Personalities

Dr. Amir Hassanpour

Amir Hassanpour was born in 1943 in Mahabad (Mehabad, Mukríyan Province in Kurdistan), where he went to school, and finished the last year of his secondary school at Dar-ol-Fonun Secondary School in Tehran in 1961. He began his undergraduate studies in economics at University of Tehran (1961), and finished a B.A. in English language in 1964. He studied in Teacher's Training College in Tehran (1965), and for a short time taught in the secondary schools of Mahabad in 1965-66. He was drafted into the Development and Extension Corp of the army and worked at the Land Reform office of Mahabad 1966-68.

In 1968, he began studying linguistics at Tehran University (M.A., 1970) and finished his doctoral work (ABD, 1972), while teaching for a year at the University of Tehran; he went to the university of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where he studied communications (Ph.D, 1989), sociolinguistics and contemporary Middle Eastern history.

Dr. Hassanpour moved to Canada in 1986, and taught communications studies at the University of Windsor and Concordia University in Montreal. He is now an Assistant Professor at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto. His research and teaching interests include international communication, Canadian communication and culture, broadcasting policy, communication theory, and Middle Eastern and Kurdish politics and culture.

He is the author of Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan, 1918-1985 (San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press, 1992). He has made numerous contributions to academic journals, the Encyclopedia of Television, and Encyclopaedia Iranica.

Publications

• 2001: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London, Macmillan (with S. Blum)
  -"Kamkars," Vol. 13, p. 343.
  -"Said Ali Asghar Kurdistani," Vol. 14, pp. 41-42.
  -"Mihammad Mamili," Vol. 15, p. 718.
  -"Miryam Khan," Vol. 16, p. 752.
  -"Shivan Perwer," Vol. 19, p. 477.
  -"Naser Razzazi," Vol. 20, p. 890.
  

  "The (re)production of patriarchy in the Kurdish language," in Mojab, Shahrzad (ed.), Women of a Non-State Nation: The Kurds, Costa Mesa, CA, Mazda Publishers, pp. 227-63.

  Homeland and Hostland: Iranian press in Canada," ISIM [International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World] Newsletter, No. 8, Sept, pp. 1, 34.

  "The regional and international context: Are peace and cooperation possible?" Federations, Special Issue on Afghanistan, October, pp.13-14 [also, on-line www.ciff.on.ca/Publications/Afghan]

• 2000: "The politics of a-political linguistics: Linguists and linguicide," in Robert Phillipson (ed.), Rights to Language: Equity, Power and Education, Mahawi, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, In., Publishers, pp. 33-39.
• 1999: (with Jim Winter), "Why the media speak the language of business and government," in Bohdan Szuchewycz and Jeannette Sloniowski (eds.), Canadian Communications: Issues in Contemporary Media and Culture. Scarborough, Ontario, Prentice Hall Allyn and Bacon Canada, pp. 83-92.

  "Language rights in the emerging world linguistic order: The state, the market and communication technologies," in M. Kontra, R. Phillipson & T. Skutnabb-Kangas (eds.), Language: A Right and a Resource: Approaching Linguistic Human Rights. Budapest, Central European University Press, pp. 223-41.

  "Berengarí barí baw bún: AwiÍLk le jiyaní E'bdul Rehmaní Zebíhí 'ulema' (1920-1980")" [Resisting the "status quo": A look at the life of Abdul Rahman Zabihi "Ulama" (1920-1980)], in Ali Kerimi (ed.), Jiyan ú Beserhatí 'Ebdul Rehmaní Zebíhí ''Mamosta 'Ulema," Göteborg, Sweden, Zagros Media, pp. 15-51.

  "Berbangí zimaní kurdí berbiden!" [Leave the Kurdish language alone!], in Ali Kerimi (ed.), Jiyan ú Beserhatí 'Ebdul Rehmaní Zebíhí ''Mamosta 'Ulema" Göteborg, Sweden, Zagros Media, pp. 447-63.

  "Modernity, popular sovereignty and the Kurdish question: A rejoinder to Argun," Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 1, 1999, pp. 105-114.

• 1998: "The identity of Hewrami speakers: Reflections on the theory and ideology of comparative philology," in Anthology of Gorani Kurdish Poetry, edited by A. Soltani, London, Soane Trust for Kurdistan, pp. 35-49.

  "Satellite footprints as national borders: Med-TV and the extraterritoriality of state sovereignty," Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1998, pp. 53-72.

• 1997: "Med-TV, Großbritannien und der türkische staat: Die suche einer staatenlosen nation nach souveränität am äther" (MED-TV, Britain and the Turkish state: A stateless nation's quest for sovereignty in the sky), in Ethnizität, Nationalismus, Religion und Politik in Kurdistan, edited by C. Brock, E. Savelsberg and S. Hajo, Münster, Germany, Lit Verlag, 1997, pp. 239-78.

  "Edeb," Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. VIII, Fascicle 2, p. 174.

  Encyclopedia of Television, H. Newcomb (ed.), Chicago, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. -"Captioning," Vol. 1, pp. 310-311
  -"Dubbing," Vol. 1, p. 533
  -"Language and television," Vol. 2, pp. 923-26
  -"Subtitling," Vol. 3, pp. 1590-91
  -"Voice-over," Vol. 3, p. 1775.
  

• 1996: "The creation of Kurdish media culture," in P. Kreyenbrock & C. Allison (eds.), Kurdish Culture and Identity, London, Zed Books Ltd, pp. 48-84.

  (with S. Blum), "'The morning of freedom rose up': Kurdish popular songs and the exigencies of cultural survival," Popular Music, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 325-43.

• 1995: (with J. Winter), "Building Babel," in A. Nelson & A. Fleras (eds.), Social Problems in Canada Reader, Scarborough, Ontario, Prentice-Hall Canada, pp. 451-63.

  (with Sh. Mojab), "The politics of nationality and ethnic diversity," in S. Rahnema and S. Behdad (eds.), Iran after the Revolution: Crisis of an Islamic State, London, I. B. Tauris, pp. 229-50.

  "Dimdim," Encyclopædia Iranica, Vol. VII, Costa Mesa, California, Mazda Publishers, pp. 404-405.

  (with T. Skutnabb-Kangas & M. Chyet), "The non-education of the Kurds," International Review of Education (special issue: "Education of Minorities"), Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 367-379.

• 1992: Nationalism and Language in Kurdistan, 1918-1985, San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press,