Publication Type: Session Presentation
Abstract: The paper argues that the grammatical analysis of a certain structure should be based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of the authentic language/corpus data. Such an analysis of shi…de sentences, for instance, calls for more attention to the [-dynamic] verb usage of shi…de with functions other than [+focus].

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Shi?a jurisprudence in Iran stands on the cusp of major doctrinal change. Up until recent years, three primary reasons have underlied the obstruction of reformation in Shi?a jurisprudence (fiqh) in modern Iran, particularly since the late 1800s. The first has to do with the role of the state, which initially suppressed and sought to marginalize Shi?a doctrine and then, after the 1978-79 revolution, used it as its own basis of legitimacy and institutional framework. This, in turn, led to a second impediment to the reformation of Shi?a jurisprudence, namely the emergence of a clerical class many of whose members positioned themselves as the primary protector of Iranian culture and society against an oppressive and intrusive state. Largely as a result of this, Shi?a jurisprudence became increasingly politicized and revolutionized throughout the twentieth century, its revolutionary posture undermining its attention to inner reform. A third impediment, and directly related to the latter two, has been the traditional role of Shi?a clerics as social mediators and as protectors of culturally salient rituals. This pervasive social influence marginalized the voices of those calling for reforming the fiqh. Partly as a result their own actual or threatened marginalization and partly due to their conviction, those calling for the doctrinal reform of Shi?ism never quite went so far as to call for its jurisprudential ?reformation?, often tempering their call for reforms and balancing it with resort to some of Shi?ism?s orthodox, and at time archaic, notions and value systems. Today, however, more than a quarter century after the success of the Islamic Revolution, only the first impediment to the reformation of the Shi?a doctrine remains?i.e. the nature and role of the state in relation to Shi ?ism?while the other two impediments are undergoing fundamental changes. Whether these changes are by themselves sufficient to foster a process of religious reformation, or will also propel changes to the remaining impediment as well, remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that today Iranian Shi?ism stands at the gates of historic doctrinal changes.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Western scholarship has born substantial criticism for its portrayals of Islamic law and particularly Islamic family and criminal law impacting women’s rights, as monolithic and static. Similar critiques are often brought against conservative Islamists intent on constructing the notion of a “pure” body of Islamic law free of influences from outside legal traditions and normative orders. Yet the case of contemporary Iran demonstrates that Islamic jurists are in fact heavily conscious of and influenced by developments in international and global norms- an influence reflected in their evolving jurisprudence and practice of ijtihad. Examples include recent rulings by neo-traditionalist and modernist jurists pertaining to women’s blood money, inheritance, divorce and custody rights. While significant gains have been made both in the practice of this type of mixite for the furtherance of women’s rights, and in the Shi’I establishment’s acknowledgement of the historical existence and present inevitability of inter-tradition interactions, dialogue and influence, a number of obstacles to further gains on both grounds persist. Complications stem from the endurance of Post-revolutionary politics which paint international norms as un-Islamic instruments uses in the way of Western cultural imperialism and furthering Western hegemonic agendas. Twenty four years into the Islamic Revolution, such views maintain currency (although they are now for the most part significantly more nuanced) due to the marginalization of Muslim voices in international law and politics as well as rising anti-Islamic sentiment in the Post 9/11 world.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Shi`ism has been in the forefront of political Islam in the modern times. Since the advent of Islamic movements in global scale in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the study of the linkages between politics and religion especially Islam no longer seems out of place, but it seems necessary than ever. The study of Islam, its sects, institutions and social moverments in the Muslim societies are no longer studying a remote culture out of academic curosity but aa inseparable element of the Western culture and politics. This paper introduces the reader to the most poweful and most influential stratum in Iranian society for almost a century. Considering the origin, organization, functions, faith, schools and present-day influence and power of Iranian Shiite clerics who perceive themselves as the necessary intermediary between the faithful and the share` (the Legislator or God), as well as shari'ah as its representative and interpreter, I will review the public perception of this institution and its members. I want to differentiate between facts and fictions in the modern history of Iranian Shi`ite clerics.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Is Latin America’s leftist resurgence (a) reacting to the same anti-market attitude, this time accentuated by neo-liberal failures; (b) a pragmatic adjustment to the market and democratization, not by new, but seasoned leaders; (c) reflecting a state-society disjuncture; or (d) highlighting a domestic-external discontinuity?
A comparative survey of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela suggests three 21st Century leftist routes: (a) revolutionary, embodied in Venezuela, directed against the US; (b) pragmatism, emphasizing self-reliance over US dependence, as in Kirschner’s Argentina, Lula’s Brazil, Brachelet’s Chile, and Vázquez’s Uruguay; and (c) nativism, masking behind the left-right division but selectively promoting localism, as in Morales’s Bolivia and Palacio’s Ecuador.
If credible and correct, these pathways (a) threaten the widening and deepening of free trade regimes, (b) expose the soft underbelly of democratization, and (c) sustain the historically reactionary disposition towards the United States. Reacting in terms of the US, and retreat from neoliberalism, democratization, and trade regionalism, in turn,