Lecture Series

Lecture 20: Democracy: The Theory and Practice

Date & Time: Thursday October 8, 2009 – 7:30 PM

Location: Montgomery Community College (Rockville Campus) – Humanity Building (HU), Conference Room 009 ( Get Directions, Campus Map )

Speaker: Dr. Aram Hessami
Synopsis:
In this presentation, we will attempt to answer two basic questions:
What is Democracy? And how is it practiced?

Through examination of the philosophical foundation of democracy, we will explore the values which have given rise to a particular set of discourses and a particular set of practices in the modern and the post-modern era. What are these values and procedures and how have they shaped our culture?

In order to encourage the participation of our greater Iranian community, this lecture is delivered in Farsi.

About the Lecturer:
Dr. Aram Hessami is a professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Montgomery College in Rockville Maryland. He is a native of Iran and immigrated to the United States in May of 1979. He received his BA, MA, and Doctorate in Political Science from The George Washington University in 1993. Dr. Hessami’s specialization is in Western Political Thought. His Dissertation is on Democracy & Postmodern Thinking. Since September 2001, he is the Middle East expert for a CNN affiliate, WRNR radio, in Martinsburg West Virginia. Dr. Hessami is also a weekly guest every Friday in “Tafsir Khabar” for The Voice of America Television based in Washington D.C. since December 2007. His writing and research focus on modern political theory and comparative politics.

Fee (including dinner): $5 Students, $15 Public

Student Scholarship Award Ceremony, Fundraising & Scientific Lecture

Thursday July 9, 2009, 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Student Scholarship Award Ceremony and Fundraising:

IAA’s Student Scholarships will be awarded to three highly achieved applicants in a special ceremony on Thursday July 9. This session includes Dinner, IAA Annual Report, Fundraising for future Scholarships, Scientific Lecture and Music Performance.

Lecture 19: Kidney Stone Disease: Facts and Myths
By: Babak Barmar, MD
Synopsis:
Kidney stone disease (nephrolithiasis) is a relatively common disease in the world. It needs close medical attention since the treatment is in most cases very simple and since in some cases it may become a major cause for kidney failure and dialysis dependency. The purpose of this lecture is to talk about and discuss causes and simple treatment options for this disorder.
About the Lecturer:

Dr. Babak Barmar is currently the staff Nephrologist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He performed his Nephrology Fellowship from 2006 to 2008 and his Geriatric Fellowship from 2005 to 2006 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Barmar also performed his internal medicine residency during 2002 to 2005 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Barmar attended Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) in Aachen, Germany and obtained his MD in 2001. He is currently certified by the American Board of Nephrology, American Board of Geriatric Medicine, and American Board of Internal Medicine. He has numerous publications and presentations at medical journal and societies.

Location:

Montgomery Community College (Rockville Campus), Building: Campus Center (CC), Faculty Lounge

Get Directions, Bulding Location on Campus

Dues: $20 per person, $5 for students (including dinner)

Lecture 18: Globalization and the Challenge of Defining One’s Own Identity

Thursday May 14, 2009, 7:30 pm
By: Dr. Hossein Seif Zadeh, PhD
Synopsis:

Globalization has made it inevitable for each individual to redefine his/or her identity. This said, nonetheless, redefinition of one’s self is a very difficult task. Due to this abstruseness, there is a tendency among most ordinary citizens of the globe to skip redefining the self. Instead, they subscribe themselves as the disciples of selected celebrities, as they passively wish. Yet there are other alternative ways. These attempts at defining oneself can range from that passive end to a proactive one defined in terms of ‘protocol identity.” The options in-between are more influenced by a pull-push mechanism between the following two constituents of human’s personal or institutional identity: (1) the ascriptive root (Nasabi) of the self and (2) the achieving status of the self (Sababi.) Inspired by the Persian-speaking Iranian Orafa such as Hafez and Khayyam, and through a post-modern prism, Dr. Seif Zadeh has offered “protocol identity” as an intellectual construct to overcome this uni-dimensionalism. The suggested model is designed in a way to empower each individual to independently define her/or his self, as he/or she will. The multiple dimensions and the flexible configuration of the suggested model of protocol identity seem to provide each individual person or institution with an exit formula to overcome the identity challenge-arising from the globalization processes. The prefix protocol for identity indicates that identity is context-bound. That is it can be redefined due to changes in both situational ideational dimensions of life. In his talk, Dr. Seif Zadeh discuss these aspects of human life and how to tackle the identity challenge.

About the Lecturer:

Dr. Hossein Seifzadeh is currently an Adjunct Scholar at Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. He is a retired professor of Political Science at University of Tehran, Law and Politics Dept. His main interest is Iran’s international and domestic politics. As such, he delved himself into a variety of Iranian political life aspects including both theoretical and practical, and also ancient, mid and modern dimensions of it. Cultural and democratic aspects of Iranian politics have been more addressed by him. He is the author of more than 20 books and has published more than 160 papers in international journals. Dr. Seifzadeh has done his post-doc at Harvard University (1991-2) and his Ph.D. studies at University of California-Santa Barbara (1980-3.) He submitted his Doctoral dissertation to the University of Tehran in 1985. He has two Master degrees in Public Administration from University of California-Chico (1979) and Political Science from Tehran (1974.) Since 1975, he has taught in different higher education institutes in Iran and participated in numerous international seminars and academic ventures across the board. In this respect, he has been invited to Harvard University as a Visiting Professor several times and is heading to Argentina in the coming Summer.

Montgomery Community College (Rockville Campus)- Humanity Building (HU), Conference Room 009

Get Directions, Bulding Location on Campus

Dues: $15 per person, $5 for students (including dinner)