Author Description

The American College of Tehran (A Memorial Album, 1932) Prepared by Morteza Gheissari Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Ali Gheissari This volume offers a previously unpublished memorial album of the American College of Tehran compiled by a former student during the early Pahlavi period. The album contains a wide range of contributions by College faculty, associates, occasional visitors as well as fellow students and encompasses material on national history, ethics, sports, military service, mathematics, and poetry, and also pencil drawings and art work. In addition there is a wide range of photographs of the College, its faculty and staff, its diverse student body, classrooms, athletics, special occasions, and outdoor activities. In manifold ways the album's documentary evidence illustrates how the College provided an effective space for its teachers and students with different social and community backgrounds to participate in educational modernization and reform. On the whole the memorial album offers valuable glimpses into the social and educational aspects of the early Pahlavi Iran. Ali Gheissari graduated from Alborz High School and studied Law and Political Science at Tehran University and History at St. Antony's College, Oxford. He teaches at the University of San Diego and has research interest in the intellectual history of modern Iran.