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Protecting National Interests or Advancing Imperialism: Russia's Persian Studies in the context of foreign policy towards Iran (1863-2014)Denis V. Volkov , University of Manchester May 13, 20146:30-7:30pmDe Certeau Room (155)Department of Literature — UCSDDenis V. Volkov is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at the University of Manchester, UK. His dissertation ‘Oriental studies and foreign policy in late Imperial Russia and the early USSR: Russian/Soviet ‘Iranology’ and Russo-Iranian relations (1900-1941),’ explores the power/knowledge nexus in relation to Russia’s Per-sian studies during the late Imperial and the early Soviet periods. He studies the involvement of Russian ‘civilian’ (academic) and ‘practical’ (military officers, diplomats, and Orthodox missionary) orientalist scholarship in Russian foreign policy towards Persia/Iran. From 2006 to 2010 he worked in Tehran as the head of the Russian state-owned company ‘Technopromexport’, and from 1995 to 2004 he worked in the same company in Tehran as an interpreter and commercial expert. He majored in ‘Oriental studies’ (History of Iran, MA) at Moscow State University (Institute of Asian and African Countries) and ‘International Economy’ at the All-Russia Academy of Foreign Trade affiliated with the Ministry for Economic Development. His most recent publications are the article-winner of I.B.Tauris Prize “Persian Studies and the Military in Late Imperial Russia: State Power in the Service of Knowledge?” published in ‘Iranian Stud-ies’ and the articles published at BBC Persian: “The Golestan Treaty and 200 years of expedient co-existence” and “The Persia of Nowadays, or How Russia forever lost Ukraine” (both in Persian). He has been a frequent expert guest at the BBC Persian TV, including the programs such as ‘Pargar’ and ‘Sixty Minutes’. http://manchester.academia.edu/DenisVolkov* Open and Free to the public