MOHA Presentation I
Presentation I: Bilingualisms, Regimes of Im/mobility, and Identity in the Oral Histories of Iranian Americans in Michigan
Abstract: A noticeable feature of some interviews of Iranian Americans for the Michigan Iranian American Oral History Project is that the conversation can shift not just between Persian and English, but between versions of both languages. These shifts often conjure a cultural space that is neither Iranian, nor American nor statically “liminal.” Rather, it seems to signal an assertion of agency to travel freely between these identities and the imagined and real boundaries that separate them.
Camron Amin earned his Ph.D in Near Eastern Language and Civilizations in 1996 from the University of Chicago. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan-Dearborn where he is now a professor of History and serves as the Coordinator of the Middle Studies Certificate Program and is developing two digital oral history collections, the Michigan Iranian American Oral History Project and the Modern Middle East Travelers Oral History Project.
Q&A Session
Moderated by Anna Muller, Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan-Dearborn.