Join us for a reading with Professor Golnar Nikpour for her new book The Incarcerated Modern: Prisons and Public Life in Iran, an examination of the Iranian prison system and its function in modern culture. In conversation with Nikpour will be Naveed Mansoori, political theorist at Princeton University.

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 50 max attendees. Please register in advance. 

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees are encouraged to stay masked at all time.

Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, is located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Iran’s prison system is a foundational institution of Iranian political modernity. The Incarcerated Modern traces the transformation of Iran from a decentralized empire with few imprisoned persons at the turn of the twentieth century into a modern nation-state with over a quarter million prisoners today. In policing the line between “bad criminal” and “good citizen,” the carceral system has shaped and reshaped Iranian understandings of citizenship, freedom, and political belonging.

Golnar Nikpour explores the interplay between the concrete space of the Iranian prison and the role of prisons in producing new public cultures and political languages in Iran. From prison writings of 1920s leftist prisoners and communiqu’s of 1950s militant Islamists, to paintings of 1970s revolutionary guerrillas and mapping projects organized by contemporary dissident prisoners, carceral confinement has shaped modern Iranian political movements. Today, mass incarceration is a global phenomenon. The Incarcerated Modern connects Iranian history to transnational carceral histories to illuminate the shared architectures, economies, and techniques of modern punishment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Golnar Nikpour is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Dartmouth College, where she teaches on the political and intellectual history of modern Iran and the Middle East. Her research and writing is particularly focused on histories of law, incarceration, revolution, and rights.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Naveed Mansoori is a political theorist interested in histories and theories of media and mediation, anti- and de-colonial history and theory, and critical theory. He is currently Associate Research Scholar at the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University.