// Film Screening and Conversation //

The Culture Industry of War
(2013, dir. Hamed Yousefi, 27 min)

In the essay-film The Culture Industry of War, art historian and filmmaker Hamed Yousefi explores the role of images in Iran’s modern political culture. Focusing on the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), he argues that image-making was a central force behind the production of “an industry of martyrdom.” Other accounts of the war tend to focus on the centrality of religious iconography in the ideology of the Islamic Republic. This film, however, recenters the conversation around the modernity of the war's cultural industry, its use of technological modes of reproduction, and the adaption of avant-garde techniques of immediacy and spontaneity in war propaganda. The film examines the work of numerous painters, photographers, and graphic designers, including the practice of revolutionary filmmaker, Morteza Avini (1947–1993), who dedicated his life to documenting the War. By juxtaposing Avini's war documentaries with Abbas Kiarostami's Life and Nothing More (1992), the film suggests a new understanding of Kiarostami in his original social context otherwise neglected by scholars of Kiarostami's cinema.

Post-Screening Conversation with Hamed Yousefi (Near Eastern Studies) and Natasha Raheja (Anthropology and Performing & Media Arts)

Co-Sponsors: Department of Anthropology, Department of Performing & Media Arts, Nazaara Media Lab, German Studies, Institute for Comparative Modernities, Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Cornell Media Studies, Southwest Asia and North Africa Program, Department of Government, and the Public History Initiative.

Come and explore international research from students at the Einaudi Center for International Studies. Our undergraduate Global Scholars will present posters on their international aid projects.

Global Scholars Showcase

Global Scholars will present a showcase of their capstone projects providing public commentary and perspectives on international aid.

Undergraduate global scholars consider the multiple perspectives that shape the global landscape of international aid and the communities impacted. They have partnered with Einaudi Center practitioner in residence Paul Kaiser and faculty mentor Ed Mabaya—expert researchers and practitioners on international development—to design their projects. Applications for the next cohort will open in fall 2026.

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The Einaudi Spring Showcase is hosted by the Einaudi Center for International Studies.

International Fair showcases Cornell's global opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Explore the fair and find out about study abroad, international studies programs, funding opportunities like Global Internships, Laidlaw Scholars Program, graduate student fellowship and research awards, international minors, language study, and more.

The International Fair is sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and Office of Global Learning (both part of Global Cornell) in partnership with the Language Resource Center.

Bartels World Affairs Lecture

In this year’s Bartels lecture, Ambassador Samantha Power examines the causes and consequences of dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). While reductions in United States foreign assistance have inflicted harm on millions of people, the principal beneficiaries of the cuts, Power contends, are the People’s Republic of China and other governments that prefer to operate without scrutiny or accountability.

Join us as Power outlines a strategy for revitalizing a broad bipartisan coalition to support foreign assistance. To succeed in building resilient aid structures, politicians and stakeholders will need to demonstrate the effectiveness of aid programs to the public. U.S. resources should be used as leverage to secure new commitments from partner countries and mobilize additional investments from allied governments, the private sector, philanthropy, and members of the diaspora.

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Speaker

Ambassador Samantha Power served in the Biden-Harris administration as the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s premier international development agency. She was the 28th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama-Biden administration. Her first book, "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

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About the Bartels World Affairs Lecture

The Bartels World Affairs Lecture is a signature event of the Einaudi Center for International Studies. This flagship event brings distinguished international figures to campus each academic year to speak on global topics and meet with Cornell faculty and students, particularly undergraduates. The lecture and related events are made possible by the generosity of Henry E. Bartels ’48 and Nancy Horton Bartels ’48.