MOVING TO FRONT FROM JANUARY 21

The petition is here, and I would urge all readers to sign given the unjust and politically motivated treatment to which he has been subjected.   It was prepared by philosophers Alan Hajek (ANU) and Jeff Jordan (Delaware).  When you sign, put your institutional affiliation in the comment section.

UPDATE:   I hope other bloggers, including those in other academic fields, will publicize this petition.

ANOTHER:  Philosopher Mahrad Almotahari (Illinois/Chicago) writes:

I wanted to thank you for drawing attention to Abbas Farsani's situation. I hope some good will come of it. My impression of the Iranian philosophy scene is that Kant, Nietzsche, and Heidegger are huge, but that recent Anglo-American authors are being read more and more, even in the seminaries in Qom. 

I sometimes receive emails from curious Iranian philosophy students asking how they might make their way to a good graduate program in philosophy. Once I was contacted by a seminary student who loved Steve Yablo's work and was eager to study with him. I suspect that they feel comfortable contacting me because of my Iranian-sounding name. These students often have a remarkably accurate picture of the professional philosophical landscape–which programs are good at which subfields. I can only attribute that to the Phil Gourmet.