Revolutionary Engineers — An Online Conversation with Dr. Sepehr Vakil and Dr. Mahdi Vahdat
Overview
Join us for this online conversation with Sepehr Vakil and Mahdi Ganjavi, co-authors of this forthcoming book (MIT Press, 2025) on the history of Sharif University in Tehran.
In 1966, the Shah of Iran established Aryamehr University of Technology (AMUT), now known as Sharif University of Technology, as part of a larger campaign to modernize the nation. In 1979, AMUT engineering students played a critical role in the revolution that overthrew the Shah and his regime. In Revolutionary Engineers, Sepehr Vakil, Mahdi Ganjavi, and Mina Khanlarzadeh show how Western notions of scientific and technical rigor combined in unexpected ways with Iranian and Islamic values at AMUT in the years directly preceding the 1979 Iranian revolution. They also argue that global perspectives, particularly from the Global South, can deepen and complicate contemporary discussions on ethics, epistemology, and knowledge production in STEM fields.
Mahdi Ganjavi, Ph.D. (University of Toronto), is a lecturer, scholar, publisher, and distinguished historian specializing in the history of education, print, and literature in the Middle East. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information.
Sepehr Vakil, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University and the faculty director of the Technology, People, and Policy M.S program and the Technology, Race, Ethics, and Equity in Education Lab. He is currently serving as Senior Advisor on the Spencer Foundation's Al initiative.
In collaboration with UC Berkeley, Center for Middle Eastern Studies .
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