by Reyhaneh Javadi, University of Tehran, Iran
During the translation of the Japanese team’s introduction (GD2.3), when I was reading the degrees and the research areas – remembering the Paulista team – all I was thinking was “Heavens! What we are doing among all of these PhDs and professors? We are just a bunch of kids!”
That’s really who we are! A group of interested (very) young sociologists who think and believe we deserve better conditions of study. So we’ve organized ourselves into the Student Sociological Association of the University of Tehran. We’re trying to determine and challenge the shortcomings in formal education and create alternatives. Our board is elected by a vote of the sociology students at our university. Its term of office is one academic year.
Last year, our association resumed its commitment after some years of inactivity. Last year our elected board included: Saghar Bozorgi, Najmeh Taheri, Elahe Noori, Mitra Daneshvar, Faezeh Khajezade, Somaieh Rostampour, and Reyhaneh Javadi. The current team started its work a month ago. New faces on the board, taking the places of those who have graduated, are Nastaran Mahmoudzadeh, Tara Asgari Laleh, and Zahra Babaei. All board members are undergraduates, except two who are MA students. And we’re all women!
Our association first focused on creating study groups that read the works of classical and modern sociologists; organizing workshops such as the sociology of religion in Iran; managed a social photography exhibition; and enjoyed the insights of speakers, including Michael Burawoy (Public Sociology), and Jennifer Platt (History of Sociology). Last but not least, we are publishing a student sociological magazine called Sareh (“pure”) with two parts in each issue. The first part is a critical approach to the situation of teaching sociology in our faculty and the second part is the translation of an article or a part of a book of a sociologist.
Translating Global Dialogue is one of our association’s tasks. Unlike other teams, we choose a collaborative way to elect our translators. In fact, this activity was a great way to stimulate our enthusiasm. So for every issue we make an announcement in our faculty, and ask all of the interested students to translate a one-page sample text. For each issue we choose four translators from the best samples. Here is a brief introduction of the translation team.
It is, indeed, a pleasure and honor for all of us to collaborate in the great experience of Global Dialogue.
