Santa Barbara City College

721 Cliff Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93109

805-965-0581

~ Fourth Annual IQSA Conference ~

"Harem: Perception and Reality of Life in Ottoman and Qajar Courts"

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Raisa I. Amirbekyan, Caucasian Center for Iranian Studies, Yerevan, Armenia

Dr. Raisa I. Amirbekyan, is Senior Fellow and Head of the Department of Culture at the Caucasian Center for Iranian Studies in Yerevan, Armenia. Dr. Amirbekyan specializes in the history of Persian dance, with particular emphasis on the Qajar era and the depiction of dance in visual arts. She can be reached at the Caucasian Center for Iranian Studies 26 Khorentasi str. 375010 Yerevan Armenia Tel./Fax: 374-1 556191 E-mail: caucas@infocom.am or amirraya@netsys.am

Rosina Fawzia Al-Rawi, University of Jerusalem

Dr. Rosina Fawzia Al-Rawi is former lecturer in Sociology at the University of Jerusalem. She specializes in Sufism, and in women in Islam. She also teaches workshops on movement and dance in the Islamic and Sufi traditions. Most recently she has published a "biographical" novel Aunt Fatima Buys a Carpet: The Story of my Life in the Orient of Women, (Sphinx Publishers, Munich 2002). She can be reached at: rosina-fawzia.al-rawi@chello.at

R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram

R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram is past contributor to Qajar Studies and free lance writer and author with particular interests in the Qajar era. R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram is a cultural anthropologist and consultant archivist. He researches and publishes in the areas of gender and sexuality, cross-cultural contact, and minority religions. He specializes in topics involving the West and the Middle East between 1840 and 1940. He can be reached at: jarmstrong-ingram@gowebway.com

Alev Lytle Croutier

Alev Lytle Croutier is the acclaimed author of Harem: The World Behind the Veil, (Abbeville Press, New York 1989), and the novels The Palace of Tears, and Seven Houses. Alev Lytle Croutier was born and raised in Turkey and most recently embarked on the "Leyla project," a book Leyla: The Black Tulip and doll for young children, set in Istanbul in 1720 during the 'Tulip Era,' following the life of a gifted newcomer in the Topkapi Palace. She can be reached at: AlevC@aol.com

Manoutchehr M. Eskandari-Qajar

Dr. Manoutchehr Eskandari-Qajar is professor of Political Science and Middle Eastern History at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). He is also President and co-founder of the International Qajar Studies Association (IQSA) and President of the reconstituted Kadjar Family Association (KFA). Together with Mr. Ferydoun Barjesteh van Waalwijk van Doorn, editor-in-chief, he edits the Journal of the International Qajar Studies Association (IQSA), Qajar Studies, which is now in its fourth year. Dr. Eskandari-Qajar is a regular contributor to the Journal, the latest issue of which is dedicated to the theme of this year's conference, Harems. He can be reached at: president@qajarstudies.org

Tania Kamal-Eldin

Tania Kamal-Eldin is an independent filmmaker whose documentary work focuses on Middle Eastern and women's issues. Her most recent project, Cairo Chronicles explores cross-cultural or 'hybrid' identities that are prevalent due to the plethora of travel, intermarriage, fusing of cultures through communications, and globalization. Cairo Chronicles is a nostalgic tribute that casts a critical look at modern Cairo, an urban legacy of colonialism. Her previous work Hollywood Harems, examines stereotypes of Middle Easterners with a focus on women's roles in Hollywood movies. And Covered examines why women in Cairo, Egypt, wear the veil.

Kamal-Eldin has an international audience. Her productions have been screened in competitive festivals in the U.S. and abroad and have been broadcast on public television. They are distributed internationally by Women Make Movies, based in New York. Kamal-Eldin has an MFA in Visual Arts from UCSD where she was awarded the Jacob Javits Fellowship; She also has a MSc in Political Economy from the London School of Economics. As a lecturer at UCSD, she was nominated for the distinguished teaching award. She can be reached at: tkamalel@ucsd.edu

Niloufar Kasra

Niloufar Kasra is a researcher at the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (IICHS) in Tehran. She specializes in the history of women at the Qajar court, in particular the lives of its most prominent figures such as Mahd-e Olia, the mother of Nasser-ed-Din Shah. Her research on the court life of Fath Ali Shah can be considered pioneering, given the paucity of historical records about this particular period and place in the Qajar era. She can be reached at: kasra@iichs.org

Lydia Susan Khan

Alexandra King

Alexandra King studied belly dance first with Diana Ferrari, a former member of the San Francisco-based company Kos Kadas, and later with the legendary dancer Jenaeni Rathor. She was a member of Rathor's company, Yaleil, from 1980 to 1983, and still works with Jenaeni and her daughter, Ansuya, in dance productions. Alexandra has traveled to both Morocco and Egypt to study, observe and document the dances of these countries. In 2001, she was appointed as the lecturer in the first ever accredited ethnic dance class in the Univeristy of California at Santa Barbara (USCB) dance department. She travels extensively throughout the United States teaching and performing, both independently and as the director of UCSB's Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble, Seher. She can be reached at:alexandra@alexandraking.com Her web site is: http://www.alexandraking.com

Alaleh Mohajerani

Guity Nashat

Dr. Guity Nashat teaches History at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Her specialty is women in Iranian society and in the Middle East. Her contributions to the field of Iranian Studies span three decades. Most recently she has edited with Lois Beck, Women in Iran from the Rise of Islam to 1800 and with Judith E. Tucker Women in the Middle East and North Africa Restoring Women to History. Dr. Nashat is also a founding member of the Advisory Council of IQSA and a contributor to the most recent volume of the Journal of the association dedicated to the theme of Harems. She can be reached at: gnashat@uic.edu

Bahram Osqueezadeh

Bahram Osqueezadeh was born in 1970 in Tehran, Iran. He studied at the School of Music at the University of Tehran in 1990 and received his bachelor's degree in composition and performance. Among his eminent teachers were Faramaz Paayvar, Nasser Farhangfar, Parviz Meshkaatian, Masoud Shenassa, Alireza Mashayekhi and Farhaad Fakhreddini. Mr. Osqueezadeh has extensive experience both studying and performing the Persian �Radif�. He started teaching his major instrument, the Santur, in 1987. He is furthering his study of Western music in the United States. He is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine where he received his Master�s degree (2001) in composition and technology. He has performed numerous concert premieres as both conductor and performer during his time at UC Irvine. His Concerto for Santur and Orchestra was premiered with the UCI Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Stephen Tucker. He is now a Ph.D. student in composition at University of California, Santa Barbara. He can be reached at: bahram@umail.ucsb.edu

Sonia Tamar Seeman

Sonia Tamar Seeman is currently a post-doctoral faculty fellow at University of California, Santa Barbara. She conducted extensive fieldwork among Roma (Gypsy) communities in Turkey and in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Her research focuses on issues of cultural expression of social identity, transnationalism, and the impact of the development of the local recording industry. She teaches ethnomusicology courses at UCSB on topics such as: music and Ottoman communities; music and communities of Southeastern Europe; music of Roma communities; anthropology of music; world popular music. She also directs and performs Turkish and Balkan music with the UCSB Middle East Ensemble, and performs with the Los Angeles-based Turkish ensemble Garip Bulbul. She can be reached at: soniaseeman@earthlink.net

Nadine Dawson

Nadine Dawson resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is engaged, among other things, in reviving interest in Ottoman traditions and customs through several organizations she sponsors. She can be reached at: sultana@cybermesa.com

Mohammad Reza Tahmasbpour

Mohammad Reza Tahmasbpour is a graduate of the School of Photography from the Faculty of Fine Arts (University of Tehran). He is presently lecturer at the Islamic Azad University of Tehran specializing in Qajar era photography. He is a frequent contributor to IQSA sponsored conferences and publications. He is most recently the author of books and papers on the history of early photography in Iran, such as Nasser-ed-Din, the Photographer King (Iran History Publications, 2002) and La Perse Vue par Jacques de Morgan, (Golestan Palace Publications, 2001). He was also the illustration editor of Qajar Era Health, Hygiene and Beauty, (IQSA, Publications, 2003) and "Italians and photography in Iran," (IQSA, Publications, 2004). he has also published a manual of photography, Photography (1 & 2), for art students, (Ministry of Education, Tehran, 2001) he is also a member of the professional Committee for Art Education of the Ministry of Education in Tehran. He can be reached at: rtahmasb@yahoo.com

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