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Hamid Dabashi (; born 1951) is an Iranian-American professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University in New York City.
He is the author of over twenty books. Hamid Dabashi's Official Web Site Among them are Theology of Discontent, several books on Iranian cinema, Staging a Revolution, the edited volume Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema, and his one-volume analysis of Iranian history, Iran: A People Interrupted. "Iran: A People Interrupted", The New Press.
His book Theology of Discontent, is a study of the global rise of Islamism as a form of liberation theology. His other book Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future (2001) is a text on modern Iranian cinema and the phenomenon of (Iranian) national cinema as a form of cultural modernity and featured in the Lonely Planet travel guide for Iran. In his essay "For the Last Time: Civilizations", he has also posited the binary opposition between "Islam and the West" as a major narrative strategy of raising a fictive centre for European modernity and lowering the rest of the world as peripheral to that centre.
In Truth and Narrative, he has deconstruction the essentialist conception of Islam projected by oriental studies and Islamists alike. Instead he has posited, in what he calls a "polyfocal" conception of Islam, three competing and institutions of authority – which he terms "nomocentric" (law-based), "logocentric" (reason-based) and "" (human-based) – vying for power and competing for . The historical dynamics among these three readings of "Islam", he concludes, constitutes the moral, political and intellectual history of Muslims.
Among his other work are his essays Artist without Borders (2005), Women without Headache (2005), For the Last Time Civilization (2001) and "The End of Islamic Ideology" (2000). The End of Islamic Ideology (2000)
Hamid Dabashi is also the author of numerous articles and public speeches, ranging in their subject matters from Islamism, feminism, imperialism and ideologies and strategies of resistance, to visual and performing arts in a global context.
Dabashi was the chief consultant to Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now (2005) and Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men (2009). Dabashi appears in Bavand Karim's Nation of Exiles (2010), providing analysis of the Iranian Green Movement.
Dabashi has also served as jury member on many international art and film festivals, most recently the Locarno International Festival in Switzerland. In the context of his commitment to advancing trans-national art and independent world cinema, he is the founder of Dreams of a Nation, a Palestinian Film Project, dedicated to preserving and safeguarding Palestinian Cinema. For his contributions to Iranian cinema, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the Iranian film-maker called Dabashi "a rare cultural critic".
Dabashi was one of the three professors named in the Columbia Unbecoming controversy, which included accusations of antisemitism against the professors. According to the New York Times, Dabashi was mentioned principally because of his published political viewpoints, and that he had canceled a class to attend a Palestinian rally. The New York chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union sided with the professors. An ad hoc committee formed by Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia University's president, reported in March 2005 that they could not find any credible allegations of antisemitism, but did criticize the university's grievance procedures, and recommended changes.
In an interview with the Electronic Intifada in September 2002, Dabashi referred to the pro-Israel lobby as "Gestapo " and that "The so-called "pro-Israeli lobby" is an integral component of the imperial designs of the Bush administration for savage and predatory globalization." He also criticized "fanatic from Brooklyn" who have settled on Palestinian lands. Dabashi has also harshly criticized the New York Times for what he describes as a bias towards Israel, stating that the paper is "the single most nauseating propaganda paper on planet." How Do We Sleep While Beirut Is Burning? by Hamid Dabashi, OhmyNews, August 9, 2006.(retrieved on November 8, 2008).
In September 2004, Dabashi sharply criticized Israel in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, writing that:
Responding to Dabashi's Al-Ahram essay, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said, "I want to completely disassociate myself from those ideas. They're outrageous things to say, in my view." Jonathan Rosenblum, director of Jewish Media Resources, later also criticized Dabashi's column. "Double standards: by Jonathan Rosenblum, Jewish Media Resources, March 18, 2005, archived on July 3, 2018. In The Bulletin, Herb Denenberg wrote that Dabashi's article "is not borderline racism. It's as gross and obvious as racism can get." "Columbia Has Come To Stand For Terrorism, Genocide" By Herb Denenberg, The Bulletin, January 20, 2009. Writing in The Nation, Scott Sherman wrote that Dabashi's article was "troubling" because of its "sweeping characterization of an entire people-"Israeli Jews" or not—as vulgar and domineering in their very essence. The passage can easily be construed as anti-Semitic. Dabashi, at a minimum, is guilty of shrill and careless writing." "The Mideast Comes to Columbia: by Scott Sherman, March 16, 2005,
In a sworn statement submitted to the US Commission on Civil Rights, Dabashi stated that he has not expressed, nor ever harbored, any anti-Semitic sentiments and that the 2004 Al-Ahram essay was being misconstrued. US "Commission on Civil Rights - Campus Anti-Semitism", Briefing Report, July 2006. He has also criticized pro-Israel groups in the United States, saying that the "pro-Israeli Zionist lobby in the US banked and invested heavily in infiltrating, buying, and paying for all the major and minor corridors of power." "The Moral and Military Meltdown of Israel" by Hamid Dabashi, The Palestine Chronicle, January 12, 2009. In the same article, Dabashi endorsed cultural and academic boycotts of Israel.
In a letter to the Columbia Spectator, Dabashi wrote that the above passage was "not a racial characterization of a people, but a critical reflection on the body politics of state militarism" and the effects that it has on human beings. Dabashi also apologized for "any hurt that I may have inadvertently caused" due to the interpretation of the passage. "Dabashi Explains Comments on Militarism of Israel" by Hamid Dabashi, Columbia Spectator, January 27, 2005.
In an article published in January 2009, Dabashi advocated for boycott efforts targeting both individuals and institutions:
On May 8, 2018, Dabashi tweeted, "Every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world just wait for a few days and the ugly name of 'Israel' will pup...".( Twitter link (404),
Dabashi is on the advisory board of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (see Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel).
Judith Jacobson, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia and co-coordinator of the Israel advocacy group Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, "About SPME," online posting, official website of SPME. criticized Dabashi for his remarks, stating that Dabashi's article was "sheer " and that "attributing President Bollinger's remarks or behavior to racism is absurd."
In an interview with Z Magazine, Dabashi compared Nafisi to former American soldier Lynndie England, who was convicted of abusing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib." Reading Lolita at Columbia by Robert Fulford, National Post, November 6, 2006 (retrieved on October 21, 2009).
Nafisi responded to Dabashi's criticism by stating that she is not, as Dabashi claims, a neoconservative, that she opposed the Iraq war, and that she is more interested in literature than in politics. In an interview, Nafisi stated that she has never argued for an attack on Iran and that democracy, when it comes, should come from the Iranian people (and not from US military or political intervention). She added that while she is willing to engage in "serious argument... Debate that is polarized isn't worth my time." She stated that she did not respond directly to Dabashi because "You don't want to debase yourself and start calling names." "Book clubbed" by Christopher Shea, The Boston Globe, October 29, 2006 (retrieved on October 21, 2009).
Public commentary and criticism
Dabashi has been a commentator on a number of political issues, often regarding the Middle East, Columbia University, American foreign policy, or a combination of those.
Columbia University
In 2002, Dabashi sharply criticized Rabbi Charles Sheer (who was the university's Jewish chaplain between 1969 and 2004) after he admonished several professors for cancelling their classes to attend pro-Palestinian rallies. Dabashi wrote in the Columbia Spectator that Rabbi Sheer "has taken upon himself the task of mobilizing and spearheading a crusade of fear and intimidation against members of the Columbia faculty and students who have dared to speak against the slaughter of innocent Palestinians."
Views on Israel
Dabashi has described the state of Israel as "a dyslexic Biblical exegesis," "occupied Palestine," "a Vicariousness avocation," "a dangerous delusion," "a colonial settlement," "a Jewish apartheid state," and "a racist apartheid state". "Obama's Palestinian problem" by Hamid Dabashi, Al-Ahram Weekly, 26 June - 2 July 2008, Issue No. 903. In an interview with AsiaSource in June 2003, Dabashi stated that supporters of Israel "cannot see that Israel over the past 50 years as a colonial state - first with white European colonial settlers, then white American colonial settlers, now white Russians colonial settlers—amounts to nothing more than a military base for the rising predatory empire of the United States. Israel has no privilege greater or less than Pakistan or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. These are all military bases but some of them, like Israel, are like the hardware of the American imperial imagination."
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> archived on July 3, 2018.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Archive link) Rena Nasar, a StandWithUs campus director, told the student-run news website Campus Reform that "blaming the Jewish state for every problem in the world is virulent anti-Semitism, echoing rhetoric that has led to oppression and violence against Jews for centuries." "Columbia U alums call for professor to be suspended over anti-Zionist posts", Times of Israel, 7 June 2018. "Columbia professor under fire for blaming Israel for every problem 'in the world'", Caleb Parke, Fox News, 11 May 2018.
Criticism of Lee Bollinger
Following Columbia University President Lee Bollinger's statements on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during Ahmadinejad's visit to Columbia in September 2007 (in which Bollinger stated that the Iranian President was a "petty and cruel dictator" who lacked the "intellectual courage" to offer real answers on denying the Holocaust) Dabashi wrote that Bollinger's statements were "the most ridiculous clichés of the neocon propaganda machinery, wrapped in the missionary position of a white racist supremacist carrying the heavy burden of civilizing the world." Dabashi further stated that Bollinger's comments were "propaganda warfare ... waged by the self-proclaimed moral authority of the United States" and that "Only Lee Bollinger's mind-numbing racism when introducing Ahmadinejad could have made the demagogue look like the innocent bystander in a self-promotional circus." In addition, Dabashi wrote that when Bollinger made these comments, "Nothing short of the devil incarnate, the Christian Fundamentalist in Bollinger thought, was sitting in front of him" and that Bollinger's "shamelessly racist" comments were "replete with racism." Of banality and burden by Hamid Dabashi, Al-Ahram Weekly, October 11–17, 2007, Issue No. 866. (retrieved on November 8, 2008).
Reading Lolita in Tehran and Azar Nafisi
In 2006, Dabashi sharply criticized Azar Nafisi for her book Reading Lolita in Tehran, stating that "By seeking to recycle a kaffeeklatsch version of English literature as the ideological foregrounding of American empire, Reading Lolita in Tehran is reminiscent of the most pestiferous colonial projects" and accusing her of being a "native informer and colonial agent", referencing colonial officer Thomas Macaulay, who in 1835 "decreed: 'We must do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, words and intellect.'"
See also
External links
Categories: Www.hamiddabashi.com Official Website, American Sociologists, American Literary Critics, American Art Critics, American Film Critics, 21st-century American Historians, American Male Non-fiction Writers, American Anti-war Activists, Iranian Democracy Activists, Columbia University Faculty, Harvard University Alumni, 20th-century Iranian Historians, Iranian Expatriate Academics In The United States, Iranian Literary Critics, American Iranologists, American Literary Historians, People From Ahvaz, 20th-century Persian-language Writers, University Of Pennsylvania Alumni, 1951 Births, Living People, Critical Theorists, American Writers Of Iranian Descent, 21st-century American Male Writers
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