Iran’s Post-Islamist Democracy? Challenges and Opportunities

Iran’s Post-Islamist Democracy? Challenges and Opportunities

Public Talk by Mojtaba Mahdavi, ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies and Professor of Political Science at University of Alberta

Convenor and Introduction by Jairan Gahan, Assistant Professor of History & Classics/Religious Studies at University of Alberta

When: Thursday, 12 March 2020, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Where: Room 1-5, Business Building, University of Alberta

Abstract:
Four decades after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, a decade after Iran’s post-Islamist and pro-democracy Green Movement in 2009, and following the most recent demonstrations in 2017 and 2019, it is evident that the post-revolutionary polity has yet to materialize Iran’s over-a-century quest for democracy. Drawing on the literature on social movements, democratization, and post-Islamism, this presentation asks what structural and agential causes, and internal and external factors have contributed to this crisis, and under what conditions they may facilitate the rise of a post-Islamist democracy in Iran?

Bio:
Mojtaba Mahdavi is Professor of Political Science and the ECMC Chair in Islamic Studies at the University of Alberta. He is the author and editor of numerous works on post-revolutionary Iran, post-Islamism, contemporary social movements in the Middle East, and modern Islamic political thought. More information on his research is available here and here.