This presentation discusses various religiously oriented activities that aimed at reviving the socio-political salience and influence of religion in the aftermath of the abdication of Reza Shah; it also explores the reactions of the intelligentsia, and their perceptions of religiosity and its meaning and role, in the context of the fragile civil society of the time.
Fakhreddin Azimi is Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. His fields of research are the history, politics and culture of modern Iran. He is also interested in social and political theory, the epistemological foundations of historical enquiry, and the contribution of the social sciences to historiography.
He has written widely in both English and Persian, and is the author of the following books:
— The Quest for Democracy in Iran: a Century of Struggle against Authoritarian Rule
(Harvard University Press, 2008; paperback 2010), which won the Mossadegh Prize of the Mossadegh Foundation, and the Saidi-Sirjani Award, International Society for Iranian Studies, and was a finalist in the Non-Fiction Category for the Connecticut Book Award, Connecticut Center for the Book.
— Iran: The Crisis of Democracy, from the Exile of Reza Shah to the Fall of Musaddiq (New York & London, 1989, revised paperback edition, 2009) translated into Persian as Bohran-e Demokrasi dar Iran, 1320-1332 (revised, with a new introduction, Tehran 1994, 3rd edition, 2008).
— National Sovereignty and its Enemies: Probing the Record of Mosaddeq’s Opponents (Persian; Tehran 2004, 2010)
–Reflections on Mosaddeq’s Political Thinking: Essays on Iranian History, Politics & political Culture (Persian; Tehran, 2015).
A seminar on Considerations on Religion and Secularity will also take place on Monday, June 27. More information about this seminar will follow later.
Lecture in Persian