Professor Talinn Grigor is participating in Cities Workshop 4: Shiraz at the Silsila Center for Material Histories at New York University. Talinn will discuss “The Return of Persepolis to Shiraz, 1771-1971″ on this December 6 panel workshop.

Talinn discusses how Shiraz, as the epicenter of the Persian Revival style of the nineteenth century, was a conduit for the transfer of ideas and forms from Parsi Bombay to Qajar Tehran. From Karim Khan’s garden pavilions in the 1770s to Mohammad Reza Shah’s royal celebrations in 1971, Shiraz served as the stone manifesto of the ‘lithographic axis’ among geographic generalities and historical times. By tracing the architectural and historiographical development of the Persian Revival, Talinn reveals the mechanics of a symbiotic relationship between invented traditions and enduring artistic practices, which, in turn, formed an experience of modernity grounded in Shiraz.