Venue:
SOAS, Brunei Gallery, Room BG05.

Date:
23 January 2004. 

Workshop Convenor:
Stephanie Cronin. 

Organised by:
London Middle East Institute, 
University College, Northampton and 
The Iran Heritage Foundation.

Introduction:
Scholarship on Iran has conventionally focused on elites, political, religious, military or other, and when dealing with periods of social crisis, occasionally on counter-elites. The mentalities, agendas and ideological underpinnings of these elites have been relatively accessible to the historian as they were both literate, and also powerful, able to generate a dominant discourse, framing and reinforcing their own versions of themselves ready-made for the scholar. By contrast, comparatively little attention has been paid to the experience of non-elite, “subaltern” groups in the region. This workshop intends to begin to rectify this imbalance in Iranian Studies by focusing on “History from Below,” on the narratives of a range of social categories largely lacking in political power and cultural visibility and customarily excluded from or marginal to the dominant historical discourse. Taking a broad chronological approach, including the medieval, Qajar and Pahlavi periods, the workshop will redirect attention towards the actual experience of subordinate social groups and layers including peasants, the urban poor, minorities, women, children, religious, political and cultural dissidents, not merely as objects of state policy but as active participants in their own history. 

Registration Fee:
Admission Free (Space is limited. Prior registration is advised).

Enquiries:
sc45@soas.ac.uk.