Discussion to focus on U.S.-Iran viewpoints

STAFF REPORT

HIRAM — Dr. D. Ray Heisey, a Visiting Distinguished Professor of Global Rhetoric in the Department of Communication at Hiram College, will discuss how Iranians and Americans view each other in an Oct. 29 free public session.

“‘An Axis of Evil’ vs. ‘The Great Satan’: Perceptions Iranians and Americans Have of Each Other” will be presented at 4:15 p.m. in the Pritchard Room of the Hiram College Library.

Heisey will speak about how the governments of Iran and the United States view each other as a hostile entity, and, therefore, how people from each country view people from the other.

He, along with Ehsan Shaghasemi of the University of Tehran, conducted a qualitative study on three groups of students from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Tehran, the School of Communication Studies at Kent State University and the Communication Department at Hiram College. Study participants were asked to share their views on the other country and to then explain how they came to have those views. The written answers were then placed in categories of positive, negative and mixed.

Heisey will discuss the results of the study — the different viewpoints of each group, the different comparisons and differences that can be drawn between the three groups, and the source of each group’s views.