In this series of Pharos Monday Lectures, Prof Ali Ansari looks at the way the West reads and interprets Iran. Western perspectives, he will argue, have been misshaped by an over-reliance on abstract theories drawn from international relations and political science, a corresponding failure to pay attention to culture and historical experience, and a willingness to sacrifice a deep understanding for foreign policy imperatives and comparative modelling. Discarding the red-herrings of social science, Prof Ansari will develop a new interpretation of modern Iran and its future relations with the West.
The first lecture will look at the tools of scholarship, the impact of historiography, the dangers of ideology, and the consequences of social scientific methodology, not least the development of a culture of 'metrics' and its consequences for our understanding of sources. Lecture Two will look at particular case studies with particular reference to the ideas that underpinned the nuclear negotiations and the 'theory' of authoritarian resilience. The final two lectures will seek to construct an alternative narrative from the ground up through the application of historical methods and analysing the state from within, drawing on Iran's historical experience and political culture.
Lectures will take place on Mondays at 5pm in the Glen Callater Room at Keble College's H.B. Allen Centre on Banbury Road.
Ali Ansari, Director of the Institute for Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews, is one of the pre-eminent historians of modern Iran, its relationship with the West, and the nexus of myth, ideology, and nation-building. Formerly attached to the Foreign Office, he also serves as an Associate Fellow of Chatham House and leads the Middle East programme at the Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics. Besides Iran, Prof Ansari has also written extensively on the history of the Anglo-Scottish union, and sits on the advisory council of the unionist think tank, These Islands.
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