The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian an d Persianate Studies presents: Remembering an Erased Past in Iran: The Colo r Black on February 1\, 2025.
In this talk\, Beeta Baghoolizadeh will discuss her first book\, The Color Black: Enslavement and Erasure in I ran\, where she examines constructions of race\, particularly Blacknes s\, through enslavement and abolition in the 19th and 20th< /sup> centuries. Through an analysis of archival\, visual\, and spatial sou rces\, Beeta Baghoolizadeh unearths an intentionally hidden histor y within both institutional spaces and collective memory. Baghoolizadeh dra ws on photographs\, architecture\, theater\, circus acts\, newspapers\, fil ms\, and more to document how the politics of visibility framed discussions around race and freedom in the modern period. In this way\, Baghoolizadeh makes visible the people and histories that were erased from Iran and its d iaspora.
Beeta Baghoolizadeh (PhD\, History\, University of Pennsylvania) is Associate Research Scholar at Prin ceton University's Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and P ersian Gulf Studies. Her book\, The Color Black: Enslavement and Erasur e in Iran (Duke University Press\, March 2024) examines questions of r ace and enslavement through memory and visuality\, and has won the Scholars of Color First Book Award at Duke University Press. Beeta's scholarship is featured in American Historical Review (AHR)\, Comparative Studies of South Asia\, Africa\, and the Middle East (CSSAAME)\, and Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association. Prior to joining Princet on\, Beeta was an Assistant Professor of History and Critical Black Studies at Bucknell University. Her research has been supported by the Social Scie nce Research Council (SSRC)\, and she has also been a Research Fellow at th e Bard Graduate Center and a Regional Faculty Fellow at the University of P ennsylvania’s Wolf Humanities Center.
Chou ki El Hamel is a Professor in the History Department (now School o f Historical\, Philosophical and Religious Studies) at Arizona State Univer sity\, specializing in West and Northwest Africa. His training and Ph.D. st udies in France at the Centre de Recherches Africaines (University of Sorbo nne\, Paris I & VII) were in African History and Islamic Societies. His res earch interests focus on the spread and the growth of Islamic culture and t he evolution of Islamic institutions in Africa. He is particularly interes ted in the subaltern relationship of servile and marginalized communities t o Islamic ruling institutions.
Registration is required. Regi ster here: https://ubc.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t23LR04qQdi_dyesiKP-bg