Introduction to Baqir al-Ulum (AS) Research Institute

Introduction

Following years of scholarly efforts to fulfill the mission of responding to the growing needs of the Islamic Propagation Organization and the Islamic Iranian society in scientific, research, and religious cultural product generation dimensions, the Baqir al-Ulum (AS) Research Institute began preparing its first five-year comprehensive educational and research plan (2008-2013) from mid-2007.
The most important approach of this plan is upgrading the research institute to a research center, and this objective will be achieved through upgrading, developing, and deepening research and educational activities, and holding master’s degree training courses aimed at preparing trainees to enter the doctoral program in the fields of religious culture and communication and religious education.
In order to create focus in the research affairs of the Islamic Propagation Organization and greater cohesion and coordination, as well as to establish a scholarly environment for professors, researchers, and scholars, and to utilize the capacities and facilities of seminaries, universities, and other scientific and research centers of the country, and to conduct scientific exchanges with domestic and foreign cultural and scientific centers, alongside the increasing expectations of educated strata for greater understanding and familiarity with religious teachings, the complex ways of the enemy’s cultural invasion, and the increasing specialization of the propagation subject, the Baqir al-Ulum (AS) Institute for Islamic Propagation and Studies was established in 1988 with a seminary-university approach so that it could respond to the needs of the Islamic Propagation Organization in the aforementioned matters.
Five-Year Perspective Document of Baqir al-Ulum (AS) Research Institute
Comprehensive Five-Year Research and Educational Plan

Most Important Outlines of the Five-Year Plan:

Organizing and defining macro research axes and strategic principles of academic departments, and planning and implementing educational programs aimed at responding to audience needs in the fields of religious culture with social and educational approaches in written, conference, educational, media, and artistic formats, and developing and strengthening information bases such as Pajooheh, Hadi Bibliography, Noor-e-Elm, Cities of Iran, and Propagation Pajooheh.

Objectives:
1- Explaining and presenting Islamic thought in proportion to the intellectual needs of various strata of society, especially elites
2- Presenting interdisciplinary research considering Islamic and human sciences in the fields of social, communication, and educational studies
3- Reproducing religious messages and designing effective communication between traditional and modern propagation to provide scientific and theoretical support for the activities of the Propagation Organization and its effectiveness in achieving its goals

Strategic Policies:
1- Developing and upgrading activities and making academic research departments efficient in order to achieve the status of a research center
2- The necessity of paying special attention to pathologizing obstacles to the development of religious culture and the growth of religious education
3- Pragmatism and attention to the productivity of research and educational activities for greater efficiency in the development of religious culture
4- Affirmative and positive views on cultural and propagation categories alongside pathologizing and negative views.

Strategic Plans:
1- Producing cultural products (written, media) in religious and social fields for religious culture practitioners
2- Training efficient personnel aiming to hold cultural posts and play optimal management roles in the cultural arena, to supply the scientific research staff of the research institute
3- Organizing free cultural critique in various fields of media, education and upbringing, propagation, and art with a religious approach.

Joint Collaboration

1. Research on examining 150 children’s satellite channels
2. Pathology of children’s satellite programs in the format of the Pendar program broadcast from Channel 2
3. Translation of the television production project for children of Australia (2007)
4. Reviewing over one hundred top books in the field of children and media and translating summaries
5. Compiling Latin articles in the field of media and children
6. Reviewing television channel reports on the negative effects of television on children and performances
7. Analyzing reports in the field of children’s media psychology and reviewing its articles
8. Compiling Ofcom reports on programs close to 15 English-language children’s channels
9. Compiling US FCC reports regarding children’s channels
10. Codified FCC regulations regarding the broadcasting process and approach of children’s channels
11. Translation and analysis of important international-level production works
12. Translation of the codified television production project for children by Australia
13. Reviewing and translating international perspectives of children’s channels in terms of budget, revenue, and their number
14. Reviewing and translating the fantasy genre and character development for children
15. Reviewing Zionist companies in the world’s children’s channel market
16. Gathering a database of over 100 top films in the field of international cinema with three different research approaches
17. Reviewing and searching for useful websites for children
18. Preparing a list of important individuals in the process of producing children’s programs
19. Preparing a list of the most popular children’s programs
20. Preparing a list of the top children’s films from the beginning of cinema history to the present
21. Preparing a list of the most popular local children’s television series in America
22. Preparing a list of organizations and institutions dealing with children
23. Research on how children learn languages
24. Preparing educational, scientific, entertainment, and filtering software for children’s use of the internet
25. Conversing with famous and stylistic authors about the pattern used in their texts
26. Preparing a list of children and young people publishers
27. Gathering the best books in various fields targeted at children
28. Gathering the best educational and entertainment software for children produced in the country
29. Preparing a list of theses, books, and articles on Islamic child rearing
30. Preparing a list of important individuals in the process of programming and child rearing
31. Gathering the best articles written in the field of Islamic child rearing
32. Preparing a list of child rearing research projects
33. Identifying centers that have programs for child rearing
34. Gathering a database of researchers, writers, and product producers for child audiences
35. List of actions by the Tehran IRIB Research Center, in-person visits, compiling a list of works, and speaking with the relevant official