Five QUESTIONS from Baraza Video on Vimeo.
Hamid Dabashi is currently the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. Professor Dabashi has taught and delivered lectures in many North American, European, Arab, and Iranian universities, and has written 25 books and contributed chapters to many more. He is also the author of over 100 essays, articles and book reviews in major scholarly and peer reviewed journals on subjects ranging from Iranian Studies, medieval and modern Islam, comparative literature, world cinema, and the philosophy of art (trans-aesthetics).
His books include:
- Authority in Islam (1989)
- Theology of Discontent (1993)
- Truth and Narrative (1999)
- Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future (2001)
- Staging a Revolution: The Art of Persuasion in the Islamic Republic of Iran (2000)
- Masters and Masterpieces of Iranian Cinema (2007)
- Iran: A People Interrupted (2007)
- An edited volume, Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema (2006)
His most recent works
- Islamic Liberation Theology: Resisting the Empire (Routledge, 2008)
- Post-Orientalism: Knowledge and Power in Time of Terror (Transaction Publishers, 2009)
- Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest (Harvard University Press, 2011)
- Brown Skin, White Masks(Pluto Press, 2011)
- The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism (Zedbooks, 2012)
Below, are our usual Five Questions followed by Professor Dabashi’s responses in the video.
- 2011 has marked a new model of revolution that stem from practical realities and shun standardized theory. What do you think the prospects are for such demands for change that function in the absence of macro-social frameworks and ideologies? What ideas or discourses are likely to rise to the fore in the future? Does the nation state have a future as the main unit of political organization? If not, how will people and societies be organized?
- What is the role of religion in modern society? Is there a space for religion in public/political discourse? How is the role of religion evolving in society today? How will it evolve in the future?
- What contemporary ideas are likely to have a significant impact in shaping the future and why?
- What is the future of the relations among people of the “global south” (economies previously labeled “developing economies” including the nations of Africa, Central and Latin America, South, South East Asia and parts of the Middle East)? How do you think the current changes taking place in these economies will effect the global order at large?
- What is the future of Area Studies?