Representations, Reflections and Constructs : The international perception of the formative period of Iranian Nationalism (1896-1926) throughout the 20th century

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
This workshop seeks to address the question of how Iranian nationalism(s) and the thought related to it (them) during its (their) formative period of 1896-1926 – either in general, or in relation to a specific event – was (were) reflected/represented/studied/understood(?) in the media, in government-related correspondence (e.g. diplomatic documents) and in the academic scholarship of Western countries and/or what influence such perceptions might have had on the Iran-related policy/internal politics/public opinion etc. of these countries. It was a deliberate choice to set the workshop’s boundaries somewhat broadly so as to allow for a multifaceted approach to the analysis of the international perceptions of this important period in Iranian history, during which Iran was a key area in the foreign policy concerns of some of the major European Great Powers while also witnessing the first major non-Western popular movement for (a form of) representative democracy – the Iranian Constitutional Revolution – that was followed by the tribulations of the First World War, which impacted severely upon officially neutral Iran, and led eventually to a coup d’état that paved the way for the rise to power of a moderniser in military uniform who established an authoritarian and, ultimately, dictatorial regime in Iran.
N.B. The working language of this gathering is English (one or two talks might be delivered in French).

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PROGRAMME :

• 10.30-11.00 Registration/Morning coffee

• 11.00-1.15 Panel 1
  Chair : Yann RICHARD

« Constructing the Nation : Britain and Iranian nationalism »
Ali ANSARI (Professor of Iranian History, University of St Andrews)

« Western perceptions of political terrorism in Iran during the formative period of Iranian nationalism »
Oliver BAST (Professor of Persian Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3)

« From heroic struggle to reactionary Feudalism and back again : a kaleidoscope of Tsarist and early Soviet views on Iranian nationalism »
Svetlana RAVANDI-FADAI (Senior Researcher, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow)

« ‘There are too few selflessly devoted to the interests of their own people and gold is omnipotent there’ : The early Bolsheviks’ perceptions of Iranian Nationalism »
Denis VOLKOV (Lecturer [Assistant Professor] in Middle Eastern History, University of Manchester)

• 1.15-2.30 Lunch break

• 2.30-4.45 Panel 2
  Chair : Oliver BAST

« Alphonse Nicolas : les écrits ignorés d’un diplomate français sur la Révolution constitutionnelle à Tabriz (1906-1909) »
Nader NASIRI-MOGHADAM (Professeur des universités, Université de Strasbourg)

« The French perception(s) of the Constitutional Revolution in Iran »
Clément THERME (Research Fellow, Iran, International Institute for Strategic Studies–IISS)

« From a ‘Germano-Turkish’ to a ‘Germano-Bolchevik’ Plot : The Jangali movement in the French press from 1915 to 1921 »
Philippe ROCHARD (Senior Lecturer [Associate Professor], University of Strasbourg)

« Le discours de deux observateurs occidentaux sur le nationalisme iranien après la Première Guerre Mondiale : C.J. Edmonds et Georges Ducrocq »
Yann RICHARD (Professeur émérite, Sorbonne nouvelle/UMR Mondes iranien et indien)

• 4.45-5.15 Afternoon coffee

• 5.15-6.15 Roundtable
  Chair : Ali ANSARI

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