UBC's Asian Studies Department presents the Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies (Fall 2021 series).
This presentation: "The Anti-Aryan Moment: Decolonization and Race in Late Pahlavi Iran" was delivered via Zoom on November 6, 2021, featuring guest speaker, Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet (Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania) and discussant, Barrington Walker (Professor of History, Wilfrid Laurier University).
Event details: [ Ссылка ]
Intellectuals of the post-Mosaddeq era gave voice to an anti-colonialist rhetoric that burst wide open during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. These writers, some with socialist, leanings, watched happenings in North Africa and other formerly colonized states with interest. Expressions of ethnic and racial acceptance or opposition grew strident as Iranians engaged with global crises that brought the politics of race heatedly to their backyard. While the theme of ethnicity endured as a subject of anthropological and political interest, race and racism rose to the fore as writers of different stripes considered their political affiliations and proclivities. Persian high, and popular, culture grappled with notions of race and skin color in contemporary society, and other ideologies such as Third Worldism, Islamism, and socialism informed these intellectual and public debates. In those years, Iran expanded its network of international relations, and, by 1976, it had pursued diplomatic engagements with more than two dozen African nations. The Pahlavi regime, while flaunting Iran’s Aryan past, was pulled into another orbit. Race relations provided an unanticipated and often missed opportunity for collaboration.
About the Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies: Alireza Ahmadian (1981 – 2019) was an enthusiastic researcher, a consummate socio-political analyst, and an opinion leader on foreign policy who nurtured the virtues of diplomatic dialogue and liberal democracy. Alireza was a proud and devoted UBC alumnus, supporter of UBC’s Asian Studies department, and beloved member of Canadian-Iranian Community. UBC’s Asian Studies department renamed this lecture series in his honour in 2019. Alireza’s friends in the community have provided funding to support this series, and this generous gift will see these important academic and community engagement events supported through to the end of the 2025/2026 academic year. To access the full list of events, visit [ Ссылка ]
