CafeLitt 181: Persia and Greece, Revisited

Wed 25 Aug 2010, 19:00, by Yusef Amiri, at Bistro Burritoville:3rd floor, 2055 Rue Bishop, Montreal,QC (Map)
Western media and historiography have exaggerated a lot about the relation of Persian Empire and Greece and presents a distorted picture and imbalanced view which blows the importance of Greece out of proportion. This trend actually started in the Classical Greece itself and has continued to our day. We hear ridiculous claims such as 'Greeks saved the civilization and guaranteed human freedom and liberty by defeating Persia' or clichés such as 'Eastern tyranny' and so. In the past couple decades this view has been questioned and critical research has started to reveal the true picture of Persian Empire and its... more >>

180: The History of Law Schools in Iran

Wed 18 Aug 2010, 19:00, by Yazdan Valinejad, at Bistro Burritoville:3rd floor, 2055 Rue Bishop, Montreal,QC (Map)
The teaching of Law started in Iran when the "School of Political Science" was established on December 19th, 1899 by the Foreign Ministry during the fourth year of the reign of Qajar king, Mozaffar od-Din Shah. The School of Political Science was the only second specialised school of higher education to be established in Iran after Dar-Al-Fonoun's School of Medicine had been created. The main and the first aim of the School of Political Science were to educate and to train the administrative and managerial personnel needed by the Iranian State. The most important subjects on the syllabus of the... more >>
Future Sessions:

9th September 2010: Culture; an evolutionary point of view by Pasha Javadi
16th September 2010: On the death and life of languages by Mohammad Jabbary Hagh

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CafeLitt 179: The Dotar and its music in Khorassan and Central Asia

Thu 12 Aug 2010, 19:00, by Dr Farrokh Vahabzadeh, at Bistro Burritoville:3rd floor, 2055 Rue Bishop, Montreal,QC (Map)
Farrokh Vahabzadeh is an ethnomusicologist. He has obtained his Ph.D degree on Social Anthropology and Ethnology from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. His dissertation is an indepth study of the Dotar, a long necked, two stringed instrument which is available in variable forms in Central Asia and in the province of Khorassan in Iran. The research considers the study of music through a variety of perspectives, focusing not only on the classical sense of the word, but also on the physical aspects of the instrument, on performance traditions, on symbolism, mythology and other anthropological implications.... more >>

CafeLitt 178: Social Changes

Thu 5 Aug 2010, 19:00, by Ali Paknejad, at Bistro Burritoville:3rd floor, 2055 Rue Bishop, Montreal,QC (Map)
Do societies follow a defined pattern of change? Are there parameters which could guide the social scientist to assess the change, or the social activist to substantiate the change in their society?Does the prevalent model of change in advanced industrial societies can be juxtaposed to other less technologically advanced non western societies? What are the strength and weakness of Historical sociology? Can sociologist make previsions with regards to the future of a society or should they leave the task to prophets?In his classical introductory book on general sociology, Guy Rocher answers some of these questions and delineates the fundamental concepts... more >>

About us

CaféLitt is not a place; it is a gathering of minds. We are a group of mostly Persian young students, scholars and professionals who gather every Thursday evening around 19h00 to discuss various subjects and share different ideas, ranging vastly from history to science, from literature to fine arts. We started these gatherings on Jan 17th, 2006 with 5 people and have reached an average weekly audience of about 40 people. Each week, one of us takes the responsibility of presenting a topic for about an hour in a subject s/he is intimately familiar with or has an expertise in. Afterwards, the evening turns into a discussion forum and all members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask their question(s) and share their points of view.

Some new and exciting ideas were born out of CaféLitt sessions. We have started a series of monthly meetings called CaféCinema during which a movie is presented and discussed in some detail afterward. This year's program of CaféCinema revolves around the history of Iranian cinema. Some Cinema students hold these sessions (mainly conducted in English) on the last Sunday of each month.

Likewise, CaféLitt BookClub is an activity where people who like books decide to read a book each month and discuss it during a cozy Café session on the second Sunday of every month.

CaféTheatre is a series of semi-rehearsed sessions in which we select a play, divide the roles among different people and read the play from the text in front of an audience. Similar to other CaféLitt sessions, each CaféTheatre session will end with a discussion of that day's play.  

CaféScience and CaféPhilo are our plans for near future. The purpose of CaféScience is to provide a forum for the public discussion and understanding of all scientific findings and ideas, with an emphasis on new, interesting and publicly relevant topics. During CaféPhilo sessions, we will talk about philosophy, its history and all its related aspects.

CaféLitt is pen to all comments, suggestion and new ideas. CaféLitt provides an unparalleled opportunity for learning about culture, science and philosophy in a relaxed and friendly environment, and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with like-minded members of your community.

CafeLitt is a nonpartisan, nonreligious and nonpolitical entity.


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