Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/11/2013
12:00 pm
Location
Smith Memorial Student Union Room 294
1825 SW Broadway --Portland
Join us for this lecture with Aria Minu Sepehr, author of We Heard the Heavens then: A Memoir of Iran.
Any future involving Iran is now considered to be volatile. Will Iran seek nuclear armament? Will sanctions deter Iran’s rogue bent, or will they further radicalize the nation? Forgotten in this din is the very real possibility that the unity we accept as Iran is a mirage. When the West looks at Iran, it often projects its own ideas of the place and its people. Pundits argue that Iran is hostile and zealous, a combination that spells havoc given the prospect of nuclear weapons. Others bring up the Islamic Republic’s three-decade-old record and conclude a rational leadership. And there are those who look at the country’s vigorous youth movement as the “real” face of Iran—a hip but suppressed underworld ready to embrace democracy. Conflicting positions on Iran stem from the fact that Iran itself is divided—a nation at once modern and medieval. Without a proper understanding of this fundamental discord, the West continues to peg Iran erroneously as this or that, in turn feeding a foreign policy that rests on half-truths and quicksand assumptions.
Free & open to the public. For more information, visit: http://www.pdx.edu/events/middle-east-studies-center-lunch-learn-iran-modern-medieval
Presented by the Portland State University Library and Middle East Studies Center with support from the U.S. Institute of Peace Public Education for Peacebuilding Support initiative and featuring some of the resources in the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys, a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association. Support was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.
The Middle East Studies Center’s monthly brownbag Lunch & Learn series provides an opportunity for the campus community to learn more about the Middle East through informal presentations and discussions with scholars and experts. Speakers address topical themes chosen to provide context for contemporary events in the region. These conversations provide a forum for the community to engage in thoughtful dialogue about the region, ask questions, and share their opinions.