Past major events
IAUT has hosted many prominent Iranian figures since its inception, academics as Hossein Elahi-Ghomshei, Mohammad Eslami-Nadoushan, Homayoun Katouzian, Reza Mansouri, Ehsan Yarshater, musicians as Hossein Dehlavi, film directors as Tahmineh Milani, Bahman Ghobadi, journalists as Masoud Behnoud, Akbar Ganji and political figures as Mohammad Maleki, and Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeini.
Here are some of the major events of IAUT in the last few years:
- Under the Azure Dome was the biggest ever Iranian cultural festival in Canada by its inception. It was held from March 17 to 19, 2006 in celebration of Norouz (Persian New Year) at the Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre. Some of the festival highlights include:
- Duration of the festival: 2.5 days
- More than 100 performing artists
- More than 20 different performances/events
- 30 organizing committees employing 120 volunteers
- Estimated number of festival visitors: 15,000 to 20,000
- Our 2008 Nowruz festival was held on March 19 at UofT’s Hart House. The event showcased Persian food, traditional music, dance, storytelling, calligraphy, Persian marquetry and other displays. Over 500 visitors attended the event.
For some video clips from the event, see event’s page. Here are some pictures from the event:
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| Nowruz 2008@UofT |
- Colors Of Iran festival has been held twice with collaboration of UofT’s Hart House in 2003 and 2005. The event showcased Persian food, traditional music, dance and other displays. Below are some pictures of the first one in 2003.
Here are some pictures of the 2005 event.
- Sadeq Hedayat Centenary Symposium was a half day symposium on Sadeq Hedayat held on November 2, 2003. Hedayat is the author of The Blind Owl, widely believed to be the most famous Persian novel.
More details on the symposium program can be found here.
- On Aug. 23, 2003 IAUT held The Coup and Mossadegh’s Fall, a one day symposium on the 50-th year anniversary of the British-US-led coup against then the Prime Minister of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh. The symposium included several panel discussions and individual talks. See here for symposium website.
