Call for Essays -- Edited Volume on Iranian Diaspora Studies

deadline for submissions: 
November 1, 2016
full name / name of organization: 
Persis Karim, San Jose State University
contact email: 

Beyond Geography: Situating the Global Iranian Diaspora -- CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
edited by Dr. Persis Karim, San Jose State University 

As we near the fortieth anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, there will most certainly be an exploration of the impact and significance of Iran's popular revolution and the ways that the Islamic regime in Tehran has shaped four decades of Iranian society and policies with the outside world. But what of those Iranians who left Iran and made their homes elsewhere? What is the story of their physical, psychological, and cultural movement from the locus of their native land to other spaces and nations where they have invested both in the histories and culture of their past, but have also shaped a new identity and new vocabulary for their "Iranian experience" in other places? This edited volume of new scholarship (published in English) explores the dimension of the global Iranian diaspora after 1979 and offers a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how Iran and "Iranianness" has a transnational, trans-generational history that also needs to be reflected upon and understood.

We seek articles from a variety of disciplines and approaches (anthropology, literature, language, sociology, politics, film, art, ethnography, etc.) that investigate the stakes in Iranian culture across the globe by understanding the diaspora as an evolving, changing, and politically-invested community and context. We seek through new research and new models to inquire about and articulate a new vocabulary for understanding the effects of transnational migration of Iranians and the ways that are shaped by and shaping a new manifestation of Iranian culture and history outside of Iran.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to Persis Karim at persis.karim@sjsu.edu by no later than November 1, 2016. Please include in the body of the email and write "abstract Iranian diaspora" in subject line.