The Strait of Hormuz and War in Iran: A Film Screening and Discussion

Doors open at 5:30 PM. Event begins at 6:00 PM.

For 50 years, the Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV) has equipped our community with tools to build a just and peaceful world. We’re proud to collaborate with to host this film screening and discussion. The Center is dedicated to the project of creating community and promoting education and research about the histories, politics, and cultures of the peoples who live in the Middle East and North Africa. This event is part of our Santa Cruz United in Love initiative cultivating Beloved Community, shared learning, and solidarity. We hope you'll join us as we continue to deepen our collective integrity and accountability.

Join us for a screening of the film and a discussion by Nidhi Mahajan (UCSC) and Stephen Zunes (USF), two prominent experts on the Persian Gulf region. While recent events have highlighted the centrality of the Strait of Hormuz for shipping routes and oil, the film explores the deeper ways that global trade and local religious practices intersect. The screening will be followed by a discussion on the current war in the Persian Gulf, its regional reverberations, and the longer histories of trade in the Indian Ocean.

Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco. He has written and lectured extensively about Iran and U.S. Middle East policy and has been one of the few American scholars allowed to visit Iran in recent years, meeting with top government officials, leading dissidents, and ordinary Iranians.

Nidhi Mahajan is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her first book, Moorings: Voyages of Capital across the Indian Ocean, was published by UC Press in June 2025. She has also published in journals such as Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Monsoon, History of the Present, and Island Studies Journal.

In addition to her academic work, Mahajan is a practicing artist, with her projects exhibited at the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, Diriyah Biennale (Saudi Arabia), Macondo Literature Festival (Kenya), Hayy Jameel (Saudi Arabia), Khoj Studios (India), and other international venues.

Everyone is welcome. Sliding scale ticket donations ($0-50) support RCNV's vital work.

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