CSI Monday Majlis: Alireza Doostdar
Facing Satan: The Iranian Revolution and Its Demons
Register please on this link: https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/meeting/register/n-wjuscLTkazo1TgWSQgsQ
| An Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies seminar | |
|---|---|
| Date | 8 December 2025 |
| Time | 17:00 to 18:30 |
| Place | Online Only |
| Organizer | IAIS |
Event details
Abstract
Abstract:
The 1979 Revolution gave birth to a political order that defined God as its greatest protector and Satan as its ultimate foe. While scholars have long grappled with the Islamic Republic’s theological master narratives, Satan’s multifaceted role in the Iranian political and religious landscape remains poorly understood. In this talk, I explore Iranian encounters with Satan not merely as a mythical embodiment of evil but as a paradoxical, multifaceted figure who expresses a range of aspirations, attitudes, and emotions--from an existential struggle for freedom to feelings of wretchedness and despair to an attitude of metaphysical, cultural, and political mischief.
Bio:
Alireza Doostar is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religion at the Divinity School and in the College at the University of Chicago. He is broadly interested in religious reason and its entanglements with science and the state. His first book The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny (Princeton University Press, 2018), received the 2018 Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) and the 2020 Vinson Sutlive Book Prize from the Anthropology Department at William & Mary.
With Ghenwa Hayek, he is co-producer and co-host of Gaming Islam, a video series about games and their relationship to Islam, Muslims, and the Middle East. In addition, he leads a research team compiling information and conducting oral history interviews to document Scholasticide in Gaza, Israel’s systematic attacks on Palestinian education, the destruction of infrastructure, and the killing of faculty and students.
