Lines of Enquiry

This line of  enquiry seeks leads to the intersection of history, territory and international relations. In broad terms, it falls under the auspices of heritage diplomacy by talking questions about the use of the past in international relations and conversely, by seeking to articulate the impact of international relations and diplomacy in reframing pasts and thus conjuring forms of heritage. Issues of territorial dispute and cultural-historical claims, civilizational fault-lines and advancement of soft power fall within the scope of this enquiry. 

The outcomes thus far include:

•  Mozaffari, A. and Akbar, A., 2022. Iran’s soft power in Azerbaijan: shifting cultural dynamics in the post-Soviet era. International Journal of Cultural Policy, pp.1-19. Doi:  https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2022.2135706.
• Mozaffari, A. and Barry, J., 2022. Heritage and territorial disputes in the Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict: a comparative analysis of the carpet museums of Baku and Shusha. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 28(3), pp.318-340. (This is open-access and available from https://bit.ly/389IRkN)

This line of  research, which is conceived and pursued in close collaboration with Professor David Harvey of Aarhus university,  seeks to understand and problematise the relationship between borders heritages. It engages with questions such as:

• What is the relationship between heritage and borders (as things)? In disciplinary terms, how is heritage utilized in border studies and bordering practices? And, in terms of technologies and in disciplinary practices, how do borders come into and operate within heritage?
• What useful cases exemplify this practice of border straddling where heritage and borders work in tandem?
• How are boundaries of civilizations negotiated, enacted and performed through various forms of heritage diplomacy?
• how can we make space for the possibility and practical realisation of constructive and peaceful aspects of heritage?
• How do border-straddling heritages lend themselves to different modes of soft-power and cultural influence beyond the borders of the nation-state?
• How do pertinent concepts such as agonism, liminality, transnationalism or hybridity; each offer certain challenges and opportunities with which to think through social-historical conditions of heritage at any given scale?

Probing such questions is leading to a forthcoming collection of essays (currently under consideration by publisher) and a short monograph. 

This line of research conceptualises the role played by the built environment, and specifically design, in mediating the relationship between the past and the present, i.e. the making of heritage, in the developmental context of Iran. The core argument is that in societies such as Iran, development and its associated projects cause a shift in historical consciousness, which in turn causes different  and novel cultural expressions, leading to the formation of heritage. 

This line of enquiry has resulted in a number of publications including:

• Mozaffari, A. and Westbrook, N., 2022. In search of continuity with the past: Houshang Seyhoun’s Ferdowsi mausoleum complex as cultural landscape. International Journal of Environmental Studies, pp.1-22. (preprint available from https://bit.ly/3kTDAjN)
• Mozaffari, A. and Westbrook, N., 2020. Development, architecture, and the formation of heritage in late twentieth-century Iran: A vital past. (currently under translation into Persian)

Related to the above lines of enquiry, this area of research is concerned with the ideological import of the past in the formation of the discourse of Islamic Architecture. 

It has had multiple outputs in English and Persian, the latest being a Persian article in the journal Tabl (No. 7, January 2022) entitled:  Global exchanges, the Cold War and probing the meaning of a contemporary Islamic Architecture 

This project, which began as a collaborative endeavour between Ali Mozaffari and Tod Jones, was an attempt to understand the relationship between social movement and cultural heritage. It tresponded to a methodological and theoretical gap in critical heritage research, namely the systematic approach to and analysis of collective action in heritage production and contestation. Our approach was informed by theories advanced by James Jasper. 

Project outputs included a number of journal articles and an edited volume. 

Sponsoring bodies include:

• Curtin University
• Australia-Asia-Pacific Institute (AAPI-Curtin University)
• Research Unit for the Study of Societies in Change (RUSSIC-Curtin University)
• Alfred Deakin Institute (ADI, Deakin University)
• Australian Research Council (ARC)

This line of enquiry follows the formation and contestation of heritage in modern Iran. The research, which falls within the domain of critical heritage studies, has drawn on theories and methodologies in anthropology, museum studies, architecture, urban studies and history. The outputs have pioneered the interpretative study of the National Museum of Iran (in Forming National Identity in Iran),  the relationship between heritage and place through with a particular focus on Pasargadae World Heritage site (in World Heritage in Iran), examination of site museum architecture in World Heritage site of Pasargadae (also in World Heritage in Iran), activism in heritage and heritage NGOs (in multiple articles and book chapters), formation of and idea of Iran as the frame for tourism in contemporary Iran (book chapter), and a few other contributions available here. 

The relationship between image, especially moving image, and the uses of the past in the present (thus heritage) is significant and yet there is a shortage of a systematic approach to the topic. This area of investigation seeks to fill this gap. 

The latest output of this research is :

•  Mozaffari, A. and Gonzalez Zarandona, J.A., 2021. Screening Heritage: Critical Heritage and Film Through the Example of “Taq Kasra: Wonder of Architecture” Documentary. Heritage & Society, 14(2-3), pp.139-159.  

A pre-print of the article is available from https://bit.ly/3FKo0Rr

Link to full issue online: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/yhso20/14/2-3