Russia and Iran have been subject to mutual influence since the reign of Shah Abbas I (1588-1629). For most of the time this relationship was not one of equals: since the early nineteenth century and lasting at least until 1946, Russia and then the USSR, in strong competition with Britain, had been gradually, and for the most part steadily, increasing its political, cultural and economic influence within Iran up to very high levels. Nevertheless, the history of Russian/Soviet-Iranian relations still remains understudied, particularly in English-language scholarship. One of the main reasons for this gap must be sought in the hampered access of Western researchers to Russian archives during the Soviet time, which made them draw on Russian-language literature, traditionally pre-occupied with the history of social movements, and with the mechanical retelling of political and economic processes. Thus the cultural and political ties of the two countries on institutional and individual levels (especially during the period surrounding 1917), the influence of Russia, and then of the USSR, on Iran and vice versa, in political, economic and cultural spheres through the activities of individuals, as well as the methods and tools used by the “Big Northern neighbour” during the execution of its foreign policy towards Iran did not receive proper attention, and thus lack detailed analysis. This research addresses the lack of detailed analysis of the power/knowledge nexus in relation to Russia’s Persian/Iranian Studies – the largest and most influential sub-domain within Russia’s Oriental Studies during the late Imperial and the early Soviet periods. The specific focus of this study is the involvement of Russian ‘civilian’ (academic) and ‘practical’ (military officers, diplomats, and missionaries) Persian Studies scholarship in Russian foreign policy towards Persia/Iran from the end of the nineteenth century up to 1941 – a period witnessing some of the most crucial events in the history of both countries. It is during this period that Persia/Iran was the pivot of Russia’s Eastern foreign policy but at the same time almost every significant development inside Russia as well as in her Western policies also had an immediate impact on this country – the state of affairs that ultimately culminated in the second Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. My thesis is based on extensive research in eleven important political, military and academic archives of Russia and Georgia, which allowed me to consult a significant amount of hitherto unpublished, often still unprocessed and only recently declassified, primary sources. While engaging with notions such as Orientalism, my analysis aims at transcending Edward Said’s concept of a mere complicity of knowledge with imperial power. My theoretical approach builds on Michel Foucault’s conceptualisation of the interplay of power/knowledge relations, his notion of discourse, and his writings on the role of the intellectual. While demonstrating the full applicability of the Foucauldian model to the Russian case through the study of the power/knowledge nexus in late Imperial and early Soviet Russia’s Persian Studies, or Iranology, I focus on the activities of scholars and experts within their own professional domains and analyse what motivated them and how their own views, beliefs and intentions correlated with their work, how their activities were influenced by the hegemonic discourses within Russian society. I analyse the interaction of these intellectuals with state structures and their participation in the process of shaping and conducting foreign policy towards Iran, both as part of the Russian scholarly community as a whole and as individuals on the personal level. For the first time my work explores at such level of detail the specific institutional practices of Russia’s Oriental Studies, including the organisation of scholarly intelligence networks, the taking advantage of state power for the promotion of institutional interests, the profound engagement with Russia’s domestic and foreign policy discourses of the time, etc. In addition, the thesis presents a detailed assessment of the organisation of Iranology as a leading sub-domain within the broader scholarly field of Oriental Studies in the period from the end of the nineteenth century to 1941 and analyses the principles and mechanisms of its involvement in Russia’s foreign policy towards Persia/Iran.

LAVERGNE, Remi Fernand. A vontade de incluir: regime de verdade, recomposição das práticas e estratégias de apropriação a partir de um dispositivo de inclusão escolar em Fortaleza. 2009. 359f. Tese (Doutorado em Educação) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Faculdade de Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Brasileira, Fortaleza-CE, 2009. / Submitted by Maria Josineide Góis (josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-07-13T14:16:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_Tese_RFLAVERGNE.pdf: 2453909 bytes, checksum: 52c10baf003c59001fc468371c78c4d2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-07-17T12:39:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_Tese_RFLAVERGNE.pdf: 2453909 bytes, checksum: 52c10baf003c59001fc468371c78c4d2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-07-17T12:39:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_Tese_RFLAVERGNE.pdf: 2453909 bytes, checksum: 52c10baf003c59001fc468371c78c4d2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Monitored in their pedagogical activities by a group of University researchers, the teachers of a public school in Fortaleza try to practice the principle of a generalized school inclusion to all children with special needs, such as is guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. In the first part of the study, through a brief account of both, the public school and special education in Brazil, as well as a careful bibliographical review about inclusion, it is presented the sociopolitical basis on which such an action of continuous formation for inclusion takes place. In the second part, based on the works of Michel Foucault and, complementarily, on the studies of classical sociologists (Weber, Bourdieu, etc.), an etnography of the pedagogical formation, which lasted more than two years, will show how a process of formation with the aim of inclusion constitutes in a political strategy. Therefore, it does not escape from the relations of domination that can be found in any other kind of the so-called “traditional” formation which, in the inclusion environment, is so condemned. In the third part, the study demonstrates how certain “regimes of truth”, disciplinary techniques, and “technologies of self”, which permeates all along the continuous formation, contribute to a production of multiple knowledge and effects of subjectivation that will allow the emergency of unique subjects that define themselves in function of what they took from that experience or in function of the positioning they adopted in regards to it. / Os docentes de uma escola pública de Fortaleza acompanhados em suas atividades pedagógicas por um grupo de pesquisa universitária, tentam colocar em prática o princípio de inclusão escolar generalizada a todas as crianças em dificuldade ou com deficiência, tal como é garantido pelo quadro legislativo brasileiro encarregado da execução da nova política escolar enunciada em 1988 pela última Constituição Federal deste país. Em um primeiro tempo, através duma rápida história da escola pública e da educação especial no Brasil, assim como de uma cuidadosa revisão de literatura sobre a inclusão, trata-se de evidenciar o pano de fundo sociopolítico sobre o qual se destaca essa ação de formação continua numa perspectiva inclusiva. Em um segundo tempo, apoiando-se sobre as obras de Michel Foucault e, complementarmente, sobre as reflexões de certos sociólogos (Weber, Bourdieu, ect.), uma etnografia desse acompanhamento pedagógico durante mais de dois anos, vai mostrar o quanto uma ação de formação com vista inclusiva constitui uma estratégia política e, portanto, não escapa às relações de dominação que se encontra em qualquer outro tipo de formação, inclusive de tipo “tradicional“ e que parece, de repente, condenável. Em um terceiro tempo, trata-se de mostrar como certos “regimes de verdade“, certas técnicas disciplinares e “tecnologias do eu“, que atravessam essa formação contínua, contribuam para a produção de uma multiplicidade de saberes e de efeitos de subjetivação que vão permitir a emergência de sujeitos particulares que se definem em função do que eles retiraram dessa experiência ou em função do posicionamento que adotaram nela.