July 8, 2009 -The Middle East Center at the University of Utah will host a community talk examining the current political situation inside the Islamic Republic of Iran given by Farideh Farhi, Ph.D., of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. The talk, entitled “What is Happening Inside Iran? Between Conciliation and Oppression,” will take place on Saturday, July 18 from 10 a.m. to noon in the Salt Lake City Main Library Auditorium (210 E. 400 South). The lecture is free and open to the public.

Farhi is an independent scholar and affiliate graduate faculty at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. She has taught comparative politics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Hawai’i, University of Tehran, and Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran. Her publications include States and Urban-Based Revolutions in Iran and Nicaragua (University of Illinois Press) and numerous articles and book chapters on comparative analyses of revolutions and Iranian politics. She has been a recipient of grants from the United States Institute of Peace and the Rockefeller Foundation and was most recently a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the International Crisis Group.

The event is sponsored by the Middle East Center and individuals from the Utah Iranian-American community. Middle East Center Director, Bahman Baktiari, will give an introduction to this lecture and Francine Mahak will give the concluding remarks. A short talk conducted in Persian will follow the lecture and discussion.