Good Iranian,Bad Iranian: Representations of Iran and Iranians in Time and Newsweek (1998–2009)

This article analyzes the ways in which Iran and Iranians are represented in Western news media sources. Through detailed textual analysis of articles in Time and Newsweek between 1998 and 2009, it demonstrates that journalistic representations of Iran and Iranians are not simply efforts aimed at describing the real Iran, but rather form the basis of what Said refers to as a powerful “community of interpretation” that often reflects and reproduces certain xenophobic stereotypes of non-Western foreign subjects. While some shifts in Western media representations of Iranians have occurred in the thirty years since the revolution, the underlying ontological assumptions of these representations have remained remarkably durable. That is to say, the dominant representational discourse found in these newsmagazines depicts the political behavior of Iranians on the basis of essentialized notions of Persian and/or Islamic civilization, while very often emphasizing the taken for granted superiority of the West. Earlier Orientalist discourses focus on the difference of non-Western foreign subjects by denigrating them as fundamentally anti-modern and incapable of political, cultural and economic development without Western intervention. This article presents an unmistakable discursive pattern in American journalism whereby certain Iranians are incorporated into Western civilization by virtue of their embrace of a Western modernity.     

Government-Sponsored Iranian Medical Students Abroad (1811–1935)

The first Iranian to study medicine abroad was sent to Britain by the Iranian government in 1811, during the early decades of the Qajar period (1796–1925). The second student was sent to France in 1815, along with four other students. Another group of five students, including the third student of medicine, was sent to France in 1845. Forty-two others, including five medical students, were dispatched to France in 1858. Most members of the latter group were among the first graduates of Tehran Dar al-Fonun (House of Techniques) School. Then, in 1928, during Reza Shah Pahlavi's reign (1925–41), a special act was passed by the Iranian parliament (Majlis) according to which the Ministry of Education would send 100 students abroad annually for higher education at the government's expense. The practice was suspended in 1935 with the advent of the Second World War. Between 1928 and 1935, a total of 640 students, including 125 medical students, were sent abroad. The majority of the medical students (84 percent) were sent to France. Most of these medical graduates returned to Iran and in subsequent years played a significant role in further propagation of modern medical knowledge in the country. The paper presents a brief historical account of the conditions of public health and medical education between 1811 and 1935 as well as biographical sketches of some of the best-known or most influential medical figures among these graduates.     

Georgian Sources on the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911): Sergo Gamdlishvili's Memoirs of the Gilan Resistance

The essay of Sergo Gamdlishvili (1882–1910), a Georgian participant of the Gilan resistance, was published in Tbilisi in February–March of 1910. The source focuses on the Gilan resistance and provides insights and interesting details regarding the political attitudes, strategies, and collaboration of the Transcaucasian and Iranian revolutionaries from the end of 1908 through the summer of 1909. The source is also interesting material to study how the Iranian Constitutional Revolution was seen by its Caucasian participants, what they deemed to be major peculiarities of the Movement in different regions in Iran, and how they saw their role in these events.     

An Archaeology of Community Life: Appalachia, 1865–1920

Archaeology has the potential to contribute significant information about community building in the lives of former enslaved laborers. In this article, I consider the role of race and racism in the creation, maintenance and material manifestation of community in post-emancipation Appalachia.