Presenting Sponsor: tirgan.ca IRANIAN July 27 INTELLECTUALS THE MICHENER LINEAGES & LEGACIES CONFERENCE INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION کنفـرانـس نگـاهـی بـه تـاریـخ AT UHN و میـراث رو شنـفکـری در ایـران IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS, LINEAGES & LEGACIES 1 WELCOME MESSAGE BY THE TIRGAN 2019 CEO ESTEEMED SCHOLARS, Toronto to host events that were to a free and open (and always umbrella that brings the Iranian FELLOW FRIENDS OF TIRGAN. rich in content and scholarship but respectful) discussion of ideas, diaspora together to explore and also accessible to a broad public looks forward to more collaboration celebrate the rich cultural heritage I am delighted to welcome you to audience with an interest in ideas on this and related topics with that we share and chart new paths. this special conference that Tirgan and their impact on our collective leading academic institutions in is hosting on “Iranian Intellectuals: situation. Canada, the U.S., Europe and beyond Given the values we share and Lineages and Legacies.” We are so we combine our strengths to our common commitment to thankful to Professor Ramin Today, as we host our sixth biannual generate and communicate new promoting the arts and humanities, Jahanbegloo, the conference chair, festival in Toronto, which is expected thinking. we welcome further opportunities for reaching out to leading scholars to attract over one hundred thousand to organize more events on Iran, of Iranian history and society based people, Tirgan is in many ways going I am often awed by the depth of including academic conferences, in Canada, the U.S. and Europe who back to its roots and hosting our knowledge that so many professors historical photography displays, and have kindly accepted the invitation to first full-day academic conference and scholars at leading universities artistic displays and performances join us today. We are eager to learn on a topic that has social and public possess, and I have often wondered which bring people together. from them about the predicament of significance. about how this knowledge can be intellectualism in light of their own brought to public forums where it With my best wishes to all of you for areas of specialization. The role of intellectuals is of key can arouse debate and educate a a successful event. importance in all societies, but broader group of people. This has It was two decades ago, in the late especially so in a country such as been a key motivation in Tirgan 1990s, when Professor Jahanbegloo Iran where defining national identity undertaking this effort and an launched a philosophy and history and institution building are an indication of our bridge building role. Warmest Regards, discussion group at the University of imperative due to the scale of the We see Tirgan’s role as one of “place Toronto, which he called the “Agora”. economic and political challenges making” or “Mahfel Sazi” so that Mehrdad Ariannejad It would meet on a weekly basis in the country is facing, and the intellectual and creative expressions CEO, Tirgan Festival 2019 a participatory seminar format to need for promoting an accurate can find the right audience and thus discuss popular topics, making the understanding of the country’s create a positive feedback system field accessible to a non-specialist predicament at this sensitive where the originators of ideas and audience. Some of Tirgan’s own historical juncture. their audience mutually support and roots are also at the University of reinforce each other. Toronto when, in the early 2000s, Thus, the role of Iranian intellectuals we collaborated with the Iranian is crucially important and Tirgan, as As a social and volunteer-driven Association at the University of a Canadian public charity committed organization, we aim serve as an 2 IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS, LINEAGES & LEGACIES IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS, LINEAGES & LEGACIES 3 MISSION STATEMENT BY THE CONFERENCE CHAIR Ever since the appearance of the Iranian Enlightenment. That is the notion of the “intellectual” in France reason why the Iranian Revolution was in late 19th century, theorists and not accompanied with an intrinsically political activists in the West and critical nature among the Iranian the “Third World” countries have intellectuals which would impel them been preoccupied with attempting to speak the truth to power. Actually, DR. RAMIN JAHANBEGLOO to define just what an intellectual in 1978-79, when calls were made by CONFERENCE CHAIR is, or ought to be. Is an intellectual revolutionaries for people to remove a detached observer, one who is what they called “the representatives BIOGRAPHY free from the immediate concerns of the Pahlavi regime and Western of lifaze, and interested primarily in imperialism”, and to return to their Ramin Jahanbegloo is a political philosopher. He is presently the Executive the pursuit of perennial truths, or is roots and their authentic culture, the Director of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Nonviolence and Peace Studies an intellectual one who very much so-called “progressive” intellectuals and the Vice-Dean of the School of Law at Jindal Global University- Delhi, engages with politics and society and did not question the meaning of India. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy, History and Political necessarily challenges power –one this political attitude. Instead, they Science and later his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Sorbonne University. who, in Edward Said’s words, “is a joined forces with the clergy, since In 1993 he taught at the Academy of Philosophy in Tehran. He has been spirit in opposition” and according they themselves had perhaps a researcher at the French Institute for Iranian Studies and a fellow at the to Jean-Paul Sartre “does not mind inadvertently contributed to the rise Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. Ramin Jahanbegloo its own business”?At the crossroads of the revolution in Iran. The shock of taught in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto between tradition and modernity the Revolution and the re-evaluation from 1997-2001. He was an Associated Professor of Political Science and in the modern history of Iran stand of political ideals have been part of a a Research Fellow in the Centre for Ethics at University of Toronto from generations of intellectuals, diverse learning process that has generated 2008-2012 and an Associate Professor of Political Science at York University in their backgrounds and views, who a collective sense of responsibility in Toronto from 2012 – 2015. He is also a member of the advisory board of struggled to mediate the transition among post-Revolutionary PEN Canada. He is the winner of the Peace Prize from the United Nations from traditionalism to a modern mode intellectuals in Iran and led them to Association in Spain (2009) for his extensive academic works in promoting of thinking. Yet for many decades opt for cultural dissent rather than dialogue between cultures and his advocacy for non-violence and more the development of democratic ideological politics. Forty years after recently the winner of the Josep Palau i Fabre International Essay Prize. ideas was held back by intellectual the Revolution, how can we evaluate elites who surrendered their critical the role of Iranian intellectuals in Among his twenty-seven books in English, French, Spanish, Italian and independence to the dogmas of the history of Iranian modernity Persian are Conversations with Isaiah Berlin; Gandhi: Aux Sources de ideologies such as Stalinism and and in the process of the Iranian la Nonvioleance; Penser la Nonviolence; Iran: Between Tradition and Islamism. democratic debate?This question Modernity; India Revisited: Conversations on Contemporary India; The and many others are some of the Clash of Intolerances; The Spirit of India; Beyond Violence; Leggere Gandhi As a result, many among Iranian key points which will be discussed in a Teheran; India Analysed; Talking Politics; Civil Society and Democracy in intellectuals became handmaidens the one-day conference organized by Iran; Democracy in Iran; Introduction to Nonviolence; Time Will Say Nothing; of power rather than agents of the Tirgan Festival on July 27, 2019. Talking Philosophy; and very recently The Decline of Civilization. 4 IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS, LINEAGES & LEGACIES IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS, LINEAGES & LEGACIES 5 SCHEDULE IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS LINEAGES & LEGACIES 8:30 am Registration 9:00 am Opening Remarks 9:20 am PANEL I - From Qajar to the Early Pahlavi 10:40 AM Break 10:55 am PANEL II - The Second Pahlavi Era 12:15 AM Lunch 1:00 PM PANEL III - Women Intellectuals in Pre- and Post-Revolutionary Iran 2:20 PM Break 2:35 PM PANEL IV - Mapping Iranian Intellectuals after the Revolution of 1979 3:55 PM Closing Remarks Presenting Sponsor 6 IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS, LINEAGES & LEGACIES IRANIAN INTELLECTUALS, LINEAGES & LEGACIES 7 FROM QAJAR TO THE PANEL I EARLY PAHLAVI Tradition and Modernity in the Mirror of Iranian Intellectuals ALI MIRSEPASSI From Qajar to the Early Pahlavi Period BIOGRAPHY Professor Ali Mirsepassi ( New York University-USA) “Crafting Iranian Social Imaginary: Intellectuals during the Two World Wars” Ali Mirsepassi is Albert Gallatin Research Excellence Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University. He is also director of Professor Saeed Paivandi (University of Lorraine- France) Iranian Studies Initiative at NYU. He was a 2007-2009 Carnegie Scholar “Amir Kabir: A Reformist and Pioneer of Modernization in the Traditional and is the co-editor, with Arshin Adib-Moghadam, ofThe Global Middle State” East,a book series published by the Cambridge University Press. He is the author of Iran’s Troubled Modernity: Debating Ahmad Fardid’s Legacy, Professor Ali Ansari (St. Andrews University- Scotland) Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Thought of “Iranian Intellectuals and the Narratives of the Enlightenment” Ahmad Fardid (Cambridge University Press, 2017), among many other books. His new book, Iran’s Quiet Revolution: The Downfall of the Pahlavi State, will Moderator be published in November 2019.