as ‘‘forever foreigners’’ or lumped into a panethnic identity—mistaken for some other national-et... more as ‘‘forever foreigners’’ or lumped into a panethnic identity—mistaken for some other national-ethnic group or asked ‘‘where are you really from’’—earlier in life. Many attended highly selective colleges, which suggests that they likely spent a lot of time around white peers. One can only cover so much in one book, but this seemed like an opportunity to further highlight the important role that Pan posits for graduate education and professionalization—the crucial context of her study—as compared to other institutional venues. If nothing else, it was a question I kept returning to in my mind. Readers focused on institutional effects may also wish for more meaningful analysis of the two campuses her respondents attend. Pan includes some discussion of differences, but highlighting them more systematically could have added another useful dimension. Pan sometimes uses the comparison to illuminate particular factors, like background, life course stage, or pathway into the profession, opening the analysis up even further. However, the comparisons were inconsistent, sometimes highlighting differences between the campuses and their populations and sometimes treating the whole sample as undifferentiated. Overall, the book makes a strong contribution to longstanding sociological discussions about professionalization, racialization, and identity. It’s also an important addition to contemporary conversations about how people make it to the proverbial top of the ladder—or, just as importantly, how they seek out ways of supporting their communities by using the tool kits that come with a high-status credential. As we see legal challenges and corporate responses to the continued dearth of people of color and women at the highest levels of white-collar jobs, Pan’s book helps us understand the perspectives of students who may be on their way into that world, their choices to enter or leave the profession, and what may await them. Democracy in Iran: Why it Failed and How It Might Succeed, by Misagh Parsa. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016. 406 pp. $45.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780674 545045.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Sep 30, 2016
(subject of her second book) was powered mostly by those who did not find Islam incompatible with... more (subject of her second book) was powered mostly by those who did not find Islam incompatible with modernity (principal thesis of the earlier one). Taking a close look at the politics of the provinces, Martin makes a compelling case that not all who campaigned for reform, nor all those who opposed it, were necessarily committed to either cause from any ideological conviction. Frequently, local factional preoccupations at the level of elite politics propelled individuals or groups to move toward or away from the direction of reform (particularly if their rival was not in that camp to start with), as it seems to have been the case in Shiraz or Esfahan; there were even occasions, as in Bushehr, where serious engagements with the reform agenda began only after the drift of developments in Tehran became clear in the provinces. There were still others, such as the more radical elements in Tabriz, who joined the fray in order to capitalize on opportunities that had suddenly become available in pressing the demands of the city’s underclass. The question that is left tantalizingly open by the author is no less important than the ones she chooses to address: What made the “Islamic” agenda of reform (or politics) “Islamic”? Is it simply the involvement and the agency of the ulama that made some concerns of 1906 “Islamic”? Clearly not, for, as Martin herself shows, there were as many ulama who made their peace with the mashruta option as those who clamored for mashru a. Should that not qualify even the secularist mashruta agenda as an Islamic option? Similarly there were many outside the ranks of the ulama who solicited for mashru a—how does one categorize them? Or is it merely the use of Islamic terms of references (i.e., the notion of instrumental use of religion) for mobilization of popular support—even when protagonists of such Islamic agenda might be involved in local elite power struggles that are patently unrelated with the cause of the faith, such as Haji Mirza Hasan in Tabriz, Haj Aqa Nurullah in Esfahan, and Mu tamid-i Divan in and around 1906? Is it both of these considerations together—the agency and the language—or maybe something altogether different? Towards the beginning of her book, Martin is quite emphatic that contrary to what Ahmed Kasravi and others like him used to believe, the secular agenda was neither clearly formulated nor clearly understood at the time of the Mashruta revolution. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that neither was the “Islamic” agenda clearly formulated or understood, except in an instrumental way.
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Jun 10, 2019
The author of this article discusses the experiences of Iranian Shiite pilgrims to a mosque where... more The author of this article discusses the experiences of Iranian Shiite pilgrims to a mosque where a special connection to Mahdi is expected. In this article, he focuses mostly on the representations of this pilgrimage in the Iranian social media. He shows how social media, in the case of Jamkaran mosque, contributed to the networking of pilgrimage and how this digitized pilgrimage is embodied in different digital scopes. Therefore, a strong relationship between digital technology and pilgrimage appears as a set of individual and social experiences.
"Social Media in Iran" is the first book to tell the complex story of how and why the I... more "Social Media in Iran" is the first book to tell the complex story of how and why the Iranian people including women, homosexuals, dissidents, artists, and even state actors use social media technology, and in doing so create a contentious environment wherein new identities and realities are constructed. Drawing together emerging and established scholars in communication, culture, and media studies, this volume considers the role of social media in Iranian society, particularly the time during and after the controversial 2009 presidential election, a watershed moment in the postrevolutionary history of Iran. While regional specialists may find studies on specific themes useful, the aim of this volume is to provide broad narratives of actor-based conceptions of media technology, an approach that focuses on the experiential and social networking processes of digital practices in the information era extended beyond cultural specificities. Students and scholars of regional and media studies will find this volume rich with empirical and theoretical insights on the subject of how technologies shape political and everyday life."
as ‘‘forever foreigners’’ or lumped into a panethnic identity—mistaken for some other national-et... more as ‘‘forever foreigners’’ or lumped into a panethnic identity—mistaken for some other national-ethnic group or asked ‘‘where are you really from’’—earlier in life. Many attended highly selective colleges, which suggests that they likely spent a lot of time around white peers. One can only cover so much in one book, but this seemed like an opportunity to further highlight the important role that Pan posits for graduate education and professionalization—the crucial context of her study—as compared to other institutional venues. If nothing else, it was a question I kept returning to in my mind. Readers focused on institutional effects may also wish for more meaningful analysis of the two campuses her respondents attend. Pan includes some discussion of differences, but highlighting them more systematically could have added another useful dimension. Pan sometimes uses the comparison to illuminate particular factors, like background, life course stage, or pathway into the profession, opening the analysis up even further. However, the comparisons were inconsistent, sometimes highlighting differences between the campuses and their populations and sometimes treating the whole sample as undifferentiated. Overall, the book makes a strong contribution to longstanding sociological discussions about professionalization, racialization, and identity. It’s also an important addition to contemporary conversations about how people make it to the proverbial top of the ladder—or, just as importantly, how they seek out ways of supporting their communities by using the tool kits that come with a high-status credential. As we see legal challenges and corporate responses to the continued dearth of people of color and women at the highest levels of white-collar jobs, Pan’s book helps us understand the perspectives of students who may be on their way into that world, their choices to enter or leave the profession, and what may await them. Democracy in Iran: Why it Failed and How It Might Succeed, by Misagh Parsa. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016. 406 pp. $45.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780674 545045.
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Sep 30, 2016
(subject of her second book) was powered mostly by those who did not find Islam incompatible with... more (subject of her second book) was powered mostly by those who did not find Islam incompatible with modernity (principal thesis of the earlier one). Taking a close look at the politics of the provinces, Martin makes a compelling case that not all who campaigned for reform, nor all those who opposed it, were necessarily committed to either cause from any ideological conviction. Frequently, local factional preoccupations at the level of elite politics propelled individuals or groups to move toward or away from the direction of reform (particularly if their rival was not in that camp to start with), as it seems to have been the case in Shiraz or Esfahan; there were even occasions, as in Bushehr, where serious engagements with the reform agenda began only after the drift of developments in Tehran became clear in the provinces. There were still others, such as the more radical elements in Tabriz, who joined the fray in order to capitalize on opportunities that had suddenly become available in pressing the demands of the city’s underclass. The question that is left tantalizingly open by the author is no less important than the ones she chooses to address: What made the “Islamic” agenda of reform (or politics) “Islamic”? Is it simply the involvement and the agency of the ulama that made some concerns of 1906 “Islamic”? Clearly not, for, as Martin herself shows, there were as many ulama who made their peace with the mashruta option as those who clamored for mashru a. Should that not qualify even the secularist mashruta agenda as an Islamic option? Similarly there were many outside the ranks of the ulama who solicited for mashru a—how does one categorize them? Or is it merely the use of Islamic terms of references (i.e., the notion of instrumental use of religion) for mobilization of popular support—even when protagonists of such Islamic agenda might be involved in local elite power struggles that are patently unrelated with the cause of the faith, such as Haji Mirza Hasan in Tabriz, Haj Aqa Nurullah in Esfahan, and Mu tamid-i Divan in and around 1906? Is it both of these considerations together—the agency and the language—or maybe something altogether different? Towards the beginning of her book, Martin is quite emphatic that contrary to what Ahmed Kasravi and others like him used to believe, the secular agenda was neither clearly formulated nor clearly understood at the time of the Mashruta revolution. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that neither was the “Islamic” agenda clearly formulated or understood, except in an instrumental way.
University of North Carolina Press eBooks, Jun 10, 2019
The author of this article discusses the experiences of Iranian Shiite pilgrims to a mosque where... more The author of this article discusses the experiences of Iranian Shiite pilgrims to a mosque where a special connection to Mahdi is expected. In this article, he focuses mostly on the representations of this pilgrimage in the Iranian social media. He shows how social media, in the case of Jamkaran mosque, contributed to the networking of pilgrimage and how this digitized pilgrimage is embodied in different digital scopes. Therefore, a strong relationship between digital technology and pilgrimage appears as a set of individual and social experiences.
"Social Media in Iran" is the first book to tell the complex story of how and why the I... more "Social Media in Iran" is the first book to tell the complex story of how and why the Iranian people including women, homosexuals, dissidents, artists, and even state actors use social media technology, and in doing so create a contentious environment wherein new identities and realities are constructed. Drawing together emerging and established scholars in communication, culture, and media studies, this volume considers the role of social media in Iranian society, particularly the time during and after the controversial 2009 presidential election, a watershed moment in the postrevolutionary history of Iran. While regional specialists may find studies on specific themes useful, the aim of this volume is to provide broad narratives of actor-based conceptions of media technology, an approach that focuses on the experiential and social networking processes of digital practices in the information era extended beyond cultural specificities. Students and scholars of regional and media studies will find this volume rich with empirical and theoretical insights on the subject of how technologies shape political and everyday life."
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