The Iranian Revolution and Its Detractors: “A Leap Into the Open Air of Historical Possibilities”

Not only did the Iranian revolution of 1979 transform the geo-politics of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it also raised conceptual questions about the meaning of revolution and historical time. An event about the Iranian revolution and its detractors.

This public event is part of the conference "Iranian Revolution As A World Event," which is organized at the University of Amsterdam to mark the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. In this lecture, Dr. Ghamari-Tabrizi will argue that the revolution in Iran restored some of the original perceptions of revolution that have been neglected since the time of the French Revolution. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s conception of history, the talk will highlight the restoration of the condition of possibility, and all the ambiguities associated with it, as the main feature of the Iranian revolution.

About the speaker

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabriziholds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. After fourteen years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he was a professor of history and sociology as well as the Director of the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, he will be joining the the Department of Near Eastern Studies of Princeton University from February 2019. He is the author of three books on different aspects and historical context of the Iranian revolution of 1979 and its aftermath: Islam and Dissent in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Abdolkarim Soroush and the Religious Foundations of Political Reform; Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment; and Remembering Akbar: Inside the Iranian Revolution. He has also coedited a special issue of 'Radical History Review' (No. 105, Fall 2009), 'The Iranian Revolution Turns Thirty, Duke University Press; and a special issue of Iran-Nāmag' (vol. 3, no. 2, Summer 2018), Michel Foucault and the Historiography of Modern Iran. He has written extensively on the topics of social theory and Islamist political thought in different journals and book chapters. Currently, he is working on a project on Mystical Modernity, a comparative study of philosophy of history and political theory of Walter Benjamin and Ali Shariati. Prof. Ghamari will also assume the directorship of the Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies in fall 2019.

Amsterdam Initiative for Iranian Studies

Registration

You can sign up for this program for free via the website of SPUI25. If you subscribe for the program we count on your presence. If you are unable to attend, please let us know via [email protected] | T: +31 (0)20 525 8142.