Book Talk with Dr. Mahdi Ganjavi: Revolutionary Engineers

Revolutionary Engineers: Learning, Politics, and Activism at Aryamehr University of Technology

A book talk by one of the three co-authors.

In 1966, the Shah of Iran established Arya-Mehr University of Technology (AMUT), now known as Sharif University of Technology, as part of a larger campaign to modernize the nation. In 1979, AMUT engineering students played a critical role in the revolution that overthrew the Shah and his regime. In Revolutionary Engineers, Sepehr Vakil, Mahdi Ganjavi, and Mina Khanlarzadeh show how Western notions of scientific and technical rigor combined in unexpected ways with Iranian and Islamic values at AMUT in the years directly preceding the 1979 Iranian revolution. They also argue that global perspectives, particularly from the Global South, can deepen and complicate contemporary discussions on ethics, epistemology, and knowledge production in STEM fields.

The authors present the cultural, political, and pedagogical history of AMUT, from its 1966 establishment up to its pivotal role in the 1979 revolution, while delving into the complex interplay of global, national, and Islamic values in STEM education. In the past several years, STEM education scholars have challenged the epistemological and ontological foundations of STEM education research and practice, while deepening the field's engagement with questions of power, ethics, race, and justice. The case of AMUT presents the opportunity to contribute a Global South perspective to studies of the civic, cultural, and political functions and foundations of science and engineering education. Sharif University continues to be at the epicenter of politics in Iran.

About the Speaker:

Mahdi Ganjavi, PhD (University of Toronto), is a lecturer, scholar, publisher, and distinguished historian specializing in the history of education, print, and literature in the Middle East. A former postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy, he currently teaches at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information.

Ganjavi is also a publisher (Asemana Books) and cultural entrepreneur (Alef Persian Book), directing a platform devoted to progressive literature and scholarship on the Middle East, while curating diasporic literary events across North America. As the Editor-in-Chief of Asemana Magazine, he brings forward progressive, underrepresented, and diasporic voices that engage with resistance, memory, decolonial thought, and literary experimentation. His publishing and cultural projects aim to democratize cultural memory, bridge academic and civic knowledge, and support community-led archiving.

His research spans intellectual freedom, the transnational history of literature, books, education, print, and translation, as well as the politics of archives and counter-archiving practices in the contemporary Middle East.

Ganjavi’s book, Education and the Cultural Cold War in the Middle East: The Franklin Book Programs in Iran (2023), was awarded the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) 2023 Book Award. His second monograph, co-authored and titled Revolutionary Engineers: Learning, Politics, and Activism at Aryamehr University of Technology, is published by MIT Press in 2025. His scholarly writings, essays, and reviews have been featured in The American Archivist, International Journal of Lifelong Education, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Iranian Studies, and the Review of Middle East Studies.

Host or Publisher SFU Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies