Hamid Dabashi just finished the opening remarks of the of the first panel at the Columbia conference on Iran.
He began with a jab at Columbia President Lee Bollinger who, according to Dabashi, was somewhat responsible for two of his graduate students packing up and fleeing Iran this past summer. As Dabashi noted, the Iranian tabloids had accused Columbia as being the American home of the so-called “Velvet Revolution” in Iran. Bollinger’s comments two years ago in his introduction of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad certainly did not help in allaying the fears of the Iranian regime.
Dabashi noted, there is nothing about Iran that will be said today that will not be immediately relevant to the United States. In other words, as Dabashi said, this is not about “us versus them.” Let’s see.
Good morning everyone. We are live blogging from the “Iran after the Election” conference at Columbia University that is happening all day today. Check out the schedule here.
Hamid Dabashi is speaking right now on a panel with Ervand Abrahamian, Shahla Talebi, and Asef Bayat (one of our favorites here at QB).
New Yorkers, mark your calendars for December 5th.
In what looks to be the most important academic conference on the post-election affairs of Iran, Columbia University will host a who’s who of Iranian scholars, activists, and journalist for a conference entitled “Iran After the Election.”
Featured speakers will include: Asef Bayat, Hamid Dabashi, Gary Sick, Abdolkarim Soroush, and Richard Bulliet among others.
This will be the event for those wishing to know everything and more about what happened in Iran last summer and what to look for in the coming months. Best of all, the event is free and open to the public!
For more information visit:
http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/mei/iranconference/Home.html
