Gender in the Iranian Archives

Abstract:

Gender in the Iranian Archives will be a workshop series which brings together established and emerging Iranian Studies scholars and archivists for a series of guided sessions on archival research focused on how to trace histories of gender and sexuality in the archives of modern fran. Building on the experience of scholars who have incorporated feminist methodologies in their research and writing, the series will offer insight on how archival practices can develop to foster and promote gender as a historical category of analysis.
The workshop series will include four 90-minute sessions which will bring attention to the value of the archives as a repository of gender history while acknowledging limits in representation and modes of historical recording of marginalized figures. Participants will collectively work through the process of researching and writing about these topics, with the intention of creating better cataloguing, research, and archival practices for future generation of scholars. The workshop has the goal of providing graduate student participants in particular with personalized archival research support, and an opportunity to develop their emerging work in conversation with established scholars. It aims to establish a network of expertise, for the benefit of current and future researchers, and to document the understudied gender histories of modern Iran.