Southwestern's Writer's Voice series hosts Reading Lolita in Tehran author

Southwestern's Writer's Voice series hosts Reading Lolita in Tehran author

By Community Impact Newspaper Staff Wednesday, 12 November 2008

Author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books Azar Nafisi visited Southwestern University Nov. 11 to lecture on the role of literature and cultural curiosity in society.

Nafisi discussed her experience in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, her expulsion as English literature professor at the University of Tehran and ideas about stereotypes of Muslim countries.

Earlier in the day Nafisi visited classes on campus including Assistant Professor Alison Kafer's feminism class.

Nafisi joined audience members after the lecture for a reception and book signing.

Her next book, Things I Have Been Silent About, will be published in January, and she is currently working on another book titled The Republic of the Imagination. Nafisi lives in Washington D.C. and teaches at the Johns Hopkins University. She is also director of the Dialogue Project at the university's Foreign Policy Institute.

The event was scheduled at part of the university's Writer's Voice lecture series inviting a prominent author to speak each fall. Previous authors include Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club, and Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz.

Visit www.southwestern.edu for more information.