March/April 2022 Newsletter

THE BASKERVILLE NEWSLETTER
MARCH / APRIL 2022 VOL 2, NO. 2
A PUBLICATION OF THE BASKERVILLE INSTITUTE

Happy Persian New Year!
Nowruz Mobarak!
نوروز مبارک!

Special Book Event with Reza Aslan

April 19, 2022

2:00 pm (ET)

On the occasion of the martyrdom of Howard C. Baskerville on April 19, 1909, the Baskerville Institute is pleased to host Reza Aslan for a special book announcement and preview of his forthcoming biography of Howard Baskerville, AN AMERICAN MARTYR IN PERSIA, which will be published in October 2022 by W.W. Norton Press. Please register here to attend our virtual announcement, where you will hear an exclusive reading by Reza and will have the opportunity to pre-order a signed edition of AN AMERICAN MARTYR IN PERSIA. Watch this space for future announcements about book tour dates and other special events.

Howard C. Baskerville (10 April 1885 – 19 April 1909)

Projects Under Consideration:

Preserve, Strengthen, Enhance, and Promote Bonds of Friendship Between Americans and Iranians.

BIDF is a project of the Baskerville Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, nongovernmental organization devoted to supporting and strengthening the bonds of friendships between Iranians and Americans. The BIDF carries out this mission by providing a digital portal for Iranian students inside Iran to connect to hundreds of online courses offered by American universities. BDIF’s primary mission is to make it possible for qualified Iranian students in Iran to go through one website for their research on online courses offered by American universities.

This unique initiative will make it possible for Iranian students to learn more about democratic governance, market economies, and free societies. In addition, they would be able to establish networks among themselves as well as build relationships with U.S. educational institutions. Arguably, these students comprise the most important segment of Iranian society because it is they who will forge Iran’s future. This is an educational program in the interests of the United States, as well as – educationally speaking – a benefit for the Iranian students. The true significance of this project is that it will help compensate for the dearth of positive programs the U.S. currently manages for influencing the most important people in Iran, its youth.

Forty-plus years of political disputes have severely limited cultural interaction between the two countries and has restricted young Iranians’ access to the academic and social values of American education. This project will provide young Iranians something that has been available to very few: an exposure to the United States untainted by the extreme, toxic rhetoric of their government.

These young people will shape their country’s future, and this program will allow them to do so without the intellectual separation that the Islamic Republic has attempted to impose. This is a very worthwhile program for both Americans and Iranians. Among these Iranian students there is a great hunger to know the realities of the outside world. They should not be kept in isolation.

Forthcoming Baskerville Institute Lectures

“What Makes Us Iranian? An Exploration of the Iranian Diaspora Forty Years On”

Director Persis Karim
Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University
April 11th, 12 PM (MT) / 2 PM (ET) 2022

Persis Karim holds the Neda Nobari Chair and directs the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University and teaches in the Department of Comparative and World Literature. She is the author of numerous articles on Iranian diaspora literature and culture and served as guest editor for Iranian Studies, MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States, and Comparative Studies of South Asian, African and Middle East Studies. She is the editor of three anthologies of Iranian diaspora literature: Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian-American Writers (2013); Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (2006), and A World Between: Poems, Stories and Essays by Iranian-Americans (1999).

“The Paradox for US Iranian Emigres in a Globalizing World: the Americanization of the first Iranian (Assyrian) Medical Family 120 Years Ago”

Dr. Eden Naby

Historian/Scholar

May 9th, 12 PM (MT) / 2 PM (ET) 2022

A cultural historian of the Middle East and Central Asia, Eden Naby began her career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan and moved on to a Columbia University PhD that led eventually to her application of ethnic and religious minority studies principles to the study of Assyrians in the Middle East. She and her late husband, Richard Nelson Frye (Harvard University) initiated Assyrian endowments at several universities that have helped to shape holdings on modern Assyrians at Harvard, Columbia, and Berkeley. Among her many articles on Assyrians are the key introduction to Assyrians in the former Soviet Union (1975), the use of the pre-WWI Assyrian periodical press to analyze Assyrian cultural progress (1977, 2006), her work at the Foundation for Endangered Languages and the Encyclopedia Iranica. Her books include Afghanistan: Mullah, Marx and Mujahid (1999, 2002), and the forthcoming Assyrians of the Middle East (2022).

Strengthening the Bonds of Friendship between Americans & Iranians.

By making a gift to our Institute, you can help us continue our mission of fostering friendship between Iranians and Americans. Your donation will go a long way toward supporting program activities, providing internships for students, and producing publications.

Click Here to Make a Donation

Checks are also acceptable; please make them payable to the Baskerville Institute and mail them to our office address:

350 E 400 S

Salt Lake City, UT, 84111

Suite #407

THE BASKERVILLE INSTITUTE

The Baskerville Institute builds on its namesake’s legacy to promote understanding and respect between Americans and Iranians. It runs a lecture/webinar series, hosts a digital archive, supports research fellows and student interns, publishes a newsletter and translation projects, organizes cultural exhibitions and educational programs, and otherwise facilitates bridge-building between Americans and Iranians. The non-profit Baskerville Institute is located in Salt Lake City, Utah and draws on the experiences and expertise of individuals around the United States and across the world.

Thank You to All of Our Supporters Worldwide!

March 2022 website traffic

STATEMENT ON UKRAINE

March 14, 2022

WE STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE CITIZENS OF UKRAINE and condemn the use of aggression and force by Russian forces against a sovereign and independent nation. Clearly, the U.N. Charter as well as international law was violated, as was Ukraine’s right to self-government. The images and news from Ukraine are horrifying and saddening to us. Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was unjustified, unprovoked, and unlawful. The Russian people who are able to see the true facts—whatever their prior political allegiances—are not in favor of this war; it is Vladimir Putin who is driving it, and with false propaganda, he is telling the Russian people that Ukraine violently started the conflict.

We understand that political and ideological conflict is an ordinary part of human life. Realizing this, we have formed organizations that promote civic friendship between nations as a way of channeling the negativity of conflict into positive respectful diplomacy that eschews anger and coersion. However, no honest diplomacy is involved in the Russian invasion. Russia is violating universal humanitarian law and human rights standards by invading Ukraine and attacking cities throughout the country. In addition, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine poses a serious threat to global peace, freedom and democracy.

As Vladimir Putin continues and accelerates his violations of international peace and law, the international community must respond in a manner commensurate with the gravity of this violation and the urgency of the situation.

Our organizations call on all civil society organizations to strongly condemn the actions of the Russian government and support the sanctions taken by the international community and the measures that will force Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine immediately. Additionally, the international community must create internationally monitored safe zones as soon as possible in Ukraine so that civilians can be protected from Russian military attacks.

Bahman Baktiari, Executive Director

The Baskerville Institute

Felecia Maxfield-Barrett, Executive Director

Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy

Rick B. Larsen, President & CEO

The Sutherland Institute

Bob Miller, Chairman of the Board

Salt Lake Foreign Relations Committee

Rabbi Samuel L. Spector

Luna Banuri, Executive Director

Utah Muslim Civic League

Charles Randall Paul, President

Foundation for Religious Diplomacy

Previous Lectures Now Available to Watch:

“Mission for Development: Utah Universities and Economic Development in Iran”

Professor Richard Garlitz

University of Tennessee at Martin

Richard Garlitz is a Professor of History at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He is the author of A Mission for Development: Utah Universities and the Point Four Program in Iran (2018), and co-editor with Lisa Javiren of Teaching America to the World and the World to America: Education and Foreign Relations since 1870 (2012).

Watch Now

“The Iranian Revolution at 43: Sources of Tensions and Conflict with the United States”

Suzanne Maloney

Brookings Institution

Moderator: Ambassador John Limbert

Suzanne Maloney is the vice president and director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where her research focuses on Iran and Persian Gulf energy. Prior to being named vice president and director, she served as the deputy director of Foreign Policy for five years. At Brookings, she is a leading voice on U.S. policy toward Iran and the broader Middle East, testifying before Congress, briefing policymakers, and engaging with government, non-profit organizations and corporations. She is a frequent commentator in national and international media.

Watch Now

“The Americans of Urumia: Iran’s First Americans and their Mission to the Assyrian Christians”

Professor Hooman Estelami

Fordham University

Hooman Estelami is a professor at the Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University in New York City. He is the author of several books, including Marketing Strategy, Marketing Turnarounds, Simplified Business Research Methods, and Marketing Financial Services. His research has appeared in over 50 journal articles, for which he has received multiple prestigious awards. Using primary, secondary and archival data, Estelami has studied and published on a range of topics from customer protection and pricing to the history of US-Iran economic relations and American missionary presence in Persia during the nineteenth century. He received his Ph.D. in business from Columbia University, his MBA from McGill University, and his BA from Coe College.

Watch Now

A joint project between the Baskerville Institute & Foundation for Religious Diplomacy

The Civic Friendship Initiative will examine theological and ethical foundations of friendship and explore how friendship between diverse religious groups can be practically inspired and spread contagiously by facilitating ‘Heart and Mind’ conversations between thought leaders, arranging trust building/problem solving workshops in regions of conflict. Civic Friendship also organizes bi-monthly webinars that explore religious dynamics of friendship and friendship dynamics of religion.

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