Join us for a conversation with Dr. Hosna Sheikholeslami on her report Publishing Sanctions which sheds light on the impact of sanctions on Iran's publishing industry and the creative efforts undertaken by Iranians amid ongoing social and economic pressure. The impact of sanctions on Iran has been far-reaching, affecting not just commodity production and circulation but also the realm of intellectual expression. Despite the remarkable resilience of the publishing industry, sanctions have presented challenges for publishers who not only serve as gatekeepers of ideas, but also produce physical objects that facilitate the circulation of those ideas. As a result, the accessibility and materiality of books has been compromised, hindering the public's ability to engage with and spread ideas. Ironically, the Western powers that imposed these sanctions in pursuit of promoting democratic movements in Iran have inadvertently weakened a crucial avenue for the dissemination of ideas.
DR. HOSNA SHEIKHOLESLAMI is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Denison University. She is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests include political and economic anthropology, the anthropology of knowledge, and translation. Dr. Sheikholeslami is currently completing her first book manuscript, Translating Imaginaries: The Infrastructure and Politics of Publishing the Human Sciences in Iran. Based on two years of fieldwork in Tehran, Iran, the manuscript examines how and why knowledge travels transnationally. Her dissertation, on which the manuscript is based, was the recipient The Mehrdad Mashayekhi Dissertation Award from the Association of Iranian Studies and Malcom H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences from the Middle Eastern Studies Association in 2018. Her research has been supported by the Wenner Gren Foundation, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).