This conference, Writing the Iranian Revolution: Memory, Testimony, Time, will take a critical look at the 1979 Iranian Revolution as represented in essays, fiction, poetry, memoir, speeches, film, and other arts, and examine the ways that writers, artists, politicians, and intellectuals have depicted the origins and development of the Islamic Republic and the legacy of the revolution in Iranian society and culture today.
The conference will begin and end with two special events. The first is the opening keynote lecture, “Imam Hussein and the Little Black Fish: Literary Tropes and Political Allegories of the Iranian Revolution” which will be presented by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The lecture will be Friday, May 12 at 7:00 PM in Kane Hall, Room 225. The conference will close with a performance by the Hamsaz Ensemble on Saturday, May 13 at 8:00 PM at Town Hall Seattle.
Hamsaz Ensemble is a unique multinational group brought together by contemporary composer Ali Samadpour and featuring Bahar Movahed (vocals), Ali Samadpour (tar), Shahin Shahbazi (tar), Payam Yousef (kamancheh), Babak Daneshvar (oud), and Sina Dehghan (percussion). They will perform an evening of original and traditional Persian music sung to the poetry of Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Mehdi Akhavan-Saless, and M.R. Shafi’i-Kadkani.
This conference is made possible by a generous contribution from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute.
Conference Program:
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Friday, May 12 at 7:00 PM in Kane Hall, Room 225
Keynote Lecture by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi:
Imam Hussein and the Little Black Fish: Literary Tropes and Political Allegories of the Iranian Revolution
Free and Open to the Public
7:00 pm - Preliminary Remarks
Michael Shapiro (College of Arts and Sciences, Dean of Humanities), Selim S. Kuru (Associate Prof. and Chair, NELC), Samad Alavi (Assistant Prof. of Persian and Iranian Studies, NELC)
7:30 pm - Keynote Speech
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (Associate Professor, Sociology, History and LAS Global Studies, University of Illinois)
8:30-9:30 pm - Reception, Walker Ames Room, Kane Hall
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Saturday, May 13 at 9:00 AM in Denny Hall, Room 213
Academic Workshop:
Writing the Iranian Revolution: Memory, Testimony, Time
Due to space limitations, this portion of the conference is for faculty and students of the University of Washington and the conference guests.
9:00-11:00 am - "Historiography: Looking back, Looking forward"
Panel Chair: Arash Davari, (Assistant Professor, Whitman College)
- Peyman Vahabzadeh (University of Victoria), “On the Perils of Memory and Its Issues.”
- Naghmeh Sohrabi (Brandeis University), “What Everyone Knows: Conceptualizing the ‘Obvious’ in the Iranian Revolution.”
- Shahla Talebi (Arizona State University), “Ethnography of Testimonies, Ethnography as Testimonial Literature.”
11:30 am – 1:00 pm - "Narrating a Nation: Women, Revolution, and War"
Panel Chair: Arzoo Osanloo, (Associate Professor, Law, Societies, and Justice, University of Washington)
- Niki Akhavan (Catholic University), “A War of Words: Women and the Fight Over the Legacy of the Iran-Iraq Conflict.”
- Nasrin Rahimieh (University of California, Irvine), “The Anti-Heroine in Contemporary Iranian Women’s Fiction.”
2:00-4:00 pm - "Public Readings, Private Lives: Poetic Production in post-Revolutionary Iran"
Panel Chair: Selim Kuru, Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Civilization (University of Washington)
- Fatemeh Shams (University of Pennsylvania), “’We, Too, Are Villagers’: The Village in Islamic Republican Literature.”
- Samad Alavi (University of Washington), “Memory Without Vision: The Prison Poems of Mohammad Mokhtari.”
- Zuzanna Olszewska (Oxford University), “Broken Promises, Broken Wings: An Afghan View of the Iranian Revolution”
4:30-5:00 pm - Closing Remarks and Discussion
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Saturday, May 13 at 8:00 PM at Town Hall Seattle
Performance:
Hamsaz Ensemble: An Evening of Persian Music featuring Ali Samadpour
This is a ticketed event. Tickets are available here.
The conference will begin and end with two special events. The first is the opening keynote lecture,