The (Mis)believing Polis: Censorship, Translation Infrastructures, and the Politics of Publishing Western Human Sciences in Iran

Hosna Sheikholeslami
Date
Sep 18, 2024, 4:30 pm5:30 pm
Audience
Free, Open to the Public

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Abstract

This talk explores the intricate dynamics of translating and publishing Western human sciences in Iran, focusing on the role of censorship within the broader context of translation infrastructures, which encompass those processes, institutions, and social networks that facilitate translation and dissemination are sites of contention for modern social imaginaries in Iran. Based on fieldwork in Tehran (2012-2014), I approach state censorship not merely as a blockade but as a web of mediation. I explore how and why censors tailor their decisions based on the imagined intellectual capabilities of a Shi’ite Muslim readership, offering insights into the interplay between censorship, translation, and the circulation of knowledge in Iran.

Bio

Hosna Sheikholeslami is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Denison University. Her research interests include political and economic anthropology, the anthropology of knowledge, and translation. She is finalizing her first book, Translating Imaginaries: The Infrastructure and Politics of Publishing the Human Sciences in Iran, which explores how and why knowledge travels transnationally by examining the production of translated texts of Western human sciences in Iran, with particular attention to the mediating labors of translators, publishers, and censors. Her dissertation, on which the manuscript is based, received the Mehrdad Mashayekhi Dissertation Award from the Association of Iranian Studies and the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences from the Middle Eastern Studies Association in 2018. Her research and writing has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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