The MELA Social Justice Committee will host a virtual lecture with Azadeh Vatanpour as part of the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) Social Justice Lecture Series 2020-2021 season, Stories and Silences: Research on Race in the Middle East. The lecture will be on April 27th, 2021, at 11AM EDT (UTC -4). This lecture *will not be recorded*, so we hope you can join us live!
Please register for the lecture here: http://bit.ly/MELAVatanpour1
This presentation will explore the constructed racism of Aryanism in the Iranian context, arguing that this concept has given the Persian-speaking Shi’i ethno-religious group an advantage over other minority groups and communities. Furthermore, it will look at the origin of this constructed racism that dates back to the pre-Islamic Sassanid era and was reinforced at various historical times contingent on socio-political situations. By exploring the history of discrimination against ethno-religious minority groups in Iran, this talk will show the continual suppression and forced assimilation of these groups by the Iranian Shi’i state through the construction of the discourse of “otherness.”
Azadeh Vatanpour is a Ph.D. student in the West and South Asian Religions program at Emory University. She has an M.A. in Ancient Iranian Culture and Languages from Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran, and an M.A. in Folk Studies and an M.A. in Religious Studies from Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky. As a scholar of religion and minority studies, her research focuses on ethno-religious minority groups in the Middle East, particularly among the Yarsan Kurdish group. She examines the intersection of devotional musical practices, mysticism, and human rights advocacy. Her current interdisciplinary research project explores the identity formation of the Yarsan through sacred music, sacred food, divinity, and performance.