Academic Work
Conference Presentations
Variant understandings of the apology pragmeme realisation: a case study
12th International Conference on (Im)Politeness, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, July 2019
Following on from my poster presentation at the 10th International Politeness Symposium, this presentation looks at a case study involving a non-Iranian participant and her Iranian in-law relatives. A family disagreement led to the ‘taking of offence’, which eventually necessitated the smoothing-out of the relationships. Through the employment of apologetic behaviour including the narration of family memories, a meal invitation and the cracking of jokes over a series of interactions, the Iranian participants were able to achieve relationship equilibrium, whereas the non-Iranian participant’s sense of offence was further compounded by these instances of apologetic behaviour, which she experienced as efforts to humour her and to normalize the relationship without acknowledging what caused the offence in the first place and/or offering an apology proper. This case study demonstrates that intercultural relationships can be affected negatively by:
differing understandings of what constitutes an apology and different expectations;
factors such as age, gender, position within the family, educational background);
The paper’s findings can be applied to the management of intercultural relationships in the public and the private sphere (e.g. workplace relations, intercultural management, language teaching, family counselling).
Paper presentation
Partners in joy and sorrow: interpersonal aspects of Tehrani marriage and mourning rituals
15th International Pragmatics Conference, Belfast, July 2017
The paper explores how some social ritual practices, especially those connected with marriage and death/mourning, are still seen by participants and observers as relating to moral order, even in the face of changed everyday realities. Although a number of informants and observers recognize and meta-comment on the status of a ritual as being purely "customary" and "superficial", none reports willingness and intention to depart from the external form. Ethnographic data collected in Tehran, Iran, show that the "ostensivity" (my term) of such ritual practices relates to participants' and observers' sense of the maintenance of the moral order and "face". In such a collective orientation society, even if participants and observers may not be consciously aware of the function of ritual practices, they experience the employment of such rituals as reinforcement of group bonds and expression of respect to participants' individual and collective face. In a large metropolis such as Tehran, which has undergone a huge metamorphosis in the last thirty years, this study of ritual reflects the transition that is now underway, as traditional ritual practices are adapted to fit new social realities, while retaining their social and interpersonal functions.
Poster Presentation
Apologetic behaviour: towards a redefinition
10th International Politeness Symposium, York St John University, July 2017
Persian natural data indicate that prototypical apologies are generally understood as admission of wrongdoing or responsibility by Iranians and therefore as serious threats to speakers’ face (shakhsiat), so they are often consciously avoided. On the other hand, the swift ‘smoothing-out’ of bad feelings and the maintenance of rapport and are positively valued among Iranians. This conundrum gives rise to the use of alternative verbal and non-verbal strategies aimed at neutralizing the damage and normalizing the relationship in situations which might call for a prototypical apology in other cultures. Analysis of data collected through ethnographic methods confirms that prototypical apologies are face-threatening and identifies a range of alternative verbal and non-verbal strategies. It concludes that for a verbal or non-verbal behavior to be understood as an apology, the originator's intention is not enough; the recipient and any participants/bystanders need to consider it as such. Interlocutors’ differing perceptions and expectations raise (among others) issues of relationship historicity and the role of emotions in apologetic behaviour.
Paper presentation
One Event, Two Readings: A look at Alexander’s Expedition to Iran in Iranian and Greek history schoolbooks
East and Europe Conference, University of Amsterdam, June 2016
Paper presentation
A look at how Greek and Iranian schoolbooks treat Alexander the Great’s Persian expedition indicates that a great part of the general population’s knowledge of their national history derives from school history lessons, written with predetermined agendas. It suggests that a different way of looking at historical events, taking into account the different readings of a certain historical event might be adopted by historians. In this way one can arrive at a new understanding of nations and their histories examining them through a different angle, away from delineations of present political borders and readings of historical events shaped by governments and perpetuated through history schoolbooks.
Joint presentation with Fatemeh Faridi Majid (Iranology Foundation, Tehran)