Sanaz Raji

Sanaz

Sanaz, I agree my examples and many other things don't make sense at the moment but when the diaspora yields up her secrets, it will be a wonder of incredibly rich experiences and a rich history. Please do enourage the scholar in Iran to be a part of that.

@Hamsade and Connie...

@Hamsade: 

I don't think the he/she wanted me to personally introduce them to Iranian diasporic authors. I gathered that the person would have liked it if I had sent him/her research materials electronically.

Prof. (LOL)  Marandi was educated at the University of Birmingham, UK. His PhD title and thesis: Lord Byron, his critics and Orientalism was completed in 2003. The British Library has a link to his work here:

//ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=2&uin=uk.bl...

I wonder how Said would feel that his works on orientialism would be used by the IRI to justify gross human rights abuses and the re-writing of Iranian culture? I'd be curious to read his thesis. However, I don't want to shell out any money (at times you have to pay to view a thesis, shocking, but true). I wonder if he wrote it himself or had someone ghost-write it, as in the case of Gaddafi's son, Saif-al Islam. It seems like there are plenty of links between the University of Birmingham and Mirandi:

//www.enduringamerica.com/february-2009/2009/...

The person who runs EA is Prof. Scott Lucas, who teaches in the department of American and Canadian Studies, University of Birmingham.  

@Connie- can you show me any examples of censorship by Iranian-American departments? In fact, there is no such thing as an "Iranian-Amerian studies department. To my knowledge there is a Persian Studies program at the University of Maryland- are you referring to this? Your examples don't make sense. 

Sex, Lies, Videotapes

Please encourage this scholar to pursue the topic in question. The ONLY perspective from which unbiased, honest scholarship on Iranian-American studies can be conducted is one that is distanced from the diaspora. It must be done from Iran, from outward peering in.  Due to censorship in our American Iranian-Studies departments, the REAL topics remain wholly unexplored and thus, will not be found in your reccommended reading list. I presume most Iranian-Americans would be mortified with shame to think any Iranians in Iran should come to know about these things. I have been told so many times, "Please don't speak of this, it will hurt the Green Movement." What a joke! Come on folks, time to wake up. Because this scholar has not eaten any "namak," (or whatever you want to call the American counterpart to "sandis" flowing freely over here), there is some chance of some honest scholarship being produced. We've got enough data on "queer art" for now. How about some of the more red-hot topics?

if i read the email

if i read the email correctly, this person wants you to personally introduce her to other writers.  that seems fishy to me. to do research, one does not necessarily need to personally get to know other scholars. if the person wants you to introduce her to other works by iranian authors in diaspora, then she should first consult with her committee members, gather information from her phd coursework, use internet to search, travel outside of iran for confrerences/seminars, and get access to journals, books and other written material.  and maybe that's what you should tell her. 

i think that your intuition on the validity of the email is correct. you don't even need to explain to her that analysis of many of the topics of this type of genre may not be allowed in iran.  that's obvious.  i suggest to either ignore the email, or do what i would do: respond with a breif email (2 sentences) and tell her my suggestions in the first paragraph on how to conduct research. is she's really in the prospectus writing stage (e.g., at least done with 1 year of phd courses including research methods), she should already be familiar how to conduct research.  don't you think!? you could also tell her to go and talk to professor marandi.  he seems very nice on tv.

@Zara

By no means am I censoring this person from doing this research. I am looking at the reality of doing such a project inside Iran. There is already censorship in this person's department. As I have previously indicated there are conservative members of staff who essentially are there to pass or reject PhD topics. How could anyone do a literary study on the Iranian diaspora without this huge impediment? 

Recently a friend of mine graduated with a PhD in Art History and left a few months ago to take up a teaching position in Tehran. He would have liked to stay in the UK or move to the US/Canada. However with the recession going on, it has become very difficult to find work in academia here and in other countries. Therefore, he had no choice but to look for work back in Iran. He had to submit two PhD theses- one for his department and the second to the university in Iran where he'd be teaching at. The second thesis was water-down completely to take out any references to Queer art and practices, the main bulk of his project, in order to appease the academic authorities in Iran. In a discussion I had with him shortly before he left, my friend mentioned he wished he could work in Iran and examine subjects like Queer art and theory without "looking over my shoulder, worrying, and censoring my own thoughts." 

I have already sent the person a list of works which might help, including Persis Karim's book. I am unsure if Karim's works have been translated into Persian?  However, I also indicated that Iranian diasporic literature does express political/social topics that might be difficult to fully discuss and for this reason might pose a hugh problem in getting this project off the ground. 

Sanaz

And so the solution you propose is to impose yet another layer of censorship based on the casual judgments of individuals in the diaspora?

Zara

I've reviewed Persis Karim's Let Me Tell You Where I've Been for the Journal, iranian Studies (2008). I think it is a good anthology of iranian diasporic works. As you and most of IAWA members know, many of Iranian diasporic literary works contain a political aspect with regards to Iran and the host countries that we diasporics reside in. In Karim's anthology, there is a memorable story by an Iranian-American lesbian, Paz, who recounts her sexual discovery during the height of anti-Iranian discrimination in the wake of the U.S. hostage crisis. How could this piece of work be analyzed in Iran? Would Paz's sexuality be considered or ignored? Would the focus be on anti-Iranian discrimination solely and not on the larger dimensions contained within this story? 

I doubt that a person in Iran interested in doing a PhD on Iranian diaspora literature can examine the political and social motivations objectively in an academic environment where the freedom to explore is denied to them. 

help

I would refer them to the Iranian-American Writer's Association - //www.iranianamericanwriters.org/

I would also recommend an anthology like Persis Karim's "Let Me Tell You Where I've Been" as a way to get an overview before commiting to specific writers.

It may be more difficult to study diasporic literature from inside Iran, but it's certainly a valid effort.

Don't do it....Period.

Don't do it....Period. especially if he is a male.

Divaneh

Thanks for your thoughts. I wonder if this person would be able to gain access to IC from within Iran? However, it is a good idea and I will pass it on. As I mentioned before, this person's research project is not original and has been done before. I just spoke to a friend who use to teach at English literature at University of Tehran and it has been brought to my attention that the heads of the department are two pro-government stooges. These people are responsible for accepting and rejecting PhD topics. 

I can't but wonder how anyone could study about the Iranian diaspora in a fair and reasonable manner in a department that would be hell-bent on politicizing such work?  

Tell this person to visit IC

Would be interesting to see the results. It appears from your blog, that most those studies were carried out by people who shared the same environment with the diaspora. Iranians change extensively during their many years in the host countries and it would be interesting to see how an Iranian from within Iran view their literature and the thoughts and ideas that it carries. Tell this person to visit IC and similar sites. If he/she does not find the befitting literature, at least gets an appreciation of the mindset of the people who share the same fate as those writers and poets.