Who Am I? Recognizing the Hidden Diversity of
Youth Who Grow Up in Many Cultures
By Ruth E. Van Reken
Countless children across our globe no longer live in the cultural worlds their parents and/or grandparents have always known. Some have had their entire country and its culture taken away by war or political divides. Others have moved with parents to a new country and become part of the culture and ways of that land while parents retain the habits and customs of their past world. (Full Seminar)
Conference 2006 Papers
Iranian Immigrants: Challenges and Promises
The Iranian Experience in America : Achievements and Challenges
Mehdi Bozorgmehr
City University of New York
The United States is by far the favored destination of the global Iranian diaspora. The combination of former college students and elite exiles makes Iranians one of the most educated immigrant groups in the United States. (Full Paper)
Bridging Cultures Post 9/11: Strengths, Stresses, and Coping Mechanisms of Those in the Diaspora. Implications for Teaching and Practice
Khadija Khaja, Indiana University; Irene Queiro –Tajalli, Indiana University; Bassima Schibley, Washburn University
This presentation began by contrasting assumptions regarding human nature in the West with those in the Middle East . As such, it was assumed that the former primarily focused on the individual, including Maslow's hierarchy of needs, while the latter emphasized the human collectivity. (Full Paper)
Peer-led Intervention Model of Social Work with Asian and Iranian Immigrant Women
Manoj Pardasani
Indiana University
Immigrants face a diverse array of challenges as they begin the process of living in a foreign culture and environment. The process of acculturation is a complex and life-long process for most immigrants. (Full Paper)
Mental Health and Older Adults: Challenges Faced by Iranian and Other Immigrant Families
Taher Zandi
State University of New York
Many Iranian immigrants have experienced traumatic circumstances based on lack of knowledge of the host country's unspoken rules and regulations. The immediate draw back of such experience is the creation of a perception of loss of control and confidence. This problem is exaggerated by absence of support structures. (Full Paper)
Iranian Immigrants: Groups and Places
Iranian Jews in the United States: Twenty-five Years After Immigration
Leah R. Baer
Independent Scholar
Incorporated into all arenas of American life and drawn into the mainstream instead of being excluded, Iranian Jews are reformulating the meaning of their identity. In American ideology, “equality” implies equality of respect as well as equality of opportunity. (Full Paper)
Iranian Elders in Northern California : Building Community Through the Mohabat Center
Mary Elaine Hegland
Santa Clara University
Displaced to a new society, culture, and language environment, Iranian grandparents in Northern California face isolation, loneliness, and a sense of lost, as they are removed from their friends and families, and even from their children, who are busy with their Silicon Valley Lives. Iranians value social interaction and generally do not like to sit by themselves. (Full Paper)
Growing up Iranian, American, and Female
Patricia J. Higgins
State University of New York
A 1990 study of 101 Iranian-descent high school students and their families resident in Santa Clara County , California showed that parents had high expectations of their offspring, and in most cases, the young people were meeting those expectations. (Full Paper)
An Uncertain but Desired Life: Iranians in Dubai
Ali Akbar Mahdi
Ohio Wesleyan University
The author presented preliminary results of his field trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where he interviewed and collected data about Iranians in Dubai . UAE is one of the six Middle Eastern countries whose economic life is heavily dependent on foreign labor force. (Full Paper)
Persian Literature Abroad
Poetry Reading : An Iranian Contribution to the Community
Diane Tehrani, Clark College
Kazem Tehrani, Portland State University
In the 1980's and 1990's, great numbers of Iranians came to the United States and went through many changes, moving from one culture to another seeking to acclimate themselves to new people, surroundings, expectations and ways of doing things. (Full Paper)
Where Is My Poetic Dwelling? The Vicissitudes of Diasporic Communities
Peyman Vahabzadeh
University of Victoria , Canada
By offering a comprehensive survey of the theories pertaining to Iranian emigration literature, this paper presents a sociological analysis of how divergent modes of living shapes up different communities in the Iranian diaspora. (Full Paper)
Persian Immigration Poetry: Rupture and Continuity in Millennium-Old Persian Poetry
Ali Zarrin
Regis University
When the author refers to a new rupture in Persian literature or in Persian poetry called “Immigration Poetry,” he is not denying the fact that the subject of immigration is one of the oldest preoccupations in literature and poetry. (Full Paper)
Iran and Immigration
Immigration and Cultural Changes in Iran
Taghi Azadarmaki, University of Tehran , Iran
Mehri Bahar,
University of Tehran , Iran
This paper started with a distinction between immigrants and asylum-seekers/refugees and analyzed the role these two groups play in their homeland from social, economical, and cultural points of view. Asylum-seekers/refugees depart their homeland because of objections to the prevailing ideology. (Full Paper)
