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Panel on Iran Concludes College's Sixth Annnual Reading Program

KEENE, N.H. 2/27/07 - On Tuesday, March 6, at 4:30 p.m. two well-known scholars on Iran will present the panel, “Understanding Iran,” in the Mabel Brown Room of the Student Center. This is the concluding event of Keene State College’s sixth annual Summer Reading Program, which this year studied Persepolis, a graphic novel by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi. The autobiographical narrative revolves around Marjane, who was nine years old and living in Tehran when rebels supported by the theocracy overthrew the reigning Shah. Satrapi’s radical intellectual family initially welcomed the new order, but soon realized the nature of the powers taking over their country.

Persepolis was used in courses on writing, women’s studies, art, and philosophy and gave faculty and staff the opportunity to discuss globalization, religion, systems of government, gender identity, story narrative and illustration, and many other topics. Experts in various fields came to campus to speak on topics ranging from the history of cartooning to an introduction to Islam in the Middle East.

The panelists bring personal experience and an academic study of Iranian history that will help further understanding of this ancient and complex society. Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, professor of international relations at Syracuse University, will present “Understanding Anti-Americanism in an ‘Axis of Evil’ Country: The Case of Iran.” The author of Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism and numerous articles on terrorism, globalization, and other topics pertaining to Iranian politics and society, Professor Boroujerdi is currently working on a book that deals with the legacy of authoritarian modernization in Iran in the 1920s and ’30s.

Naghmeh Sohrabi, a postdoctoral fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, will present “Notes from the Iranian Underground: The Post-Revolutionary Art Scene in Iran.” She received her Ph.D in 2005 in history and Middle East studies from Harvard University and is currently working on “Signs Taken for Wonder: Nineteenth Century Persian Travel Literature to Europe.”

For more information, contact Brinda Charry, English Department, Keene State College, at 603 358 2727.

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