Revolutions in Modern Iran Part 2

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The historiographical debates related to the Constitutional Revolution
• The nature of the political, social, cultural, and economic changes taking place in Iran in the early twentieth century.
• The social and intellectual transformation from tradition to modernity in Modern Iran.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Work independently and unsupervised for extended periods of time when preparing for class and for assessed coursework.
• Adapt and apply the skills and knowledge acquired or consolidated during the module to problem-solving and policy-making in the workplace.
• Write speedily yet fluently for an extended period of time in examination conditions, and retain that ability to organise and clearly articulate your ideas when [post-graduation] working under pressure.
• Read critically both primary and secondary materials and provide scholarly analysis of the current developments.
• Make a valuable contribution to group activities rooted in effective teamwork.
• Display effective time management, not least in adhering to a timetable for the preparation, writing, and submission of a lengthy assignment.
• Adhere to guidelines re referencing/footnotes and demonstrate a graduate-level (i.e. mature and sophisticated) prose style.

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Distinguish between Islamism and clericalism.
• Distinguish between modernism and modernisation.
• Understand concepts of modernity and tradition in Twentieth-Century Iran.
• Understand what is Khomeinism.
• Engage with specific texts, comment upon them fluently, cogently, and at length; and in so doing demonstrate depth of knowledge, insight, and understanding appropriate to the advanced study of a specialist area.
• Gather, assimilate, synthesise, and interpret a wide range of primary and secondary source material as the first stage in writing your essay.
• Draw upon that same bank of knowledge, insight, and understanding in examination conditions.

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Provide scholarly-based articles on the rise of Islamism.
• Explain how the clerics took power.

The second part of the module will examine the 1979 Revolution and explore the socio-political factors behind the Revolution and the triggering incidences that led to its occurrence. The focus will particularly be on the period from 1977, when the first signs of weakness appeared in the Shah’s regime to the Shah’s death in July 1980. Relating to this period, we will scrutinise the role played by the West, in particular the USA, in the fall of the Shah based on the recently disclosed archives and interviews with politicians involved in the Pahlavi regime. Part 2 could also study the following issues:

1. The long-term and short term causes of the Revolution, such as the consequences of the 1973 Oil Crisis, and the Shah’s illness.

2. The Jimmy Carter’s project for more democracy.

3. The anti-Western discourse developed in Iran amongst the secular opposition. It is within this context that the role of Ayatollah Khomeini in the Revolution needs to be reassessed.

4. The first Constitution of the Islamic Republic drafted around the principles of Independence, Freedom and Republic.

5. The swift shift from Republicanism (the pillar of the Constitution) to the absolute power of the Supreme Leader (velâyat-e faqih).

6. The project of exporting the revolution to the detriment of establishing democracy.

7. The anti-Western foreign policy of the clerics that resulted in their dependence on Russia and China.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• Brief introductory lecture; seminars, presentations, text analysis.
• Extensive use of contemporary feature, and documentary film.

Learning activities include:

• Preparation for twice weekly [double period] classes by reading and interpreting a variety of sources, both primary and secondary.
• Enhancement of your organisational and analytical skills through the two complementary modes of formal assessment.
• Discussion in seminars will help you to develop your ideas on a topic, to analyse a range of source material and to articulate a critical argument.

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Nikki R. Keddie (2003). Modern Iran, Roots and Results of Revolution. Yale University Press.

Nikki R. Keddie (1999). Qajar Iran and the Rise of Reza Khan 1796-1925. Costa Mesa: Mazda.

Ervand Abrahamian (1999). Tortured Confessions Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran. Oxford: University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles.

Ervand Abrahamian (2008). A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ervand Abrahamian (1993). Khomeinism, Essays on the Islamic Republic. London, New York: I.B. Tauris.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External