Iranian Studies Initiative (ISI) at NYU

09/11/2026

Join the Iranian Studies Initiative (ISI) for a lecture on "Reading Across Borders and Worlds: Global and Comparative Perspectives on Modern Persian Literature."

Persian literature has often been studied within national and disciplinary boundaries. This ISI discussion brings together Atefeh Akbari and Amir Moosavi () to explore modern and contemporary Persian literature through comparative, transnational approaches. Their conversation with Sinan Antoon () will consider global literary connections, Iranian and Iraqi cultural exchange, and the possibilities of reading Persian literature beyond the national canon.

📆 Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026 | 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
📍 Kevorkian Center, Ettinghausen Library | 255 Sullivan Street & on Zoom
🎤 Amir Moosavi (), Atefeh Akbari () & discussant ( )
🎟️ This hybrid event is open to the public with registration
🖇️ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmME3PB85G8KDvETR5bZDEAl4yHbVBog8Q8YGJOn86GMfpbg/viewform

04/08/2026

Join us this Friday for our upcoming event, a conversation with Farzin Vejdani on his book "Private Sins, Public Crimes: Policing, Punishment, and Authority in Iran."

This moderated discussion will dive deeper on Vejdani's groundbreaking scholarly study of crime and punishment in Qajar Iran. Drawing on a rich array of primary sources in multiple languages, Vejdani argues that the ambiguity in defining the boundaries between private and public in Qajar Iran often corresponded with the jurisdictional friction between government authorities and religious scholars regarding who had the authority to police and punish public crimes. Crimes that were manifest but remained unpunished triggered a crisis of legitimacy that often coincided with upstart Islamic religious scholars challenging the state’s authority. This inviolability, grounded in both Islamic prohibitions of violence on sacred grounds and Iranian imperial traditions of redress, allowed criminals to negotiate a lesser sentence, safe passage for voluntary exile, or forgiveness.

📆 Friday, April 10, 2026 | 12:30 PM
📍 Kevorkian Center, Ettinghausen Library | 255 Sullivan Street
🎤 Farzin Vejdani, Sara Pursely, Leila Pourtavaf
🎟️ Open to public with RSVP
🖇️ https://as.nyu.edu/research-centers/neareaststudies/events/spring-2026/private-sins-public-crimes.html

07/16/2025

10/25/2024

10/20/2024

دوستان، در این ویدیو جدید من در باره رابطه دو مقوله امنیت و آزادی بحث می کنم و همچنین بحثی دارم در باره قانون گرایی. نکته اساسی بحث من این است که امنیت فردی و مدنی زمینه وجود آزادی های اجتماعی هستند. واین ایده که برخی متفکرین قدرت گرا می کنند که برای تحقق دموکراسی باید آزادی های مدنی را محدود کرد تا امنیت ایجاد شود بسیار اشتباه است. این وجود آزادی است که امکان امنیت را فراهم می کند. و البته که یک جامعه آزاد و با امنیت قانون گردهم خواهد بود. قانون مقدم به آزادی نیست.

Discourses on Iranian History and CultureAli MirsepassiGallatin Research Excellence Professor at New York UniversityConversation Date: January 28, 2023Suppor...

10/11/2024

Please join us next week on October 19th, for a book talk at UCSB. Register Here,
https://farhang.org/workshops-lectures/loneliest-revolution-memoir-of-solidarity-and-struggle-in-ira

07/03/2024

Delighted to share the book cover for, The Intellectual Thought of Al-Ghazālī, published by Cambridge UP.

04/11/2024

https://youtu.be/sh8c3ZCEWTo?si=XrzrGXonTsELEIj4

03/01/2024

📆 Thursday, March 7, 2024 | 5 PM - 7 PM | Kevorkian Center Library
👉 Iran Connected and Disconnected: Contraband Mobility from Kurdistan to Tehran
🎤 Moslem Ghomashlouyan and Naor Ben-Yehoyada, moderated by Arang Keshavarzian
🎟️ Open to everyone with RSVP
🖇️ https://buff.ly/3wpOKWE

Next week, join us for a discussion led by Moslem Ghomashlouyan (University of Bern) with Naor Ben-Yehovada (Columbia) about how contraband mobility in Iran incarnates entangled multiscalar (dis)connectivities, drawing on his recent ethnographic fieldwork in a border village in Iranian Kurdistan.

We hope to see you there!