Tag: Talk

From Myth to Tradition: Woman’s New Year Celebrations in Iran, Zahra Taheri, Jan 5, 2020

zari-taheri

Dr. Taheri studied classical and contemporary Persian literature in Iran at Pahlavi (Shiraz) University, and received her Master’s degree in Persian studies from the Pajuheshkade-ye Farhang-e Iran, and her PH.D from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. During the last two decades she has taught Persian literature, language, Iranian history and culture, and Gender and culture courses in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley (USA), the Department of Persian Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), and the Middle East and Central Asian Studies Department in the Australasian National University (Australia).

US-Iran Relations: Conflicting vs. Overlapping Interests? Mahmoud Monshipour, Nov 17, 2019

Mahmood Monshipouri, Ph.D., is Chair and Professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University. He is also a lecturer at Global Studies/International and Area Studies at UC-Berkeley, where he teaches Middle East Politics. He is author, most recently, of “Middle East Politics: Changing Dynamics” (New York: Routledge, 2019). Additionally, he is the author and editor of ten more books, including “Information Politics, Protests, and Human Rights in a Digital Age” (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016) and “Inside the Islamic Republic: Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).

The Fate of the Green Movement: A Review on Iran’s Coup in 2009, Farhad Moradi, Aug 5, 2019

Farhad Moradi is an essayist who lives in Berkeley. His essays cover a variety of genre, including cinema and literature. Nevertheless, all his writings have a political and social approach. Apart from the reports and essays he published on his website, in recent years, he has been written, at the International page and Thoughts of the Shargh Daily, as well as the social section of Radio Zamaneh.

How Khomeini turned the Islamic Revolution into a dictatorship, Mohammad Ja’fari, Jul 7, 2019

Mohammad Ja’fari was the managing editor and the director on the daily newspaper “Engelab Eslami”, established by Mr. Bani Sadr, in June 1979, a few months before Bani Sadr became the first Iranian president. Mr. Ja’fari was active in the paper from the beginning until his arrest in June 1981.
He was born in 1944 in the village of Marbin in the county of Ardestan, Isfahan Province. After graduating from high school and spending two years in the Literacy Corps (Sepah Danesh), he became a government teacher and taught for two years in the northern part of Tehran (Oshan -Fasham). He left Iran in 1969 for Germany where he earned a Master’s Degree in Chemistry.
While outside the country he joined the Union of Islamic Student Associations and became close to Mr. Bani Sadr. He returned to Iran right after Ayatollah Khomeini, a few days before the revolution.

Modernity and Transformations of Life in Iran: From Culture and Arts to Cities and City Planning, Dr. Ali A. Kiafar, June 23, 2019

Ali Kiafar holds a Master’s degree in architecture from the National University of Iran and a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the University of Southern California. He has more than four decades of experience in professional practice and university teaching in architecture, urban development/ redevelopment, educational facilities planning and design, educational master planning, and program management.

Iran and the Christian Missionary Experience in the Safavid Period: Between Tolerance and Refutation, Rudi Matthee, May 23, 2019

Professor Matthee teaches Middle Eastern history, with a research focus on early modern Iran and the Persian Gulf. He received his Ph.D. in 1991 from the University of California, Los Angeles. He wrote The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730 (1999), and The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900, (2005); co-edited, with Beth Baron, Iran and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie (2000); and co-edited, with Nikki Keddie, Iran, and the Surrounding World, 1501-2001: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics (2002).

Shahrokh Meskoob’s views on Nationality and Language, May 16, 2019

Reza Mahmoudi, born in Mashhad, received his Bachelor’s degree in History from Ferdowsi University, Master’s degree in History from University of Houston, and PhD in Political Science from University of Texas, Austin. He was an active member of the Confederation of Iranian Students in the US. He taught at University in Iran, was a political activist, and left for the United States in 1983.

New Book: The Last Breath of the Rose, Mehdi Aslani, Apr 28, 2019

Mehdi Aslani (born 1959 in Tehran), was a prisoner of conscience in the Islamic Republic of Iran from February 1985 until March 1989. Since his departure from Iran in 1997, he has been engaged as a human rights activist and independent writer in Germany. Mehdi Aslani has spent approximately two years collecting these documents through meticulous research and outreach to the victims’ families both in and outside of Iran.

The Universe of Love in Persian Poetry, Dr. Karimi-Hakkak, Feb 23, 2019

Ahmad Karimi Hakkak is a visiting Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Culture at UCLA. He has been part of faculty of many university and has received numerous awards for his contribution to the field of Near Eastern languages. He has written more that nineteen books and over one hundred major scholarly articles. He has contributed articles on Iran and Persian literature to many reference works, including Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Iranica, and The Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. A specialist in modern Persian literature, his works have been translated into French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, and Persian. He has served as President of the International Society for Iranian Studies and several other professional academic organizations.

Why “Iran: A Modern History?”, Abbas Amanat, Feb 17-18, 2019

Abbas Amanat (B.A., Tehran University; D. Phil., University of Oxford) is Willaim Graham Sumner Professor of History at Yale Univerity. He has taught and written about early modern and modern history of Iran, Muslim world, the Middle East and the Persianate world for more than three decades. His principal book publications include Iran: A Modern History; Az Tehran ta ‘Akka: Babiyan va Baha’iyan dar Asnad-e Dowran-e Qajar; Apocalyptic Islam and Iranian; Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896; Persian translation: Qebleh-e ‘Alam; Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850.

The Image of Women in the Interpretation of the Myth of Creation, Jan 6, 2019

Dr. Taheri studied classical and contemporary Persian literature in Iran at Pahlavi (Shiraz) University, and received her Master’s degree in Persian studies from the Pajuheshkade-ye Farhang-e Iran, and her PH.D from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. During the last two decades she has taught Persian literature, language, Iranian history and culture, and Gender and culture courses in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley (USA), the Department of Persian Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), and the Middle East and Central Asian Studies Department in the Australasian National University (Australia). Her first book, Hozur-e peyda va penhan-e zan dar mutun-e sufiyyeh was published by the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies/Japan in 2007. The third editions of this book was published in 2018.

History in Perspective: What Actually Drives the Saudi Rivalry with Iran?, Banafsheh Keynoush, May 13, 2018

Banafsheh Keynoush is a foreign affairs scholar and the author of “Saudi Arabia and Iran: Friends or Foes?” She received her PhD at Tufts University. She was recently a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University, and a Visiting Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research in Saudi Arabia. She is an adjunct professor, and a geopolitical consultant, and writes and speaks extensively on the Middle East.

Iranian Fake News & the Role of Security Apparatus, Iraj Mesdaghi, Mar 3, 2018

Iraj Mesdaghi began his political life in the United States with the Confederation of Iranian Students and returned to Iran during the 1979 revolution. In 1981, he was arrested because of his activities with the People’s Mojahedeen of Iran and spent the next decade in prison. He fled to Sweden in 1994 where he resumed his political activities. Mesdaghi has written various books and articles on 1988 mass executions of political prisoners in Iran, including the 4 volume book “Neither life Nor Death” about his 10 year experience in prisons, and ”Hell On Earth” investigating the ideological roots of torture in the Islamic Republic. He is currently an independent activist and researcher working on human rights, workers’ rights and prison issues.

A look at the narratives of social and cultural trauma in modern Iranian fiction, Omid Fallahazad, Feb 18, 2018

Omid Fallahazad is a bilingual fiction writer. His recent novel in Farsi, Gahvareye Div (NaaKojaa, 2016) centers on house burning riots in Shiraz against Bahai’s on the eve of the Iranian Revolution and the controversies surrounding the incident. His other works in Farsi include a collection of short stories, Se Tir-baran Dar Se Dastan (H&S Media, 2016), and a best-selling young adult novella, Razi (Madreseh, 2001). Omid’s English stories has appeared in publications such as Glimmer Train, Paul Revere’s Horse, World Literature Today, and in Tremors, an anthology of Iranian-American writers. He and his wife, media artist, Rashin Fahandej, live with their daughter near Boston, Massachusetts.

A Lecture by Dr. Zahra Taheri, Scholar Topic: سکوت کهن آینه, Jan 7, 2018

Dr. Taheri studied classical and contemporary Persian literature in Iran at Pahlavi (Shiraz) University, and received her Master’s degree in Persian studies from the Pajuheshkade-ye Farhang-e Iran, and her PH.D from the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. During the last two decades she has taught Persian literature, language, Iranian history and culture, and Gender and culture courses in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley (USA), the Department of Persian Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Japan), and Australasian National University (Australia). Her first book, Hozur-e peyda va penhan-e zan dar mutun-e sufiyyeh was published by the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies/Japan in 2007. Her second book “The Ancient Silence of Mirrors” (Sokut-e Kohan-e ‘Ayene-haa) has been published in Japanese in Tokyo, and Persian by Nashr-e Sales in Iran. She is currently working on her upcoming book on “The Image of Women in Persian Ethical Texts.” This research project received a fellowship from the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford in 2016-2017. Taheri is also a published poet with two collections of poetry: Milad and Pegaah-e Nokhostin. Her third poetry book “Daaman be Khaak Mikeshad Maah” is in the process of being published by “Nashr-e Sales” in Iran.

Forced Migration of Kurds to Khorasan, the role of Shiite religion, Iraj Ghahremanloo, Sep 10, 2017

ایرج قهرمانلو از یک خانواده کورد کرمانجی در یکی‌ از روستا‌های پیرامون کوچان (قوچان) دیده به جهان گشود . وی دوره دبیرستان را در کوچان گذرانید و در سال ۱۳۵۱ دوره دکترای پزشکی خود را در دانشگاه مشهد به پایان رساند. در دوران دانشجوئی به عضویت سازمان مجاهدین خلق در آمد. دکتر قهرمانلو پس از ۳ سال کار سازمانی بویژه تماس با رهبری، جهت گیری سازمان را درست نمی انگاشت. پس از گذرانیدن دورانهای دشوار درون سازمانی، سر انجام با نا امیدی و سر خوردگی بسیار در فروردین ۱۳۵۱ از سازمان جدا شد. چند ماه بعد، رابطه سازمانی او بر ساواک آشکار گردید و در آذر ۱۳۵۱ دستگیر شد.
و پس از شکنجه بسیار به یک سال زندان محکوم شد. اندکی پس از آزادی، در ۲۸ مرداد ۱۳۵۲ ساواک اطلاعات تازه‌ا‌ی در باره گستردگی ارتباطات وی با مجاهدین بدست آورد و او را دوباره دستگیر کرد. ساواک این بار او را به خاطر پنهان نگاه داشتن اطلاعات در بار نخست به گونه انتقامی شکنجه داد و برای درازمدت زندانی کرد. در خیزش انقلابی سال ۱۳۵۷ بیاری مردم از زندان آزاد شد و سپس با افراد و گروهای سیاسی بدون وابسته شدن به فعالیت سیاسی ادامه داد. دکتر قهرمانلو در همین دوران نیز تخصص پزشکی کودکان را از دانشگاه تهران بدست آورد. شوربختانه اما، با تیره شدن اوضاع سیاسی ایران و دستگیری دوستان و حتی خانواده‌های بیمارانش ناچار شد پیش از آنکه پلیس سیاسی جمهوری ایران به سراغش بیاید، در سال ۱۳۶۳ با خانواده از ایران خارج شود.

A lecture by Mansoureh Sabetzadeh, Jul 23, 2017

Mansoureh Sabtzadeh has a Ph.D. in Persian Language and Literature from the Islamic Azad University (Research and Science branch) in Tehran, Iran. Since 1994 she has been an Assistant Professor at the Islamic Azad University, South Tehran branch and as director of center for Iranian Musicology, she has coordinated related research programs. Dr Sabetzadeh is a scholar of Persian language and literature, dance, folklore, and traditional Iranian music, with an emphasis on musical influences in Persian language and literature.

What Does Resistance Look like Now?, Judith Butler, Jun 15, 2017

Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University in 1984.

She is the author of several books: Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France (1987), Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990), Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (1993), The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjection (1997), Excitable Speech (1997), Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death (2000), Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning (2004); Undoing Gender (2004), Who Sings the Nation-State?: Language, Politics, Belonging (with Gayatri Spivak in 2008), Frames of War: When Is Life Grievable? (2009), and Is Critique Secular? (co-written with Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, and Saba Mahmood, 2009) and Sois Mon Corps (2011), co-authored with Catherine Malabou. Her most recent books include: Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism (2012), Dispossession: The Performative in the Political (co-authored with Athena Athanasiou 2013), Senses of the Subject and Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015). And in 2016, she published a co-edited volume, Vulnerability in Resistance, with Duke University Press. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

A Talk by Niloufar Talebi: Abraham in Flames, May 21, 2017

Niloufar Talebi is a writer, award-winning translator, producer, and multidisciplinary artist. She is the Editor/Translator of Belonging: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World (North Atlantic Books/2008), the translator of Vis & I (l’Aleph, 2017), and creator of multimedia works, ICARUS/RISE and The Persian Rite of Spring: the story of Nowruz. Ms. Talebi was a Resident Artist with the American Lyric Theater and the Washington National Opera, where she developed two operas as part of her Persian Opera Cycle.

Travel Ban Executive Order & Impacts on the Iranian Community, Elica Vafaie, Apr 23, 2017

Elica Vafaie is an Iranian American attorney at the Asian Law Caucus where her work focuses on the immigrant rights and national security. Over the last two months, she has been working on cases involving Iranian Americans at SFO. Prior to Asian Law Caucus, Elica worked as the supervising attorney to establish the University of California Undocumented Legal Services Center providing free immigration legal services to students and their families across California. Elica received her B.A. from UC Irvine and her J.D from UC Davis School of Law, where she was active in the Immigration Law Clinica and was a UC
Human Rights Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Woman’s Body behind the Hedjab of Tradition and Religion, Najmeh Mousavi, Jan 22, 2017

Najmeh Mousavi is a bilingual writer and translator currently living in Paris. She was born in Tehran, Iran. She began her study of Sociology in Shiraz University in Iran and graduated from Sorbonne.
She holds a Ph.D. in Social and Urban Development and currently works as a Senior Consultant on several EU projects in France.
She has collaborated with Persian language magazine “Arash” as an editor since 1996. She is the founder of French language magazine “Pol”.

Evolution of the Two-party System in America and its Impact on the Presidential Election. Massud Alemi, Oct 16, 2016

Massud Alemi is a bilingual writer/translator currently living in Maryland. He was born in Tehran, Iran, and emigrated to the United States for higher education in 1977. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 provided the excuse he needed to study history. He’s been preoccupied with the roots of the Islamic revolution in the country of his birth, a preoccupation that led him to writing. He graduated from George Mason University in Virginia, and went on to get an MBA. His debut novel, Interruptions, was published in 2008. He most recently translated into Persian The Federalist Papers, “the most instructive treatise we possess on federal government,” according to Alexis de Tocqueville. He included in this volume a translation of the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

Religious Revival and Civil Society in post- Reza Shah Iran, Fakherddin Azimi, Jun 26, 2016

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. …

خودی و ناخودی: حکایت دیروز و امروز و همیشه, Homa Sarshar, May 25, 2016

Homa Sarshar was born in Shiraz on 1946, and raised in Tehran. From 1964 to 1978, she worked as a correspondent, reporter, and columnist for Zan-e Ruz weekly magazine and Kayhan daily newspaper in Iran. During this period, she also worked as a television producer, director, and talk-show host for National Iranian Radio & Television. In 1978, Sarshar moved to Los Angeles where she resumed her career as a freelance journalist, radio and television producer, and on-air host. In 1982 as the co-producer, writer, and talk-show host of Omid Radio she co-founded a daily AM radio broadcast for the Los Angeles based Iranian immigrant community. Since 1993 Sarshar has been a trusted advisor by the Human Rights Watch the Hellman/Hammett grant program for writers all around the world who have been victims of political persecution and are in financial need. Throughout her 49-year career with Iranian and Iranian-American print, radio, and television, Sarshar has done more than 1500 interviews and has produced and anchored as many radio and television programs.

A Talk by Mokhtar Paki, Author & Painter, Feb 21, 2016

Mokhtar Paki born in Shiraz, received his M.A. in architecture from Science & Technology University in Norway, and as a visiting student at Oxford Polytechnic University finished his theses on “Reconstruction of Disaster Stricken Regions”. His professional work includes reconstruction and rehabilitation of schools, and clinics for veterans. He received his second M.A. in Creative-writing from San Francisco State University in 1996.

Since 1987, his short stories and articles have appeared in various journals in Iran, Europe and U.S. His latest novel “Sharhzade Sokoot” has been recently published. Mokhtar is also a painter, and he teaches art.

New Visa Waiver Program Restrictions, Nancy Hormachea, Jan 24, 2016

Nancy Hormachea has been practicing immigration and refugee law in the Bay Area for more than 30 years. Nancy was one of the founding organizers of the San Francisco Immigrant Legal & Education Network [SFILEN] that provides pro bono immigration services and advocacy for SF immigrant communities and later co-founder of Omid Advocates for Human Rights in 2009. Nancy was member of the Legal Steering Committee for the Iran Tribunal in 2012. In 2003 Nancy was honored as an Outstanding Woman by the City of Berkeley for her exceptional work on behalf of immigrant women. Nancy continues to mentor aspiring immigrant advocates and volunteers with several community organizations.

Solitary confinement, Persian Literature – Plus a story reading of “Water’s Memory”, Shahriar Mandanipour, Aug 16, 2015

Shahriar Mandanipour has held fellowships at Brown University, Harvard University, Boston College, and at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. His honors include the Mehregan Award for the best Iranian children’s novel of 2004, the 1998 Golden Tablet Award for best fiction in Iran during the previous two decades, and Best Film Critique at the 1994 Press Festival in Tehran. Mandanipour is the author of nine volumes of fiction, one nonfiction book, and more than 100 essays in literary theory, literature and art criticism, creative writing, censorship, and social commentary. From 1999 until 2007, he was Editor-in-Chief of Asr-e Panjshanbeh (Thursday Evening), a monthly literary journal that after 9 years of publishing was banned. Short works have been published in France, Germany, Denmark, and in languages such Arabic, Turkish, and Kurdish. Mandanipour’s first novel to appear in English, Censoring an Iranian Love Story, translated by Sara Khalili and published by Knopf in 2009 was very well received, and was awarded (Greek ed.) the Athens Prize for Literature for 2011. The novel has been translated and published in 11 other languages and in 13 countries.

Flight into Darkness – A Political Biography of Shapour Bakhtiar, Hamid Shokat, Jan 25, 2015

Hamid Shokat is a prolific writer of political history. He has published “Background on the Transition to the One-Party System in Soviet Russia, 1917-1921”, “The Lost Years – From the October Revolution to Lenin’s Death”, “History of the Confederation of Iranian Students” in two volumes, and four volumes in a series of books titled “An Inside Look into the Iranian Left Movement – Conversations with Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani, Iraj Kashkuli, Koroush Lashaii and Mohsen Rezvani”, “The Political Biography of Ahmad Qavam” (Qavam-os-Saltana), one of the most controversial and pivotal figures of Iran in the twentieth century and most recently “Flight into Darkness – A Political Biography of Shapour Bakhtiar”, The last Prime Minister of Iran under Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Ahmed Kasravi’s Status in Iran’s Modern Historiography, Alireza Manafzadeh, Oct 19, 2014

علیرضا مناف زاده دارای دیپلم تحصیلات عالی در رشتۀ تاریخ و جامعه‌شناسی از دانشکدۀ عالی علوم اجتماعی پاریس است. وی مقاله‌های زیادی دربارۀ ایران و فرانسه به فارسی در مجله‌هایی مانند “ایران نامه” در آمریکا و “نگاه نو” در ایران چاپ کرده است. او چندین کتاب به زبان فارسی ترجمه کرده و همچنین دو کتاب به نام های “احمد کسروی، مردی که می‌خواست ایران را از تاریک اندیشی برهاند” و “ساخت و پرداخت هویتی در ایران” به زبان فرانسه به چاپ رسانده ‌است. درحال حاضربا بخش فرانسوی «رادیو بین‌المللی فرانسه» کار می‌کند و مقاله‌های او در آنجا به چاپ می رسد و هرهفته نیز یک برنامۀ دوزبانه (فارسی و فرانسه) برای این رادیو درزمینۀ مسائل فرهنگی و تاریخی و فلسفی تهیه می‌کند.

The Psychology of Torture, Nouriman Ghahari, Sep 14, 2014

Dr. Ghahari obtained her doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology with her final thesis focused on the victims of torture and imprisonment in Iran. She has continued her work in research, writing, and teaching in the field of personal and social injury caused by political violence and other psycho-social problems. She currently teaches at Felician College in New Jersey, and at the same time provides counseling to patients with psycho-social injuries, depression, anxiety, and family issues as well as educating parents.

Transition from Iranian Nationality to Modernity, Fazel Gheybi, Aug 17, 2014

Fazel Gheybi was born 1954 into a Bahai family with Zoroastrian background in Tehran. In his early years he learned the Bahai-writings from Farhang Holakouee. He finished his studies with emphasis on computer engineering in 1983 in Germany. Meanwhile he showed interest in Marxism and sympathized with the “Tudeh-Party”, which he was turned away from in 1984. Fazel Gheybi works at the Technical University of Darmstadt, at the Institute of Experimental Nuclear Physics. After attending Philosophy courses in Frankfurt for 2 years, he continued the self-study of Philosophy and History. His work “Modern Philosophy and Iran” was published in 2011.

Political prisoners families from 60’s to green movement, Freshteh Ghazi, June 29, 2014

Fereshteh Ghazi is an Iranian journalist. She has worked in more than 18 newspapers in Iran which all have been banned: Khordad, Hammihan, Hambastegi, Bonyan, Etemad. She was arrested in 2004 and was deprived to work until 2007 that she left Iran. Ever since, she has worked in Roozonline website, publishing more than a thousand reports and interviews, mostly concentrated on cases of human rights, especially those who were killed in post-election events, political prisoners and executions.

Some Reflections on a Recent Debate in Iran over the Politics of Armed Struggle in the Pre-Revolutionary Period, Ali Tusi, Jun 8, 2014

After receiving his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985, Ali Ferdowsi studied as a post-doctoral fellow in the Graduate Program in Demography at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught for three years as a visiting professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Tokyo University for Foreign Studies in Japan.
After working for five years as an International Specialist for NHK (Japan Broadcast Corporation), he returned to the United States in 1997 and began teaching in the Department of History and Political Science at Notre Dame de Namur University.

“The Open Language”, Dariush Ashuri, Oct 6, 2013

Darioush Ashouri studied at the Faculty of Law, Political Sciences and Economics of the University of Tehran, and has been visiting professor of Persian language and literature at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Ashoori taught at the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, and lectured on political philosophy and political sociology at the University of Tehran. From 1970 to 1978 Ashoori was a member of the second Academy of Persian Language.

Ashoori has worked extensively as an author, essayist, translator, literary interpreter, encyclopedist, and lexicologist. His intellectual interests cover a wide interdisciplinary range, including political sciences, literature, philosophy and linguistics. His main domain of intellectual focus is the cultural and linguistic matters of his native country, Iran, as a Third World country encountering modernity.

He has made vast contributions to the development of the Persian vocabulary and terminology in the domains of human sciences and philosophy by coining new words and modifying existing ones. His works in this domain are compiled in his Farhang-e ‘olum-e ensāni (A Dictionary of Human Sciences). Among his major works stands a hermeneutical, intertextual study of the Divan of Hafez (Erfān o rendi dar she’r-e Hafez) which introduces a new approach to the understanding of the great classical poet. As translator, he has translated numerous classical literary and philosophical works by Nietzsche, Machiavelli, Shakespeare and others into Persian.

A Poetry Reading by Esmail Khoei, Sep 8, 2013

Holding a PhD degree in philosophy from the University of London and a native of Mashad, Khorasan Province, Esmail Khoi is a philosophical poet, whose work has been frequently commented in the country.

Khoi, who received his secondary education in Meshed, immigrated abroad after the victory of Islamic Revolution and he is presently teaching or researching in England (2004). The loss of his son was a big shock for the poet and made him more and more despondent.

His focus on art gives special vigor and firmness to his structure. When deeply immersed in literature, Esmail makes a medium for social discourse and philosophical speculation.

His heavy and artistic poetry has an epic tune, which proves that poets bred in Khorasan, cannot forget their epic ancestors.

His language is eloquent, ringing and pedantic with well-selected words.

Works
On the Galloping Stallion of Earth, On the Roof of Whirlwind, Of Those Seafarers, Beyond the Night of the Present, To Sit by the Seashore and Exist, We Who Existed and Slumbering at the Ever Every Morning London.