCE PROGRAM | AUGUST 3

Please note the program has undergone some changes since it was posted below. To see the most up-to-date program, please download the pdf version.

“(P)” appearing before panel titles denotes Persian-language panels

Session 1

9:00-10:30 a.m.
9:00-10:30 a.m. Ballroom III

Panel 43: (Re-)Thinking Iranian Studies: A Workshop on the Academic Study of Iran (workshop)

9:00-10:30 a.m. Ballroom I

Panel 44: Performing Arts Before and After the 1979 Revolution

  • William Beeman University of Minnesota, United States
  • Jane Lewisohn School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
    Archiving and Preserving the Endangered Archives of the Twentieth-Century Iranian Performing Arts
  • Parmis Mozafari University of Leeds, UK
    The Centre for the Preservation and Propagation of the Traditional Music of Iran: Formation, Activities and Long-Term Impacts
9:00-10:30 a.m. M32

Panel 45: (P) Islam, Politics, and Society from the Thirteenth to the Nineteenth Century

  • Kamal Haj Seyed Javadi Higher Education Center for Cultural Heritage, Tehran, Iran
  • Morteza Ghassembagloo Independent Scholar, Iran
    The Position of Shī’īsm in Iran from the Time of the Mongol Invasion to the Founding of the Safavid Dynasty on the Basis of Numismatic Evidence
  • Mahmoodreza Esfandiar Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
    The Meaning of “Mahdaw ī’at” (Mahdism) and Its Religious, Political, and Social Implications in the Safavid Era
  • Ghaffar Abdollahi University of Isfahan, Iran
    Abolhassan Mīrzā “Shaykh al-Ra’īs Qajār”: The Harbinger Prince of Pan-Islam
9:00-10:30 a.m. R25

Panel 46: Being, Reality, Self, and Knowledge from Mullā Ṣadrā to Immanuel Kant: From Ontological Argument to Synthetic Judgment in Iranian Intellectual Milieus

  • Maria Dakake George Mason University, United States
    “Knowing Things as They Really Are”: Knowledge and Spiritual Hierarchy in Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī and Mullā Ṣadrā
  • Mohammed Rustom Carleton University, Canada
    Ontology and Cosmogony in Mullā Ṣadrā's Scriptural Hermeneutics
  • Roman Seidel University of Zurich, Switzerland
    Reading Kant in Teheran: On the Iranian Reception of Kantian Philosophy
9:00-10:30 a.m. M31

Panel 47: Descriptive Imagery and Dramatic Elements in the Avesta

  • Mehrdad Shabahang École pratique des hautes études, Sorbonne University, Paris, France
  • Rahele Koulabadi Sistan and Baluchestan University, Iran
    An Overview of Goddesses Anahita and Ishtar
  • Manya Saadi-nejad Concordia University, Canada
    Visual Representations of Anahita in the Avesta
  • Seyyedeh Fatemeh Musavi Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran
    Dramatic Elements of Yasna show abstract
    It is widely believed that drama emerged from myth, ritual, and ceremony. Early societies perceived connections between certain actions performed by the group or leaders in the group and the desired results of the whole society. These actions moved from habit, to tradition, and then on to ceremony and ritual. The formulation of these actions, and the consequent repetition and rehearsal, broke the ground for theatre. Accordingly, Yasna, as a ritual text, also contains dramatic elements. In this paper, the text of Yasna will be analyzed closely to see what elements are included. Dramatic elements include acts, dialogue, actors and characters, spectacles and setting.
9:00-10:30 a.m. M39

Panel 48: Constitution, Legislation, and Rights in Contemporary Iran

  • Leyla Mostafavi University of Ottawa, Canada
  • Mohsen Khalili Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
    The Narrative of Self / Other in the Debates of the Constituent Assembly of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran
  • Alireza Shomali Wheaton College, United States
    Debates on Political Secularism in Contemporary Iran: A Critical View
  • Sussan Siavoshi Trinity College, United States
    Ayatollah Montazeri and the Concept of Human Rights show abstract
    In his 2004 book on Huqquq (Rights), Montazeri articulates a position that bridges the distance between a traditional and god-centered Islamic conception of human rights, on the one hand, and the human-centered position of the advocates of International Bill of Human Rights, on the other. Montazeri’s position in this book differs from the one he held in an earlier part of his life. This paper investigates the question of whether or not Montazeri’s later position on human rights violates authentic Islamic laws (a narrower and stricter category than Islamic principles). The ultimate goal of the paper is to contribute to the on-going debate about the compatibility of Islamic laws with principles of human rights.
9:00-10:30 a.m. R20

Panel 49: Transculturation, Cultural Translation, and Third Spaces in Modern Poetry

  • Zuzanna Olszewska St. John’s College, University of Oxford, UK
  • Amr Ahmed Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
    Modern Kurdish Poetry: from Persian Reference to Turkish Model
  • Neda Ali Zadeh Kashani Macerata University, Italy
    The Emergence of ‘Ghazal’ in North America among Contemporary Female Poets and Its Socio-Cultural Background: the Cases of Adrienne Rich and Alicia Ostriker
  • Leila Samadi Rendy University of Göttingen, Germany
    Poetry of Iranian Women in Diaspora
9:00-10:30 a.m. R26

Panel 50: Persian Curriculum: Language in Context

  • Pardis Minuchehr George Washington University, United States
  • Azita Mokhtari National University, United States
    Communicative Approaches to Teaching Persian Designed for Heritage Learners
  • Ramin Sarraf National University, United States
    Teaching Culture through Infomercials
  • Aria Fani Independent Scholar, United States
    Creating Advanced Level Textbooks for Heritage Learners
9:00-10:30 a.m. Ballroom II

Panel 51: Post-Revolutionary Persian Literature

  • Rivanne Sandler University of Toronto, Canada
  • Laetitia Nanquette School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
    The Translations of Modern Persian Literature in the United States, 1979-2011 show abstract
    This paper analyzes the practices of translation from modern Persian literature into English in the United States over the last thirty years, defining where the translation field intersects with the academic, political, and literary fields in the case of Persian translations. The analysis is based on the study of an exhaustive list of the 98 literary texts of modern Persian literature, defined as starting with Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh’s Once Upon a Time (1921), published between 1979 and 2011 and translated into English. It describes the production milieu of modern Persian translations in the American market and analyzes in quantitative and qualitative terms the modern Persian translations.
  • Ludmila Yaneva Sofia University, Bulgaria
    The Influence of Gender-Segregated Society and Traditional Norms of Behavior on the Life of Young Iranians and its Depiction in Contemporary Iranian Literature
  • Amirhossein Vafa University of Sheffield, UK
    The Problem of Complicity with Hegemonic Masculinity in Goli Taraghi’s Another Place show abstract
    Amir-Ali, the protagonist of In Another Place is a representation of urban middle-class heterosexual masculinity in modern Iran. He is a man in compliance with the power structure of hegemonic masculinity, who benefits from the advantages of patriarchy but does not rigorously practice it. In the context of contemporary Iran, the “patriarchal dividend” is a set of God-given privileges epitomized by the ruling elite in one hegemonic “hypermasculinity” with costly consequences for the majority of men.1 Set in 1998 Tehran, Amir-Ali lives a peaceful married life, though on the verge of a mid-life crisis. I argue that the protagonist’s struggle to comply with hegemonic masculinity is a significant cause of his predicament. In fact, the amalgam of alienating effects within the private and public spheres of Amir-Ali’s life contributes to his ensuing gender anxiety, eventually leading him to fragmentation and respite from society, leaving the hegemonic order intact and evermore effective.
9:00-10:30 a.m. R24

Panel 52: Iran in the Cold War

  • James Goode Grand Valley State University, US
  • Artemy M. Kalinovsky University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
    The Soviet Union and Mosaddeq
  • Roham Alvandi London School of Economics, UK
    Kissinger and the Shah's Nuclear Program, 1974-1977
  • Barin Kayaoglu University of Virginia, US
    The Close Relations That Never Were: Turkey and Iran in the 1970s
9:00-10:30 a.m. M30

Panel 53: Contemporary Iran and the Hispanic World

  • Leila Piran George Washington University, United States
  • Marina Díaz Sanz Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
    Views of Iranian Politics in Spain since 2002: A Discourse Analysis of Spanish Newspapers El País and ABC
  • Manochehr Dorraj Texas Christian University, United States
    Iran's Relations with Latin America
  • Sergio Moya University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica
    Iran and Latin America: Vital Interests and Soft-Power Strategy show abstract
    The approach of the Islamic Republic of Iran to certain Latin American countries under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is one of the newest developments of contemporary international relations. There are combinations of factors that have driven the growing and multi-layered relationship between Iran and these countries since 2005. Iran shares with them a combination of interests: the necessity to find new trade partners, an anti-imperialist ideology, the aspiration to play a larger role on the world´s stage and the desire of foreign policy independence. This article analyzes the political, commercial and strategic dimensions of Iran's foreign policy to Latin America during the presidency of Ahmadinejad and the configuration of a soft power approach to this region.

Session 2

10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m.
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. Ballroom III

Panel 54: Sources in Safavid Studies (I): Mirrors-for-Princes (akhlaq)

  • Louise Marlow Wellesley College, US
  • Maria Subtelny University of Toronto, Canada
    The Fate of Husain Va‘iz Kashifi’s Oeuvre under the Safavids
  • Karin Ruehrdanz Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada
    Moralizing in a Specious Style show abstract
    This paper analyzes the pictorial program of the earliest extant illustrated copy of Kashifi’s Akhlaq-i Muhsini in the context of a “fake Herat style” that was practiced in Tabriz and Istanbul in the early decades of the 16th century. This style had been shaped to visually accompany collections of lyrical poetry and used the imagery of the princely cycle. With its generic representations of aristocratic pastimes it was not well suited to serve the illustration of moralizing narratives. The paper discusses the implications of the genre-transcending application of the “fake Herat style” in the Akhlaq-i Muhsini and concludes with a tentative attribution of the manuscript.
  • Colin Mitchell Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
    A Mirror-for-Lala?: Shah Tahmasp's Farman (1544) to the Governor of Herat
  • Sholeh Quinn University of California, Merced, US
    A Late Safavid Mirror for Princes show abstract
    The Risalah dar padishahi-i Safavi is a little known primary source from the late Safavid period. The unique manuscript was published in 2009.The author of the work, a certain Muhammad Yusuf Gurji Naji, composed the Risalah in 1715 during the reign of Shah Sultan Husayn (r. 1694-1722). This paper will analyze one section of the treatise, titled “kingship is from God,” in light of its references to Shah Isma‘il. These consist of mostly hadith and also other types of sources, all of which Naji point to as foretelling Isma‘il’s rise to power. The paper concludes by placing the treatise in historical and historiographical contexts, suggesting a Shah Isma‘il centered historiographical revival in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. M32

Panel 55: Beyond Auteurs: A Study of Genre Development in Post-Revolutionary Iranian Cinema

10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. M39

Panel 56: Iran in Late Antiquity (II): Literary, Cultural, Historical, & Linguistic Continuities, Discontinuities, and Adaptations

  • Sepideh Khaksar Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
  • Haila Manteghi Amin University of Exeter, UK
    Is the Manuscript of Nihāya (Pseudo-Asmaí) Based on the Lost Translation of Xwadāy-nāmag of Ibn al-Muqaffa?
  • Kaveh Bassiri University of Arkansas, United States
    Hybridity and the Making of Persian Poetry in the Abbasid Era
  • Conrad Harter University of California, Irvine, United States
    Narrative and Iranian Identity in the New Persian Renaissance
  • Abolghasem Dadvar Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
    Iran's Musical Objects and Compositions: From Prehistoric to Sasanian Times, with Consideration of Archeological Observations show abstract
    This paper is going to introduce different kinds of musical instruments(such as wind, string and percussion) from pre-Islamic Iran, the aim of the article is to present all information which are given in discovered objects from archeological excavations by studying of their images and designs . Also it discusses about written literatures of different periods such as: Zariran's memoir,Viss and Ramin, letter of Tansser, Karname-ye Ardeshir-e Babakan, Moravej-o Zahab, Beihaghi's History,Shah-nama of Ferdowsi, and Greek literature such as Herodotus and Xenophon's works . This information analysis through studying of existing collection related to pre- Islamic period which include some data about, objects, instruments and pre-Islamic music of Iran.
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. M30

Panel 57: Approaches to the Qurʾān in Contemporary Iran (I): Text

  • Daryoush Mohammad Poor Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
  • Rainer Brunner Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France
    Modern Shī’ī Authors on the Question of the Authenticity of the Text of the Qurʾān (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries)
  • Todd Lawson University of Toronto, Canada
    A Text within a Text within a Text within a Text: The Bāb's Commentary on the Sura of Joseph
  • Aun Hasan Ali McGill University, Canada
    The Qurʾān and Contemporary Iranian Shī’ī Discourse on the Origins of Language
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. R26

Panel 58: (P) Painting and Illustration in the Qajar Period

  • Alireza Anisi Iran Cultural Heritage Organization, Tehran, Iran
  • Mahtab Javid Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
    The Continuation of Shiraz School's Tradition in the Dāvari Shāhnāma's Miniature Paintings: The Works of Aghā Lotfali Suratgar show abstract
    The focus of this paper is the paintings of Agha Lutf ‘Ali Suratgar- between A.H.1273/A.D.1857 and A.H.1280/A.D.1864- in one of the latest shahnameh manuscripts named Davari’s Shahnameh which was produced in Shiraz under Qajar epoch. It aimes to revive the principals of Shiraz tradition in the pictorial style of Suratgar’s paintings which are reviewed through comparative analysis with early examples of Shahnameh painting in Shiraz style . The examination of the paintings’ iconography reveals a remarkable similarity to the classical style of fourteenth century Shiraz shahnameh manuscripts, particularly that of A.H.730/A.D.1330 and A.H.731/A.D.1333- the earliest known dated volumes of shahnameh- which are considered to provide the foundations for Persian miniature painting . The main characteristics of Shiraz tradition which have survived during centuries and have been reflected in Suratgar’s paintings are : the emphasis on historical and epic scenes, close text-image relationship, simplified and symmetrical compositions, the application of most basic elements, large figures placed on the lower edge of the picture, and limited palette. It can be said that working in Shiraz, artists were provided with the same source of inspiration which results in profound commonalities not only in the style of painting but also in a particular interest in the Iranian national epic.It seems that the tradition of Shahnameh painting in Shiraz survived since the first half of the fourteenth century to the late nineteenth, in spite of numerous ups and downs, and was still committed to the same principles.
  • Ali Boozari Art Lecturer, Tehran, Iran
    Mirzā Hasan Ibn Aghā Sayyid Mirzā Isfahāni, the Court and Public Painter of the Qājar Era
  • Mohammad Azadi Independent Scholar, Iran
    Reverse Glass Painting of the Ascent of the Prophet to Heaven
  • Orkideh Torabi University Lecturer, Tehran, Iran
    Master Sattār Tabrizi, the Eminent Illustrator of Lithographed Books
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. R25

Panel 59: Wandering Stories in Persian Literature and Beyond

  • Natalia Chalisova Russian State University for Humanities, Moscow, Russia
  • Gabrielle van den Berg Leiden University, Netherlands
    Wandering Stories: Farigh-e Gilani's Book on the Heroic Feats of 'Ali
  • Amara S. Elahi Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, UK
    Vis and Ramin and its Parallels in the East and in the West
  • Firuza I. Abdullaeva University of Cambridge, UK
    Femme Fatale in Persian Literature and Beyond
  • Victoria Kryukova Russian Academy of Sciences, St-Petersburg, Russia
    Babr-e Bayān in Iranian and Russian Mythology
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. Ballroom II

Panel 60: Rural Iran and Modernization, Globalization, & Development — Anthropological Perspectives (I): Economy, Fertility and Health

  • Erika Friedl Western Michigan University, United States
  • Soheila Shahshahani Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
    From a Village Vantage Point: Oyun after a Revolution, a War and the Islamic Republic
  • Bernard Hourcade Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France
    The Neglected Garden? The Economy of Rural Iran
  • Amandine Lebugle-Mojdehi Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France
    The Integration of the Rural to the Urban World: The Fertility Decline in Rural Iran
  • Mohammad Shahbazi Jackson State University, United States
    Niloofar Shiva Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
    From Rural Iran to Rural Mississippi: An Anthropological Approach to Understanding and Replicating the Health House Concept for Rural Populations in Two Nations
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. M31

Panel 61: Electoral Politics in Iran: From Participation to Representation

  • Setrag Manoukian McGill University, Canada
  • Azim Fazlipour Sorbonne University, France
    Pursuit the Right: Women's Right to Vote in Iran's Political History
  • Homa Hoodfar Concordia University, Canada
    Women and Party Politics in Iran: Re-Mapping the Political Landscape
  • Mona Tajali Concordia University, Canada
    Women’s Quest for Political Representation: Female Politicians in Iran and Turkey
  • Luciano Zaccara Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
    Iranian Majles Elections as Mechanisms of Elite Recruitment and Competition
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. Ballroom I

(P) Literary Violence, Textual Identity, and Persian Modernist Writing (sponsored by Iran Nameh)

  • M.R. Ghanoonparvar University of Texas at Austin, United States
  • Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami New York University, United States
    Modernist Readings of Myths: Rhetorical Violence in Bijan Najdi’s “The Eve of the Slaying of Sohrab”
  • Houra Yavari Columbia University, United States
    The Violence of Rhetoric
  • Kamyar Abedi Osaka University, Japan
    Modern Persian Poetry and the Expression of Violence
  • Hassan Merabedini University of Zanjan, Iran
    Persian Novel and the Language of Violence

Lunch Break

12:40-2:00 p.m.
Special Lunch-time Forum 12:50-1:50 p.m. Ballroom I

Islam & Reform Movements in the Middle East and North Africa

  • Moderator: Ali Banuazizi Boston College, US
  • Discussant: Juan Cole University of Michigan, US
  • Discussant: Mustafa Akyol Political Commentator, Istanbul, Turkey

Session 3

2:00-3:30 p.m.
2:00-3:30 p.m. M31

Panel 63: Philanthropy and Iranian Studies: Iran Heritage Foundation, a Case Study (sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation)

  • Vahid Alaghband Iran Heritage Foundation, London, UK
2:00-3:30 p.m. Ballroom II

Panel 64: Being, Reality, and Meaning in the Fiction of Sadeq Hedayat

  • Houman Sarshar Independent Scholar, United States
  • Marta Simidchieva York University, Toronto, Canada
    In Search of ‘Alam-i Mithal: Hedayat’s The Blind Owl and the Persian Philosophical Tradition show abstract
    Focusing on the notion of 'alam-i mithal (Costello’s “ethereal world”) glimpses of which appear in Part I of Sadeq Hedayat’s novel The Blind Owl, the paper explores the possibility that it may be a reflection of the philosophy of Mulla Sadra (1572-1640), or of his predecessor Suhravardi (1154–1191), in whose works the term refers to an intermediary realm (Corbin’s mundus imaginalis or “imaginal world”) which exists alongside the material and spiritual worlds, and contains images not yet embedded in matter. It seems a plausible model for Hedayat’s alam-i mithal , which exists beyond time and place, and is inhabited by ghostly presences, replicated— crudely or with greater refinement—in reality and/or in art.
  • Aaron Haley University of Washington, United States1
    Hedayat’s Gothic Sublime: Repetition and Imagery in The Blind Owl
  • Homa Katouzian St. Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK
    The Blind Owl’s Precedents in Hedayat’s Psycho-fictions show abstract
    Sadeq Hedayat’s fictional works may be divided into four groups: romantic nationalist, critical realist, satire and psycho-fiction. The psycho-fictions are not quite the same as the traditional psychological fiction, but stories in which the psychology is unplanned and incidental. While the affinity among all of them can be easily observed, two of the earlier stories particularly anticipate The Blind Owl: ‘The Puppet behind the Curtain’ and ‘Three Drops of Blood’. There is however a basic difference between The Blind Owl and ‘Three Drops of Blood’, on the one hand, and all the rest of his works – including ‘The Puppet behind the Curtain’ - on the other: those two stories use modernist, more specifically surrealist, techniques, whereas all Hedayat’s works have been written in the critical realist style.
3:50-5:40 p.m. M30

Panel 65: Approaches to the Qurʾān in Contemporary Iran (II): Society

  • Alessandro Cancian Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, UK
  • Maryam Rutner New York University, United States
    Nosrat Amin (1886-1983) on Gender and Family Relations
  • Liyakat Takim McMaster University, Canada
    Qurʾān and the Rethinking of Tradition in Post-Revolutionary Iran
  • Anna Vanzan Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione IULM, Milan, Italy
    Reading the Qurʾān through Gender Lenses: a Contribution to a Gendered ʼIjtihād as Reflected in Iranian Women's Journals show abstract
    In Revolutionary Iran, some female theologists involved in a female-centered reading of the Qur'an have been sharing their endeavors with the lay public by publishing them in journals. By opening an open forum for discussing issues traditionally monopolized by the 'ulama, Iranian female periodicals not only favored a gender-sensitive approach to the Qur'an, but also increased a general need and willingness to approach the holy text for a new and more responsible reading.
2:00-3:30 p.m. R25

Panel 66: (P) The Iranian Constitutional Revolution as a Turning Point in Iranian Literature, Drama, and Historiography

  • Saeed Talajooy University of Cambridge, UK
  • Hamid Amjad Nila Publications, Iran
    The Patterns of Modernity in Constitutionary Drama
  • Javad Faal Alavi Dastaan-e Kootah journal, Iran
    The Constitutional Revolution and the Demise of Eloquent Mode of Narration
2:00-3:30 p.m. R26

Panel 67: Ritual and Mythology in Zoroastrian Texts: New Perspectives in Avestan Studies

  • Richard Foltz Concordia University, Canada
  • Zohreh Zarshenas Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran
    An Old Story from Avesta to Shāhnāma
  • Alberto Cantera University of Salamanca, Spain
    Toward a New Edition of the Avesta: Problems and Perspectives
2:00-3:30 p.m. Ballroom I

Panel 68: The State and Elections in Post-Revolutionary Iran

  • Juan Cole University of Michigan, United States
  • Mehrzad Boroujerdi Syracuse University, US
    Cabinets and Ministers in Post-Revolutionary Iran
  • Amir Moheet University of Hawaii, Manoa, United States
    Elite Fragmentation and the Paradox of Authoritarian Persistence in Iran
  • Alireza Namvar Haghighi University of Toronto, Canada
    The Role of Grassroots Campaigning in Iran’s Presidential Elections
2:00-3:30 p.m. R20

Panel 69: Non-Conformity, Marginality, and Trauma in the Islamic Republic of Iran

  • Houchang Chehabi Boston University, United States
  • Mina Yazdani Eastern Kentucky University, United States
    Denying al-Raj‘a while Remaining Shī‘ī
  • Leyla Mostafavi University of Ottawa, Canada
    Strategies for Survival: The Shaykhis of Kerman since the 1979 Iranian Revolution show abstract
    The Sheikhi movement and its subsequent geographic and scriptural divisions, one of which leads to present day Kerman, has been the subject of modest research. This deficiency in knowledge is amplified when investigating the contemporary beliefs, strategies of survival, and religious principles of the Sheikhi’s in Kerman, Iran. Considering this gap in knowledge, the subject of this paper is an analysis of the present day practices and beliefs of Shekhi’s of Kerman. This paper looks at the ways in which the Sheikhi’s have continued to differentiate themselves from the Usuli majority since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the transformation of their survival strategy vis-à-vis the state. The question this paper seeks to answer is in what ways have the broader socio-political changes taking places within the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979 have altered the beliefs and survival strategies of the Sheikhi community. The two general categories of survival, spanning the lifetime of the movement, have been quietism and/or messianic tendencies. This paper argues that the former strategy of quietism appears to be at work within the Sheikhi community since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The result of this strategy for survival has been a growing conservatism within Sheikhi beliefs and social relations, which this paper seeks to explain and outline. My research for this paper includes a rare personal interview with Sarkar Agha, the spiritual leader of the Sheikhi’s of Kerman, and personal interviews with various members of the Sheikhi community in both Iran and the diaspora.
2:00-3:30 p.m. M32

Panel 70: The Culture of Russo-Iranian Relations from the Early 19th Century to the Present (I)

  • Roham Alvandi London School of Economics, UK
  • Maziar Behrooz San Francisco State University, United States
    From Golestan to Turkmanchai: Diplomacy and Intrigue in Russo-Iranian Relations 1813-1828
  • Stephanie Cronin St Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK
    Deserters, Converts, Cossacks and Revolutionaries: Russians in Iranian Military Service 1800-1920
  • Moritz Deutschmann European University Institute, Florence, Italy
    Local Dynamics of Russia's Borders with Iran in the Late Nineteenth Century
2:00-3:30 p.m. R24

Panel 71: Sociolinguistics of Persian Language in Iran

  • Zohreh Eslami Texas A&M University, US
  • Abbass Eslami-Rasekh University of Isfahan, Iran
    Politeness in Persian: The East and West Divide
  • Azizullah Mirzaei Shahrekord University, Iran
    Sociolinguistic Variability in Iranian Wedding Discourse
  • Hamid Allami Yazd University, Iran
    Women as Guardians of Language Politeness: A Review of Sociolinguistic Studies on Politeness in Persian
3:50-5:40 p.m. M39

Panel 72: The Making of Social Identities in the Iranian Oil Industry

  • Touraj Atabaki International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Maral Jefroudi International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Class and Other Identities in the Iranian Oil Industry
  • Peyman Jafari International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    The Politics of Production: Labor, State and Capital in the Iranian Oil Industry
2:00-3:30 p.m. Ballroom III

Panel 73: Iconography, Illustration, and Cultural and Religious (Cross-)Referentiality (Thirteenth to Eighteenth Century)

  • Zahra Faridany-AkhavanIndependent Scholar, Paris, France
  • Sara Kuehn Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria
    “Being Held in the Dragon’s Maw”: Toward the “Delivering” and “Devouring” Aspect of the Dragon Iconography in Eastern Iran, the Caucasus and Eastern Anatolia/Jazira from the 10th to the 13th Century
  • Raya Shani Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
    Some Further Comments on the Late-15th Century Illustrated Copy of Ibn Ħusâm's Khâvarân-nâma in the Gulistan Palace Library in Tehran (Ms. 5750)
  • Lale Uluc Bogazici University, Turkey
    A Comparative Glance at the Ottoman and Safavid Court Workshops for the Arts of the Book: The Nakkashkhana versus the Kitabkhana

Session 4

3:50-5:40 p.m.
10:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. M39

Panel 74: Saintly Figures and Sacred Spaces: Constructing Place, Community and Empire in Persianate Societies

  • Maria Subtelny University of Toronto, Canada
  • Rosemary Stanfield-Johnson University of Minnesota, Duluth, United States
    Husnīya: A Female Mujtahid in the Caliph's Majlīs
  • Kishwar Rizvi Yale University, United States
    Lives of the Imams, Images of the Shah: Shī’īsm and Early Safavid Painting in Iran
  • John Dechant Indiana University, United States
    Zayn al-Dīn Taybādī and the Construction of Sacred Space in Khurāsān
  • Jo-Ann Gross College of New Jersey, United States
    The Tales and Genealogical Traditions of Sayyid Shāh Khāmush and the Creation of Sacred Identity show abstract
    This paper explores the tales and genealogical traditions of the traveler-missionary and foundational figure, Sayyid Mīr Hasan Khamosh (known as Shah Khamosh) who, according to local traditions from Badakhshan in present-day Tajikistan, conquered the "fire-worshipping rulers" of Shughnan in the twelfth century, brought Islam (Isma'ilism) to the region, and became the primordial ancestor of the Shahs of Shughnan who ruled there until 1883. Based on archival and field research and using local histories, traveler literature, oral narratives and genealogies, we will discuss how Shah Khamosh's sacred identity has formed over time and what significance it has for the history of Isma'ilism in the Pamir, and how his memory remains part of the sacred landscape through his mazar which is located in the village of Langar in Mu'minabad, Tajikistan.
3:50-5:40 p.m. Ballroom I

Panel 75: “Flowers of Persian Song and Music”: the Golha Digitization Project (sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation)

  • Jane Lewisohn School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
    The Golha Project, 2006-2012, and the Searchable, Relational Database of the Golhā Website
  • Leonard Lewisohn University of Exeter, UK
    The Monumental Web-based Encyclopædia of Persian Poetry and Music: the Impact of the Golhā Website on the Study of Persian Poetry
  • Alireza Miralinaghi Independent Scholar, Iran
    The Influence of the Golhā Programs on the Development of Twentieth-Century Classical Persian Music (Persian-language presentation)
  • Golhā Website Film
3:50-5:40 p.m. Ballroom III

Panel 76: Encounters in Imperial Borderlands: History and Historiographies of the Ottoman Empire and Iran

  • Linda Darling University of Arizona, United States
    Iran’s Western Frontier in Anatolia and the Rise of the Ottoman Empire
  • Rudi Matthee University of Delaware, United States
    The Ottoman-Safavid War of 986-993/1578-1585
  • Sabri Ates Southern Methodist University, United States
    1639: a Founding Myth, a Founding Document
  • Fariba Zarinebaf University of California, Riverside, United States
    Empires, Borderlands and Encounters: Evliya Çelebi and Durri Efendi in Iran
2:00-3:30 p.m. M31

Panel 77: Cities & People: Urban Spaces, Cultures, and Daily Lives

  • Dariush Borbor Architect and Urban Planner, Tehran, Iran
  • Kamran Safamanesh Architect, Tehran, Iran
    The Grand Plan for Tehran in the Era of the First Pahlavi
  • Nader Sayadi Islamic Azad University, Tehran-Qarb, Iran
    Kashan’s Sharbafi and Manufacturing in Central Iran
  • Samar Saremi Université de Montréal, Canada
    Sacrality Configured: Reconstruction of the Imam Reza Shrine, Iran
3:50-5:40 p.m. R20

Panel 78: (P) Local History, Historiography, and Historical Sociology in Modern Iran

  • Mohammad Salmasizadeh University of Tabriz, Iran
  • Hossein Rohani Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e Rey, Iran
    An Analysis of Local History Subject Matters Derived from Oral History Collections
  • Abolfazl Hassanabadi Astan-e Qods-e Razavi Library, Iran
    Local History Components in Contemporary Iranian Historiography, 1925-2001
  • Aref Vakili University of Tehran, Iran
    The Emerging Historical Sociology among Resident Sociologists in Iran
3:50-5:40 p.m. R24

Panel 79: 'Abd al-Rahmān Jāmī: Man of Letters, Mystic and Associate of Rulers

  • Paul E. Losensky Indiana University, Bloomington, United States
  • Vika R. Gardner Allegheny College, United States
    Constructions of Gender and Sexuality in the Bahāristān of Jāmī: Deducing ‘Proper’ Men and Women show abstract
    “Childhood studies”, a field in European history, is largely unknown in Islamic studies. Nūr al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 1492), author of Bahāristān, wrote the work the educate his son. Although it is doubtful that he intended to address constructions of masculinity and sexuality in the work explicitly, we may read across the text to draw out the implicit messages about masculinity and sexuality represented there. This article presents a single literary text as an individual data point for how we might begin to read such a text for information on these topics.
  • Sajjad H. Rizvi University of Exeter, UK
    Before the Safavid-Ottoman Conflict: Jāmī and Sectarianism in Timurid Iran and Iraq
  • Ertuǧrul Ökten Sabanci University, Turkey
    'Abd al-Rahmān Jāmī and Philosophy of Language
  • Chad G. Lingwood Grand Valley State University, United States
    A New Terminus a quo for Jāmī's Salāmān va Absāl show abstract
    This paper seeks to demonstrate that the terminus a quo of ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Jāmī’s Salāmān va Absāl is later than commonly understood. In order to substantiate this claim, evidence will be presented to suggest that Jāmī addressed the poem to Sulṭān Yaʿqūb b. Ūzūn Ḥasan, leader of the Āq Qoyūnlū, in order to commemorate the ruler’s repentance for immoral acts in 893/1488. In recognizing the tale’s historical symbolism, the paper concludes that the traditional chronology of Jāmī’s Haft aurang, which situates Salāmān va Absāl second among its heptad of poems, is no longer tenable. The paper proposes a new chronological sequence, which locates the poem as the sixth and thus penultimate composition in Jāmī’s corpus of long masnavīs.
3:50-5:40 p.m. R25

Panel 80: Literary Illustration and Calligraphy (Fifteenth to Seventeenth Century)

  • Markus Ritter University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • Lamia Balafrej Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France
    Bouquets of Verse from the Bustân of Sa‘dî
  • Roxana Zenhari George August Univesity, Göttingen, Germany
    The Concepts and Images in Samak-e ʿayyār Romance
  • Pegah Shahbaz University of Strasbourg, France
    The Iconography of Representations of the Scene of "Shirin Taking Her Bath in the Lake" in Topkapi Manuscripts
  • Ayse Aldemir Kilercik Sabanci University Sakip Sabanci Museum, Turkey
    An Illustrated Copy of Gazavatname from Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul
3:50-5:40 p.m. M30

(P) Women Writing Fiction in Iran (workshop)

3:50-5:40 p.m. Ballroom II

Panel 82: Rural Iran and Modernization, Globalization, & Development — Anthropological Perspectives (II): Cultural Heritage, Ideology and Politics

  • Shahnaz R. Nadjmabadi Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany
  • Sekandar Amanolahi Shiraz University, Iran
    Socio-Cultural Changes in a Village in Luristan, Southwest Iran
  • Lois Beck Washington University, US
    Changes in Textile Production among the Qashqa’i of Iran
  • Erika Friedl Western Michigan University, United States
    Progress as Ideology: Contents and Discontents in Rural Iran
  • Mary Elaine Hegland Santa Clara University, United States
    Political Relations in Aliabad of Shiraz: From Taifeh (Kinship-based Political Factions) and Hierarchical to More Egalitarian and Individualistic
3:50-5:40 p.m. M32

Panel 83: Prospects and Limitations of Iran’s Foreign Policy: Perspectives from Turkey

  • Gokhan Cetinsaya President of the Council of Higher Education, Turkey
  • Aylin S. Gorener Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey
    Balancing versus Bandwagoning: What to Make of Turkey’s Improved Relations with Iran?
  • Bilgehan Alagoz Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey
    Turkish-Iranian Relations in the Context of NATO’s Emergence in the Persian Gulf
  • Emre Iseri Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey
    The Energy Geopolitics of Iran and Its Nuclear Impasse : Implications for Turkey’s Energy Security
  • Oguz Dilek Çağ University, Turkey
    Iran’s Nuclear Program and Security Dilemmas: Is it indeed in the Best Interest of Iran?
3:50-5:40 p.m. R26

Panel 84: Contested Representations of “Identity” in Film and Cyberspace

  • Ellen A. Herda University of San Francisco, United States
  • Khatereh Sheibani University of Guelph, Canada
    Stars, Spirituality and Authorship in Iranian Cinema
  • Fakhri Haghani Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, United States
    Making Films About/By Women: A New Mode of Looking At/For Activism in Iran
  • Sanaz Raji University of Leeds, UK
    The Culture of Shame, Satirizing the Shame: "Persian Dad" Viral Videos, FOBs and Masculinity in the Iranian Diaspora
  • Erfan Sabeti Lancaster University, UK
    Religious Cyber-Wars in the Global Age: A Case Study of Persian-Language Bahā’ī and anti-Bahā’ī Websites
6:00-7:00 p.m.

AIS Board Meeting

7:00-8:00 p.m.

AIS General Meeting