Cultures of the Iranian Diaspora 2014 Conference Videos

In April 2014, San Jose Staté University's Persian Studies program, with the support of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, hosted the first-ever Cultures of the Iranian Diaspora Conference over two days at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. The conference was a wonderful gathering of visual artists, filmmakers, writers, and musicians, who gathered to share their work and to discuss the ways that Iranian culture is being translated, articulated, and evolved in its North American context. The conference, organized by Dr. Persis Karim, founding director of Persian Studies, brought together people from around the United States and Europe for panels, discussions and performances that showcased the rich and artistic endeavors of Iranian-Americans and the diaspora community. Included in the conference was the world premier of "Inja o Oonja: Stories of Iranian American Life" a staged adaptation of several stories from Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American Writers (edited by Anita Amirrezvani and Persis Karim) written by SJSU Professor Matthew Spangler, and a film screening of acclaimed filmmaker Mo Gorjestani's "Refuge." The conference panels were recorded, and we share with you here on the Persian Studies website, a sampling of those proceedings. We hope that these videos will ignite further discussion and conferences and gatherings elsewhere. The videos are abbreviated for purposes of time and space; feel free to contact Dr. Persis Karim if you have any questions about the conference or participants on the panels at persis.karim@sjsu.edu.