Woman, Life, Freedom: Iran through the Lens of Antonio Gramsci

With Piruz Alemi

Juxtaposing documentary video footage with selected readings from Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, we will deepen our understanding of the current uprising among women and young people in Iran. Applying Gramsci’s dual perspective on Individuality/Universality, Hegemony/Authority, Force/Consent, Terror/Legitimacy, Strategy/Tactic, Agitation/Propaganda, and State/Civil Society, we will examine spontaneous movements, subaltern groups, and the balance of domestic and international forces. These sessions will offer an opportunity for participants to document, write, screen films, archive, brainstorm, and stay informed about the movement for Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran. They will be accessible to people at all levels of familiarity with Gramsci’s work and Iranian history and politics.

Convened and facilitated by Piruz Alemi, who holds a PhD in political economy from the New School for Social Research and an MFA in documentary film making from CCNY. He is director of the People of Color International Cultural Exchange Film Festival. He has taught at John Jay College/CUNY for 15 years and holds a research fellowship at Sheffield university in the UK.