Panel 1
"Gender and Society in Iran and Central Asia"

Adrienne Edgar, Associate Professor, History, UCSB
"Gender, Nation, and Modernity in Soviet and Post-Soviet Central Asia"

Ashraf Zahedi, Resident Scholar, Beatrice Bain Research Group, University of California, Berkeley
"Rethinking Gender Policies in Afghanistan"

Nayereh Tohidi, Chair & Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies Dept., California State University, Northridge
"Gender and Transition in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan"

Mary Hegland, Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology and Women & Gender Studies, Santa Clara University
"Gender, Family, Kin, Sexuality Transformation in Iran and Tajikistan"

Plenary Speaker:

Janet Afary, Keddie-Balzan Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles

"The Sexual Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran" 

Janet Afary will be joining the UCSB faculty next year as the new Mellichamp Endowed Chair in Global Religion and Modernity in the Department of Religious Studies, but this year is a visiting fellow at UCLA.

Panel 2
"Central Asia, Pakistan, and Iran in Global Perspective"

Adeeb Khalid, Professor, Dept. of History Carleton College
"After the Soviets: Islam in Contemporary Central Asia"

Shahnaz Rouse, Professor and Chair, Sociology Faculty, Sarah Lawrence College
"State Practices Versus Non-State/Civil Society Peace Initiatives in Pakistan"

Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh, Ph.D. Candidate, UCSB
"A U.S.-Iran Détente?: Views from Iran"

Mona Sheikh, Visiting Research Scholar, Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UCSB
"Talking with Taliban Activists: Militant Jihad in Pakistan" 

Plenary Speaker:

Olivier Roy, Research Director, French National Center for Scientific Research Lecturer, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris
"Imposing Emancipation: What is the West Doing There?"

Olivier Roy is Research Director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a lecturer for both the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP). He is a specialist on Afghanistan and Central Asia and this year is a visiting Professor at UC Berkeley.