Call for papers – Tehranto: Stories of Home and Belonging from Toronto Iranians

Are you a member of the first generation, second generation, or 1.5 generation of Iranian-Canadians living in Tehranto? We are interested in hearing your stories!

We invite participants to share a memory or personal reflection in the form of a short personal essays of 500-600 words about your relationship to “Tehranto,” your relationship to Toronto, Tehran, and/or other Iranian cities. 

Whether you arrived as an immigrant or refugee in the first wave of the 1980s or more recently; whether you were born in Canada to Iranian parents or just one Iranian parent, we would love to hear your stories. Please share with us what Tehranto means to you.

A collection of submitted stories will be shared at a public reading event in Fall 2025.

Essays may be submitted in Farsi or English.

First time/emerging authors welcome.

Suggested prompts:

• Your first night in Toronto;
  
• Your early immigrant days in Toronto;
• A specific location (such as a favourite restaurant/café/grocery store, street, or neighbourhood) in Toronto that evokes memories and feelings of "home";
• A significant photograph/song/object/meal/smell that makes you feel “at home”.

How to submit your story

Please submit your essays in English or Farsi to Dr. Amin Moghadam and Dr. Nima Naghibi at: tehrantostories@torontomu.ca

Please note that we will include submissions from individuals living in the Greater Toronto Area, including cities like Richmond Hill and Newmarket.

Submissions must include:

• Name
• Email
• Phone number (optional)
• Your essay and accompanying photography (500-600 word maximum for the essay)

Deadline extended: October 3, 2025

Public reading event: Fall 2025

This call supports the research project "Tehranto: Stories of Home and Belonging from Toronto's Iranian Diaspora," led by Nima Naghibi, English Department, TMU, and Amin Moghadam, CERC Migration, TMU, and is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Amin Moghadam is a Research Lead on the theme, Cities and Migration, at CERC Migration at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research explores connections between housing policies, diaspora politics and homeownership experience of Iranian immigrants in Toronto. Amin holds a PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies from the University of Lyon II, France. His past research and publications have focused on migration policy and practices, diaspora studies, circulation and regional integration in the Middle East, with focus on the Persian Gulf region.

Nima Naghibi is Professor of English at Toronto Metropolitan University. She has written about the intersection of Western and Iranian feminisms and the 1979 feminist protests in Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran (Minnesota Press, 2007), and on diasporic Iranian women’s life narratives in Women Write Iran: Nostalgia and Human Rights from the Diaspora (Minnesota Press, 2016). She has published essays and book chapters on diasporic Iranian memoirs, intergenerational trauma, and cross-cultural feminist exchanges in 20^th century Iran.