Historiography & Iran in Comparative Perspective
Conference - Programme
New Arts Building, University of St Andrews, St Andrews
10-13 September 2009
A conference focusing on the developments in the historiography of Iran in comparative perspective.
The conference Programme is subject to frequent changes. For updates visit here
Thursday 10th September – Arrival and Registration
| 16:00 - 18:00 | Registrations - New Arts Building |
| 19:00 | Welcome Drinks reception - Lower Parliament Hall |
Friday 11th September - Day 1
| 8:00 - 8:45 | Late Registration (New Arts Building) |
| 8:45 - 9:00 | Welcome – Professor Ali M Ansari – Persia and Iran |
| 9:00 - 9:45 | Keynote: Professor Michael Bentley – Historiography and Iran; the view from the West [University of St Andrews] |
| 9:45 - 10:30 | Keynote: Professor Bert Fragner – Persian Historiography [Austrian Academy of Sciences] |
| 10:30 - 11:15 | Keynote: Professor Chris Lorenz – Comparative historiography [Free University of Amsterdam] |
| 11:15 - 11:45 | Coffee |
| 11:45 - 13:30 | Panel I – The Early Modern Period (Chair – Professor Andrew Pettegree tbc) Andrew Newman – Safavid Historiography [University of Edinburgh] Lloyd Ridgeon – Sufi’s in Safavid Iran [University of Glasgow] Mansour Sefatgol – The Idea of Iran in the Safavid era [University of Tehran] Stephen Blake – 'History and Chronology in Early Modern West and South Asia: The Safavid Mughal, and Ottoman Empires’ [University of Minnesota] Sanjay Garg – Safavid-Mughal Relations: the numismatic evidence [National Archives of India] |
| 13:30 - 14:30 | Lunch |
| 14:30 - 16:30 | Panel II - Nationalism and historiography (Chair – Professor Ali Ansari) Mohammad Imanpour – ‘The Growth of historical nationalism and new trends in historiography of Iranian in early 20 century: the Case of Pirniya’s Ancient History’ [The Ferdowsi University of Mashad, Iran] Ali Mohammad Tarafdari – ‘A Research on "The Service or Treachery" in History: Surveying of the Effects of Nationalism on Iran's Historiography in the late Qajar Era until the end of Reza Shah Pahlavi's Reign’ [Encyclopeaedia Islamica Foundation, Iran] Pejman Abdolmohammadi – ‘History, National Identity and Myths in the Iranian Contemporary Political Thought: Mirza Fathali Akhundzadeh (1812-1878), Mirza Agha Khan Kermani (1853-1896) and Hassan Taqizadeh (1878-1970)’ [University of Genoa, Italy] Lindsay Allen – “The New Crusade”: pictorial reportage and America’s archaeological mission to Iran in the 1930s’. [King’s College London] |
| 16:30 - 17:00 | Tea |
| 17:00 - 18:00 | Keynote: Professor Abbas Milani – The Shah: Methodological Problems of a Biography (Chair – Michael Bentley) |
| 19:30 | Conference Dinner |
Saturday 12th September - Day 2
| 9:00 - 11:00 | Panel III – Antiquity (Chair: Dr Tim Greenwood) Touraj Daryaee – Aspects of Sasanian Historiography [University of California, Irvine] Lynette Mitchell – Herodotus’ Persians and political freedom [University of Exeter] Mohsen Zakeri – ‘From “Two Centuries of Silence” to “The Dawn of Islam”. A new approach for writing the early Islamic history of Iran’ [der J. W. Goethe Universität, Frankfurt] Asghar Montazeralqaem – Local histories in the first three centuries of Islam [University of Isfahan, Iran] |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Coffee |
| 11:30 - 12:30 | Keynote: Professor Abbas Amanat [Yale University] The construction of Grand narratives (Chair – Dr Paul Luft) |
| 12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch |
| 13:30 - 15:30 | Panel IV – The Mediaeval imagination (Chair – Professor Robert Hoyland) Rob Bartlett – Persia in the mediaeval imagination [University of St Andrews] Carole Hillenbrand – Persian and Arabic historiography on the Great Seljuqs of Iran [University of Edinburgh] David Morgan – Rashid al Din [University of Wisconsin-Madison] Anja Pistor-Hatam – ‘History and Its Meaning in the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Case of the Mongol Invasion and Rule’ [Christian-Albrechts- Universität, Kiel] |
| 15:30 - 16:00 | Tea |
| 16:00 - 17:30 | Panel V – Persia in the Early Modern Imagination (Chair – Dr Steve Murdoch) Hafiz Abid Masood – ‘Renaissance Humanism, Classical Persia and 16th Century English Drama’ [University of Sussex] Elisa Sabadini – ‘Persia in the western imagination: From reign of freedom to land of oppression: 17th century Persia through Italian eyes’ [Universitá degli Studi di Milano] Farhang Jahanpour – Persia in the Western imagination |
| 17:30 - 19:00 | Panel VI – Memoirs (Chair: tbc) Shahram Kholdi – ‘Politics of Memory and the Historiography of the 1979 Revolution’ [University of Manchester] Mehrdad Amanat – memoirs of Reyhani Pedram Khosronejad – The Ethnography of Sacred Defence Literature [University of St Andrews] |
Sunday 13th September - Day 3
| 9:00 - 11:00 | Panel VII – Aryanism and its discontents (Chair: Dr Bernhard Struck) Robert Irwin – Gobineau and the construction of Aryanism [School of Oriental and African Studies] David Motadel – ‘Evolution and Transfer of the Term “Aryan” in Modern Intellectual and Political History’ [University of Cambridge] Menachem Merhavy – ‘From “The Great Civilization” to “False Cyrus” – Legacy of ancient Iran as reflected in Pahlavi discourse’ [Tel Aviv University] |
| 11:00 - 11:30 | Coffee |
| 11:30 - 13:30 | Panel VIII: Writing 20th century History (Chair – Ali M Ansari) Afshin Matin Asgari [California State University, LA] Peter Sluglett - Writing the History of 20th century Iraq [University of Utah] Yadullah Shahibzadeh – ‘The Implications of Recent Historiographical Trends in Iran’ [University of Oslo, Norway] |
| 13:30 - 14:00 | Conclusion |