Stanford Iranian Studies Program

This lecture is based on Dr. Fathali M. Moghaddam’s new book "Psychology of Revolution" (Cambridge University Press, 2024) devoted to understanding the psychology of revolution—the first since Gustav Le Bon’s now classic book of 1894. Fathali Moghaddam, a psychologist who experienced revolution in Iran, his own country of birth, presents a psychological analysis and a new model of revolution based...

Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was an acclaimed and award-winning author, and the recipient of the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. Dr. Mandana Zandian prepared this video for the memorial event hosted by Stanford Iranian Studies on July 31, 2026 ( https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/... . Abbas Milani is the director of the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Irania...

Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was an acclaimed and award-winning author, and the recipient of the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. Dr. Mandana Zandian prepared this video for the memorial event hosted by Stanford Iranian Studies on July 31, 2026 ( https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/... . Mojdeh Shamsaie is an Iranian actress, theater practitioner, and multidisciplinary...

Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was an acclaimed and award-winning author, and the recipient of the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. Maryam Zandi prepared this video for the memorial event hosted by Stanford Iranian Studies on July 31, 2026 ( https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/... . Maryam Zandi was born in 1947 in Gorgan, Iran. She is a graduate of Tehran University's S...

Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was an acclaimed and award-winning author, and the recipient of the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. Shirin Neshat prepared this video for the memorial event hosted by Stanford Iranian Studies on July 31, 2026 ( https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/... . Shirin Neshat is an award-winning Iranian-born artist and filmmaker living in New York....

Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was an acclaimed and award-winning author, and the recipient of the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. Dr. Farzaneh Milani prepared this video for the memorial event hosted by Stanford Iranian Studies on July 31, 2026 ( https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/... . Farzaneh Milani is Raymond J. Nelson Professor Emerita of Iranian literature and G...

Shahrnush Parsipur (1946-2026) was an acclaimed and award-winning author, and the recipient of the ninth Bita Prize in Persian Arts from Stanford University. Dr. Mandana Zandian prepared this video for the memorial event hosted by Stanford Iranian Studies on July 31, 2026 ( https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/events/shahrnush-parsipur-memoriam ) Mandana Zandian spent two decades as a cancer resea...

In the early 1950s, there were two hot spots of the Cold War: Korea and Iran. Iranian oil had become a firebomb of the Cold War in the Middle East. It was the first oil crisis of the Cold War. The central figure of the dramatic events of 1951-1953 in Iran was Mohammad Mossadegh. He was the most popular national leader of the 20th century. The day before the appointment of Dr. Mossadegh as Prime Mi...

This lecture examines the role of Iran’s security forces in shaping the country’s political future amid deep uncertainty. Focusing on the IRGC, the Basij, and the broader coercive apparatus, it analyzes these institutions not only as instruments of repression but also as central political actors. Taking seriously the possibility that Iran may face a different political order by the time of this pr...

This is a recording of a webinar held by the Stanford Iranian Studies Program on April 15, 2026. This discussion evaluates the conventional wisdom surrounding U.S. sanctions on Iran. The paper in discussion from the Stanford Iran 2040 Project is available: https://iranian-studies.stanford.edu/publications/irans-exports-under-sanctions-myth-maximum-pressure Data from this paper shows that Iran's oi...

Fatima Baraghani, who is better known to history by her Shaykhi epithet, Qurrat al-‘Ayn, and her Babi penname, Tahira, was born in Qazvin in 1814 and executed in Tehran in 1852. A prominent follower first of Sayyid Kazim Rashti (d. 1843) and then the Bab (Sayyid ‘Ali-Muhammad Shirazi; executed 1850), Tahira played a significant role in the development and spread of both Shaykhism and Babism – two...

Panel discussion with Stanford scholars and students to discuss current events related to Iran. Cosponsored by the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. PANELISTS (in order of appearance) Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. H...

February 2, 2026 Mohsen B. Mesgaren Matin Mirramezani Mohsen Amiri Read the report: http://goto.stanford.edu/tehranprotests The contemporary history of Iran has been closely bound up with recurring waves of large-scale protests. From those preceding the Constitutional Revolution, the 1979 Revolution, as well as numerous demonstrations with demands ranging from the incremental to the radical, with...

In this talk Prof. Ghadiri will discuss the beginnings of history and civilization in Iran based on recent scholarly theories; an examination of the causes behind the neglect of Iran’s authentic ancient past—one that extends far beyond the Median and Achaemenid eras—and an articulation of the benefits of adopting an informed and accurate understanding of Iran’s historical heritage. Bahram Ghadiri...

December 2, 2025 Contrary to the widely held narrative portraying Iran and Saudi Arabia as cooperative partners during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, recently declassified diplomatic records and personal accounts from those close to the Shah reveal a far more complex picture. In the wake of Britain’s withdrawal from the Persian Gulf in 1971, the region entered a moment of uncertainty. On...

October 30, 2025 Speakers: Bailey Ulbricht, Allen Weiner, and Mobina Riazi. Read their report: https://law.stanford.edu/publications/school-poisonings-in-iran-an-open-source-investigation/ On November 30, 2022, in the midst of protests around the country in Iran for the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, schoolgirls at Noor Conservatory Girls’ School in Qom City experienced a bizarre and terrifying...

October 24, 2025 The Sunbird and the Story of Kanun: Revisiting the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Iran In 1965, a visionary proposal by Lily Amir-Arjomand to Queen Farah Pahlavi—to establish a library for children in Iran—gave rise to The Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, known in Iran simply as Kanun. Over the nex...

October 4, 2025 Hossein Amanat established his international reputation in 1966 when, as a recent graduate, he won a nationwide competition to design the Shahyad (now Azadi) Monument in Tehran—an architectural icon that has since become a symbol of modern Iran. This early success led to a series of prestigious commissions, including some of the most acclaimed modern buildings in Iran: the Persian...

From 1932 to 1948, architects and engineers from the First Republic of Czechoslovakia, working under Skoda Works of Plzen, partnered with the Iranian government led by Reza Shah Pahlavi to support the country's ambitious modernization program. This collaboration focused on expanding industrial enterprises across key sectors, including electrical, agricultural, defense, and railway infrastructure....

September 5, 2025 On The Rocky Road Of Life is the richly detailed personal and professional memoir of Zakaria Hashemi—an artist whose life story unfolds across the alleys and seasons of Tehran, from the scorching heat to the biting cold, from the south to the north of the city during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The book traces his early days, growing up amid poverty in the neighborhoods o...

June 10, 2025 Ehssan Hanif Fifth Zahedi Family Fellow lecture held at Stanford University. Following a brief period of oil nationalization, the 1953 coup that overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh marked a critical turning point in Iran’s political and economic trajectory. The coup paved the way for the 1954 Consortium Agreement—a pivotal settlement between the Iranian state and the global oil cartel known...

A book talk with two of the authors of "Revolutionary Engineers: Learning, Politics, and Activism at Aryamehr University of Technology" (MIT press, 2025). In 1966, the Shah of Iran established Arya-Mehr University of Technology (AMUT), now known as Sharif University of Technology, as part of a larger campaign to modernize the nation. In 1979, AMUT engineering students played a critical role in the...

May 23, 2025 Mahasti Afshar joins us to discuss her book Festival of Arts, Shiraz-Persepolis 1967-1977 (Mage Publishers, 2025), an international event that was held every summer between 1976-1977 in Shiraz and Persepolis. The festival presented outstanding works in music, dance, drama, and film from around the world with the goal of generating a cross-cultural dialogue and enriching the Iranian cr...

May 22, 2025 Simorgh: Portraits on My Mind (Mage Publishers, 2025), is one of Abbas Milani’s most self-reflective and engaging books. The two-part Persian original, Si-Chehreh, has been masterfully translated by Mahasti Afshar in a single volume. Titled Simorgh after the mythical bird that embodies humanity’s collective quest for the truth in Attar’s poetry, Milani explores the lives and passions,...

May 15, 2025 The relationship between music and revolution has often been a fraught one. This lecture discusses the tension between the two, focusing on the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It chronicles the evolution of state policy towards music in the years 1979-1988 against the background of doctrinal discussions within Twelver Shiism in Iran, that pitted traditionalists against the charismatic aut...