Mr. Ali Baroutian

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Bio

Ali Baroutian is a PhD student in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research examines Iranian Islamism, Shi‘i religious movements, and religious subject formation at the intersection of the sociology of religion and education. He holds master’s degrees in Religious Studies, Cultural Studies, and Islamic Philosophy and Theology. His current work explores Shi‘i Islamic schools in Iran and the United States.

Anti-Modern Modernity: Iranian Islamism and the Re-Signification of Modern Concepts, Institutions, and Discourses of Emancipation

Abstract

This paper examines “anti-modern modernity”: Iranian Islamism’s appropriation and re-signification of modern concepts, institutions, and emancipatory discourses. It traces three stages: ignoring, repudiation, and re-signification. Through freedom, schooling, and anti-colonial and anti-imperialist discourses, it shows how modern forms can serve disciplinary and ideological projects that produce pious subjects, legitimize authority, and exclude dissent, remaining modern in form yet anti-modern in their aims and consequences.