Since the 1990s, Jafar Panahi has been a central figure in contemporary Iranian cinema and one of its most acclaimed voices on the global stage. A master of the semi-documentary form, Panahi has captured the spirit and texture of Tehran with a rare intimacy and precision. Even after receiving a draconian sentence that placed him … Read More
From the era of the Mamluk Sultanate to the age of jet travel, Cairo has long served as an important hub of West African migration. Whether as a stop on the hajj to Mecca or as a final destination, multiple West African communities have made Cairo home. This talk will explore the significance of nearly a millennium of … Read More
The Iranian diaspora, estimated at 5 to 8 million people worldwide, has become increasingly visible, especially in North America and Europe. In response to misrepresentation and marginalization, many have turned to cultural work to reshape public narratives and claim space for more accurate and diverse expressions of Iranian identity. Drawing on 16 years of ethnographic … Read More
The Nakba of 1948 is often narrativized as a massive break in Palestinian cultural production. In this presentation, Drs. Ari and Amin will bring nuance to this idea through comparative studies of art made before and after the historical catastrophe. How did iconographies of Palestinian nationalism change over the course of the century? What shifting pressures did … Read More
Join us for a conversation about Dr. Amir Moosavi’s recently published book Dust That Never Settles: Literary Afterlives of the Iran-Iraq War. The book is the first comparative study of Arabic and Persian literature from the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). It traces the ways in which writers from both countries have wrestled with state-sponsored narratives of war … Read More