Introducing the Editors: The Iranian Team
July 31, 2013
During the translation of the Japanese team’s introduction (GD2.3), when I was reading the degrees and the research areas – remembering the Paulista team – all I was thinking was “Heavens! What we are doing among all of these PhDs and professors? We are just a bunch of kids!”
That’s really who we are! A group of interested (very) young sociologists who think and believe we deserve better conditions of study. So we’ve organized ourselves into the Student Sociological Association of the University of Tehran. We’re trying to determine and challenge the shortcomings in formal education and create alternatives. Our board is elected by a vote of the sociology students at our university. Its term of office is one academic year.
Last year, our association resumed its commitment after some years of inactivity. Last year our elected board included: Saghar Bozorgi, Najmeh Taheri, Elahe Noori, Mitra Daneshvar, Faezeh Khajezade, Somaieh Rostampour, and Reyhaneh Javadi. The current team started its work a month ago. New faces on the board, taking the places of those who have graduated, are Nastaran Mahmoudzadeh, Tara Asgari Laleh, and Zahra Babaei. All board members are undergraduates, except two who are MA students. And we’re all women!
Our association first focused on creating study groups that read the works of classical and modern sociologists; organizing workshops such as the sociology of religion in Iran; managed a social photography exhibition; and enjoyed the insights of speakers, including Michael Burawoy (Public Sociology), and Jennifer Platt (History of Sociology). Last but not least, we are publishing a student sociological magazine called Sareh (“pure”) with two parts in each issue. The first part is a critical approach to the situation of teaching sociology in our faculty and the second part is the translation of an article or a part of a book of a sociologist.
Translating Global Dialogue is one of our association’s tasks. Unlike other teams, we choose a collaborative way to elect our translators. In fact, this activity was a great way to stimulate our enthusiasm. So for every issue we make an announcement in our faculty, and ask all of the interested students to translate a one-page sample text. For each issue we choose four translators from the best samples. Here is a brief introduction of the translation team.
Reyhaneh Javadi: MA student of Sociology at the University of Tehran (UT). She earned her BA from UT in Sociology. Her field of study is historical sociology focusing on reforms in 19th and early 20th century Iran.
Shahrad Shahvand: MA graduate in International Relations from UT, with a BA degree from Persian Gulf University (PGU) in Chemical Engineering. He’s now focusing on religion, culture, and politics in South Asia, especially Pakistan.
Jalal Karimian: MA student of philosophy at Shahid Beheshti University (SBU). He received his BA degree from UT in Social Sciences. Of late, he studies existential philosophy and phenomenology of religion. He’s also interested in public sociology.
Saghar Bozorgi: BA student of Sociology at UT. Her research interest is historical sociology focusing on Modern Iran.
Najmeh Taheri: BA student of Sociology at UT.
Fatemeh Moghaddasi: MA student of Sociology at Allameh Tabataba’i University (ATU). She earned her BA degree from UT in Sociology. Her main research interests are the sociology of education and public sociology, focusing on the history of public sociology in Iran and expanding the public sociology through the educational system.
Faezeh Esmaeili: MA student of Sociology at UT. She received her BA from SBU in Sociology. She is analyzing the social policies during the Pahlavi era.
Tara Asgari Laleh: BA student of Sociology at UT.
Zeinab Nesar: MA student of Sociology at UT. She received her BA degree from UT. She is now working on gender studies.
Mitra Daneshvar: BA student of Sociology at UT. She is analyzing youth deviance, concentrating on capital punishment in Iran.
It is, indeed, a pleasure and honor for all of us to collaborate in the great experience of Global Dialogue.
Reyhaneh Javadi, University of Tehran, Iran
