[liberationtech] Ethnography of media producers in Iran's Revolutionary Guard

[Yosem Companys]

From: Narges Bajoghli <narges.bajoghli at gmail.com>

Here I share here two new publications -- a book and a journal article --
based on my 10 years of ethnographic research in Iran among media producers
of the Revolutionary Guard and Basij paramilitary organizations. I hope
they will be of interest! Links and abstracts below.

All my very best,
Narges


Book: Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic
<https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29666> (Stanford University Press,
2019)

An inside look at what it means to be pro-regime in Iran, and the debates
around the future of the Islamic Republic.

More than half of Iran's citizens were not alive at the time of the 1979
Revolution. Now entering its fifth decade in power, the Iranian regime
faces the paradox of any successful revolution: how to transmit the
commitments of its political project to the next generation. New media
ventures supported by the Islamic Republic attempt to win the hearts and
minds of younger Iranians. Yet members of this new generation—whether
dissidents or fundamentalists—are increasingly skeptical of these efforts.

Iran Reframed offers unprecedented access to those who wield power in Iran
as they debate and define the future of the Republic. Over ten years,
Narges Bajoghli met with men in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Ansar
Hezbollah, and Basij paramilitary organizations to investigate how their
media producers developed strategies to court Iranian youth. Readers come
to know these men—what the regime means to them and their anxieties about
the future of their revolutionary project. Contestation over how to define
the regime underlies all their efforts to communicate with the public. This
book offers a multilayered story about what it means to be pro-regime in
the Islamic Republic, challenging everything we think we know about Iran
and revolution.


Journal Article: The Researcher as a National Security Threat:
Interrogative Surveillance, Agency, and Entanglement in Iran and the United
States
<
https://read.dukeupress.edu/cssaame/article/39/3/451/141388/The-Researcher-as-a-National-Security
>
(Journal
of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, December
2019)

Based on ethnographic research in Iran among the country's Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Basij militia, this article
explores the process of gaining access to these militarized groups in order
to conduct long-term research. Specifically, what does it mean to build
rapport and gain trust within a highly securitized space such as this? What
happens when the researcher is a potential “national security” threat in
both Iran and the United States? How is national security enacted in
everyday interactions in the field? Given that anthropologists have tended
to have an affinity with the group and community they work with, this
article explores the implications of research among a group of men in
charge of surveillance, intelligence gathering, and citizen suppression in
the country. The article argues that in the midst of national security
rhetoric, interrogative surveillance is a strategic tool that makes space
for engagement.

-- 
Narges Bajoghli, PhD
(Pronounced: Nar-guess Ba-jogh-lee)
Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies
School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University
Book: Iran Reframed <https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29666>
Website: www.nargesbajoghli.com
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