The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906-1911

Centenary Conference - Programme

30 July - 2 August 2006
Examination Schools, University of Oxford, 75-81 High Street, Oxford OX1 4BG

On the centenary of the Constitutional Revolution this conference addresses issues such as: What kind of a revolution was it? How did it change Iran? The role of imperialism? How lasting were the institutions established by the revolution? Its global influence? How it shaped the country’s future? Etc.

Provisional programme

Click on names for biographical details and on paper titles for abstracts

DAY 1: 30 JULY
8.30-9.10 Registration
9.10-9.30 Welcome
Farhad Hakimzadeh
Reza Sheikholeslami
Davood Rahni
Houchang Chehabi
9.30-10.00 Session 1   Hassan Taghizadeh
Abbas Amanat Chair
Ehsan Yarshater
Hassan Taghizadeh: A Life that Mirrors the Vicissitudes of a Century
10.00-11.30 Session 2   Contending Memories and Discourses
Abbas Amanat Chair
Mohammad Tavakoli Targhi
Constitutionalism, Matriotic Nationalism, and Modern Persian Political Discourse
Joanna de Groot
Whose Revolution(s)? Contending and Converging Stakeholders in the Movements of 1906-11 and Their Interpreters
Anja Pistor-Hatam
The Iranian Constitutional Revolution as Lieu(x) de Mémoire: Sattar Khan
11.30-12.00 Tea/coffee
12.00-13.00 Session 3   Revolutionary Foreigners
Anna Enayat Chair
Anna Poghosyan
Germany and the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911
Thomas M Ricks
American Presbyterian Missions and Howard Baskerville of 1907-1909 Tabriz: The Internationalization of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-16.00 Session 4   Constitutionalist Project
Touraj Atabaki Chair
Mangol Bayat
The Rise of the Raushanfikr in the Constitutional Period: An Overview
Nahid Mozaffari
Crafting Constitutionalism - An Iranian Secular Modernist Project
Kamran Rastegar
The Circulation of Reformist Discourse in Persian and Arabic Periodicals Preceding and During the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906-1911
Mohsen Khalili
An Elitist Account of Drafting the Iranian Constitution of 1906: A Comparative Study of 'Ein al-Saltaneh's, Mostashar al-Dowleh's and Katouzian Tehrani's Reports
16.00-16.30 Tea/coffee
16.30-18.30 Session 5   Legality and Governmentality
Vanessa Martin Chair
Stephanie Cronin
The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, State-Building and the Politics of Military Reform
Ali Gheissari
Considerations on the Concept of Rights in the Iranian Constitutional Laws of 1906-1907
Soheila Torabi-Farsani
Merchants and the Mechanisms of Bazaar Associations During the Constitutional Revolution
Daniel Tsadik
The Legal Status of Religious Minorities: Imami Shi'i Law and Iran's Constitutional Revolution


DAY 2: 31 JULY

9.30-10.00 Session 6   Revolutionary Poetry
Janet Afary Chair
Homa Katouzian
Poetry of the Constitutional Revolution
10.00-11.00 Session 7   Picturing the Revolution
Janet Afary Chair
Reza Sheikh
National Identity and the Visual Micro-histories of the Constitutional Revolution
Mohammadreza Tahmasbpour
The Socio-political Functions of Photography in the Period of the Constitutional Revolution
11.00-11.30 Tea/coffee
11.30.12.30 Session 8   Music Constitutionalism
Houchang Chehabi Chair
Alireza Miralinaghi
Modernization and Modernity in Iran's Urban Music Tradition in the Wake of the 1906 Revolution
Ameneh Youssefzadeh
Iranian Music During the Constitutional period: The Emergence of New Forms of Expression
12.30-13.30 Session 9   Revolutionary Culture
Homa Katouzian Chair
Ali Miransari
Plays During the Constitutional Revolution 1906-1911
Soad Pira
Individual and National Identity in the Novel
13.30-14.30 Lunch
14.30-16.30 Session 10   Partners in the Revolution
Robert Gleave Chair
Lloyd Ridgeon
Zahir al-Dawleh and the Constitutional Revolution
Elham Malekzadeh
Comparison and Analysis of Charitable Endowment in the Twentieth Century
Rasool Jafarian
A Comparison Between the Concept of Mashruteh in Tabriz and in Isfahan
Majid Tafreshi
The Ulama and the Constitutional Revolution - A Different Approach: The Works and Thoughts of Mohammad Esma'il Gharavi Mahallati
16.30-17.00 Tea/coffee
17.00-18.30 Session 11   Municipality and Governmentality
Mansoureh Ettehadieh Chair
Morteza Nouraei
The Evolution of Provincial Administration 1907-1925
Reza Mokhtari-Esfahani
Municipal Administration (Baladyeh) in Constitutional Era
Kamran Safamanesh
Tehran at the Time of the Constitutional Revolution


DAY 3: 1 AUGUST

9.30-10.00 Session 12   Qavam al-Mulk
Houchang Chehabi Chair
Mohammad Ebrahim Bastani-Parizi
Qavam al-Mulk's Politcal Asylum in the British Consulate in Shiraz (1911)
10.00-11.00 Session 13   The Revolution Through a French Lens
Houchang Chehabi Chair
Nader Nasiri-Moghaddam & Yann Richard
French Consular Reports on the Constitutional Revolution in Tabriz (1906-1909)
Florence Hellot-Bellier
Two French Consuls in Tabriz Observe the Consequences of the Mashruteh for the People of Azerbaijan
11.00-11.30 Tea/coffee
11.30-13.30 Session 14   Comparing and Reporting the Revolution
Vanessa Martin Chair
Mansour Bonakdarian
Erin and Iran Resurgent: Ireland and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911
Charles Kurzman
Mashrutiyat, Mesrutiyet, and Beyond: Parallels and Intersections in the Constitutional Revolutions of 1905 1912
Michael Penn
The Iranian Constitutional Revolution Through Japanese Eyes
Yidan Wang
The Impact of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution in China
13.30-14.30 Lunch
14.30-16.30 Session 15   Spreading Constitutionalism
Ali Ansari Chair
Touraj Atabaki
The Movement for Constitutionalism in Iran and its Trans-Caspian Connections
Amin Tarzi
The Impact of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906 on Afghanistan
Farzin Vejdani
Ottoman-Iranian Relations During the Lesser Tyranny: A Case of Transnational Constitutional Cooperation?
Fariba Zarinebaf
From Empire to Nation: The Discourse on Citizenship and Constitutionalism in the Ottoman Empire & Iran
16.30-17.00 Tea/coffee
17.00-18.30 Session 16   Going Public
Paul Luft Chair
Mansoureh Ettehadieh
Letters to the Editor: Newspapers of the Diaspora and their Role in the Rise of National Consciousness
Pardis Minuchehr
Writing in Tehran: The First Freedom of Press Law
Negin Nabavi
Letters to the Editor: Readership and the Public Sphere in the First Constitutional Era


DAY 4: 2 AUGUST

9.30-10.00 Session 17   Mullah Nasreddin
Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi Chair
Janet Afary
From Mullah to Goya: The Art and Politics of Mullah Nasreddin
10.00-12.00 Session 18   Becoming National
Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi Chair
Moojan Momen
The Baha'is of Iran: The Constitutional Revolution and the Creation of an 'Enemy Within'
Houri Berberian
Struggles Within: The Impact of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution on the Iranian-Armenian Community
Kaveh Hemmat
Baha'i Schools and the Beginnings of Modern Public Education in Iran
Eden Naby
Surrogate Enemies: Assyrians in Kasravi's Account of the Constitutional Revolution
12.00-13.00 Lunch
13.00-15.00 Session 19   Tribalism and Provincial Constitutionalism
Soraya Tremayne Chair
Arash Khazeni
On the Periphery: The Bakhtiyari Tribes, Oil, and the Constitutional Revolution, 1905-1911
Mahshid Sehizadeh
The City of Hamadan and the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911
Heidi Walcher
The Constitutional Revolution in Isfahan: From Hierocracy to Tribal Command
Olga Zhigalina
The Kurds of Kermanshah in the Constitutional Period
15.00-15.30 Concluding remarks
Vanessa Martin Chair
Janet Afary
Abbas Amanat
Mansoureh Ettehadieh
Mohammad Tavakoli-Targhi