10th Annual Mossadegh Servant Leadership Lecture
Northeastern Illinois University
Main Campus
5500 N. St. Louis Ave.
Chicago, Illinois 60625
Thursday, April 25, 2024
This lecture will be given twice, with receptions to follow. These events are free and open to the public.
3:00-4:30 p.m., Student Union, Room SU 216
6:00-8:00 p.m., College of Business and Technology, Mossadegh Hall
RSVP is encouraged, but not required.
Requests for free parking must be sent to mossadegh@neiu.edu before April 24, 2024.
RSVP by Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Keynote Speaker: Ali Gheissari
Northeastern Illinois University is proud to welcome Ali Gheissari, Ph.D. as the keynote speaker for the 10th Annual Mossadegh Servant Leadership Lecture. He will deliver a talk titled, “Constitutional Experience and Travails of Parliamentarism and Governance in 20th century Iran: Retrospectives on Mosaddeq and the National Movement."
Dr. Gheissari teaches a wide range of courses on modern world history and the Middle East at the University of San Diego. He has written extensively on the intellectual history and politics of modern Iran. He recently co-authored “Extraterritoriality and Capitulations in Qajar Iran” in the soon-to-be-published book, "Sovereignty and Imperialism: Non-European Powers in the Age of Empire" (Oxford University Press). In 2023, he delivered the Ann Lambton Memorial Lecture titled “Unequal Treaties and the Question of Sovereignty in Qajar and early Pahlavi Iran" at Durham University. Other publications include “Fruits of Gardens: Ethics, Metaphysics, and Textual Pleasures in late Qajar Iran,” in Journal of Persianate Studies (in press, 2023); the chapter “Resāle, Maqāle, and Ketāb: An Overview of Persian Expository and Analytical Prose,” in "A History of Persian Literature, Vol. V" (Bloomsbury, 2021); and the chapter “Iran’s Dialectic of the Enlightenment: Constitutional Experience, Transregional Connections, and Conflicting Narratives of Modernity,” in "Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and Narratives of the Enlightenment" (Chicago and London, 2016).
Dr. Gheissari has served as the Editor-in-Chief of Iranian Studies (2016- 2020); has been a consulting editor and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Iranica; is on the Editorial Board of the book series "Iran Studies" (Brill); and serves on the Board of Directors of the Persian Heritage Foundation. His current research is on aspects of legal and constitutional history of modern Iran.
Learn more about Dr. Ali Gheissari
About the Mossadegh Servant Leadership Lecture
The inaugural Mossadegh Servant Leadership Lecture at Northeastern Illinois University was held in 2015. Two years prior, Northeastern established the Mossadegh Servant Leaders Fund, which not only supports the annual lecture, but also scholarships for students in the College of Business and Technology and the College of Arts and Sciences. The Mossadegh Servant Leaders Fund was created to honor Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh (1882-1967), a “servant of the people” and the first democratically elected premier of Iran. The fund is supported by generous donations from community members, alumni, and friends from around the world.
Past lectures
- 2015: Haleh Emrani, CEO, CorpInfo
- 2016: Kunal Mehta, Author of Disruptors
- 2017: Qobad Fakhimi, National Iranian Oil Company
- 2018: Jalal and Mohammad Farzaneh, Home Creations, top 100 residential builders
- 2019: Dr. Ari Babaknia, Chapman University, Human IVF Pioneer, Holocaust Studies Scholar
- 2020: No lecture due to COVID-19 pandemic
- 2021: Professor Abbas Amanat, Yale University
- 2022: Professor Ervand Abrahamian, City University of New York
- 2023 (address delivered in January 2024): Toni Preckwinkle, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners
