Letter from the Director
Center Events
Center Initiatives
Center Funding Awards
Research Reports
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Associate Research Scholars
Visiting Fellows
Looking Ahead
Incoming Fellows
People Administration
Center Research Associates
Visiting Fellows
Executive Committee
Affiliated Faculty
Advisory Council Members
The end of the 2023–24 academic year proved to be no less tumultuous globally than the difficulties the previous year presented, particularly for the part of the world on which Mossavar-Rahmani Center researchers focus. Concluding the academic term amidst conflict across campuses internationally as the tragic war in Gaza continues, Center colleagues embraced each other and engaged in peaceful and respectful dialogue and interactions regarding the protests, including those on Princeton’s campus. An end-of-the-year Center celebration affirmed the care, respect, support, and collegiality felt among colleagues and friends.
The fall semester began in a flurry, with University opening ceremonies, the Center’s Fall Welcome as well as that of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and many other academic units, programs, and centers across campus. Alongside the first week of classes, the Center’s first lecture on September 6, The Intimate Lives of Books in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, with Brandeis University Professor Naghmeh Sohrabi, commenced the Sharmin & Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center’s signature seminar series by ushering in a demanding event schedule for the academic year.
Important conversations ensued, such as the talk we co-sponsored with Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, Federica Mogherini in Conversation with Razia Iqbal on November 13, or the excellent book launch presentation with Narges Bajoghli and Vali Nasr on How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare on April 3 Bajoghli and Nasr’s conversation came out of the recent publication of a book they co-authored together with Ali Vaez and Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, an economist from Virginia Tech who spent two months with us at the Center as a visiting scholar. Other seminar topics spanned issues of gender and identity, ethnomusicology and the arts, and architecture. Please visit the Center’s website or YouTube channel for recordings of its events.
The Advisory Council met again for its biennial assembly, which began with a musical journey performed by Layla Ramezan and Pejman Hadadi (read about it on page 8), and an intimate and engaging dinner at Mistral restaurant in downtown Princeton following the performance. The next day, council members engaged with researchers, faculty, directors, and deans to question, assess, and provide suggestions on the Center’s direction.
We were fortunate to welcome Alison Cummins as the new office and events coordinator, who quickly took over duties associated with the numerous activities planned and hosted by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center throughout the year. Collaborating seamlessly, Alison and
the Center Manager, Femke de Ruyter, together with three of the researchers, planned a fun and interesting inaugural Wintersession offering: Magic, Genies and More: The Supernatural in and Out of Iran, which grew out of casual collegial conversations about the big blue genie in Disney’s movie Alladin
Our postdoctoral research program has grown to a cohort of eight fellows. Updates on their research interests and activities can be found on page 15. Naturally, the end of the year also comes with sadness as we bid farewell to those whose appointments conclude, notably Sheida Dayani, Naveed Mansoori, and Lindsey Stephenson. Stepping into their offices are Sareh Afshar from Brown University; Zep Kalb from University of California-Los Angeles; and finally, Q-mars Haeri from The University of Maryland-College Park. Read about their interesting projects under “Looking Ahead” on page 24.
We had the opportunity to host four visiting scholars this past year, whose research collectively spanned from art, architecture, and visual culture in the modern and contemporary Middle East to Morteza Motahari’s contributions to modern Iranian religious thought. Thoughts on their research progress and time here on campus and can be found beginning on page 21.
Finally, Noushin Nowroozilarki, the part-time special collections assistant in the Princeton University Library (PUL) working with Near Eastern Studies Librarian, Deborah Schlein, has made great strides with the digitization of PUL’s large Persian collection and coordinating with Alison on its publication to the Mossavar-Rahmani Center website. Updates to the website’s “Library” tile will provide visitors information and access to the digital archives at PUL. Given Noushin’s amazing enthusiasm and the hard work already committed to this project, the Center hopes to make the digitization position full time.
From all of us at the Center, we wish you a peaceful and pleasant summer and look forward to seeing you in the fall. Our tentative fall schedule is listed on the back of this report.
Yours,
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi Director, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies
Chair, Department of Near Eastern Studies Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Sharmin and Bijan MossavarRahmani Center Events
The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center events fall under five series: The Mossavar-Rahmani Center Seminar Series, which addresses issues related to Iran and the Persian Gulf in the 19th–21st centuries and focuses on the region’s role and significance in the contemporary world; the Book Launch Series, which introduces emerging scholars and artists through interdisciplinary discussions following the release of a new book; Conferences & Workshops, which provide an in-depth focus on particular subjects or projects hosted by the Center; *Co-sponsored Events are those in which the Center collaborates with other academic units; and finally our Film, Literature, and the Arts Series, which explores cultural issues through artistic mediums.
*Organizing department is listed in parentheses
September 6, 2023
Naghmeh Sohrabi, Charles Goodman Professor of Middle East History, Brandeis University
“The Intimate Lives of Books in the 1979 Iranian Revolution”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
Naghmeh
Sohrabi, Wednesday seminar speaker
September 13, 2023
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania
“Heroes to Hostages: US-Iran Relations through Race, Gender, and Social Change”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
September 20, 2023
Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani, Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies, University of Southern California
“Precarious Petroleum: Volatile Reservoirs, Varied Natural Gas Compositions, and Development in 1960s Iran”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
September 25, 2023
Pamela Karimi, Professor, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth
“Survival by Design: Desert Architecture at the End of the World” Conferences & Workshops
September 27, 2023
Babak Rahimi, Associate Professor, University of California-San Diego
“Staging Ta’ziyeh: Aryanism, Heritage, and the Shiraz Arts Festival, 1967-1977”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
October 4, 2023
Kusha Sefat, Assistant Professor, University of Tehran
“Revolution of Things: The Islamism and PostIslamism of Objects in Tehran”
Book Launch Series
October 11, 2023
Claudia Yaghoobi, Roshan Institute Professor, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
“The Bridge Between the Homeland and Host Nation: Transnational Culture in the Iranian Armenian Diaspora”
Book Launch Series
October 25, 2023
Azadeh Kian, Professor, Université Paris Cité “Rethinking Gender, Ethnicity and Religion: The Making of An Inclusive Definition of Iranianness”
Book Launch Series
November 8, 2023
Djavad Salehi‐Isfahani, Professor, Virginia Tech “Social Inequality Before and After the Revolution in Iran”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
November 15, 2023
Manami Goto, Assistant Professor, Akita University
“Reimagining Iranian Cultural Identities: Stories from Emirati Youth”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
Lunch discussion with Visiting Fellow Djavad Salehi-Isfahani following his talk.
November 29, 2023
Dina Esfandiary, Senior Advisor, International Crisis Group (ICG)
“New Order in the Gulf: The Rise of the United Arab Emirates”
Book Launch Series
December 6, 2023
Sima Shakhsari, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
“Uncanny Alliances and Common Foes: Iranian Gender and Sexuality Studies in Times of Massacre in Gaza”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
February 7, 2024
Maral Sahebjame, Postdoctoral Research
Associate, Princeton University
“‘Colorful’ Marriages: Making Cohabitation Palatable in Iran”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
February 14, 2024
Alireza Doostdar, Associate Professor, University of Chicago
“Facing Satan: The Iranian Revolution and Its Demons”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
February 21, 2024
Amir Hosein Pourjavady, Ethnomusicologist
“Music Making in Iran from the 15th to the Early 20th Century”
Book Launch Series
February 28, 2024
Sahar Sadeghi, Associate Professor, Muhlenberg College
“Conditional Belonging: The Racialization of Iranians in the Wake of Anti-Muslim Politics”
Book Launch Series
March 6, 2024
Golnar Nikpour, Assistant Professor, Dartmouth College
“The Incarcerated Modern: Prisons and Public Life in Iran”
Book Launch Series
March 27, 2024
Julia Hartley, Lecturer, University of Glasgow
“Iran and French Orientalism: Persia in the Literary Culture of Nineteenth-Century France”
Book Launch Series
April 3, 2024
Narges Bajoghli, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Vali Nasr, Professor, Johns Hopkins University
“How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare”
Book Launch Series
April 10, 2024
Ata Anzali, Associate Professor, Middlebury College
“Morteza Motahhari and the Rise of New Theology in Iran”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
April 17, 2024
Niki Akhavan, Associate Professor, Catholic University of America
“An Old War for New Purposes: Contemporary Sacred Defense Cinema and Iran’s Divided State and Society”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
April 24, 2024
Mojtaba Mahdavi, Professor, University of Alberta
“China in the Persian Gulf”
Mossavar-Rahmani Seminar Series
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi engages seminar speakers Vali Nasr and Narges Bajoghli.
On April 7th, the Sharmin & Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center welcomed guests into Chancellor Green Library for an enchanting evening of live music performed by esteemed pianist, Layla Ramezan, and celebrated percussionist, Pejman Hadadi, in a performance titled Sheherazade
Having made Switzerland home, Layla Ramezan performs regularly across Europe, and frequently looks for opportunities to create links between her Persian heritage and contemporary music. Pejman Hadadi lives in California, where he teaches ethnomusicology at UCLA and is recognized as a notable Tombak player. The Center was thrilled to bring both world-renowned musicians to Princeton’s campus for their first collaboration in the private setting, and Ramezan’s second trip to play at Princeton.
Also joining the recital were the Center’s Advisory Council members, who convened for their biennial meeting the following day. Chancellor Green Library allowed for an intimate show that provided guests with a close view of Ramezan and Hadadi at work. The performed pieces were diverse in style and sound, ranging from Turkish composer Necil Kazim Akses’s “Miniatures” to Claude Debussy’s “La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin” and were interspersed with Ramezan and Hadadi reciting poetry in both Farsi and English. This medley of art, language, and culture not only created a phenomenal concert, but represented the breadth and interdisciplinary nature of what the Mossavar-Rahmani Center supports in its mission and work.
As the event came to a close, the poetic sounds of the instruments melded with the light of the setting sun through the stained-glass windows, enlivening the historic space in sound and music, and creating a beautiful atmosphere where attendees enjoyed the stylings of two renowned artists.
At the ensuing reception, many faculty, graduate students, scholars, and staff shared in conversation with Ramezan, Hadadi, and each other, allowing for meaningful discussion about their work, related topics, and a further opportunity to exchange ideas in a scholarly and culturally rich environment.
May 1, 2024
Arang Keshavarzian, Professor, New York University
“Making Space for the Gulf: Histories of Regionalism and the Middle East”
Book Launch Series
Co-Sponsored Events
(Organizing department is in parentheses)
November 13, 2023
Federica Mogherini, Rector, College of Europe
“Federica Mogherini in Conversation with Razia Iqbal”
(Princeton School of Public and International Affairs)
November 13, 2023
Joan Copjec, Professor, Brown University
“From the Cloud to the Resistance” (Humanities Council)
April 9, 2024
Noura Erakat, Associate Professor, Rutgers University
“International Law & Israel’s War on Gaza” (Near Eastern Studies)
April 23, 2024
Aslı Ü. Bâli, Professor of Law, Yale Law School
“The War in Gaza and the Middle Eastern Studies Scholarship”
(Near Eastern Studies)
April 24
Babak Tafreshi, Photographer, Explorer, Speaker
“The World at Night Photography” (Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies)
Sharmin and Bijan MossavarRahmani Center Dissertation
Completion Grant
Inaugurated in 2024, the Sharmin & Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center Dissertation
Completion Enrollment (DCE) Award is given to a graduate student entering his or her dissertation completion year and whose research addresses topics related to the history, society, arts, culture, economy, and/or politics of Iran and the Persian Gulf (with preference given to topics relating to the modern and contemporary periods). The award includes the full amount of DCE costs for the academic year and a stipend equal to the 10-month University Fellowship.
In support of emerging scholars of Iranian studies at Princeton, the Mossavar-Rahmani Center offered an inaugural Dissertation Completion Fellowship this past year for students who will have reached Dissertation Completion Enrollment (DCE) status in 2024-25 for an academic year fellowship.
The award equals that of the University Fellowship, which provides a 10-month stipend, tuition, and student health fees. The Dissertation Completion Award supports awardees by encouraging their regular engagement with Center faculty and researchers both informally and through academic opportunities such as participation in the Center’s notable Wednesday seminar series, where intellectual
John Jenkins, Director of Research Security
exchanges and connections occur. These exchanges continue with the speaker, guests, and fellows over lunch following the talks.
Jamie O’Connell (Near Eastern Studies) received the inaugural fellowship award.
O’Connell’s project, “Zorastrian Identity and Authority Formation in the Persian Rivayats,” examines a corpus of approximately 30 letters exchanged between the Zoroastrian communities of Iran and India from the 15th to 18th centuries. It focuses primarily on religious authority structures as represented in these letters, which collectively comprise one of the most significant sources for medieval and early modern Zoroastrianism. The dissertation will include editions and translations of 10 newly discovered letters.
In line with its mission, the Center inaugurated a book award in 2022 to be given biennially for the best scholarly monograph on topics
in history, society, politics, economics, and cultures related to modern Iran and the Persian Gulf, broadly defined. The award is granted by a committee of Iranian studies scholars appointed by the Center director.
Thirty-seven nominations were submitted in the award’s second year, of which several were for books authored by Mossavar-Rahmani seminar series speakers from this past and previous years. The committee chooses one awardee and a runner-up.
The winner will be announced in August at the meeting of the Association for Iranian Studies (AIS) conference, which will be held in Mexico City this year. In addition to receiving a $1,000 award, the author is invited to the Center for a public presentation of the book.
The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies provides support to student- and courserelated activities to help spread understanding and appreciation for Iranian language and culture.
The Iranian Students Association actively engaged with student members during the 2023-24 academic year under the leadership of Peyman Azodi, the association’s president. With support from the Mossavar-Rahmani Center, ISA hosted three unique events.
The ISA’s Fall gathering, held in October, welcomed students at the beginning of the academic year. Members old and new mingled and got acquainted with the association and each other while enjoying classic Persian food Gheymey stew (beef cubes, yellow split peas, dried Persian lime garnished with homemade fried potatoes) and Adas Polo (a favorite
Iranian dish of basmati rice with lentils, dates onions and raisins) and conversation with peers.
On December 22, the student group hosted a Yaldã (or Chelle Night) fête at the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding that provided a lovely evening of festive celebration including social connection, Persian music, and pomegranates for students who remained on campus over winter break. Yaldã is an ancient festival in Iran, Iraqi Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey that is celebrated on the winter solstice
ISA’s Nowrouz celebration was the third and biggest celebration of the year. Faculty, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students gathered together to celebrate the Persian New Year. Held at the Campus Club on Prospect Street, attendees enjoyed a variety of authentic Persian dishes and Iranian sweets. The beautifully decorated Sofreh Haft-seen (seven “S’s”) table featured symbolic items including hyacinths, apples, dates, candles, and a blue decorative set representing a manifestation of something positive for the new year. ISA President Peyman Azodi and
Vice President Bita Jalalian welcomed guests and wished everyone a happy year ahead. Celebratory music led to an evening of dancing and laughter.
The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies provides summer grants to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing research and intensive language training primarily related to the scholarship of Iran and the Persian Gulf. The following students received grants:
Sepehr Shojaie Class of 2026
Gloria Ukaoma Class of 2025
Abrar Alshammari Near Eastern Studies
Fatih Han
Art & Archaeology
Elisa Purschke German
Mir Salar Razavi Near Eastern Studies
Marzieh Tofighi-Darian
This past year, I worked on two pieces for a range of law reviews and specialized constitutional law journals. The first one, “Between Legality and Legitimacy: Constitutional Courts in Intra-Religiously Divided Societies,” was presented at the annual “Constitutional Law Colloquium” conference held at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. My other paper, “Abusive Islamic Judicial Review,” which was selected for presentation at the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in January, focuses on the use of Islamic review by constitutional courts to undermine constitutionalism and democracy.
I also continued and expanded my research on the Guardian Council. Given the lack of a comprehensive study of its legal jurisprudence, I decided to delve deeply into its opinions, starting with the first term and, where necessary, into the summary of the Council’s deliberations. By tagging each decision with the year, subject matter, and noteworthy constitutional and religious objections, I am tracking changes in the Council’s procedural and substantive decisions, paying special attention to three areas: reshaping the constitutional structure through judicial review, constituting religion through judicial review, and redefining or abandoning constitutional rights. This work contributes to my book project, and with the completion of the dataset collection, I hope to finalize a book outline by summer.
I’ve completed my second year as a participant in the Shia-Jewish Legal Reasoning working group. Among other projects, I specifically work on issues of theocracy and
constitutionalism within Jewish and Shi’a traditions. We explore different theological elements that contribute to the development of constitutionalism and the use of religious justification for the expansion of political power. The working group convened virtually in January 2024 and at Indiana University in June.
During the past year I revised my article, “The New Woman of Weimar Germany in the Imaginations of Young Iranian Intellectuals,” submitted to the European Review of History. The article examines the simultaneity of discourses on gender and modernity in the post-WWI period among both Iranian and German intellectuals. It is set to appear in a special issue of the journal in spring 2024. I have also been working on another article [submitted spring 2024] to the Journal of Global History. Titled, “The New World: Selling National Socialism to the Persianate World,” this article examines the confluence of anti-imperial propaganda with the advertisement of modern everyday technologies and industrial machinery as key to understanding the transnationalization of National Socialism during WWII, especially among the nonWestern world. This paper was workshopped at a roundtable in the 2023 German Studies Association conference in Montreal, Canada. As well, the roundtable organizers asked if I would contribute a chapter to an edited volume titled: Global Nazism: The Third Reich in Transnational and International Perspective to be published by Routledge. My chapter will focus on the theme of Nazism and the Islamic World. In May, I traveled to the German archives to resuscitate a lost history of Iranian political and intellectual engagement with global revolutionary networks during the interwar period, especially those centered in Berlin during the Weimar Republic.
In addition to my research, I was given the opportunity to design and teach a course in the history department, titled: A History of the World since 1300. This course introduced students to earlier modes of globalization and the diversity of responses to regional and global events such as epidemics, imperial systems, religious conflicts, and the rise of nation-states.
I also organized, secured co-sponsorships, and got outside support from the Princeton [community] Photography Club for a well-received public lecture by National Geographic photographer, Babak Tafreshi, on the importance of art in conservation efforts, in which he highlighted the impact of light pollution to the environment and wildlife in the Persian Gulf region and the broader world.
Maral Sahebjame
I am an anthropologist and my work engages sociolegal and Middle East studies. Using ethnographic research methods, my project, “Between the Courtroom and the Seminary,” examines debates and discussions about gender rights and practices among legal experts and Islamic scholars in contemporary Iran. This project builds on my dissertation research, which shows that through everyday practices, Iranians control the legal debates around gender rights much more than observers realize. In so doing, this project intervenes in sociolegal theories about social movements and social change, in anthropological debates about everyday Islam, and offers a methodology for studying social realities for societies under authoritarianism.
I spent the fall reading sources that were either tangentially or directly related to my project. Using those sources, I built an outline for edits to my dissertation that I will incorporate when I draft my book proposal. I have been in touch with an acquisitions editor
at a university press who has been giving me general guidance on formulating the book proposal. In November, I served as chair and discussant of the panel “Neoliberalism and the Dynamics of Resistance in Post-Welfare Autocracies” at the 2023 conference for the Middle East Studies Association, where we discussed political opportunities as they relate to mobilization in the context of otherwise repressive states. At that conference, I co-organized a group of Iran scholars interested in collaborating on a conference or colloquium that would lead to a publication.
Preparing my talk, “Colorful Marriages: Cohabitation in Iran,” at the start of the spring semester, helped me revise and better formulate some of the main arguments I make in my dissertation. Based on those revisions, I have been reading new sources, editing, and workshopping a chapter of my dissertation that I plan to submit to either American Ethnologist or Political and Legal Anthropology Review
Just before the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year, I was involved with “And Now, Imagine,” an art workshop funded by a grant from Princeton’s Humanities Council and hosted by the Waldorf School of Princeton. As I sat with the young Afghan refugees and witnessed their reflections on “home,” I was struck by what the children remembered. Even amongst siblings, kids’ artistic interpretations of what “home” was like varied tremendously. Several honed in on the flora and fauna, for others the built environment. A couple of children made the sky larger than life. One focused in intricate detail on the long road to their home in a remote village. Inspired, I reflected on processing my research on migration.
There are many different levels to writing and thinking about migration, just as there are
many ways that migrants themselves process their displacement. My research approach continuously zoomed in and out in an attempt to write a story that both honors the range of lived experiences, while also contextualizing that experience within deeper structural tectonic shifts of political geography and economics.
This past year, I’ve worked toward concluding my manuscript and have conducted field research in imperial archives and with local sources. This allowed me to expand on my work and contributed to new insights that further support the conclusions of my research on how the mobility of Iranians in the Persian Gulf was instrumental in shaping the contours of life in the modern Persian Gulf, such as Iranians’ contribution to the built environment. Being able to converse directly with historically-informed architects and to access local archives was critical in piecing together how the transformed physical environment in early 20th century Persian Gulf towns was part of a
broader story of migration and mobility in the face of empire and global capitalism.
In my final year at the Center I have been busy writing. I have reviewed several recent works in the field of Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies. I was also able to submit my first book manuscript, “Mobility Liabilities: Iranians and the Making of the Modern Persian Gulf” for review with a university press.
I have presented my research at a number of international institutions, most recently for the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Japan. This event brought together my work as a social historian with that of a cultural anthropologist on the history of Iranian migrants in the Gulf to an international academic audience. I especially love these kinds of events that make research connections on the Persian Gulf in the early 20th century being done globally.
I continue to be interested in making my work available and relevant for local audiences,
Center researchers (LtoR) Sheragim Jenabzadeh, Maral Sahebjame, Marzieh Tofighi-Darian, and Naveed Mansoori head out to the Sheherazade concert.
specifically for those on the western shores of the Persian Gulf. I am currently involved in a publication based out of Ras al-Khaimah that showcases local efforts in heritage preservation. For this publication I am working on an article that looks at the rise of house museums and private family archives.
The concept of “home” is one that I reflect on often. I could not have asked for a warmer, more encouraging home to do my research the past few years than the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. I will miss my incredible colleagues and our lively discussions, and leave having gained new perspectives on so many aspects of Iranian history. My sincere gratitude goes to Femke and Alison for their daily support for the Center and the fellows, and to Behrooz for his guiding vision and fostering of camaraderie amongst us all.
This year, I published my book The Color Black: Enslavement and Erasure in Iran (Duke University Press, March 2024) and an article in the American Historical Review, “Seeing Black America in Iran.” Both these pieces were the result of years of research and writing and push the field to consider how race operates in Iran and the broader region on a local and transnational scale. The Color Black received the Scholars of Color First Book Award from Duke University Press; its publication was made possible by several grants from the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, the BarrFerree Fund, and the Open Access Publication Program at Princeton University.
Currently, I am writing two pieces while moving forward with research on my second book project: one, a chapter on “Material Culture”
for an edited volume on the 20th century Middle East, and an article, titled, “What is a Photograph? A map, teacher, and unfair memento of race and enslavement in Qajar Iran.” I am also completing research for my second book project on the historiography of jinn, and how we can use these writings to understand the shifting landscape of race, gender, and sexuality through liminality and memory between the 18th–20th centuries.
I have given several talks on my book, at Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins SAIS, and Morgan State, in addition to class lectures at Morgan State, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, University of New Hampshire, and other spaces. I also organized a panel on “Centering Sudan” on behalf of the Committee on Blackness, Indigeneity, and Racial Justice at the Middle East Studies Association conference in Montreal, and I spoke as a panelist at the American Historical Association conference in San Francisco, where I presented my ongoing research toward the second book project. This year, I began my term as the Associate Editor for History for the Iranian Studies Journal.
While almost all of my time this year has been spent on the ongoing job search for academic positions, I was able to make progress on my book, conduct new research, and work on a separate book chapter for an edited volume. Using the Persian archives at Princeton University Library, I was able to incorporate new research into my book manuscript, Making History with Theatre in Modern Iran: Juggling Revolutionaries, contracted by Edinburgh University Press. I started the editing process in March 2024, and, with my research funds, I have been working with a professional editor to prepare the manuscript for submission to the press.
In my work with the pre-1979 Persian periodicals at Firestone, I came across several newspapers and weeklies from the late Qajar period that published plays as feuilleton, reported on performances in major cities, and used theatrical structures in their editorials to advance certain political arguments. This research will result in a new article tentatively titled, “Dramatic Modes in the Persian Periodicals of 1880–1930,” intended for Iranian Studies. The article will divide modes into three types: 1. Actual plays and dramatic dialogues; 2. Writing and reporting on theatre; 3. Theatre as a metaphor for political subject matters. Since February 2024, I have also been researching the newly opened Ghassem Ghani papers and came across several documents that I am using in my book and planning on incorporating in my journal articles. This research is very new, and I do not know if it will result in a separate article.
“The Emergence of Political Thought in Modern Iranian Playwriting and Theatre” is the title of the chapter that I am currently writing for the Cambridge History of Modern Iranian Political Thought (Cambridge UP, forthcoming 2026). By examining the 19th century playwrights’ notions of liberalism and Islamic Protestantism in their nondramatic writing and comparing those to their Kantian separation of reason and religious beliefs in their theatrical writing, the chapter argues that, unlike what is commonly believed, the playwrights were particularly cautious about the public’s religious sentiments in their plays. In sharp contrast to their vehement calls to atheism and separation of religion and government in their anonymous writings and private correspondence, their plays show a very gradual transition to the themes of religiosity and religious practice, with no mention of atheism.
I attended this year’s MESA conference as a discussant and chair of the panel, 18th Century Scholarship and Historiographical Debates. I have also served as a regular article reviewer for the journal, Iranian Studies. In addition to my academic activities, I have served
as a consultant and reviewer for several plays in New York City, including TOSCA at Heartbeat Opera, for which I participated in a panel discussion after the show, and IN THE STILLNESS OF NIGHT, for which I was an advisor and very recently wrote a review. The review is being revised and has not been sent for publication yet.
Naveed Mansoori
I’ve spent my last year in the Center making progress on my book, The End of Prophecy: Revolutionary Iran and the Myth of Politics The End of Prophecy examines the relation between social disorder and collective action on either side of the 1979 Revolution of Iran. Situating Iran in the Global South, the book rethinks collective action for times of social and epistemic crisis. It does so through engagement with critical theory. By contrast to the first-generation of critical theory’s insistence that the political sphere is a space of unfreedom and the second generation’s insistence that it is a space of deliberation, The End of Prophecy argues that the political is a contested myth. It is a site where different worlds are sustained and animated and where critical and normative visions obtain a virtual reality. The book begins in the early 20th century when Iranian Marxists witness to fascism’s rise in Germany turned to Iran: where in Germany, social order endured crisis, in Iran, social crisis persisted. Rather than a tyranny of political myth, there was its anarchy. The book showcases how literary, sonic, and audiovisual media reflected that anarchy with focus on the myth of the nation, the people, the leader, and the common cause, that invited social actors to suspend their disbelief. These moments of suspended disbelief made possible moments of collective action.
I have completed four of the five chapters in the book, so I am well on my way to having a completed manuscript. I’d not have made as
much progress as I have if not for my time in the Center. In addition, I have prepared a book manuscript to send to publishers before my term is up.
In terms of publishing, I submitted an article, “The Principle of Ruin: Rethinking Critical Theory from the Global South,” to History of the Present. The article is based on my first chapter, which situates my work on Iran within debates in Critical Theory. In brief, my argument is that “metropolitan critical theory” took as its example the Metropole. Therein, the problematic was that social order endured crisis. In postcolonial history, the problematic is inverted: social crisis did not permit for social order to cohere. More granularly, I argue that whereas in metropolitan critical theory, the theory of commodity reification was the paradigm for conceptualizing the relation between “mass society” and “mass culture,” in postcolonial critical theory, the theory of primitive accumulation was the explanatory paradigm. With that distinction, the article offers a rethinking of the public sphere during social crises. To elaborate my argument, I read the pre- and post-revolutionary writings of Frantz Fanon, putting those periods of his life and thought into conversation with the pessimism of the first-generation of the Frankfurt School and the optimism of the second. In the chapter, I situate modern Iranian history within the problem-space of postcolonial critical theory.
I presented an early version of “The Principle of Ruin” at the Political Theory Colloquium organized by the University of Minnesota’s Department of Political Science. I also will be presenting the third chapter of my book, “The Conspiracy of Revolution: Popular Silence and Voice in Revolutionary Iran, 1956–1971,” at the meeting of the American Political Science Association.
For my first year as a fellow, I have been able to focus on writing my forthcoming book, tentatively titled Terms of the Debate: U.S. Policy Expertise, Security, and the Politics of ‘Knowing’ the Middle East, which examines the politics of knowledge production on Iran within the U.S. foreign policy community.
Based on this work, I have given several academic talks in the past year, including as a seminar speaker for American University’s Department of Anthropology. I was also invited to speak at George Washington University’s Institute for Middle East Studies annual conference on “Middle East Knowledge Production in the Aftermath of October 7.” As a publicly engaged scholar, I have also given guest lectures for various public audiences. I was proud to co-lead the Center’s Inaugural Wintersession offering at Princeton on Magic, Genies and More: The Supernatural In and Out of Iran. I also continue to serve as one of the Iran co-editors of Jadaliyya, which aims to connect academic scholarship to broader public audiences.
Finally, as part of my service to my scholarly communities beyond Princeton, I have done reviews for articles in the Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Visual Anthropology Review, and the Middle East Journal respectively. I also became the lead conference co-chair of the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA).
Ata Anzali
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for the invaluable support and resources I have received during my residency as a semester-long visiting fellow at the MossavarRahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies.
The opportunity provided by the Center has been nothing short of transformative. Unparalleled access to documents, books, and articles has been instrumental in laying the foundation of my research. Equally invaluable has been the vibrant intellectual community characteristic of the Center. Engaging in conversations with fellow scholars, post-doctoral researchers, Princeton faculty, and graduate students has not only shaped the development of my arguments, but has also refined my perspectives.
I would also like to highlight the Wednesday seminars as a bright spot in my time here. The lectures and the conversations that ensued have offered an exceptional platform to immerse myself in the latest research in the field of Iranian Studies and connect with some of the brightest new voices in the field. This dynamic scholarly environment, singularly focused on modern Iran, is unparalleled. I am hard-pressed to think of any other institution of higher education in the United States or Europe that offers such a rich and stimulating academic setting.
My gratitude extends to the exemplary leadership of the Center and its dedicated staff. Their unwavering commitment to fostering an environment of intellectual curiosity and rigorous scholarship has made my residency an unforgettable experience.
I was able to share the findings of my research with the broader Princeton community
toward the conclusion of the semester at the Wednesday seminar series in a talk titled: Morteza Motahhari and the Rise of New Theology in Iran
I am thankful for the tremendous support and the privilege of being part of this esteemed academic community and am truly grateful for being given the opportunity. I look forward to remaining connected in the future.
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani
I spent the good part of the fall semester at the Center studying the evolution of social inequality in Iran pre-1979 to the present. I focused on the comparison of two types of inequality before and after the revolution that are intensely debated in Iran today gender and income. The changes in gender inequality are better documented for the past several decades, thanks to the existence of data from decennial censuses that go back to 1956. We also know quite a bit about the trends in poverty and income inequality since 1984, when unit record data from household surveys became available. We know a lot less about their levels before the revolution. My visit to Princeton was particularly instrumental for filling this gap. I used the vast resources in Princeton’s library to read unpublished dissertations on the topic written before the revolution and Iranian government documents that helped me piece together data on poverty and income inequality continuously since the 1960s. I was able to estimate for the first time the proportion of the population below the international poverty line and provide more accurate estimates of income inequality for the pre-1984 period by converting tabular information in published reports into unit record.
In addition to the library resources, I greatly benefitted from discussions about Iran with the Center fellows and visitors. Finding a group
of brilliant researchers who are focused on understanding contemporary Iran is very rare in North America and certainly absent in my own university. Furthermore, being able to focus on a particular topic for two months with a deadline to give a talk about my findings was also critical in helping advance the project. I am sure this is appreciated by anyone who takes up a research project without an external deadline.
I presented my preliminary findings on November 8 at the Center’s weekly seminar. The findings address several important questions about the evolution of poverty and income inequality from before the revolution. Regarding poverty, I find that the poverty rate rose during Iran’s decade of “miracle growth” in the 1960s, mostly because it was driven by the declining cost of labor as the 1960s land reform increased the supply of unskilled rural migrants to the expanding urban industries. In contrast, during the 1970s, poverty rates fell, unsurprisingly because the inflow of massive oil revenues after 1973 trickled down to all income groups. If economic conditions in the 1970s played any role in the revolution, rising poverty is not one of them. However, the same cannot be said about income inequality, which rose in the 1970s (again, probably because of the inflow of oil income). After the revolution, both poverty and income inequality declined thanks to pro-poor and pro-rural public investments in the first two decades of the Islamic Republic.
The trend in gender inequality is more complex, but equally interesting. In terms of legal equality, there was impressive progress before the revolution, which was reversed afterwards. However, in actual terms education and fertility, in particular the pre-revolution trend continued apace after the revolution, and in some cases accelerated. The disconnect between the legal and actual experience of gender is a fascinating topic that other researchers have studied (e.g., Shahrokni 2021) and I plan to address in future research.
Pamela Karimi
In September 2023, I had the privilege of being in residence at the Sharmin and Bijan MossavarRahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies. During my one-month stay, I conducted research for my forthcoming book, tentatively titled Survival by Design: Desert Architecture and the End of the World (Lessons from Iran) The book investigates the extensive decline of ingenious desert architectural techniques in Iran for several decades following WWII, a period marked by shifts in natural resource management and the transformation of nomadic lifestyles. However, it also examines the resurgence of these historic desert building practices since the 1970s, which have provided invaluable insights and solutions for survival in a world increasingly threatened by the devastating effects of environmental drought, depletion of natural resources, and global warming.
My book primarily focuses on desert structures in Iran, but also positions desert architecture within a global framework, highlighting its integration into international and regional networks since World War II. Survival by Design is an interdisciplinary book. It uncovers the narratives of various figures architects, environmentalists, politicians, philosophers, and even religious scholars who have strived to preserve environmentally friendly traditions, desert construction techniques, or introduce innovative building solutions. These practices, which emphasize sustainability and resilience, remain relevant in Iran today, especially in the context of current sanctions and the nationʼs economic isolation from most of the developed world.
My research was greatly facilitated by the resources available at Princeton. I studied the archives of environmental transformation in Iran at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, which include materials from United
States agencies, such as the Development and Resources Corporation, which were active in Iran after WWII. Additionally, I explored the vast collection of newspapers and journals from Iran at the Firestone Library. The Center’s supportive and intellectually stimulating atmosphere, filled with like-minded scholars who mainly focus on modern and contemporary Iran, was an immense privilege that greatly contributed to refining my ideas. I am especially grateful to Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi for his warm welcome and invaluable guidance, and to Femke de Ruyter, who provided assistance whenever needed and proved to be an exceptional host throughout my stay.
Mojtaba Mahdavi
As a Canadian Fulbright visiting scholar, I worked on writing and finalizing my book project tentatively titled: The Challenge of a PostIslamist Democracy in
Postrevolutionary Iran. The book critically examines problems and prospects for a post-Islamist (not post-Islam) democracy, as well as domestic and global impacts of such a profound transformation in postrevolutionary Iran. Modern Iran has been one of the pioneers of progressive socio-political changes in the Middle East region. Iran is home to the region’s first Constitutional Revolution (1906–1911); the first regional example of a parliamentary democratic nationalism under Mohammad Mossadegh (1951–1953) in post WWII; the region’s first anti-despotic revolution in the name of Islam (1977–1979); the region’s first post-Islamist mass social movement (the 2009 Green Movement); and the region’s first nationwide women-centered movement of Zan, Zendegi, Azadi—Women, Life, Freedom (WLF) in 2022. The first three historical democratic waves introduced Iran to some degree of constitutionalism, democratic nationalism, and anti-despotic revolutionary change with elements of an Islamic discourse. The Green
Movement and the aftermath particularly the WLF Movement are marked by a new historical era toward post-Islamism in Iran. However, Iran’s post-Islamist “social” condition, my research shows, is surrounded by a number of international and domestic obstacles. The unfavorable global structure of power in the form of military threats and comprehensive economic sanctions have largely empowered the ruling authorities, and weakened the ordinary people who are the main agents of democratization from within. Furthermore, domestic obstacles include a greater institutionalization of the clerical oligarchy supported by the military-security apparatus and sanctioned by the rentier structure of the state; the growing gap between the poor and rich under a crony Islamist capitalism; and a lack of strong political leadership, well-organized opposition parties, and an inclusive and engaging political discourse of pro-democracy. Despite all these challenges, my research demonstrates that the quest for a post-Islamist democracy seems to have a great potential in the midterm, as it is deeply rooted in a post-Islamist civil society, which is disenchanted by decades of a top-down and autocratic Islamization from above.
The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies has proved to be an ideal environment for my research. Under the exemplary leadership of Professor Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, and the management of Femke de Ruyter and other staff, the Center provided me with a unique opportunity to devote my time to my research. I have benefited tremendously from the insights of Professor Ghamari-Tabrizi an authority in Iranian studies as well as my access to all of Princeton’s Firestone Library’s resources one of the largest collections of Persian books and primary documents in the United States. Furthermore, I have had the opportunity to work and share ideas with the Center’s postdoctoral and visiting scholar fellows this year. Moreover, the weekly seminars followed by informal meetings on Wednesdays provide an amazing space for dialogue between the
invited scholars and the fellows at the Centre. In sum, the Mossavar-Rahmani Center has done an exceptional job of facilitating knowledge production and the introduction of the multidimensional and interdisciplinary field of Iran and Persian Gulf Studies.
The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies promotes interdisciplinary approaches to advancing understanding of Iran and the Persian Gulf, with special attention to the region’s role and significance in the contemporary world. The goal of the program is to support outstanding scholars of Iran and the wider Persianate world at an early stage of their careers and thus to strengthen the field of Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies in the United States and abroad.
Sareh Afshar
Sareh Z. Afshar, currently the Artemis A.W. and Martha Joukowsky Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Gender Studies at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University, is a writer, translator, scholar, and storyteller. Their research and teaching interests reside at the intersection of performance and politics, with an emphasis on critical cultural theory, materiality of visuality, aesthetics of everyday life, minoritarian memory and trauma studies, collective movements and new/digital media ecologies, and transnational queer feminist praxis. They received their Ph.D. from the Department of Performance Studies at New York University and is now completing their monograph, “Authority and Ambiguity: Performances of Death and Power in Postrevolutionary Iran,” which theorizes what they call “performances of death” as a framework through which
one Iranian generation knows itself and is known to others. Co-editor of the bilingual multimedia platform, Feminist Futures, their writing has appeared or is forthcoming in TDR: The Drama Review, e-misférica, TPQ: Text & Performance Quarterly, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Khayyam, Ravagh, and edited book volumes. Having lost more than two cities—lovely ones, Montréal, Tehran, New York—they spend their time in New England contemplating the balance between being too foreign for home and too foreign for here.
Q-mars Haeri received his Ph.D. in May 2024 in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland-College Park. He is a theatre historian and practitioner, whose research interest is on cultural production in Iran. At the Center, Haeri will work on developing his dissertation project, Popular Theatre in Iran: A Social History of Lalehzari Performances, into a manuscript. The project focuses on Lalehzar, one of the most important theatre districts in Tehran. He hopes to write a social history of this district’s mid-20th century that questions how we categorize cultural products either with dignity and as sublime, or as degenerate and vulgar, and to what extent these categorizations are influenced by notions of class, religion, and the urban/rural divide. Haeri hopes to organize reading events and dramatic performances, as well as create an interactive, digital map depicting sites of Lalehzar theatres and performances. Haeri’s interest is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, building upon the already historical and anthropological projects currently underway at the Center.
Zep Kalb
Zep Kalb comes to us from the Department of Sociology at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). His research examines state-making, social movements, and economic development
from a comparative-historical perspective. He received his Ph.D. in May 2024. Based on his dissertation, Kalb will be working on his book: Manufacturing Resilience: Labor Protest and Politics in Iran. The book investigates how international pressure against Iran over the past hundred years has supported labor movements and government responses that have, in turn, shaped the institutions of the Iranian state. His book project uses unique archival, qualitative, and statistical data, including a large dataset of labor protests that he has collected. Kalb is also involved with the Iran Social Survey, one of the most comprehensive surveys currently conducted inside the country, which is also a project that is supported by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center.
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Chair, Near Eastern Studies; Director, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies; Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Femke de Ruyter
Center Manager, Sharmin & Bijan MossavarRahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Alison Cummins
Office & Events Coordinator, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Sheida Dayani
Associate Research Scholar, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Sheragim Jenabzadeh
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Naveed Mansoori
Associate Research Scholar, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Negar Razavi
Associate Research Scholar, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Below:
Center director, researchers, and staff pose with MossavarRahmani Center Advisory Council members at the start of the biennial meeting.
Beeta Baghoolizadeh
Associate Research Scholar, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Maral Sahebjame
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Lindsey Stephenson
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Marzieh Tofighi-Darian
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies
Visiting Fellows
Pamela Karimi
Professor, University of MassachusettsDartmouth
Djavad Salehi-Isfahani
Professor, Virginia Tech
Ata Anzali
Associate Professor, Middlebury College
Mojtaba Mahdavi
Professor, University of Alberta; Chair, Islamic Studies
Executive Committee
Julia Elyachar (On sabbatical)
Associate Professor, Anthropology and Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
Dimitri H. Gondicas (Sits with Committee)
Senior Professional Specialist, The Council of the Humanities; Director, Stanley J. Seeger ’52 Center for Hellenic Studies
Beatrice Kitzinger
Associate Professor, Art and Archeology
Michael Francis Laffan
Paula Chow Professor in International and Regional Studies; Professor, History
David S. Magier (Sits with Committee)
Associate University Librarian for Collections and Access Services
Daniel Sheffield
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Studies
Affiliated Faculty
Divya Cherian
Associate Professor, History
Christopher Chyba
Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor in International Affairs; Professor, Astrophysical Sciences
Center
Executive
Committee members
Michael Cook
Class of 1943 University Professor, Near Eastern Studies
Julia Elyachar (On sabbatical)
Associate Professor, Anthropology and Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
Michael Flower
David Magie ’97 Class of 1897 Professor of Classics
Molly Greene Professor, History and Hellenic Studies
Bernard Haykel Professor, Near Eastern Studies
Amaney A. Jamal
Dean, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics
Stephen Kotkin
John P. Birkelund ’52 Professor in History and International Affairs, Emeritus
Michael Francis Laffan
Paula Chow Professor of International and Regional Studies; Professor, History
Michael A. Reynolds
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Studies; CoDirector, Program in the History and Practice of Diplomacy
Daniel Sheffield
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Studies
Jack Tannous
Associate Professor, History and Hellenic Studies; Chair, Committee for the Study of Late Antiquity; Director, Program in Hellenic Studies
Moulie Vidas
Associate Professor, Religion and the Program in Judaic Studies
Muhammad Q. Zaman
Robert H. Niehaus ’77 Professor, Near Eastern Studies and Religion
Advisory Council Members
Olga M. Davidson
Research Fellow, Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations, Boston University
Alexander M. Farman-Farmaian
Partner, Vice Chairman and Portfolio Manager, Edgewood Management, LLC.
Michael M. J. Fischer
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities; Professor of Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Amaney A. Jamal
Dean, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics
Charles Kurzman
Professior of Sociology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani
Executive Chairman, DNO ASA; Executive Chairman, RAK Petroleum plc; Chairman, Foxtrot International LDC
Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani
Chief Investment Officer, Consumer and Wealth Management, Goldman Sachs
Elaine Sciolino
Author, Contributing Writer, and Former Paris Bureau Chief, The New York Times
WEDNESDAY SEMINAR SERIES
September 11
Allen James Fromherz (Georgia State University)
The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone
September 18
Hosna Sheikholeslami (Denison University)
Political Theory in Translation in Iran
September 25
Andrea Wright (College of William & Mary)
Depoliticizing Labor: Oil and Citizenship in the Persian Gulf
October 2
Michelle Assay Eshghpour (University of Toronto)
When Puppets Sing in Tehran: Reconfiguring Iran’s ‘National’ Opera
October 9
Q-mars Haeri (Princeton University)
Historical Narratives in Preserving Tehran’s Lalehzar Theaters
October 23
Sareh Afshar (Princeton University)
Dying to Be Somebody: Performances of Death and the Iranian War Generation
October 30
Sara Tafakori (Leeds University)
Feeling Digital Feminism: Affect, Territoriality and Networked Protest in Iran.
November 6
Mehrdad Alipour (Utrecht University)
Negotiating Homosexuality in Contemporary Shi’i Islam
November 13
Zep Kalb (Princeton University)
1946, (Anti-)communism, and the Azeri Origins of the Iranian state
November 20
Farshid Emami (Rice University)
Isfahan: Architecture and Urban Experience in Early Modern Iran
December 4
Alexander Jabbari (University of Minnesota)
The Making of Persianate Modernity: Language and Literary History between Iran and India
Sharmin and Bijan
Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies
2-S-2 Green Hall Princeton, NJ 08544 USA