Iran 1400 Podcast

This episode is part one of a two-part conversation with Dr. William Figueroa about his article for the Iran 1400 Project entitled “Constitutionalism Across Asia: Iran and China.” Sydney Martin and Dr. Figueroa discuss the influence of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution on Chinese elites and the impact of pan-Asian and anti-colonial sentiment on Iran, China, and greater Asia. Dr. Figueroa provides background on the Chinese constitutional revolution, pointing out the similarities between it and Iran. He details how technological advancements such as the first large-scale international telegraph network allowed people to keep up with world events and highlights the imagined global community of Asian constitutional states. 

Other papers by Dr. William Figueroa:

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In this episode, Sydney Martin interviews Dr. Eric Lob about his recent article for the Iran 1400 Project “Institutional Continuities and Changes in the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Case of Construction Jihad.” Using Construction Jihad as their focal point, they discuss a wide range of events and ideas, such as development, the Islamic Republican Party, the Iran-Iraq War, and the consolidation of power in Iran since the revolution. The article is available on our website, please check it out here before or after you listen:

https://iran1400.org/discover/the-case-of-construction-jihad/

What will happen after Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's passing? During this event hosted by the Iran 1400 Project, Ali Alfoneh, an author and political scientist, answered this question and presented his book “Political Succession in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Demise of the Clergy and the Rise of the Revolutionary Guard Corps”. His book imagines what leadership will look like in the Islamic Republic after the passing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. It looks back at the past, detailing the process of succession before and after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, as well as towards the future, concluding that whoever Khamenei's successor may be, he will be beholden to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).  

In addition to the presentation of his book, this episode includes a lively Q&A session with Mr. Alfoneh. He addresses a variety of pressing points concerning the past, present, and future of Iran, from how a Raisi presidency will affect the transition of power, to the immense role of the IRGC today.

On November 19th the Iran 1400 Project hosted a Spotlighting an Author event with distinguished social historian, Stephanie Cronin of Oxford University. Dr. Cronin discussed her newly-released book, Social Histories of Iran: Modernism and Marginality in the Middle East, which problematizes concepts of modernity in Iran and the broader Middle East with a global comparative perspective. The book investigates the lives of the underclasses of Iranian society in the 19th and 20th centuries and their particular relationship with both socio-economic hierarchies and modernity. A central argument of the book is that modernity was a project conducted by the elite classes of society, especially in the context of Iran. Throughout the Q&A session, Dr. Cronin answered questions on topics ranging from issues surrounding veiling to the history of slavery in Iran and the surrounding region. The event serves not only as a fitting summary of Dr. Cronin's book but also as a fascinating discussion for anyone interested in the history of Iran in the last century.

In this Spotlighting an Author event, Dr. Fatemeh Shams discussed her latest book “A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic”. During the extensive Q&A section of the event, Shams answered a series of questions with topics from lack of academic attention to Persian poetry, to the cause and result relationship between the revolution and poetry in Iran.

About Fatemeh Shams: Dr. Fatemeh Shams is Assistant Professor of Modern Persian literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her Ph.D in Oriental Studies from University of Oxford, Wadham College. Before joining Penn, she taught Persian language and literature at the University of Oxford, University of SOAS, and The Courtauld Institute of Art in United Kingdom. Her fields of interest include the social history of modern Persian literature, classical and modern prose, literary institutions and their role in the literary production under authoritarian states, ideology, censorship, and official literature in modern Iran. As well as publishing numerous articles, she is also an award-winning poet and has published three collections of her poetry.

About the book: A Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-option under the Islamic Republic offers, for the first time, an original, timely examination of the pivotal role poetry plays in policy, power and political legitimacy in modern-day Iran. Through a compelling chronological and thematic framework, Shams presents fresh insights into the emerging lexicon of coercion and unrest in the modern Persian canon. Analysis of the lives and work of ten key poets traces the evolution of the Islamic Republic, from the 1979 Revolution, through to the Iran-Iraq War, the death of a leader and the rise of internal conflicts. Ancient forms jostle against didactic ideologies, exposing the complex relationship between poetry, patronage and literary production in authoritarian regimes, shedding light on a crucial area of discourse that has been hitherto overlooked.

In this Spotlighting an Author event, Dr. Annie Tracy Samuel discussed the IRGC’s roles and power in contemporary Iran and demonstrates how the history of the Iran–Iraq War has an immense bearing on the Islamic Republic’s present and future. During the extensive Q&A section of the event, Tracy Samuel answered a series of questions with topics from the most important lessons learned by the IRGC  to similarities between the acceptance of Security Council Resolution 598 and the acceptance of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

About Annie Tracy Samuel: Dr. Annie Tracy Samuel is an assistant professor of history and a member of the graduate faculty at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in history from Tel Aviv University and a B.A. in history and political science from Columbia University. She specializes in the modern history of Iran and the Middle East. She serves on the board of the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society, and began her term as president in January 2021.  

About the book: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), founded after the Iranian revolution in 1979, is one of the most powerful and prominent but least understood organizations in Iran. In this book, Annie Tracy Samuel provides an innovative and compelling history of this organization, and by using the Iran-Iraq War as a focal point, analyzes the links between war and revolution. Examining how the Revolutionary Guards have recorded and assessed the history of the war in the massive volume of Persian-language publications produced by top members and units of the IRGC, Tracy Samuel presents an internal view of the IRGC. This not only enhances our comprehension of the IRGC’s roles and power in contemporary Iran, but it also demonstrates how the history of the Iran-Iraq War has immense bearing on the Islamic Republic’s present and future. In doing so, it reveals how analyzing Iran’s history provides the critical tools for understanding its actions today.

This episode is the audio version of the Spotlighting an Author event with John Ghazvinian who presented his new book "America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present". Ghazvinian provided a captivating account of the U.S.-Iran relationship within the last 300 years and discussed the history that is rarely explored, from Christian missionaries in Iran, to the American fascination with Persia in the early 1900s. He further argued that a better understanding of the two countries’ rich history could be the key to a stronger future.   

📚 Link to purchase the book: https://amzn.to/2SAUWqX 

The 1953 coup and the 1979 revolution are frequently referred to as the catalysts for sour relations between the United States and Iran. Yet, the condition of the relationship before these events is rarely mentioned. In this event, John Ghazvinian, the author of "America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present", discussed his new book and chronicles this relationship beginning from the 18th century. Dive into the complex history of the United States and Iran as Ghazvinian sheds light on how this once-friendly relationship turned hostile.

This episode is an audio version of an event in which Dr. Ervand Abrahamian, a renowned historian discussed his latest book "Oil Crisis in Iran: From Nationalism to Coup D'Etat". Abrahamian provided analysis on recently declassified CIA and US State Department documents from the Mossadeq administration. He told the story of the Iranian oil crisis, which would eventually culminate in the coup of August 1953. During the extensive Q&A section of the event, Abrahamian answered questions with topics from the Anglo-Soviet Occupation of Iran in 1941 to the revisionist history surrounding the events of 1953, to the lasting effects of the 1953 coup d'etat in both Iran and the United States today.

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/MI_xHIN9Y7g

In the first episode, Christian and Sydney summarize the main points discussed in a previous Iran 1400 Project event in Farsi about the women's movement in Iran. They review the analyses of four panelists: Homa Hoodfar, Mahboobeh Abasghlizadeh, Mehrangiz Kar, and Aram Hessami as they examine the complex history of women's rights in the past century in Iran.

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