Michael Zirinsky – “American Presbyterian Missionaries and Iran: Ambiguity and Altruism; Arrogance and Amity”

The talk will focus on the American Presbyterian mission, which began in the early 1830s and began to decline with the Great Depression’s retrenchment and Reza Shah’s nationalist requirements, eventually leading to the shutting of all mission schools in 1940, except for the one which they ran for their own children, which continued until the 1978-79 revolutionary year as an international school for English-speaking children.
Michael Zirinsky is Professor Emeritus at Boise State University, where he taught modern European and Middle Eastern history.  His publications focus on western relations with Iran during the first half of the twentieth century.  His articles regarding Presbyterian missionaries in Iran have appeared in the Iranian Journal of International Affairs, American Presbyterians, Nime-ye Digar, Iranian Studies, and Encylopaedia Iranica.  Diplomatic history articles have appeared in the International Journal of Middle East Studies and The Foreign Service Journal.
He is currently working on a book about Anglo-American activity in Iran during The Great War. He himself was educated at the school in Tehran.
NB This will be a Zoom lecture. Details will be sent to members and guests nearer the time.