Events at: UBC Robson Square, Theatre Room (C300)

“Two Hearts / Two Solitudes”: Jahan Malek Khatun’s and Forugh Farrokhzad’s Proto-Feminist Self-Defense in Medieval and Modern Iran

The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: “Two Hearts / Two Solitudes”: Jahan Malek Khatun’s and Forugh Farrokhzad’s Proto-Feminist Self-Defense in Medieval and Modern Iran on April 5, 2024. It is not surprising that, having lived six centuries apart, Persian poet-princess Jahan Malek Khatun (d. after […]

What Did the People of Iran Laugh About for 50 Years?: The Social, Cultural, and Political Role of Towfigh Satirical Paper

The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: What Did the People of Iran Laugh About for 50 Years?: The Social, Cultural, and Political Role of Towfigh Satirical Paper on October 19, 2024. Abstract In this talk, Dr. Abbas Towfigh will explore the social, cultural, and political […]

Anxious Onlookers: Qajar Iran, Tipu Sultan of Mysore and British colonial expansion, 1797-1800

The event recording is now available:   The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Anxious Onlookers: Qajar Iran, Tipu Sultan of Mysore and British colonial expansion, 1797-1800 on April 12, 2025. Abstract At the turn of the 19th century Qajar Iran encountered the thrust of European imperial expansion stretching from Egypt to the […]

Gendering the Archive: Family and Friendship in Early Modern Isfahan

The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Gendering the Archive: Family and Friendship in Early Modern Isfahan on November 1, 2025. This lecture explores gender in family archives (majmu’a) from seventeenth century Isfahan. Whether as bureaucrats working for the chancellery, poets composing and copying their favorite […]

Between Dusk and Dawn: Forugh Farrokhzad and the Art of Living in Between

The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Between Dusk and Dawn: Forugh Farrokhzad and the Art of Living in Between on April 18, 2026. This presentation brings together Forugh Farrokhzad’s poetry, film, letters, interviews, and prose to offer a portrait of a writer who reshaped modern Iranian literature by inhabiting its in-between […]