Ayda Melika
PERS 4001
PERS 8903
Fall 2021
Fall 2020

The course Modern Iran: Tehran on Screen is an exploration of modern Iran through cinematic representations of its capital city, Tehran and has the following four goals. First, it trains students to become participants in debates about the Iranian Cinema, mediated representations of Tehran, as well as Iranian arts, urban culture and society. In doing so, it introduces students to dominant paradigms of cinematic arts, urban social development and welfare, and situates such paradigms in the contemporary history of Iran. Second, it examines key Iranian films and directors— both associated with the national and local institutions and those that are independent filmmakers. Students are encouraged to understand the styles and methodologies in addition to the strengths and limitations of various directors in representing Tehran to both local and the international audiences. Third, the course is concerned with representations of pre and post-revolution Tehran as it relates to local socio-political and cultural movements and its ramification in the region and globally. Students are expected to critically reflect upon their own readings of the Iranian urban culture through films and understanding social change as well as their own engagements with Tehran's urban culture and history as it relates to films, both fiction and non-fiction. Finally, the class adopts a global approach to the analysis of representations of Tehran. While the emphasis of the class is on Iranian cinema and society, it is equally concerned with major international artistic and political movements that have influenced both the films and urban formations in Tehran. In this sense, the class goes beyond seeing Iranian films and urbanism as only representations of the Iranian society to situate it in the context of global conditions. This course is open to all undergraduate and graduate students at Georgia Tech. Students do not have to be enrolled in any minor in order to participate in this class but can get credit towards the undergraduate MENAS minor or PhD minor in Iranian Studies if they chose to. Course is taught in Persian (Farsi).

Course Type
Course Level
Partner Engagement