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Three Decades of the Islamic Republic of Iran
No university in the United States has a longer or richer record of engagement with the country of Iran than Columbia. From Professor A. V. W. Jackson, the towering pioneer of Zoroastrian studies at the turn of the twentieth century, to Emeritus Professor Ehsan Yarshater, the no less eminent editor of the Encyclopaedia Iranica and Director of Iran Center on Riverside Drive, Columbia scholarship has made repeated advances in illuminating the history and culture of Iran. Similarly, from the work of Professor Gary Sick on Iranian-American relations since the Iranian revolution to the historic confrontation between President Lee Bollinger and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in September, 2007, Columbia has been the leading academic venue for exploring the increasingly troubled diplomatic relations between these two countries.
In response to President Bollinger’s vision of an engagement with Iran that would go beyond President Ahmadinejad’s controversial visit and make available to a Columbia audience a wide array of appreciations and analyses of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the School of International and Public Affairs and the Middle East Institute have organized a series of speaking events, including a day-long symposium planned by SIPA students, that will sample a wide variety of perspectives on the first three decades of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The participants in these events share no agenda and represent no consensus. Today’s Iran is a complex and dynamic country that can no more be described or encapsulated by any one speaker than can the United States itself.
Spring 2008
Speaker Series
April 21, Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History, Columbia University on "Three Decades of the Islamic Republic of Iran" More
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Feb. 20, Patrick Clawson, Deputy Director for Research, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on "Regime Change and the US Agenda for Iran" More
March 5, Janet Afary, Professor of Modern Middle East History, University of Michigan on "Are There Homosexuals in Iran?" More
March 28, 2008 SIPA Iran Conference on "US-Iranian Relations since 1953 and Prospects for the Post Bush Era" More
View Video Session 1 (windows media player)
View Video Session 2 (windows media player)
View Video Session 3 (windows media player)
View Video Session 4 (windows media player)April 7, Asef Bayat, Academic Director of windows mediathe Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden University. More
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Fall 2007
Lecture Series
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, September 24th, 2007, Roone Arledge Auditorium
On Monday, September 24th, 2007 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke and participated in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum.
View Full Video of the Event (realplayer)SIPA’s Statement on Ahmadinejad’s speech
Dean John H. Coatsworth Statement on Ahmadinejad’s speech
President Lee C. Bollinger's Statements on President Ahmadinejad's speech
President Bollinger's Introductory Remarks at SIPA-World Leaders Forum with President of Iran
Transcript of President Ahmadinejad's Remarks, from washingtonpost.com
The Journal of International Affairs, an academic journal edited by SIPA students, produced an issue on Iran in the spring of 2007. For more information on this issue, please see the Journal’s website.