The Jordan Center for Persian Studies in collaboration with ADVOCARTSY would like to invite you for the book launch of Ardeshir Mohassess: A Retrospective, by Ary Babaknia & Ali Banuazizi
Saturday, April 27 | 2:00 pm
Humanities Instructional Building (HIB 135)
UCI | Jordan Center for Persian Studies
Ardeshir Babaknia, MD is a Johns Hopkins trained physician, currently serving as a Health Sciences professor at Chapman University in Irvine, California. Renowned for pioneering work in minimally invasive surgery and laser-based medical treatments, he's earned numerous honors such as the National Medical Research Award from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. A prolific contributor to women's health, Dr. Babaknia has penned several books and over 50 scholarly articles.
Beyond medicine, he is a champion of Persian culture and the arts. He founded the Persian Arts Foundation and holds positions on multiple cultural and scientific boards. His deep dive into Holocaust research resulted in a groundbreaking four-volume series in Persian, which won the Reference Book of the Year Award in 2013.
In the past decade, Dr. Babaknia has expanded his portfolio to include art, particularly in glass and ceramics, addressing themes of social justice and human rights, the richness of Persian culture and history, and the Judaic values and virtues. This endeavor earned him the Nowruz Award in art, in 2022. His 30-piece series "Par ē Simorgh," inspired by the mythical bird from the epic Shahnameh, promotes a universal message of revival, freedom, peace, and prosperity.
Ali Banuazizi is Research Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies at M.I.T. After receiving his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1968, he taught at Yale and the University of Southern California before joining the Boston College Faculty in 1971. Since then, he has held visiting appointments at the University of Tehran, Princeton, Hebrew University, Harvard, Oxford University, and M.I.T. He served as the founding editor of the journal of Iranian Studies, from 1968 to 1982. He is a past president of the Association for Iranian Studies (AIS) and of the Middle East Studies Association in North America (MESA); associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World; and currently editor of Freedom of Thought Journal.
Ali Banuazizi is the author of numerous articles on society, culture, and politics of Iran and the Middle East, and coauthor (with A. Ashraf) of Social Classes, the State and Revolution in Iran (2008) and coeditor (with M. Weiner) of three books on politics, religion, and society in Southwest and Central Asia.