Azar Nafisi’s work focuses on the political implications of literature and culture, as well as the human rights of Iranian women and girls and the important role they play in the process of change for pluralism and an open society in Iran. Nafisi is best known as the author of the award-winning Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, a blend of reminiscences and literary criticism portraying the Islamic Revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students. Nafisi has also written for The New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

Nafisi is professor and director of the Cultural Conversations Project at Johns Hopkins University. She has taught at Oxford University, the University of Tehran, the Free Islamic University, and Allameh Tabatabai, earning national respect and international recognition for advocating on behalf of Iran’s intellectuals, youth and young women.

About the Lecture: Nafisi’s lecture at Berkeley explores her belief in (and advocacy of) the Republic of the Imagination, “a country worth building, a state with a future, a place where we can truly know freedom.”

Presented in association with Cal Performances.