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The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies, University of Toronto,
presents
Toiling for Oil: A Social History of Petroleum in Iran
Dr. Touraj Atabaki, Leiden University
Friday, 24 January 2025, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Zoom Meeting Registration:
https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/yj1wULNuTZmPER_kazvU5g
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Abstract:
Often referred to as the ‘Oil Century,’ the twentieth century marked the rise of petroleum as a pivotal force in global economics and politics. While many studies have explored the political relations between oil corporations and the Iranian state, this innovative book builds an intricate picture of the social history of petroleum in Iran, after its discovery there in 1908. Through expert interviews and on-the-ground reports, Touraj Atabaki shows the seismic impact of oil: from the building of roads to an influx of migrant labor. Offering insights into the lives and challenges of oil workers alongside analysis of wider geopolitical conflicts, Toiling for Oil traverses two world wars, industrialization, and modernization, attempts at nationalization in the 1950s, and the political crises of the late 1970s.
Bio:
Touraj Atabaki is Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History and Professor Emeritus of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at Leiden University. Atabaki studied theoretical physics and later history at the University of London and Utrecht University. Following positions at Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam, he joined Leiden University where he held the Chair of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia. Atabaki’s research encompasses historiography, social history of labour and subaltern studies in Twentieth century Iran, the Ottoman Empire and Turkey as well as the Caucasus and Central Asia. “Fallen in the Whirlwind: The Odyssey and Destiny of Iranian Victims of the Stalinist Great Repression in the Soviet Union” is forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press. Atabaki’s major publications and research projects can be found on: https://socialhistory.org/en/staff/touraj-atabaki