The Invisible East and the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies present a series of monthly online seminars about archives and documents, convened by Arezou Azad and Mohamad Tavakoli, the seminars are held monthly on Zoom.
Registration is essential:
Summer 2026 - Summer 2027 Programme
Script, Colophons, Seals and Decoration: How Codicology and Catalogs Can Help Research on the Persianate Wolrd: From Tabriz to the Deccan, with Francis Richard, Bibliotheque nationale de France, and the Musée du Louvre.
Wednesday 21 October 2026, 1PM Toronto time/ 6PM UK time/ 7PM CET
Iranian Exiles and Stalin's Great Terror: State Violence in the 1930s’ Soviet Union, with Touraj Atabaki, The Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Wednesday 18 November 2026, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
Iranian Jewish Merchants and Economic Life in the Early Islamic Period: Documentary Perspectives from Egypt, Iran, and Bamiyan, with Elahe Amirpour, Hamburg University.
Wednesday 16 December 2026, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
Tabriz between Socio-Political Struggles and Imperial Violence: The Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, with Fatemeh Masjedi, Independent Scholar.
20 January 2027, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
Preservation through Documentation: The National Museum of Afghanistan-University of Chicago Digital Inventory Project 2012-2016, with Gil Stein, University of Chicago.
17 February 2027, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
From Archives to Everyday Life: New Sources and Perspectives on Persianate Jewish History, with Ariane Sadjed, University of Vienna.
17 March 2027, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
A Palace for Rent: Reflections
on Reza Shah-Clergy Relations, with Najm Yousefi, California State University, Chico.
21 April 2027, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
Archiving the Iranian Visual Public Sphere, with Leila Moslemi, University of Toronto.
19 May 2027, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
Reverberations in Records & Archives: One Hundred Years of Music & Society in Iran, with Nahid Siamdoust, University of Texas at Austin.
16 June 2027, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
Past events in this series
SPRING/SUMMER 2026
Archaeology as National Archive: Herzfeld's HIstory of Iran, with Jennifer Jenkins, University of Toronto.
Wednesday, 25 February 2026, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
The Old Uyghur Documents and a Global Microhistory of the Silk Roads, with Márton Vér, Universität Hamburg.
Wednesday, 15 April 2026, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
Documents from Turbulent Times: Studying Middle Persian Collections from the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods-Opportunities and Challenges, with Nima Asefi, Universität Hamburg.
Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 1PM Toronto Time / 6PM UK Time/ 7PM CET
FALL 2025
Chinese Documents on the Qarakhanids, with Dilnoza Duturaeva, University of York.
Wednesday, 17 September 2025, 12PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
Persian Archives for Histories of Colonial State-Formation in South Asia in the Eighteenth Century, with Robert Travers, Cornell University.
Wednesday, 15 October 2025, 12PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time.
See YouTube recording of the seminar here.
Framing the Past: Exploring the Godard Photographic Archives of Iran and Afghanistan, with Martina Massulo, Department of Islamic Art at the Louvre museum.
Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 12PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
Can Inshāʾ Literature Compensate for the Lack of Archives in Medieval Iran? With David Durand-Guédy, University of Hamburg.
Wednesday 9 April 2025, 12PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
Traditional Forms and Modern Contents: The Hijri-Shamsi Calendar and Critical Engagement with Archival Sources, with Delbar Khakzad, visiting scholar NYU.
Date: Thursday, 15 May 2025, 12PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
The Archive of Early Illustrated Persian Books as Historical Record with Dr Roxana Zenhari, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Thursday, 16 January 2025, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
Private Sins, Public Crimes: Policing, Punishment, and Authority in Iran with Prof Farzin Vejdani, Toronto Metropolitan University
Wednesday, 12 February 2025, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
Zooming In: Architectural Inscriptions from 10th- to 13th-Century Afghanistan as Recorded in Photographic Archives, with Dr Viola Allegranzi, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Thursday, 13 March 2025, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 4PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
From the Gavbara to Khurshid: the Pahlavi Archive of Atabarestan and the First Century of Islam in Iran with Khodadad Rezakhani, Leiden University
Wednesday, 09 October 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
Archival History of Iran-Canada Relations [تاریخ روابط ایران و کانادا: جستوجو درد آرشیوهای ایران] with Javad Abbasi, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad
Thursday, 14 November 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
Uncovered Untold Histories: Iranian Political Activist and Migrant Worker Under Stalin's Great Terror with Touraj Atabaki, Leiden University
Thursday, 12 December 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
Sex and the Subject of Law in the National Archives of Iran with Jairan Gahan, Canadian Society for Iranian and Persian Studies
Thursday, 11 January 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
Bactrian documents and archives from Northern and Southern Afghanistan with Nicholas Sims-Williams, University of London
Monday, 08 February 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
More information at this link.
Gulistan Harem Histories: Gender in the Qajar Archives with Leila Pourtavaf, University of York
Thursday, 14 March 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
Archival Practices Materialised: The Persian and Persianate Documents from al-Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem (13th-14th centuries) with Zahir Bhalloo, University of Hamburg
Thursday, 11 April 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
Of Petitions, Taxes and Democratization: Constitutionalism and the Public in Iran with Nader Sohrabi, University of Göttingen
Thursday, 16 May 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
See YouTube recording of the talk here.
(Re-)discovering the Firuzkuh Documents from Afghanistan, 12th-13th century with Nabi Saqee, University of Oxford
Thursday, 13 June 2024, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
The Archival Remnants of Art or an Intimate Lunch with Abu Turab Ghaffari with Shabnam Rahimi Golkhandan, University of Toronto
Thursday, 28 September 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
Slavery in eastern Iranian regions: the case of late antique Bactria with Reza Huseini, University of Cambridge
Monday, 16 October 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
In Search of Urban Geopolitics: Deep Mapping Tehran's Lalehzar District, 1880-1960 with Ida Meftahi, Boise State University
Thursday, 16 November 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
Persian Qutbshahi Documents from India with Eva Orthmann, University of Gottingen
Thursday, 14 December 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran with Afsaneh Najmabadi, Harvard University
Thursday, 20 April 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
More information at this link.
Presence and Silence: The Iran Archives in the German Foreign Office with Jennifer Jenkins, University of Toronto
Thursday, 18 May 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
More information at this link.
The Arabic documents from early Islamic Khurasan with Geoffrey Khan, University of Cambridge
Thursday, 15 June 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
More information at this link.
The Village and the Archive: On Documents in Iranian Languages (11th-13th century) with Arezou Azad, Oxford University
Thursday, 20 July 2023, 12:00 PM Toronto Time / 5PM UK Time
