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

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).