The Islamic Revolution and Academic Research: Three Generations of American Ethnographic Work
Department: Center for Persian Studies and Culture
Date and Time: May 10, 2010 | 8:00 AM-6:00 PMEvent Location: Humanities Instructional Building 135
Event Details
In collaboration with University of California, Irvine’s Center for Ethnography, headed by George Marcus (Anthropology, UCI), the Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture is organizing a one-day workshop to discuss three generations of American ethnographic work before and after the revolution in Iran.
This event includes anthropologists (i.e., graduate students, faculty, and professionals) inside and outside academia, other social scientists, as well as writers and artists. The list of participants includes Michael Fischer (MIT), Margaret Mills (OSU), Fereydoun Safizadeh (Boston University), Shahram Khosravi (Stockholm University), Arlene Dallalfar (Lesley College), Narges Erami (Yale University), Taraneh Hemami (CA College of the Arts), Mazyar Lotfalian (UCI), Philip Grant (UCI), Janet Alexanian (UCI), Orkideh Behrouzan (MIT), and Talieh Rohani (MIT).
Our goal is to broaden and deepen US cultural and political knowledge about Iran. The Islamic revolution directly affected American academics conducting research in Iran, as well as the way research has been performed. Post-revolution ethnographic work was conducted mostly by researchers in collaboration with writers, journalists, political activists, filmmakers, statesmen, scientists, and medical experts. Our goal is to study how strategic knowledge emerged as a result of the severing of diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States. We intend to analyze and disseminate this information for the purpose of training and building collaborative work both for academics and those who seek expertise on Iran and similar Muslim societies.