• The Persian Revival: The Imperialism of the Copy in Iranian and Parsi Architecture (Penn State University Press, July 1, 2021)
• WITH: The author, Talinn Gregor, professor of art history
• WHEN: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, in person
• WHERE: International House, 10 College Park, Davis

Grigor “argues that while Western imperialism was instrumental in shaping high art as mercantile-bourgeois ethos, it was also a project that destabilized the hegemony of a Eurocentric historiography of taste,” according to the publisher’s description. Reviewer Christina Maranci, author of Medieval Armenian Architecture: Constructions of Race and Nation, says Grigor’s volume “is a finely wrought, insightful and successful contribution to the study of the reception of ancient Iran in the modern world.”

The UC Davis Humanities Institute is partnering with International House Davis for book chat presentations in 2022-23. See the entire schedule.

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• La Gente: Struggles for Empowerment and Community Self-Determination in Sacramento (The University of Arizona Press, October 2020)
• WITH: The author, Lorena V. Márquez, associate professor, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
• WHEN: noon-2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, in person (lunch offered for participants)
• WHERE: 3201 Hart Hall (Risling Room)

The publisher’s description states, in part: La Gente traces the rise of the Chicana/o Movement in Sacramento and the role of everyday people in galvanizing a collective to seek lasting and transformative change during the 1960s and 1970s. Marquez provides a look at one of the first cases of outright resistance by ethnic Mexicans to desegregation efforts and shows that the movement was not solely limited to a handful of organizations or charismatic leaders. Rather, it encouraged those who were the most marginalized — the working poor, immigrants and/or the undocumented and the undereducated — to fight for their rights on the premise that they too were contributing and deserving members of society.

Check the HIA events webpage for future book talks.

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The UC Davis Books Blog, a project of News and Media Relations, announces newly published books by faculty and staff authors, and awards and events related to books by faculty and staff authors. Contact the books blog by email.