Conference Program - MEICON-BC 2014

9:00 – 9:45                    Registration & Refreshment

                                      Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side A

9:45 – 9:55                    Welcome Message

                                                Location: Conference Centre, Cedar 1205, Side A

10:00 – 11:20                Concurrent Sessions 1 and 2

Session 1 - Media and Popular Culture in Historical and Contemporary Contexts

Chair: Dr. Amir Mirfakrhaie

Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side A

  • ‘Taziyeh’: Iran’s Political Drama - Melissa Friday, BA Student, International Studies, Simon Fraser University
  • Emerging Media Markets in the Arab Middle East - Nate Christiansen, BA Student, Western Washington University
  • Female Masculinity in Iranian Cinema: A Historical Review - Roghiyeh Razmaray-Shargh, MA, Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University

Session 2 - The Local and the Global in Islamic Movements

Chair: Dr. Ken Seigneurie

Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side A

  • The Islamism of Sayyid Qutb: A Vision of Islamic Resurgence and its Impact on Global Conflict - Emerson Sortun, Department of History, Western Washington University
  • Islamic Finance and Banking: An Alternative to Global Financial Crises - Margaret Vetterling, BA Student, Minor in Arabic and Islamic Studies
  • Western Washington University          
  • Ma‘ṣūm ‘Alī Shāh; the Indian Reviver of the Persian Ni‘matullāhī Sufi order - Reza Tabandeh, PhD, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, U.K.
  • The “Social Laboratory” of British India: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani’s South Asian Experience - Ardalan Rezamand, PhD Student, Department of History, Simon Fraser University

11:20 – 11:30                Coffee Break

            Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side A

11:30 – 12:50                Concurrent Sessions 3, 4, and 5

Session 3 - Literature, Art, and Representations in the Muslim World

Chair: Dr. Derryl MacLean

Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side A

  • Contemporary Arab and Muslim America through the ‘Lens of The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf’:  Are We Witnessing Huntington’s Inter-civilizational Clash in Action? - Adam Yaghi, PhD Candidate, Contemporary American Literature, Sessional Lecturer and a Graduate Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria
  • Changing Tastes: The Concept of Beauty in Illustrations of Manuscripts and Single Page Paintings of the Seventeenth Century Iran - Behrang Nabavi Nejad, PhD Candidate, Department of History in Art, University of Victoria
  • Textile-Weaving and the Problem of Craft in Safavid Iran - Fahimeh Ghorbani, MA Student, Department of History in Art, University of Victoria
  • Collecting and Compiling Humanity: Parviz Tanavoli’s Oh Persepolis II as a Collection of Miniatures - Jenelle M Pasiechnik, MA Student, Department of History in Art, University of Victoria

Session 4 - Representation, Politics, and Conflicts in the Middle East

Chair: Dr. Mojtaba Mahdavi

Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side B

  • Lebanon: Separating Myth from Fact in the Labyrinth of Sectarian Politics - Nova Garside, BA Student, Political Science and Psychology, University of Victoria
  • The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: The One-State and Two-State Solutions - Raied Haj Yahya, BA Student, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University
  • The Process of Othering in the ‘Guide to the Holy Land’ by Meistermann  - Robin Bunton, BA Honors Student, Department of History, University of British Columbia

Session 5 - Conceptualizing Architecture in Iranian and Persiante Context

Chair: Dr. Niall Ó Murchú

Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side C

  • Ismaili Castles in Their Environmental Context: A Case Study of the Alamut Region - Seyedhamed Yeganehfarzand, Department of History in Art, University of Victoria
  • Symbolism in Architecture: Some Considerations Regarding the Tomb of Jam Nizam al-Din in Makli Necropolis - Munazzah Akhtar, PhD Candidate, Department of History in Art, University of Victoria
  • History from Above: The Applications of Aerial Images in Understanding the Historic Cities and Landscapes - Atri Hatef Naiemi, MA Student, Department of History in Art, University of Victoria
  • The Shift Towards Monumental Architecture in Iran - Khash Hemmati, MA Student, Department of History, Simon Fraser University

12:50 – 1:50                  Lunch

                                                Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side A

1:50 – 2:50                    Keynote Speaker

                                                Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side

Mojtaba Mahdavi, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern & African Studies Program & Department of Political Science University of Alberta

2:50 – 4:10                    Concurrent Sessions 6 and 7

Session 6 - Education, Language, and Identity Construction in Iran

                        Chair: Dr. Amir Mirfakrhaie

                        Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side B

  • Iranian Education and the Intellectual Classes: Higher Education Reform in the Pahlavi Period - Alli Cano, BA Honors, International Studies in the Security and Conflict, Simon Fraser University
  • Language Dominance and Potential Identity Challenges at a Middle Eastern Educational Context - Naghmeh Babaee, PhD, Second Language Education, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba
  • The Iranian Revolution, 1979: Memory, Desire, and a Search for Identity - Jessica Singh, BA Student, Departments of History and Political Science, University of Victoria

Session 7 - Politics, Identity, and Nation-Building in the Middle East

Chair: Mona Sedky Goode

Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side C

  • The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan: Excluding Jordanians through a Transjordanian Identity - Ezra Karmel, MA student, History Department, University of Victoria
  • The Emergence, Activities, and the Fall of the Kurdistan Republic in Iran (1946) - Nasser Jahani Asl, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Victoria
  • What if: The Implication of the ‘Peel Commission’ for Palestine - Preet Dhaliwal, BA Student, Department of History, University of Victoria
  • The Evolving Attitudes of Turkish Scholars on the Kurdish Issue - Lauren Trapp, BA Student, Department of History, Western Washington University

4:15 – 5:00                    Closing Ceremonies & Reception

                                                Location: Conference Centre - Cedar 1205, Side A