(EVENT RECORDING) British Power and the Shaping of Iranian Identity in Early 20th Century Bahrain

On February 22, 2022, the Middle East Center was delighted to host Lindsey Stephenson, who presented on the ways that British power shaped the identity and community formations of Iranians in Bahrain during the early 20th century. See below for a full event description, as well as a link to the recording.

Event Description:

In the early 20th century, the British Political Agent in Bahrain began to represent Iranians living there in judicial disputes. Cases brought to the British court shed light on the growth and transformation of the social fabric of the Iranian community in Bahrain. This talk will explore how Iranians navigated the court, as well as the multiple ways in which British power shaped the identity and community formation of Iranians in Bahrain.

Lindsey Stephenson is a current Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University where she also received her PhD in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. She is a social historian of the Middle East and Indian Ocean. Broadly her work focuses on the transformation of Gulf society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is invested in uncovering stories of pre-oil life, and documenting the ways in which the Gulf shifted away from the Indian Ocean and towards a nationally conceived Middle East. She is particularly interested in law, the built environment, and material culture. Lindsey is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University.

For those unable to attend, CLICK HERE FOR EVENT RECORDING.