Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Dr. Naficy at University of Maryland

If you are in DC area this will be an interesting lecture to attend:
University of Maryland, School of Languages, Litratures, and Cultures,
The Center for Persian Studies Presents:

The Poetics and Politics of
the Desired and the Dreaded:
Women's Presence in Iranian Cinema

A Public Lecture By
Professor Hamid Naficy
John Evans Professor of Communication
Northwestern University
Time: 7 PM Saturday October 6, 2007
Place: Tyser Auditorium, Van Munching Hall, UMCP

Hamid Naficy is John Evans Professor of Communication, teaching film and media studies
courses in the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at Northwestern University. His areas of research and teaching include documentary and ethnographic films; cultural theories and studies of diaspora, exile, and postcolonial cinemas and media; and Iranian and Middle Eastern cinemas. He has published extensively on these and allied topics. His English language books are: An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking (Princeton University Press), Home, Exile, Homeland: Film, Media, and the Politics of Place (edited, Routledge), The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles (University of Minnesota Press), Otherness and the Media: the Ethnography of the Imagined and the Imaged (co-edited, Harwood Academic), and Iran Media Index (Greenwood Press). His forthcoming book is Cinema, Modernity, and National Identity: A Social History of a Century of Iranian Cinema (Duke University Press). He has also published extensively in Persian, including a two-volume book on the documentary cinema theory and history, Film-e Mostanad (Daneshgah-e Azad-e Iran Press). He has lectured widely internationally and his works have been cited and reprinted extensively and translated into many languages, including French, German, Turkish, Italian, and Persian.

The rationale of Richard Bulliet

Although he didn't get in the news much, the man who orchestrated the Ahmadinejad visit was none other than domestic animal and ancient wheel expert (and Iranian history specialist) Richard W. Bulliet. Bwog sat down in his posh office in the Middle East Institute to ask him about his reactions to the speech and his reactions to the reactions to the speech. He had a lot to say in between writing an op-ed for The Washington Post and getting ready for a Ramadan iftar with the president of Turkey and Hillary Clinton. Bulliet being Bulliet, his comments used up our tape. Here's what he said-- in the first hour, anyways. Read More here: http://www.bwog.net/articles/bulliet_again

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Gary Sick: Iranian Leader Sees Trip to New York as ‘Successful’

Gary Sick: Iranian Leader Sees Trip to New York as ‘Successful’
Interviewee:
Gary G. Sick, executive director of the Gulf/2000 Project, Columbia University
Gary G. Sick, a longtime Iranian expert who served on the Ford, Carter, and Reagan National Security Councils, says that he believes President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regards his visit to the United Nations and New York City as "successful" because it allowed him to get his views out to a wide audience, and particularly to "people in the Islamic world and the Middle East, especially Arabs." Sick says an opportunity for a dialogue between Iran and the United States may have to wait until 2009 when there will be a new U.S. president, and possibly a new Iranian president. He does not think the United States will attack Iran militarily.... Read More Here: http://www.cfr.org/publication/14309/

Thursday Links

Time: My Dinner with Ahmadinejad (By Richard Stengel)
Boston Globe: How to build US-Iran relations (By Abbas Maleki and Kaveh L. Afrasiabi)
Washington Post: D.C. Area Iranians Criticize Reception Of Ahmadinejad
Washington Post: Iran Reformist Warns Democracy at Stake
Detroit free Press: Rival: It’s best to ignore Iran leader
The Salt Lake Tribune: The Bronx cheer: Columbia University welcomes Iran's president
New York Times: The ‘Crazies’ and Iran
Guardian: US, Russia Spar Over Iran’s Sanction
Independent Online South Africa: Iran’s Reformers have learned
TV New Zealand: Aust tells Iran to stop weapons supply
Tehran Times: French declarations on Iranian N-issue

Economy:
AFP: Iran warns India over Pakistan gas deal
AFP: Iran border closure costs Kurdish region a million a day: Iraq
Reuters: France's Total says decision on Iran LNG far off
Tehran Times: Iran Air to be privatized in 2008

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

From Columbia Students

This story appeared in The Morningside Post written by Columbia University students and It is is interesting:

Bollinger's Belligerence: SIPA Students Respond to Ahmadinejad Talk
Mujda Amini, MIA 2008
Jacqueline Carpenter, MIA 2008
Maryum Saifee, MIA 2007
David Trilling, MIA 2008

Yesterday, Lee Bollinger referred to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a "petty and cruel dictator" and openly doubted whether Mahmoud Ahmedinajad would have the "intellectual courage" to answer the questions posed. In the history of the World Leaders Forum at Columbia University, no guest has ever been treated with such contempt and disrespect.

In contrast, earlier yesterday President Bollinger introduced the President of Turkmenistan, also an autocrat with a dismal human rights record, with a tone of cordiality expected in a forum with a head of state. Why the difference between the two? Could it be the massive media attention present at the second forum inspired Bollinger's belligerence? Could it be because, in the end, Bollinger cowed to the very political pressure he has claimed all week that he was defending free speech against? ... Read More Here

A conversation with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Charlie Rose Interview with Ahmadinejad is much more diplomatic. Listen and watch here:
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/09/24/1/a-conversation-with-mahmoud-ahmadinejad