SHS Spotlight: Contemporary Iran
: Students on a semester project trip in Esfahan, Iran in 2017. © Patrick Ringgenberg
Patrick Ringgenberg, who teaches Contemporary Iran in the College of Humanities Social and Human Sciences (SHS) program, explains why the course is unique and indispensable at EPFL.
As an expert on the culture and history of Iran, Ringgenberg is currently writing his ninth book on the subject. He has no shortage of material: as of late April, Ringgenberg has been waiting to return to Switzerland from the Middle Eastern country for several months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Every day I'm here, I am trying to learn more; to speak to people and to follow the media discourse, for instance on the coronavirus,” he says. “There are very interesting debates here between science and religion, and different social attitudes toward the virus. These are things you can only really analyze while you are here.”
Ringgenberg adds that he plans to add some of these observations to this fall’s edition of Contemporary Iran.
Understanding an empire
The bachelor-level, fall-semester course was first launched in 2017. Now in its third year, the course, which is taught in French, remains unique not only at EPFL, but throughout French-speaking Switzerland. It provides students with the historical, political and cultural foundations to understand the regional power of Iran in the Middle East, as well as its relationship with western countries.
“Iran is a key country in the Middle East. We talk a lot about it, but we know almost nothing about it, especially after the revolution of 1979, when foreigners were more or less excluded,” he explains. “I think this course is important to understand the consequence of the tensions in the Middle East, but also to understand how people really live.”
A major focus of the course is Iran’s perception by other countries. Last year, Ringgenberg started encouraging students to discuss news articles from both western and Iranian media. The goal was to connect Iran’s history with current issues, such as nuclear diplomacy or international sanctions, as well as to analyze how the country’s image is constructed. For example, Ringgenberg argues that Iran’s portrayal in western media as an aggressive, expansionist empire is a misrepresentation.
“The traditional concept of empire in Iran, which started in 6th century BC, is actually very conservative. Once it has defined its borders, it tries to protect them and preserve its culture.”
A chance for creativity
Students in Contemporary Iran have the freedom to choose projects that interest them, such as writing letters to a future U.S. president over relations with Iran, or proposing ideas for how to improve the country’s image. Ringgenberg says it’s a strategy that has yielded some exceptional student work over the past year, and he believes that this demonstrates the importance of creativity in humanities scholarship.
“History shows us how often experts can make mistakes, so it’s important to find new perspectives, and for that, you need creativity. I also like to be able to learn from my students; this is very important to me.”
Ringgenberg adds that he believes that social science skills are an integral part of engineering education at EPFL.
“My father was a chemist, and he used to say, “a chemist who is only interested in chemistry is not really a chemist.” I think that it is important to have other, cultural horizons, and the variety of courses in the College of Humanities is a great opportunity for that.”