Courses

Architecture, literature, and film are parallel and interconnected sites of transition, where local tradition invariably coexists and changes with global formal and thematic innovations. This course explores how Iranian writers, architects, and filmmakers of the early 20th century reflected socio-political change incumbent in the age of transition from tradition to modernity and modernism. We go beyond the traditional binaries of Orient and Occident, global or local and seek to explore cultural shifts as much to understand their global influences as their roots in inherited forms and narratives. Students read fiction, poetry, essays, and journalism, and study films and visual archives, while analyzing architecture as a built space, as it is represented in literature and depicted in cinema. 

Mohadeseh Salari Sardari

SPRING 2026