Thinking the Unthinkable: Foucault and the Islamic Revolution by Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi 

Thoroughly enjoyed this lecture. Very informative and the professor's humor and self-awareness are appreciated

Heard 4 years ago. When i was still in the College, what a great times. So acurate apt lecture, very parallel to my own intellectual journey!

Foucault had a real fond ness for young Muslims.❤

It's so cool when the speaker talks to you and doesn't star at his papers!

Great presentation.

"French Revolution 2.5% participation." That is hard to swallow. The Great Fear (Grande Peur) spread through France. "The panic began in the Franche-Comté, spread south along the Rhône valley to Provence, east towards the Alps and west towards the centre of France. Almost simultaneously, a panic began in Ruffec, south of Poitiers, and travelled to the Pyrenees, toward Berry and into the Auvergne. The uprising coalesced into a general 'Great Fear' as neighbouring villages mistook armed peasants for brigands. "

Tabrzi appears to be living on a different planet. While economic disasters invariably lead to political turmoil and uncertainty, the Islamic regime never saw anything wrong in the plight of the working class. The onset of recession and slump, despite the oil wealth enriching the regime, certainly leads to questions and a significant political radicalization amongst certain layers of Iranian society, especially young people.

Mr. Tabrizi intentionally avoids in pointing out those who remained have been targeted to waves of arrests of largely innocent people. They have been accompanied by widespread torture, rape and mass executions. Tens of thousands more were torn away from their homes and moved to Islamic dungeons. These prisoners of conscience were forced to confess to crimes they never committed, and then either exterminated or sent back to medieval Islamic torture chambers where they simply faded away. It is difficult for many people to even talk about these horrible tragedies under the Islamic rules in Iran.

Why does he explain every concept he utters (e.g. epistemology means.... ) ? Either his audience have no idea what he is actually talking about (which is a little bit farfetched since the talk is taking place at Stanford) or his major assumption is that others are idiots and have no understanding of history, philosophy, and Foucault in particular.

marg bar focault marg bar amrika

I hope Iranian scholars could speak a better English, frequent mistakes and pauses and a limited vocabulary all affect the speech and the meaning to be conveyed. Unfortunately, this is an issue rife amongst the majority of Iranian scholars.