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SUMMARY:Nationalising Oil and Knowledge in Iran: Labour\, Decolonisation a
 nd Colonial Modernity\, 1933–51 - Mattin Biglari (University of Bristol)
  
DTSTART:20260604T160000Z
DTEND:20260604T170000Z
UID:TALK246664@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr AM Price
DESCRIPTION:Iran's nationalisation of oil in 1951 was a key catalyst for t
 he rise of resource nationalism as an animating force of global decolonisa
 tion\, expelling the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC\, now known as BP) af
 ter nearly fifty years of domination in southwest Iran. In this book talk 
 I turn attention to the origins of nationalisation in the everyday struggl
 es between the oil company and subaltern actors in the city of Abadan\, th
 en home to the world's largest oil refinery and deeply imbricated in Briti
 sh imperialism. \n\nEngaging with energy history\, postcolonial/subaltern 
 studies\, and science & technology studies\, the book focuses on the polit
 ics of expertise. On the one hand\, it examines the oil company's technopo
 litical efforts to master the particular – both human and non-human – 
 in line with standardised practices of the global oil industry. These corp
 orate strategies inadvertently produced anti-colonial subjectivities and l
 ed to the rise of labour activism and a mass movement calling for the comp
 any's expulsion from Iran. On the other hand\, the book shows how national
 isation reproduced the epistemic coloniality of the oil company. It argues
  that nationalisation diverged from subaltern contestations of oil experti
 se in Abadan\, which presented a more fundamental challenge to colonial mo
 dernity in foregrounding embodied\, situated knowledge. 
LOCATION:Seminar Room 3\, Cripps Court\, Magdalene College
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