
Dr Brian Lang, Principal welcomes His Excellency Seyyed Mohammad Khatami to the University of St Andrews
The Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews was formally launched on 31st October 2006 by Seyyid Mohammad Khatami. The foundation of the Institute was made possible through a generous benefaction the centre-piece of which will be a Persian language library of some 12,000 books. These books will be selected from a full list of Iranian publications and will reflect the strengths of the University of St Andrews in History, Politics and International Relations. The collection, which will be housed in the Main Library, will be the largest resource of its kind in the United Kingdom, if not Western Europe, and will form the basis of research and teaching in all aspects of Iranian Studies at St Andrews.
The function of the Institute is to encourage and facilitate research and teaching in all aspects of Iranian civilisation and culture. The philosophy of the Institute is inclusivity and engagement. While the principle beneficiaries of the Institute’s resources will be students and staff at the University of St Andrews, the collection and the research facilities will be open to all interested parties subject to a letter of introduction and registration.
Location: Seminar room 3, New Arts Building
Time: Tuesday 22nd March, 4pm
Ali Behdad is John Charles Hillis Professor of Literature and Chair of
English Department at UCLA. He has published widely on a broad range of
topics, including the history of photography in the Middle East,
Orientalism, travel literature, immigration, and national identity in the
United States. Among his publications are Belated Travelers: Orientalism
In the Age of Colonial Dissolution (Duke University Press, 1995) and A
Forgetful Nation: On Immigration and Cultural Identity in the United
States (Duke University 2005). He is the co-editor of Companion to
Comparative Literature, (Blackwell, 2011). He is currently completing a book
titled Contact Visions: On Photography and Modernity in the Middle East.
