All about Iran

Toronto hosts Conference on Iranian Studies

by Foaad Khosmood
03-Aug-2008
 

Last week I decided to give this "photojournalism" thing a try. I had the pleasure of representing Iranian.com at the ISIS conference in Toronto, Canada on July 31 and August 1. It was really amazing. A very large array of research topics from "History of Slavery in Iran" to "A Socio-phonetic Investigation of Rhotics" (rhotics refers to "R"-like sounds) were presented.

I was told roughly 800 people had registered by Friday night. There were presentations from people from all over the world including Iran, US, Canada, UK, France, Australia, Latvia, India, Sweden and Israel.

I was impressed both by the depth and breadth of the topic but also how smooth its logistical operations went.  I put some more commentary in the caption of the individual pictures. 

Note: The conference is not over! It goes through Sunday night. These photos only represent Thursday and Friday. One of the more anticipated events was the Shahnameh Millenium Concert on Saturday Night which unfortunately I could not attend. It is going on as I'm writing this. For any of you who were also there, feel free to leave a comment with more explanation under each photo. Also, if you have your own set of pictures covering Saturday and Sunday, send them to us. 

The photo essay starts with a few shots of downtown Toronto where the events were held. Then I show some of the sessions I attended. On Friday night, the big event was the speech by Akbar Etemad who is the founder of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. At the end I have a few shots of the local media coverage for this event. Enjoy!

-Foaad

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Thank You

by Cam in Berkley (not verified) on

I was only able to attend two full days of the conference and was quite overwhelmed by the breadth of issues and truly high quality of the academic presentations and discussions. Many of the panels had both western-based scholars and Iran-based ones (som clearly not dissidents of any sort). You could feel some initial tension in the room at the panels I attended when this dynamic was in play, but mutually respectful conduct and engagement over ideas went a long way to dispelling that, for me anyway. To be fair, I can only speak to the academic panels. Some were policy-oriented workshops. There was also a film-festival associated with the conference. Also, by way of disclosure, I serve on the ISIS council though I was not on board when the conference was planned -- I do think the program committee did a wonderful job. It takes two years and a tremendous number of work-hours by the program committee and many volunteers to bring a conference like this off.


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Great Job!

by Mitra H (not verified) on

If All people who were given a first time project (or any job at any time for that) were as meticulous, precise and caring in presenting their project as you... you know what... we'd all be living in a far better world!
Those numerous hours of detailed work have paid off!
This report itself is great, probably the best I've seen here, pictures within pictures and all!
(I don't know what they call them in photography)
Great Job!


Foaad Khosmood

Thank You Nazy and Irandokht

by Foaad Khosmood on

it means a lot to me. I have been a reporter before, but never a photographer. My camera is not that good, so I had to throw away a lot of the shots and had some problems with lighting. Just producing the photos and the captions took me hours! (Thanks for correcting that one mistake on Salam Iran shot)

I have a new appreciation for JJ who does this all the time.


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Apologists and Opportunists

by Anonymous4ever (not verified) on

This event appears to have been a playing field for these two groups. Apologists like Akbar Etemand and opportunists (after agreeing to confess to their mistakes, hence released from jail) like Ramin Jahanbegloo. What a show!


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Thank you..

by Anonymous* (not verified) on


Thanks for sharing these beautiful photes..

I also have following information for our Iranian fellows:

A petition going on line with regard to getting Norouz (Norooz) on the calendars of UN organizations(UNDPO, UNICEF, UNESCO, etc), and need everybody's help to get as many signatures from around the world as possible.

Let’s do our part......and forward the link to our friends & family....There is a need to have worldwide signatures.

//www.PetitionOnline.com/Norouz/


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I saw Ramin Jahanbagloo,

by reformers (not verified) on

I saw Ramin Jahanbagloo, which is great; however, he doesn't look too happy.

Was this a reformers conference?


samsam1111

Foaad welcome to toronto & my old Alma Moto

by samsam1111 on

university of toronto UFT..cool pics of UFT & Museum which they screwed up with that dumb post modern extension..Bedford st? wow..I used to live off campus on that street with 3 girl students & 1 washroom..hehe...Great pictures , except the one with an empty chair missing a Baffoon..wink wink..good i didn,t drop by to suffer ...cheers! and as u say marhaba on covering all the bradars va khahars with maghnaa!


IRANdokht

well done!

by IRANdokht on

Thank you so much for covering this conference. So many vital information and interesting topics! Nice pictures of Toronto too.

I also enjoyed reading the article in the last picture.

Thank you 

IRANdokht


Nazy Kaviani

Dear Foaad:

by Nazy Kaviani on

I'm really impressed! What a lot of work you have done in taking those pictures and writing the proper captions under each and every photograph, taking us with you to the conference and letting us know what was being discussed and who was who! Truly one of the best photo essays I have seen on the site, because the captions were so helpful in conveying the goings on of the event. JJ has to be careful, he might be losing his Admin to Arts and journalism!

Thank you so very much for this report. I hope you have also had a chance to enjoy yourself and Toronto. Say, loved the reporter's "tone" when explaining Hossein Derakhshan's no-show! You rock!