Mani Kalani

Mani Kalani is a faculty member at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Encyclopedia Compiling. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Tehran and began his sustained engagement with the social sciences through a critical examination of the key ideas and intellectual trajectories of thirteen Iranian thinkers. This work culminated in a three-volume publication (2015–2020). Alongside this project, he served as editor-in-chief and contributing writer for three books produced as part of a related initiative, Development Dialogues, under the supervision of Dr. Mohsen Renāni (2017–2023). Together, these projects provided the foundation for his ongoing engagement with the central intellectual challenges confronting contemporary Iranian thinkers, particularly the adequacy of their theoretical formulations as practical responses to the challenges of contemporary Iran.

As a lecturer in the anthropology of art (2018–2023), Kalani also developed a theoretical framework drawing on concepts shared across anthropology, critical theory, and cultural studies, including liminality, rhizomatic spaces, and structural dichotomies. This interdisciplinary approach subsequently informed his contributions to cinema studies, particularly his work on the films of Mohammad Rezā Aslāni.

Contributions

The Aesthetic of Reality: The Poetry of Cinema in Muhammad Rizā Aslānī’s Films

Figure 1: Portrait of Muhammad Rizā Aslānī Introduction Muhammad Rizā Aslānī is a prominent Iranian filmmaker whose work holds a…