PRESENTATIONS
Research-Related:
2008. “The Audacity of the Sociology of Hope: Lessons from Obama for Mannheim, Mills and Burawoy in Advancing Public Sociology.” Panel paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Humanist Sociology, November 6-9, 2008, Boston. Theme, “What is to Be Done? Public Sociology in Politics and Practice.”
2008. Invited. “Beyond Islamophobia and Islamophilia as Western Epistemic Racisms: Insights from Sufism.” Panel paper presented at the conference “Deconstructing Islamophobia: Immigration, Globalization, and Constructing the Other,” organized by the Center for Race and Gender, U.C. Berkeley, CA, April 25-28.
2008. “’I Change Myself, I Change the World’: Anzaldúa’s Sociological Imagination in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.” Refereed panel paper presented at a Theory Section session at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Boston, MA, August 1-4.
2008. “Beyond Ourselves?: Knowing the Globe Through the Self-Reflective Mode.” Panel presentation at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, NYC, February 21-24.
2008. “The Sociology of Meditation: A Critical Auto-ethnography of a Strange 10-Day Vipassana Meditation Experience.” Panel presentation at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, NYC, February 21-24.
2008. “The Engaged Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay): The Globally Transformative Mode of “Interbeing” of a Meditative Man.” Roundtable presentation at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, NYC, February 21-24.
2007. “Utopystics and the Asiatic Modes of Liberation: Gurdjieffian Contributions to the Sociological Imaginations of Inner and Global World-Systems.” Panel paper presented at the 31st Conference of the Political Economy of the World-System (PEWS) Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, May 10-12.
2007. “Intersecting Autobiography, History, and Theory: The Subtler Global Violences of Colonialism and Racism in Fanon, Said, and Anzaldúa.” Panel paper presented at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum, March 27-28, 2007, at UMass Boston.
2007. “Peer Reviewing the Peer Review Process: Toward Liberating Practices of Scholarship Diversity.” Panel paper presented at the 77th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, March 15-18.
2007. “As Above, So Below: Theoretical Meditations on the Alchemy of Diversity and Pedagogical Flexibility in Newtonian and Quantal Classrooms.” Panel paper presented at the 77th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, March 15-18.
2006. “Utopystics Beyond Marxism: Transgressing the Borderlands of Utopia, Mysticism and Science.” Refereed panel paper presented at the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Montreal, Canada, August 11-14.
2006. “From Utopistics to Utopystics: Integrative Reflections on Potential Contributions of Mysticism, Esoteric Islam, and Sufism to World-Systems Analyses and Praxes of Historical Alternatives.” Panel paper presented at the 30th Conference of the Political Economy of the World-System (PEWS) Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, April 20-23.
2006. “Middle Eastern Insights into Anzaldúa’s Utopystic and Quantal Sociological Imagination: Toward New Agenda.” Panel paper presented at the Third Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum, April 5-6, 2006, at UMass Boston.
2006. “From the Sociological Imagination to Imaginative Sociology: Human Architecture, Sociology of Self-Knowledge, and Utopystics as Transformative Exercises in Applied Sociological Method, Theory, and Practice.” Panel paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, February 23-26.
2006. “Transcending the Dualism of Social Stage and Mental Space: Bridging Utopystics with Borderlands Sociology in the Liberating Social Theory of Gloria Anzaldúa.” Panel paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Boston, February 23-26.
2005. “Building the Sociology of Self-Knowledge: Theoretical Reflections on Newtonian and Quantal Sociological Imaginations.” Presentation as part of the Junior Faculty Colloquium Series organized by the CLA Dean’s Office, UMass Boston. December 13.
2005. “Outlines for a Sociology of Self-Knowledge (Appendix: Comparative Perspectives, Competing Explanations: Reconstructing the History of the Sociology of Knowledge Project)" Refereed paper presented at a roundtable session of the Theory Section of the 100th Centennial Conference of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, August 13-16.
2005. “Orientalist and Liberating Discourses of East-West Difference: Revisiting Edward Said and the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.” Panel paper presented at the Second Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum, to be held at UMass Boston, April 6-7.
2005. “Abu Ghraib as a Microcosm: The Strange Face of Empire as a Lived Prison.” Panel paper presented at the 75th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society held in Washington, DC, March 17-20.
2004. “Private Sociologies and Burawoy’s Sociology Types: Reflections on Newtonian and Quantum Sociological Imaginations.” Refereed paper presented at a roundtable session of the Theory Section of the Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, August 14-17.
2004. “Freire Meets Gurdjieff and Rumi: Towards the Pedagogy of Oppressed and Oppressing Selves.” Panel paper presented at the First Annual Meeting of the Social Theory Forum held at UMass Boston, April 7.
2004. “Rethinking Sociology: Self, Knowledge, Practice, and Dialectics in Transitions to Quantum Social Science.” Panel paper at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society held in NYC, Feb. 19-22.
2003. “Listen to How This Reed is Wailing: Rumi in New English Verse Translation.” Invited panel paper presented at the SAMLA (South Atlantic Modern Languages Association), Atlanta, Nov. 14-16.
2003. “Human Progress and the Fettering Marx: The Three Component Parts and Errors of Marxism.” Invited panel paper presented at Rethinking Marxism’s 5th Gala Conference “Marxism and the World Stage,” held at UMass Amherst, Massachusetts, Nov. 6-8.
2003. “Neither Idealist, Nor Materialist: the Dialectical Method.” Refereed paper presented at a roundtable session of the Marxist Section of the Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta, August 16-19.
2003. “Marx, Gurdjieff, and Mannheim: Contested Utopistics of Self and Society in World-Historical Context.” Panel paper presented at the World History Association Conference, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, June 26-29.
2003. “Bridging Civilizational Utopistics, East and West: Rumi in New English Verse Translation.” Panel paper presented at the conference “Tropology: Text and Context.” Binghamton University (SUNY), March 21-22, Binghamton.
2002. “Iran: The Land and the Century of Failed Revolutions.” Invited presentation in the course ALS 215: “Modern Middle East and North Africa,” offered by Dr. K. O’Mara, SUNY-Oneonta, Fall.
2000. “The Poetics of Space in Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat: Selected Readings From New English Translations in Verse.” Paper presented at the conference “The Poetics of Space.” Binghamton University (SUNY), March 10-11, Binghamton.
1999. “Ideology and Utopia in Mannheim: Towards the Sociology of Self Knowledge.” Refereed paper presented at a roundtable session of the History of Sociology Section of the 94th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Aug. 6-10, Chicago.
1999. “‘Cowboys and Indians’ Without and Within: Building the Dialectical Sociology of World-Historical Self-Knowledge.” Panel paper presented at the conference “Identity, Ethnicity, Origins.” Binghamton University (SUNY), March 5-6, Binghamton.
1991. “The Gulf Crisis.” Invited speaker at an event organized by Lyceum: A Lifetime Learning Association, Binghamton, NY, Spring.
1987. “The Story of U.S.-Iran Relations.” Invited speaker at an event sponsored by the Sociology Club, Binghamton University (SUNY), Fall.
Teaching-Related:
2008. “The Meanings of Diversity and Inclusive Teaching and Learning.” Presented on the panel “Meanings of Inclusive Teaching: Pedagogical, Political, and Personal” at the annual conference of the New England Center for Inclusive Teaching (NECIT), Oct. 18.
2007. “Diverse Schools, Flexible Courses: Anzaldúan Reflections on the Alchemy of Teaching and Learning the Sociology of Self-Knowledge.” Panel paper presented (by panel chair, Prof. Arlene Dallalfar) at Annual Conference of the Center for Improvement of Teaching (CIT) held at UMass Boston, January 2007.
2007. “Grounding Sociological Theories in Pedagogy: Classroom Publishing of Diverse Scholarships of Student Learning in Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge.” Panel paper presented at the 77th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, March 15-18.
2006. “Infusing Change in Course Design.” Panel co-organizer and presenter at the Annual Conference of the Center for the Improvement of Teaching (CIT) held at UMass Boston, January.
2006. “Writing for Publication in Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge.” Invited presentation in the course Health Education 400-3: “Writing for Publication” offered at Worcester College. Instructor: Professor Lynn Bloomberg, Worcester College, MA. February 14.
2006. “Infusing Change in Course Design.” Panel presentation at the Annual Conference of the Center for Improvement of Teaching (CIT) held at UMass Boston, January 2006.
2005. “Evaluating Student Evaluations: Toward More Effective Strategies for Evaluating Faculty Teaching.” Organized, chaired and presented at a workshop at the Annual Center for Improvement of Teaching (CIT) Conference held at UMass Boston, January.
2005. “Teaching Students With Different Levels of Academic Preparation in the Same Classroom.” Invited panelist for a forum organized by the Center for Improvement of Teaching, UMass Boston, April 11.
2004. “Classroom Publishing as a Transformative Pedagogical Process.” Workshop presentation (along with Professor Jorge Capetillo-Ponce) at the annual Center for Improvement of Teaching (CIT) Conference held at UMass Boston, January.