REQUIRED TEXT (Book)
Michael Axworthy (2013). Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic. London: Allen Lane.
All other readings will be available in Canvas and/or via JSTOR. Please see class schedule for assigned readings.
COURSE SCHEDULE SPRING 2019
*Please note that the schedule is subject to change at any time*
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Class 1: Introduction: Overview of Structure and Requirements of the Course
- Hamid Dabashi, Iran: A People, Interrupted, Introduction and Chapter 1, “On Nations without Borders.”
- Axworthy, “Introduction: The Hidden Continent of Iran,” xxvii-xxii.
- Ervand Abrahamian. A History of Modern Iran. “A Political Who’s Who of Modern Iran.” pp. xvii and Introduction.
Suggested:
Abbas Amanat. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. pp. 295-331.A. K. S. Lambton. Qajar Persia: Eleven Studies. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988. “The Qajar Dynasty” and “Persian Society under the Qajars,” pp. 319-339.
Janet Afary. “On the Origins of Feminism in Early Twentieth-Century Iran.” Journal of Women’s History 1, no. 2 (1989): pp. 65-87.
Gary Sick. "Iran: The Adolescent Revolution." Journal of International Affairs 49, no. 1 (1995): 145-66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24357446.
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Class 2: The Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911)
- Ervand Abrahamian. “The Causes of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 10, no. 3 (Aug. 1979): pp. 381-414. JSTOR
- Pejman Abdolmohammadi. "The Political Thought of Mirzā Aqā Khān Kermāni, The Father of Persian National Liberalism." Oriente Moderno, NUOVA SERIE, 94, no. 1 (2014): 148-61. JSTOR
- Afsaneh Najmabadi. "Is Our Name Remembered? Writing the History of Iranian Constitutionalism as if Women and Gender Mattered." Iranian Studies 29, no.1-2 (1996): pp. 59-81. JSTOR
- Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi. "Refashioning Iran: Language and Culture during the Constitutional Revolution." Iranian Studies 23, no. 1/4 (1990): pp. 77-101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310728. JSTOR
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Class 3: Reza Shah and the Formation of the Modern Bureaucratic State
- Rudi Matthee. "Transforming Dangerous Nomads into Useful Artisans, Technicians, Agriculturists: Education in the Reza Shah Period." Iranian Studies 26, no. 3/4 (1993): pp. 313-36. JSTOR
- M. H. Faghfoory. "The Ulama-State Relations in Iran: 1921-1941." International Journal of Middle East Studies 19, no. 4 (1987): pp. 413-432. JSTOR
- H.E. Chehabi. "Staging the Emperor's New Clothes: Dress Codes and Nation-Building under Reza Shah." Iranian Studies 26, no. 3-4 (1993): pp. 209-229. JSTOR
- Afsaneh Najmabadi. “Hazards of Modernity and Morality: Women, State and Ideology in Contemporary Iran.” In Women, Islam, and the State, edited by Deniz Kandiyoti, pp. 48-76, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
- Camron Michael Amin. "Selling and Saving "Mother Iran": Gender and the Iranian Press in the 1940s." International Journal of Middle East Studies 33, no. 3 (2001): pp. 335-61. JSTOR
Suggested:
Keddie, Modern Iran, Chapter 4.
Feroz Abroad. “Historiography, Class, and Iranian Workers in Workers and Working Classes.” In Middle East Struggles, Histories, Historiographies, edited by Zachary Lockman. New York: SUNY Press, 1993.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 *****First Review Essay Due
Class 4: Iranian Nationalism under Mohammad Reza Shah: Nurturing a Political Elite while Looking Back at an Imperial Past
- Axworthy, “The Background: Ma Chegoneh Ma Shodim?,” pp. 15-75.
- E. Abrahamian. A History of Modern Iran, Chapter 5, pp. 123-154.
- Kamyar Abdi. "Nationalism, Politics, and the Development of Archaeology in Iran." American Journal of Archaeology 105, no. 1 (2001): 51-76. doi:10.2307/507326. JSTOR
Suggested:
Encyclopedia Iranica online, “Coup D’etat of 1332/1953,” http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/coup-detat-1953
Homa Katouzian. Musaddiq and the Struggle for Power in Iran. London: I.B. Tauris, 1990.
Ali Gheissari. Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas, 1998.
Class will not be held on February 12, 2019.
Tuesday, February 19
Class 5: Theoretical Approaches on the 1979 Revolution
- Axworthy, “Ten Days of Dawn,” pp. 1-14; “The 1970s and the Slide to Revolution,” pp. 76-132.
- Abrahamian. Iran between Two Revolutions, Chapter 11, pp. 496-529.
- E. Abrahamian. “The Guerrilla Movement in Iran, 1963-1977.” MERIP Reports no. 86 (March-April 1980): pp. 3-15. http://www.merip.org/mer/mer86/guerrilla-movement-iran-1963-1977
- Mansoor Moaddel. "Ideology as Episodic Discourse: The Case of the Iranian Revolution." American Sociological Review 57, no. 3 (1992): 353-79. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2096241.
Suggested:
Hamid Dabashi. Iran: A People Interrupted. New York: The Free Press, 2007. pp.137- 181.
Val Moghadam. “The Left and Revolution in Iran: A Critical Analysis.” In
Post-Revolutionary Iran, edited by Hooshang Amirahmadi and Manoucher Parvin, pp. 23-40. Boulder: Westview Press, 1988.
Charles Kurzman. “Structural Opportunity and Perceived Opportunity in Social-Movement Theory: The Iranian Revolution of 1979.” American Sociological Review 61 (February 1996): pp. 153-170.
Hamid Dabashi, Theology of Discontent, pp. 41-146; 409-447.
Arjomand, pp. 36-55.
Abrahamian, Chapter 6.
Class will not be held February 26 and March 5, 2019.
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Class 6: Khomeini’s Charismatic Politics: Building a Theocratic State
- Axworthy, “Like the Person He Ought to Be: Islamic Republic, 1979-80,” pp. 133-186.
- Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Islamic Government. Selections TBA.
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/rkhomeini/books/velayat_faqeeh.pdf
- Mehdi Moslem, Factional Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran. Syracuse[1] : Syracuse University Press, 2002. “The Islamic State in Iran: From Theory to Reality,” pp. 11-46.
- Kazem Alamdari. “The Power Structure of Islamic Republic of Iran:
Transition from Populism to Clientelism, and Militarization of the Government.” Third World Quarterly 26, no. 8 (December 2005): pp. 1285-1301. JSTOR
Suggested:
Said Amir Arjomand. “Shi’ite Jurisprudence and Constitution Making
in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” In Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies and Militancy, edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, pp. 88-109. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
A. Ashraf. “Charisma, Theocracy, and Men of Power.” In The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, edited by M. Weiner & 4 A. Banuazizi. pp. 101-51.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019*****Second Review Essay Due
Class 7: Paradoxes of a Modern Day Theocratic State: Social and Political Consequences of the Revolution
- Axworthy, “Bim-e Mowj (Fear of the Wave),” pp. 324-369.
- Mansoor Moaddel. “After Religion: Assessing a Liberal Shift among Iranians in the Post-Khomeini Period. In Inside the Islamic Republic: Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran, edited by Mahmood Monshipouri, pp. 63-90[2] .
- Abdolkarim Soroush. Reason, Freedom and Democracy, pp. 3-25; pp. 156-170.
- Djavad Salehi-Isfahani. “The Iranian Family in Transition.” In Inside the Islamic Republic: Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran, edited by Mahmood Monshipouri, pp 133-150[3] .
Suggested:
Said Arjomand. After Khomeini, Iran under his Successors. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Melanie McAlister. Epic Encounters. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001. pp. 198-234.
William Beeman. “Images of the Great Satan: Representations of the United
States in the Iranian Revolution.” In Religion and Politics in Iran, edited by Nikki R. Keddie, pp. 191-217. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Class 8: Attending to Socioeconomic Reform: Rafsanjani, Khatami, Ahmadinejad, and Rouhani
- Axworthy, “Everything Must Change, So That Everything Can Stay the Same: Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, 2005-12,” pp. 370-424.
- Roksana Bahramitash. "Islamic Fundamentalism and Women's Economic Role: The Case of Iran." International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 16, no. 4 (2003): pp. 551-68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20020185. JSTOR
- Jahangir Amuzegar. “The Iranian Economy before and after the Revolution.” Middle East Journal 46, no. 3 (Summer, 1992): pp. 413-425. JSTOR
Suggested:
Akbar Ganji. “The Latter-Day Sultan: Power and Politics in Iran.” Foreign Affairs 87, no. 6 (November/December 2008): pp. 45-62, 64-66.
Parvin Alizadeh and Barry Harper. “The Feminisation of the Labour Force in Iran.” In Iran Encounters Globalization: Problems and Prospects, edited by Ali Mohammadi, pp.180-196. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Tuesday, March 26
Class 9: Enghelab Street Politics
- Asef Bayat. Street Politics: Poor Peoples Movements in Iran. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, Chapter 3, “The Disenfranchised and the Islamic Revolution: ‘Our Revolution and Theirs,’” pp. 35-58.
- Mehrdad Mashayekhi. “The Revival of the Student Movement in Post-Revolutionary Iran.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 15, no. 2 (Winter, 2001): pp. 283-313. JSTOR
- Ervand Abrahamian. “The Crowd in the Iranian Revolution.” Radical History Review, no. 105 (Summer 2009), pp. 13-34. JSTOR
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 *****Third Review Essay Due
Class 10: Mobilizing “Feminist Consciousness” in an Emerging Women’s Movement - Valentine Moghadam. “Islamic Feminism and Its Discontents: Toward a
Resolution of the Debate.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 27,
no. 4 (Summer 2002): pp. 1135-1171. JSTOR
- Fatemeh Sadeghi. “Foot Soldiers of the Islamic Republic's ‘Culture of Modesty.’” Middle East Report, no. 250, The Islamic Revolution at 30 (Spring, 2009): pp. 50-55. JSTOR
- Haleh Afshar. “Islam and Feminism: An Analysis of Political Strategies.” In Feminism and Islam, edited by May Yamani, pp. 197-217. New York University Press, 1996.
- Kristin Soraya Batmanghelichi and Leila Mouri, “Cyberfeminism, Iranian Style: Online Activism since 2009.” Feminist Media Histories 3, no. 1 (Winter 2017). JSTOR
Suggested:
Ziba Mir-Hosseini. “Beyond ‘Islam’ vs. ‘Feminism.’” IDS Bulletin 42, no. 2 (January 2011).
Divorce Iranian Style, a film by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini, UK, 1998.
Class 11: Make-up class (if necessary)
Final Portfolio: TBD