Contemporary Iran: Realities and Prospects for the Future

This year-long series of speakers and cultural events offers an interdisciplinary approach for contextualizing and understanding contemporary developments in Iran and potential future trajectories, domestically, regionally, and internationally.听 Addressing headline news, but providing greater depth rooted in experience, this series provides a unique opportunity for engagement with experts in public policy, environmental concerns, women and gender, public health, and artistic, cultural and literary achievement, welcoming students, faculty, and the broader public interested in seeking understanding through听a variety of perspectives.

With generous support听from the Institute for the Liberal Arts and co-sponsorship from The Lowell Humanities Series, The Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, The Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy, The Boisi Center for Religion and American Public LIfe, The Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, The International Studies Program, The Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, and the Theology Department, this series offers a unique opportunity for the connection of academic studies, policy issues, current events and celebrations of culture.

Boston College strongly encourages conference participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccination before attending events on campus.


Event Speakers

Mehdi Aloosh

Mehdi Aloosh听|听Apr. 18
Amir Vahab Ensemble

Amir Vahab Ensemble听| Oct. 27
Film Screening

Film Screening 听|听Mar. 18
Farzan Sabet

Farzan Sabet | Sept. 21
SAMSUNG CSC

Roya Hakakian听|听Jan. 31
Kaveh Madani

听Kaveh Madani听|听Nov. 15

Public Policies and Population Health in Iran

Dr. Mehdi Aloosh is a public health and preventive medicine specialist, family physician, and epidemiologist with over two decades of clinical and academic experience in Canada and Iran. Currently serving as the senior public health official in Windsor and Essex County, Ontario, Canada, Dr. Aloosh oversees the health and well-being of approximately half a million residents. Furthermore, he is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada.

Aloosh has numerous publications on population health issues in Iran. His research encompasses the impact of population policies on health outcomes, shedding light on crucial intersections between politics, policy, and public health. Furthermore, he has extensively studied the effects of economic sanctions on health determinants, population health, and transmission of infectious diseases.

Dr. Aloosh obtained his medical degree from Tehran University Medical Sciences, followed by specialty training in public health and preventive medicine and family medicine, MSc in epidemiology, and MSc in medical education at McMaster University and McGill University.

 Dr. Mehdi Aloosh

Mehdi Aloosh

Thursday, April 18, 2024

6:00 PM-7:00 PM

245 Beacon Street Room 107

Cosponsored by the Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, and the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good

Film Screening 鈥淪even Winters in Tehran"听directed by Steffi Niederzoll

Tehran, July 2007: Reyhaneh Jabbari, 19, has a business meeting with a new client. When he tries to rape her, she stabs him in self-defense. Later that day, she is arrested for murder. Her trial results in a death penalty sentence. Thanks to personal and secretly recorded videos provided by Reyhaneh鈥檚 family, their testimonies and the letters written by Reyhaneh in prison, the film retraces the fate of a woman who becomes a symbol of resistance and women鈥檚 rights even beyond the borders of Iran.听

颅鈥 Taken from Press notes - SEVEN WINTERS IN TEHRAN - Berlinale 2023 - ENG

Q&A with Natana J. DeLong-Bas,听Theology Department and Islamic Civilization & Societies Program, and Kristin Peterson, Communication Department.

Roya Hakakian

Film Screening

Monday, March 18,, 2024

5:30 PM

Murray Room, Yawkey Center

Cosponsored by Boston College International Studies Program, Islamic Civilization
Free and open to public. 听Refreshments will be served!

Roya Hakakian: "The Plight of Women in Israel and Iran, and the Silence of Feminists"

Roya Hakakian is an Iranian-American writer, journalist, and public speaker. Her opinion columns, essays, and book reviews appear in leading English language publications including听The New York Times,听The New York Review of Books听and听The Atlantic. A founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, she has spoken on a variety of news outlets, from CNN鈥檚 Fareed Zakaria GPS to MSN糖心vlog直播平台, as well as in Washington D.C. for the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and the State Department with U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken. Her latest book听A Beginner鈥檚 Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious听has been called a contemporary Tocquevlllian account by听The Wall Street Journal听and听The Boston Globe. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship among many other prizes and has been called one of 鈥渢he most important activists, academics and journalists of her generation.鈥

Roya Hakakian

Roya Hakakian

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

7:00 PM

Gasson 100

Cosponsored by Lowell Humanities Series,听Boston College International Studies Program, Islamic Civilization

Roya Hakakian is an Iranian-American writer, journalist, and public speaker. Her opinion columns, essays, and book reviews appear in leading English language publications including听The New York Times,听The New York Review of Books听and听The Atlantic. A founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, she has spoken on a variety of news outlets, from CNN鈥檚 Fareed Zakaria GPS to MSN糖心vlog直播平台, as well as in Washington D.C. for the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and the State Department with U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken. Her latest book听A Beginner鈥檚 Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious听has been called a contemporary Tocquevlllian account by听The Wall Street Journal听and听The Boston Globe. She is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship among many other prizes and has been called one of 鈥渢he most important activists, academics and journalists of her generation.鈥

Roya Hakakian

Roya Hakakian

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

7:00 PM

Gasson 100

Cosponsored by Lowell Humanities Series,听Boston College International Studies Program, Islamic Civilization

Dr. Kaveh Madani听is an environmental scientist, educator, and activist known for his work on complex human-natural systems at the interface of science, policy, and society. He is currently the Director of the United Nations University Institute of Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), known as the UN Think Tank on Water, where he leads scientific research and policy solutions to address the growing global water and environmental crises.

Dr. Madani is a former Deputy Vice President of Iran who served as the Deputy Head of Iran鈥檚 Department of Environment. He has also served as the Vice President of the UN Environment Assembly Bureau and Chief of Iran鈥檚 Department of Environment鈥檚 International Affairs and Conventions Center. He held different strategic roles during his public service and led Iran鈥檚 delegation in different major intergovernmental meetings and negotiations.

As a prolific scholar, Madani has worked extensively on complex issues in water management, environmental and energy policy, food security, climate change impacts and adaptation, sustainable development, and transboundary-conflicts and negotiations in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East. He has received several prestigious awards and recognitions for his fundamental research contributions, teaching innovations, as well as outreach and humanitarian activities. Among these are the 2012 recognition by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of the ten听New Faces of Civil Engineering,听Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists听by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in 2016, and the ASCE鈥檚听Walter Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize听in 2017.

He holds a听Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis, Master of Water Resources from the Lund University and B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Tabriz, and has done his post-doctoral research in Environmental Economics and Policy at the Water Science and Policy Center at the University of California, Riverside.

Kaveh Madani

Dr.听Kaveh Madani

Wednesday,听November 15, 2023

6:00 PM-7:00 PM

Murray Function Room

Co-sponsored by:听The Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, The Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, and Earth and Environmental Sciences

Water and Iran's Environmental Problems with Kaveh Madani

Dr. Kaveh Madani听is an environmental scientist, educator, and activist known for his work on complex human-natural systems at the interface of science, policy, and society. He is currently the Director of the United Nations University Institute of Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), known as the UN Think Tank on Water, where he leads scientific research and policy solutions to address the growing global water and environmental crises.

Dr. Madani is a former Deputy Vice President of Iran who served as the Deputy Head of Iran鈥檚 Department of Environment. He has also served as the Vice President of the UN Environment Assembly Bureau and Chief of Iran鈥檚 Department of Environment鈥檚 International Affairs and Conventions Center. He held different strategic roles during his public service and led Iran鈥檚 delegation in different major intergovernmental meetings and negotiations.

As a prolific scholar, Madani has worked extensively on complex issues in water management, environmental and energy policy, food security, climate change impacts and adaptation, sustainable development, and transboundary-conflicts and negotiations in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East. He has received several prestigious awards and recognitions for his fundamental research contributions, teaching innovations, as well as outreach and humanitarian activities. Among these are the 2012 recognition by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as one of the ten听New Faces of Civil Engineering,听Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists听by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in 2016, and the ASCE鈥檚听Walter Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize听in 2017.

He holds a听Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Davis, Master of Water Resources from the Lund University and B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Tabriz, and has done his post-doctoral research in Environmental Economics and Policy at the Water Science and Policy Center at the University of California, Riverside.

Kaveh Madani

Dr.听Kaveh Madani

Wednesday,听November 15, 2023

6:00 PM-7:00 PM

Murray Function Room

Co-sponsored by:听The Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, The Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, and Earth and Environmental Sciences

Rumi Night with the Amir Vahab Ensemble

Honored as a peacemaker and virtuoso, Amir Vahab is a composer, vocalist, and lecturer, specializing in a wide variety of traditional Persian instruments: tanbour, saz, oud, ney, daf and zarb. Amir is noted for his expertise in Persian culture and history, and for the spirituality present in his music and teachings. Amir has been described as "one of the world's most revered players and composers of Persian folk music." Amir is the leader and principal player for the .听

Described by the New York Times as an "ambassador for a silenced music", Amir Vahab is one of New York City's most commemorated deliverers of Near Eastern folk, traditional and Sufi music and poetry. Educated in London and at the University of Paris with a focus on engineering and linguistics, Amir Vahab formed his ensemble in the U. S. upon his arrival here in 1981. Since then he has been an entrepreneur, lectured at NYU (for 30+ years) and many other universities, taught private classes, led drumming, whirling, calligraphy and poetry workshops, composed eclectic music for theatre and film and been recognized for his performances worldwide. His work seeks to bridge an understanding between different cultures while inspiring his students and audiences to appreciate the tradition embodied by classical instruments and their relevance to contemporary sound. Like the man himself, Mr. Vahab's music symbolizes diversity in unity.

Amir Vahab Ensemble

Amir Vahab Ensemble

Friday, October 27, 2023

7:30 PM-9:00 PM

St. Ignatius Church in the Main Sanctuary听


Co-sponsored by: Theology Department and the Islamic Civilization and Societies Program

No Crisis, No Deal? US-Iran Nuclear Tensions Amidst Regional Detentes

Dr. Farzan Sabet is a Researcher in the Middle East WMD-Free Zone Project at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and a Research Associate of the Global Governance Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute. His research focuses on Middle East politics, nuclear arms control, disarmament, and non-proliferation, and economic sanctions.

He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Global Governance Centre of the Graduate Institute Geneva, a Nuclear Security Predoctoral Fellow at the Centre for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Sabet holds a Ph.D and M.A. in International History and Politics from the Geneva Graduate Institute and a B.A. in History and Political Science from McGill University. Sabet speaks English, French, and Persian.

Farzan Sabet

Dr. Farzan Sabet

Thursday, September 21, 2023

6:00 PM-7:00 PM

Devlin 008

Co-sponsored by: The Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy, The Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and The Islamic Civilization and Societies Program