BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Department of Asian Studies//NONSGML Events//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://asia.ubc.ca/events/event/
X-WR-CALDESC:Department of Asian Studies - Events
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:20231116T0055Z-1700096133.8287-EO-61581-18@10.19.146.15
STATUS:CONFIRMED
DTSTAMP:20260412T162010Z
CREATED:20231107T004201Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231206T201515Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231125T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/Vancouver:20231125T121500
SUMMARY: Lament of the Ages: Memory\, Voice\, and Experience with the Dotār
is of Torbat-e Jām
DESCRIPTION: The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lec
ture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Lament of the Ages: Memory
\, Voice\, and Experience with the Dotāris of Torbat-e Jām on November 25\,
2023. Poems are performed to music and understood as part of the spiritual
practice of the Mojaddedi Naqshbandi Sufi order in Torbat-e […]
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: 
The e
vent recording is now available:
https://youtu.be/msrTVFUxMTI?si=wAjS
yEbsmp39-Moq
The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate S
tudies presents: Lament of the Ages: Memory\, Voice\, and Experience with t
he Dotāris of Torbat-e Jām on November 25\, 2023.
Poems are performed
to music and understood as part of the spiritual practice of the Mojaddedi
Naqshbandi Sufi order in Torbat-e Jām\, Iran. The practice of the dotār
is of Torbat defies the modern notion that poetic texts can be separate
d from the matrix uniting poet\, singer\, and audience in a performance whe
re poem (as aesthetic artefact)\, music (as the unfolding of
a structure in time)\, and ethics (as the “I” facing a “you” in devo
tion) become an indivisible whole. Recent scholarship has shed light on the
institutionalisation of Persian literature in the twentieth century and th
e efforts to mould Persian into emergent narratives of nation and identity.
The practice of the dotāris resists co-option to such a discourse:
it cannot be understood unless we historicise certain ideas that have becom
e axiomatic. By exploring the role of voice\, memory\, and experience in th
e iconic piece Navā’i\, this talk seeks to understand the conceptual founda
tions of dotāri performance and thereby account for a practice whose
origin extends beyond the ruptures of modernity.
Speaker
Marie
Huber is an Assistant Professor of Persian and Comparative Literatu
re at Stanford University. H
er research focuses on Persian poetry and poetic performance\, as well as t
he “marginal modernity” of Iranian New Wave filmmakers such as Fereydoun Ra
hnema\, Parviz Kimiavi\, and Nasser Taghvaei. She has recently published an
article on Kimiavi titled\, “Th
e Stone Garden: Meditations on
History\, Experience\, and the Nature of the Mystical” (Dibur)\, and she is
the author of Memories of an Im
possible Future: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time (Brill\, 2016). She is currently developing a
diachronic analysis of performativity in Persian poetry along with a new b
ook\, provisionally titled\, Inf
inite Events: Poetry\, Music\, and Spiritual Practice in the Shadow of Shey
kh Ahmad-e Jām.
D
iscussant
Domenico Ingenito is Associate Professor
of Iranian Studies and premodern Persian Literature at the University of Ca
lifornia\, Los Angeles\, Bahari Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book (Bod
leian Libraries\, University of Oxford)\, core faculty member of the Pourda
voud Center for the Study of the Iranian World\, and former director of the
UCLA Program on Central Asia (2016-2021). His research interests center on
ancient and medieval Iran\, Persian poetry\, visual culture of Iran and Ce
ntral Asia\, gender and translations studies\, and premodern manuscript cul
ture.
Registration required. Register here: https://ubc.zoom.us
/webinar/register/WN_4ZffuQcOQiuTsp26R8ekGA
About the Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies: Alir
eza Ahmadian (1981 – 2019) was an enthusiastic researcher\, a consummate so
cio-political analyst\, and an opinion leader on foreign policy who nurture
d the virtues of diplomatic dialogue and liberal democracy. Alireza was a p
roud and devoted UBC alumnus\, supporter of UBC’s Department of Asian Studi
es\, and beloved member of Canadian-Iranian Community. The department renam
ed this lecture series in his honour in 2019. Alireza’s friends in the comm
unity have provided funding to support this series\, and this generous gift
will see these important academic and community engagement events supporte
d through to the end of the 2025/2026 academic year. Read More ...
Should you have any questions\, please contact the Department of Asian Stu
dies at Asian.Studies@ubc.ca.