Turmoil in Iran: Passion and Protest in the Islamic Republic

SPEAKER BIOS 

Hooman Majd is the author of The Ayatollah Begs to Differ: The Paradox of Modern Iran. He was born in Tehran, Iran in 1957, and lived abroad from infancy with his family who was in the diplomatic service. He has written for GQ, Newsweek, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Financial Times, The New York Observer, Interview, and Salon, and has been a regular contributor to The Huffington Post from its inception. He lives in New York City and travels regularly back to Iran.

Dr. Trita Parsi is the author of Treacherous Alliance – The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (Yale University Press, 2007), recipient of the Council on Foreign Relations 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award Silver Medallion. He wrote his Doctoral thesis on Israeli-Iranian relations under Professor Francis Fukuyama (and Drs. Zbigniew Brzezinski, R. K. Ramazani, Jakub Grygiel, Charles Doran) at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies while heading the largest Iranian-American organization in the US, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC).

Karim Sadjadpour is an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He joined Carnegie after four years as the chief Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group based in Tehran and Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to BBC World TV and radio, CNN, National Public Radio, and PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and has written for the Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and New Republic. He has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and has been the recipient of numerous academic awards, including a Fulbright scholarship. Sadjadpour was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in Davos, and is a board member of the Banu Foundation, an organization dedicated to assisting grass-roots organizations that are empowering women worldwide. He has lived in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. 

Moderator

Gary Sick is a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute, and an adjunct professor of International and Public Affairs. He is the author of All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter With Iran (Random House 1985) and October Surprise: America’s Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan (Random House 1991). Professor Sick served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. He received his BA from Kansas University in 1957 and a Master of Science from George Washington University in 1970. In 1973 he earned a PhD from Columbia University.