About this Event
Between the late 1940s and the end of the twentieth century, natural gas became Iran's bedrock energy source. Billed as a futuristic fuel for a future world power, gas became an avenue for the country's developmentalist ambitions. The ability to build technologically sophisticated infrastructures served as a powerful tool of state legitimation, both before and after the 1979 Revolution, and tied top-down politics of modernization to bottom-up feelings of national belonging.
Accelerant analyzes the interwoven histories of energy, development, and the environment in Iran. Following the movement of natural gas from underground deposits, through infrastructures of refining and distribution, and into everyday life, Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani explores the roles of development planners, oil firms, industrialists, engineers, and consumers—as well as the mountain ranges, sedimentary rock, and natural gas itself—to show how natural gas emerged as a crucial enabler of industrialization and a strong impetus for resource nationalism. Tracing the transformation of gas from a waste product into a vital resource, this book offers a history of anticolonial developmentalism in Iran—revealing a key driver toward intensified energy use that suggests why and how societies in the Global South became voracious consumers of fossil fuel energy.
SFU Harbour Centre, Room 7000
Thursday, 12 November 2026
About the Speaker:
Ciruce Movahedi-Lankarani is the Farhang Foundation Early Career Chair in Iranian Studies and Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. Ciruce studies the interconnections between technology, development, and the environment in the Middle East and beyond. Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Science Research Council, his first book Accelerant: Energy Infrastructures and the Natural World in Making Modern Iran was published by Stanford University Press in 2026. Tracing the transformation of natural gas from a waste product into Iran’s primary energy source, Accelerant offers a history of industrialization and anticolonial developmentalism in the country, revealing how nature shaped the rise of voracious fossil fuel consumption in the Global South. Ciruce has also published in International Journal of Middle East Studies, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Iranian Studies. The best place to find him is in the mountains.
About the Disucussant:
Parsa Alirezaei is a researcher of Middle Eastern and North African politics. He is a research assistant at Simon Fraser University's Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies. His professional experience includes an internship at the International Court of Justice (2023 to 2024) and work as a researcher for Law for Palestine in 2024. His analysis of Middle East politics has appeared in The Globe and Mail and on CBC.
Event venue & nearby stays
SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, Canada
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