Revolutionary Engineers: Learning, Politics, and Activism at Aryamehr University of Technology
Join us for a book talk with two of the authors of Revolutionary Engineers: Learning, Politics, and Activism at Aryamehr University of Technology (MIT press, 2025).
In 1966, the Shah of Iran established Arya-Mehr 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.
The authors present the cultural, political, and pedagogical history of AMUT, from its 1966 establishment up to its pivotal role in the 1979 revolution, while delving into the complex interplay of global, national, and Islamic values in STEM education. In the past several years, STEM education scholars have challenged the epistemological and ontological foundations of STEM education research and practice, while deepening the field's engagement with questions of power, ethics, race, and justice. The case of AMUT presents the opportunity to contribute a Global South perspective to studies of the civic, cultural, and political functions and foundations of science and engineering education. Sharif University continues to be at the epicenter of politics in Iran.
Please note: the Stanford Bookstore will be in attendance from 6:00-7:00 PM with copies of the brand new book available for purchase.
About the Speakers:
Mahdi Ganjavi, PhD (University of Toronto), is a distinguished historian of education, print, and literature in the Middle East. A former postdoctoral fellow at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, he currently teaches at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on intellectual freedom, the transnational history of literature, books, education, print, and translation, as well as the politics of archives and counter-archiving practices in the contemporary Middle East.
Ganjavi’s book, Education and the Cultural Cold War in the Middle East: The Franklin Book Programs in Iran (2023), received the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) 2023 Book Award. His second monograph (co-authored), titled Revolutionary Engineers: Learning, Politics, and Activism at Aryamehr University of Technology, is forthcoming from MIT Press in 2025. Ganjavi’s scholarly writings, essays, and reviews have appeared in The American Archivist, International Journal of Lifelong Education, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Iranian Studies, and Review of Middle East Studies.
Sepehr Vakil is a scholar, writer, educator, speaker, and recognized leader in the field of education. He is an associate professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, where he is also the founding faculty director of the Technology, Policy, and Opportunity Center and the Technology, People, and Policy M.S program. He received his PhD in the Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology program at UC Berkeley (2016) and his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA (2007). He is currently serving as Senior Adviser to the Spencer Foundation on their Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative and was recently appointed to the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) committee on Developing Competencies for the Future of Data and Computing: The Role of K-12. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Equity for the Center of STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin.
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