Parse: An Exploration of Critical Topics in Iranian Studies

The 15th episode of Parse is an excerpt from a talk given by Blake Atwood where he discusses the vibrant video-based underground movie culture that developed in Iran through the 1980s and 1990s when videocassettes were officially banned in Iran. Atwood argues that post-revolutionary Iranian video dealers were cultural labourers, even as they worked informally outside the bounds of state and corpor...

The 14th episode of Parse is an excerpt from a presentation given by Pedram Partovi where he argues that Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi draws on at least two different cinematic universes in his 2016 movie The Salesman to address the aesthetic and social values of Western critics and Iranian audiences.  In doing so, the filmmakers and characters model a subaltern consciousness, adapted from Anto...

The 13th episode of Parse is an excerpt from a presentation given by Dr. Anne Démy-Geroe on how Iran became a cinematic “hotspot” in the 1990s and Iranian films became an indispensable part of many international film festivals. Demy-Geroe’s presentation is based on her experience as a festival director and focuses on tracing a politically contextualized history of the reception of Iranian cinema i...

The 12th episode of Parse is an excerpt from a talk given by Simran Bhalla where she discusses the founding of Kanoon, or the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults which was established in the 1960s as one of the several governmental organizations established to grow Iran’s cultural productions. Her presentation discusses how technocratic national development agen...

Welcome back to Parse! Thank you for tuning in to listen to the premiere of our second season! In this episode of Parse we have an excerpt from a talk given by Dr. Farzaneh Milani where she expounds on her theory of “Thresholds” and their importance in Iranian women’s literary tradition. According to Milani, “Thresholds” are an in-between space where binary modes of thought are disrupted. Standing...

Welcome to the Season 1 Finale of Parse !  The 10th episode of Parse is an excerpt from a lecture given by Ata Hoodashtian titled “ Modernity Beyond the West” where he discusses the history of Western European Modernity, and its interactions with non-Western cultures like Iran, during the processes of colonization, industrialization, and globalization. Dr. Ata Hoodashtian  received...

The 9th episode Parse is an excerpt from a talk given by Sholeh Wolpe, where she discusses aspects of the political and social consequences of the works of two distinct Iranian female poets from different time periods, Tahirih (who lived in the 19th century), and Forough Farrorkhzad (who lived in the mid-20th century). Wolpe analyzes how Tahirih and Farrokhzad’s physical, spiritual, and emotional...

The 8th episode of Parse is an excerpt from a talk given by Farzaneh Milani in which she describes the profound influence the works of the Persian poet and filmmaker, Forough Farrokhzad, has had on her intellectual and career development. Milani recounts the challenges she has faced as a scholar of Farrokhzad’s life and works, and what can be done to bring Iranian female poets to the forefront of...

Dr. Rivanne Sandler is the Associate Professor Emerita of Iranian Women’s Literature in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Her publications include studies of poets Parvin E’tesami, Simin Behbahani, and Forough Farrokhzad. The seventh episode of Parse is an excerpt from a lecture given by Rivanne Sandler, “Context and Concept: Early 20th Century W...

Dr. Hamid Naficy is a leading authority in the cultural studies of Iranian and Middle Eastern diaspora, exile, and postcolonial cinemas and media. Naficy is a Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University School of Communication, and has published nearly a dozen award-winning books and journal articles that have been cited, reprinted, and translated extensively. Additionally, he is a prolific film...

Dr. Rowena Abdul Razak received her DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford where she looked at the Tudeh Party in British policy during the Second World War and early Cold War. She is currently a Guest Teacher at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Fifth Episode of Parse is an excerpt from a lecture given by Rowena Abdul Razak titled “Occupation and Sovereign...

Dr. Claire Cooley is a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University. Her research and teaching focus on film and media industries in the Global South, South-South media flows, Sound Studies, and Critical Infrastructure Studies. Her work has appeared in a range of publications including Film History, Jump Cut, and Spectator. Her current book project tells the interconnected history of cinema in the Midd...

Dr. Aqsa Ijaz is a specialist in classical Persian poetry and studies its reception in medieval and early modern India. As an essayist and translator, she has written for various international publications such as The World Literature Today and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Ijaz currently teaches Urdu at the University of Toronto Mississauga and is the co-manager of the Global Past Research Ini...

Dr. Afsaneh Najmabadi is the Francis Lee Higginson Professor Emeritus of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University.  In Familial Undercurrents , Najmabadi uncovers her family’s complex experiences of polygamous marriage to tell a larger story of the transformations of notions of love, marriage, and family life in mid-twentieth-century Iran. She traces how th...

Welcome to Season 1 of Parse , the official podcast of the Elaheh Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of Toronto. The first episode of Parse is an excerpt from Mahnaz Afkhami's launch of her new book The Other Side of Silence: A Memoir of Exile, Iran, and the Global Women’s Movement.  Mahnaz Afkhami is a women's rights activist and the founder and president of t...