SOAS Iran Day and Gholam (2017)

[SOAS Iranian Society]

Dear all,

Good times for those of you that are now done with your exams! But for those of you still slugging them out, i'll add my worthless 'good luck' to the dozens of others im sure you've been receiving lately, ;}

But we're not done here yet, even if you're now done with SOAS - either for just the summer or now for good! - Congrats if you are! Although no one who comes through here is ever really done with SOAS. It'll always be here for you. 

Here's an overview of some of what's going on over the next several weeks!

SOAS Centenary Event: Youth, Cinema and War in Iran

Date: Saturday, 03 June
Time: 13:00 - 18:00
Venue: Brunei Gallery, SOAS

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/1393216034080406/

To celebrate the SOAS Centenary the Centre for Iranian Studies is pleased to announce a special day of Iranian film. Iranian cinema has been making its mark on the international scene for over two decades. The majority of Iran's award winning filmmakers were in their youth during the Iranian revolution of 1979 and the Iran/ Iraq war (1980-87); both remarkably defining moments for Iranian history, identity and creatively. This day explores themes of youth, cinema and war in Iran.

Free to attend!

Programme: https://www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/03jun2017-soas-centenary-event---youth-cinema-and-war-in-iran.html
Organised by: Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS, London Middle East Institute (LMEI) at SOAS and Roya Arab

SOAS Centenary Event: Iran Book Fair

Date: Saturday, 03 June
Time: 12:30 - 16:30
Venue: Brunei Gallery, SOAS

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/124199721486446/

As part of the SOAS Centenary Event: Youth, Cinema and War in Iran there will be a Book Fair in the Brunei Suite selling both English and Persian language books

Persian books from: Mehri Publishication, Nogaam, H&S Media, Naakojaa, Baran, Forough Books, Diyare Ketab and Ferdosi.

Other participants include ALEF Bookstores, Asia House, MOP Foundation and Persia Educational Foundation.

* Please note that some of the traders may not have the facilities to take payments by card and that there is no cash point in the Brunei Gallery. It is advised to bring cash beforehand. The nearest cash point is in the SOAS main building or for external visitors, outside Student Central (formally ULU) on Malet Street.

Organised by: Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS and the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) at SOAS.

* * * European Premiere Film Screening: Gholam (2017) * * *

16 June @ Hackney Picturehouse: https://www.facebook.com/events/397352797324974/

18 June @ Curzon Aldgate: https://www.facebook.com/events/1843284389270299/

Synposis: A rare cinematic delve into Britain’s Iranian diaspora, Gholam is a prescient and nail-biting drama. Shahab Hosseini (who won Best Actor at Cannes for Ashgar Fahadi’s Oscar-winning The Salesman) plays an enigmatic taxi driver, working every hour that God sends, but to what end? Keeping to himself, refusing to discuss his mysterious past, and shrugging off the chance to return home, his reticence is shattered when he picks up a mysterious fare. Artist and filmmaker Mitra Tabrizian’s debut feature has a feel for nocturnal London that recalls screen classics like Mona Lisa, with a sharp undertow of social insight for Brexit-era Britain.

Organised by: East End Film Festival

Risky Measures: Assembling Iran’s Waterways in the Infrastructure of International Development in the Middle East

Date: Tuesday, 30 May
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Location: Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), South Wing, Wilkins Building, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/1667677706861190/

Troubling images of dried out lakes and rivers reveal the devastation that has mobilized government and non-government officials alike to proclaim Iran’s water problems as constituting a national and natural disaster. Reformist politicians and environmentalists argue that the controversy is largely of Iran’s own making. But the origins of Iran’s current water crisis are linked to a longer genealogy of Iranian water practices involving large-scale, US-led projects of dam building, irrigation, and industrial agriculture also known as integrated river basin development.

Further info & Registration: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/ias-events/ias_talking_points_seminar_risky_measures_assembling_irans_ways_in_the_infrastructure_of_international_development_in_the_middle_east
Organised by: Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), UCL

Portents, Presages and Predictions: Art and Divination in Pre-Modern Iran

Date: Wednesday, 14 June
Time: 18:30
Location: Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP

With the approaching of the Islamic millennium in 1591 and associated anxieties about the end of the world it is no surprise that Tahmasp showed so much interest in fortunetelling. The Shah had been trained years before in the arts of geomancy and oneiromancy (dream interpretation) by a court advisor, Remmal Haydar, and the spectacular Falnama or 'Book of Omens' commissioned by him in the mid-1550s survives as a further testimony of his interests in the occult. Yet Iran’s pursuit of divinatory sciences pre-dates the Safavid period, reflecting the status and relative importance that these disciplines had at both scholarly and courtly levels.

Further info & Tickets: http://www.iranheritage.org/portents.html
Organised by: Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF)

London Global Gateway Conference: "The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia in the First Millennium CE: From the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Era"

Date: 25 - 27 June, 2017
Location: University Of Notre Dame, 1 Suffolk Street, London SW1Y 4HG

This conference is jointly sponsored by the Medieval Institute of the University of Notre Dame, the Notre Dame Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, and the Kyoto University Institute for Research in Humanities and Graduate School of Letters.

Programme: http://medieval.nd.edu/news-events/events/2017/06/25/london-global-gateway-conference-the-history-and-culture-of-iran-and-central-asia-in-the-first-millennium-ce-from-the-pre-islamic-to-the-islamic-era/
Organised by: The Medieval Institute, University Of Notre Dame

Iranian Sports Symposium

Date: Sunday, 25 June
Time: 09:00 - 17:00
Location: Royal College of Physicians, 11 St Andrews Place, London NW1 4LE

Sports and athletic exercises were fundamental to the daily pursuits of the people of Ancient Iran. The religious teaching of Zoroastrianism advocated physical strength, mental power and courage, which were required for defending the homeland when need arose. Sportsmen thus held special status in society. The tradition has survived to the present day with Iranian victories in the Olympics.

Further info & Tickets: http://www.iranheritage.org/sport.html
Organised by: Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF)

The Puzzle of Median Art

Date: Wednesday, 28 June
Time: 18:00 - 20:30
Location: British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH

Median art to this day remains a mystery in the art of the ancient Near East. Despite the numerous references to the Medes in historical sources, the lack of primary sources and the uncertainty of artefacts has cast a shadow over Median art and its existence. This lecture will look at evidence of Median artistic elements that are hidden within Achaemenid art and will discuss the related evidence in the Median Period and its possible format. The result will present a picture of what could have been Median art.

Further info & RSVP: http://www.bips.ac.uk/event/razmjou/
Organised by: British Institute of Persian Studies (BIPS)

Kamran Djam Annual Lecture at SOAS (2017)

1) Managing the Guarded Domains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46oiV6fRB0Y (13 March)

2) Paragons and Demons of Modernity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k10aF0EVcrU (14 March)

Organised by: Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS

Well, the temperature is certainly rising. But how long it lasts is anyone's guess. Let us hope for a genuine summer in London this year..

Have a good final 2 weeks of SOAS 2016-17 all!

Best, 

Aki Elborzi
soas.i...@gmail.com
https://groups.google.com/group/soas-iranian-society
http://www.facebook.com/pages/SOAS-Iranian-Society/154877127876306