Author Azar Nafisi Speaks at NHIOP

On September 10, Dr. Azar Nafisi, scholar and best selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books spoke at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

Nafisi’s talk “The Republic of the Imagination” discusses the ways in which literature transcends political barriers. She argues that literature and imagination are ways to connect and change the world and believes they are necessary for a vibrant, vital culture.

In her lecture, Nafisi questioned, “What would happen if imagination was taken out of the equation? Is it possible to still have a culture with a vision?” She proposes a Republic of the Imagination; a state with a future, a place where all can truly be free.

She argues that imagination is not something you go to and then leave behind. The imagination allows us to place ourselves in others experiences, opening our eyes to the world around us. Through the eyes of imagination we can see an alternative view.

Nafisi is the director of the Dialogue Project at the Foreign Policy Institute of John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. She teaches courses on the relation between culture and politics and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New Republic.

Funding for this event was generously provided by a gift from BAE Systems of Nashua.

Additional support provided by the Norwin S. and Elizabeth N. Bean Foundation, and the Distinguished Scholar Series at the NHIOP.