The Baskerville Newsletter
November/December 2020 Vol I, No. 2
A Publication of the Baskerville Institute
The Baskerville Institute Lecture Series
Speaker:
Topic:
American Connections with Iran / Iranian Connections with America
Date & Time:
January 4, 2021
12:00-1:30 pm ( US MT)
Register:
Professor Shannon will discuss the connections between the United States and Iran during the twentieth century. The lecture pays special attention to American educational influence in Iran and Iranian students in the United States. On the one hand, American missionaries opened schools and other educational institutions in Iran during the Qajar and Pahlavi periods. On the other hand, Iranian students traveled to the United States in unprecedented numbers during the reign of the last shah. These connections cut in both directions, making both the United States and Iran sites of interaction between Americans and Iranians during the seven decades between Howard Baskerville’s death in 1909 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
Topic:
The United States and Iran: What does the Future hold for the Biden’s Presidency?
A conversation with:
Date & Time:
January 14, 2021
12:00-1:30 pm (US MT)
Register:
Four years of Trump’s anti-Iran hawkishness: The reimposition of sanctions, targeted assassination of the head of the Iran Revolutionary Guard’s overseas operation (Gen. Qassem Soleimani), travel ban on Iranians, creation of an anti-Iran alliance with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and reports of impending military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities did not bring Iran back to the negotiating table to hash out a tougher deal. “Maximum pressure” also didn’t curtail Iran’s influence and meddling in its neighborhood.
What policy lessons does the tragic history of Iranian American relations teach us today? What might this history indicate about the weaknesses and the strengths of various U.S. administrations’ approaches to Iran? How might it affect the Biden administration? Can the Biden administration find the right balance between containing Iran’s regional ambitions, its nuclear capabilities, as well as strengthening Iran’s civil society ? Is the United States prepared to deal with sudden political changes that may result in leadership changes in Iran?
Samuel Martin Jordan: The Life and Legacy of an American Educator in Iran,Edited by H.E. Chehabi.
Dr. Samuel Martin Jordan ( 1871-1952) was an American presbyterian missionary in Iran. He is referred to as the “father of modern education in Iran.” After receiving degrees from the Lafayette College and then from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898, he embarked on his mission to Iran and spent forty-three years in the country and founded the Alborz High School later upgraded to the American College of Tehran in 1932. Samuel Jordan was one of the most influential Americans in the history of American-Iranian relations.
We are grateful to the Semnani Family Foundation for supporting this initiative.
Baskerville Book of the Month
Recommended Initiatives
The Rethinking Iran project at the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). The initiative “explores the cultural, societal, and political consequences of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.”
TEDx events inside Iran: See a list of upcoming TEDx events organized by Iranians to share their opinions on various political, social, economic and international issues.
See forthcoming Baskerville Institute lectures
2020-2021
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