Moa Viebke, Author at Roshan

Fall 2015 Roshan Institute Lecture Series at San José State University

Oct 10, 2015

The Persian Studies Program at San José State University is holding several exciting lectures this fall designed to celebrate Persian art, literature and culture. On September 8, graphic illustrator and co-author of Operation Ajax, Daniel Burwen will deliver a talk on “Retelling the Story on the 1953 CIA Coup in Iran in Graphic Form.” On October 6, the University will welcome Arash Davari, Ph.D. candidate, UCLA, Political Science, for a lecture on “A Return to Which Self? Ali Shari’ati and the Articulation of an Indeterminate Collective Subject in Revolutionary Iran,” followed by a poetry reading with Iranian-American poet Soraya Shalforoosh on October 15. Finally, the screening of Fifi Howls from Happiness, a documentary about Iranian artist, Bahman Mohassas, will be held on November 18, followed by a discussion with film producer Marjaneh Moghimi. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to support these events and the Persian Studies Program of SJSU.

Grant Awarded to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sep 6, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is proud to announce a grant to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in support of three upcoming projects related to Persian arts and culture: a digital publication cataloguing the Museum’s collection of 600 coins excavated at the Iranian city of Nishapur between 1935 and 1948; and two events planned in conjunction of the exhibition The Great Age of the Seljuqs (April 26 -July 24, 2016). On display at this special MET exhibition will be luster-painted ceramics, silk textiles, manuscripts, and ornate metalwork created during the reign of the Seljuqs, a Turkish dynasty that ruled Iran and Anatolia from 1038 to 1307.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s leading art museums, with a collection spanning more than 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present. Its collection of Islamic art is the most comprehensive in the world. It includes more than 12,000 of the finest objects, dating from the seventh to the 20th century. Outstanding holdings include the collections of more than 450 Islamic carpets; pages from a sumptuous copy of the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, created for Shah Tahmasp (1514-76); and a 14th-century glazed ceramic mihrab, or prayer niche, from a theological school in Isfahan.

Find out more about the MET

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EMBODYING THE BELOVED: (Homo) eroticism and Embodiment in Medieval Sufism

Sep 3, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce EMBODYING THE BELOVED: (Homo) eroticism and Embodiment in Medieval Sufism, a lecture presented by Matthew Thomas Miller and hosted by the Library of Congress and Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at University of Maryland, College Park.

Matthew Miller is a PhD student in the Program in Comparative Literature and graduate certificate program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at Washington University in St. Louis, where he is completing his dissertation entitled “The Poetics of the Sufi Carnival: The ‘Rogue Lyrics’ (Qalandariyyāt) of Sanā’ī, ‘Attār, and ‘Erāqī.”

Mr. Miller is currently a Roshan Institute Research Fellow at University of Maryland and Associate Director for Roshan Institute’s Digital Project in Persian Humanities. Previously, he was Dissertation Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis (2013-2014), a Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Fellow (2012-2013), and a Mellon Sawyer Doctoral Fellow (2011-2012). He is the author of the forthcoming (2015) “Fakhr al-Dīn ‘Irāqī: Poet and Mystic,” in Religious and Mystical Literature (Volume VI of A History of Persian Literature Series).

Thursday, September 3, 2015 | 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Thomas Jefferson Building, African Middle Eastern Reading Room, LJ-220 | Library of Congress

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New Grant to East-West Center for 2015 Senior Journalists Seminar

Aug 18, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce its continuing support of the Senior Journalists Seminar, a signature program of the East-West Center, in 2015. Launched in 2003, the Senior Journalists Seminar is a 21-day professional dialogue, study and travel program intended to enhance media coverage and elevate the public debate regarding religion and its role in the public sphere, specifically as it regards US-Muslim relations.

Designed for senior print, radio, broadcast and online journalists from the US and Asian countries with substantial Muslim populations, the Senior Journalists Seminar offers an opportunity for participating journalists to engage their peers, experts and the public on issues relevant to US-Muslim relations.

The 2015 Senior Journalists Seminar program includes travel to Washington, DC; Nashville, Tennessee; Honolulu, Hawaii; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Lahore and Islamabad, Pakistan, from August 19 – September 10.

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New Support for the Completion of the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project

Aug 11, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Matthew Stolper, John A. Wilson Professor Emeritus of Oriental Studies, the Oriental Institute at The University of Chicago, has been awarded a two-year Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies, in support of the completion of the Persepolis Fortification Archive (PFA) Project at the Oriental Institute. The PFA is a group of clay tablets discovered at Persepolis in 1933 by archaeologists from the Oriental Institute and provides an incredible source of information on the languages, art, institutions and history of Achaemenid Persia at its height. The PFA project, under the direction of Professor Stolper was first supported by Roshan Institute in 2013.

The new grant allows Professor Stolper to complete the project by engaging two students to work on the project during summer 2015 and summer 2016, and up to eight students to work part-time during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years. This funding and work are of timely importance before the tablets leave the Oriental Institute to return to the National Museum of Iran.

Learn more about the Persepolis Fortification Archive Project

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Persian Language Class to be offered Online in the Fall at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa

Aug 2, 2015

Beginning in the fall of 2015, Persian language will be offered as an online course for the first time at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. PERS 101: Beginning Modern Persian 1 is designed for distance learning, attracting learners who do not have Persian instruction at their universities.

Persian Language, Linguistics, and Culture Program at UH Mānoa is an exciting initiative made possible through a grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute.

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Shirin Neshat translates Iranian History through Art

Jul 14, 2015

For Shirin Neshat, “art became a kind of an excuse to build a relationship, even from a distance,” to her homeland and history. Neshat grew up in pre-revolutionary Iran, then came to the U.S. as a student in the 1970s and is now an internationally recognized artist. She was recently interviewed by Jeffrey Brown on the PBS Newshour to look at her latest exhibit, “Shiring Neshat: Facing History” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washnington, DC. On display until September 20, 2015, the exhibition presents an array of Neshat’s most compelling works, illuminating the points at which cultural and political events have impacted her artistic practice. Commenting on freedom and loss, Neshat’s deeply humanistic art is at once personal, political, and allegorical.

Learn more about the exhibition

Watch the PBS video

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Rumi: Quatrains of Love

Jun 9, 2015

Shangri La, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art presents Rumi: Quatrains of Love,
a musical performance based on the writings of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273), one of the world’s most
revered and beloved Persian poets. This musical creation is composed by Luna Pearl Woolf and includes performances
by a cellist, pianist and vocalist. Former Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Fellow, Maseeh Ganjali will read Rumi’s
quatrains in the original Persian and offer additional insights into the life and significance of this beloved master
of literature and spirituality.

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Roshan Institute Achievement Awards for Iranian Culture and Art Club Students

Jun 7, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate the 40 recipients of Roshan Institute Achievement Awards whose accomplishments were recognized at an end-of-year ceremony held by the Iranian Culture and Art Club (ICAC) of Fresno on June 7. During the ceremony, presentations were made in Persian language by ICAC students to an audience of more than 150 Iranian-American community members and judges.

ICAC is a nonprofit organization that offers Persian language and dance classes as well as public programs celebrating Persian culture for the Fresno community. A grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute made possible for ICAC to continue providing its successful Persian language and cultural programs during the academic year 2014-2015.

Find out more about ICAC

Watch the Awards Ceremony

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“Shirin Neshat: Facing History” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, May 19 – September 20, 2015

May 8, 2015

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced a major exhibition dedicated to the Iranian artist Shirin Neshat. “Shirin Neshat: Facing History” will present an array of Neshat’s most compelling works, illuminating the points at which cultural and political events have impacted her artistic practice. Included are the “Women of Allah” photographs that catapulted the artist to international acclaim in the 1990s; lyrical video installations, which immerse the viewer in imagery and sound; and two monumental series of photographs, The Book of Kings, 2012, and Our House Is on Fire, 2013, created in the wake of the Green Movement and the Arab Spring. Commenting on freedom and loss, Neshat’s deeply humanistic art is at once personal, political, and allegorical.

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