UC Irvine’s School of Humanities will offer a minor in Persian studies thanks to financial support from Farhang Foundation, a nonreligious, nonpolitical and not-for-profit entity established in 2008 to celebrate and promote Iranian art and culture. Once finalized, the program will consist of courses already offered at UCI as well as new ones to be developed. The funding will also enable the hiring of a lecturer to teach these courses. The Persian studies minor will be available to undergraduate students in the 2015-16 academic year.

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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to congratulate Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz, Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies and Director of Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, on her forthcoming book entitled Lyrics of Life: Sa’di on Love, Cosmopolitanism and Care of the Self.

This imaginative and accessible study of the lyrical, humorous, social and educational aspects of classical Persian poetry focuses on the works of the master medieval poet Sa’di of Shiraz (d. 1291), one of the funniest, most influential and lyrical figures in classical Persian poetry. Sa’di, a prominent ethicist and a devout teacher of virtues, stands out for his worldliness, his practical teachings, and his love for living a wholesome life, as well as for his signature elegance and artistry that has compelled critics to call his lyrics perfectly polished diamonds.

Dr. Keshavarz is a published poet and author of six books including Reading Mystical Lyric: the Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi, Recite in the Name of the Red Rose: Poetic Sacred Making in Twentieth Century Iran and Jasmine and Stars: Reading More than Lolita in Tehran. Lyrics of Life will be published by the Edinburgh University Press as part of the Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture E on January 1, 2015.

The Persian Studies Program at San José State University is holding several exciting events this fall designed to celebrate Persian art, literature and culture. On October 14, Omid Scheybani will deliver a talk on “Iran: A Smartphone Photographer’s Perspective,” followed by “Persian Miniature Painting and the Shahnameh” by SJSU’s own Dr. Johanna Movassat on October 16. On November 13, the University will welcome Dr. Ladan Akbarnia, curator of Islamic art at the British Museum and executive director of Iran Heritage Foundation, for a lecture on “East-West Cultural Transmissions in Post Mongol Iran.” Finally, Sara Mashayekh will present a one-woman show entitled “Off the Curtain: The Tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab” on November 15. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to support these activities and the Persian Studies Program of SJSU.

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After the successful conclusion of the 6-month long lecture series on “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book,” Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland announced new events for the fall semester. Included are:

Poetry Night dedicated to Simin Behbahani (September 29) and Qeisar Aminpour (October 27)

Brown Bag Series with “Popular Cinema in Iran” by Dr. Pedram Partovi (American University) (October 1), “Authorship in Seventeenth-Century Persian Painting: Man, Mode and Myth” by Dr. Amy Landau (Walters Art Museum) (October 22), “Language and Thought in Sadi’s Poetry” by Dr. Navid Bazargan (Tehran Azad University) (November 12), and “Performing Qanun/Classical Persian Music” by Shahla Nikfal (December 3)

Movie Series with screening of “Border Café” directed by Kambuzia Partovi (October 7), “The Wind Carpet” by Kamal Tabrizi (November 4), and “Tehran Has No More Pomegranates” by Massoud Bakhshi (December 2).

On the heels of the first Persian Screen Film Festival held at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre from September 6-12, the Persian Language, Linguistics and Culture Program of the University of Hawaii at Manoa is organizing its own series of movie screenings dedicated to Iran. The six titles selected for the fall semester portray evocative contemporary themes and include award-winning films by Abbas Kiarostami and Tahmineh Milani.

September 25: “Café Setareh,” 2006, directed by Saman Moghadam

October 10: “Party,” 2000, directed by Saman Moghadam

October 24: “Ten,” 2004, directed by Abbas Kiarostami

November 7: “Wind Will Carry Us,” 1999, directed by Abbas Kiarostami

November 21: “Hidden Half,” 2001, directed by Tahmineh Milani

December 5: “Close-up,” 2001, directed by Abbas Kiarostami

Please join the Persian Language, Linguistics and Culture Program for this cultural exploration of Iranian cinema. Additional events and activities this semester celebrating Persian tradition and culture will be announced shortly.

The University of Maryland’s School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC) Summer Language Institute offers language and culture programs for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced students of Persian from June 1st to July 2nd, 2015 (Session One) and from July 6th to August 5th, 2015 (Session Two).

The Persian Language Summer Institute implements an innovative language curriculum, creating a rich learning environment that simulates immersion while on campus. Students effectively live in a Persian-speaking environment during their time at Maryland, with approximately five hours a day of structured language-learning experiences. Students also gain language exposure through language partner hours with an Advanced Persian native speaker. If interested, please contact umdsi@umd.edu as soon as possible to secure your space.

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Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran (WWQI) is a remarkable tool for the study and the understanding of Iranian women’s lives during the Qajar era (1786 – 1925). Directed by Dr. Afsaneh Najmabadi, Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University, WWQI facilitates access to primary-source materials from both private and public domains.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce that Assef Ashraf was awarded a Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies for 2014-2015. Mr. Ashraf is currently in his final year of doctoral studies in the Department of History at Yale University, where he is working under the direction of his advisor, Professor Abbas Amanat (also Director of Yale Program in Iranian Studies), and dissertation committee members, Professors Alan Mikhail and Paul Bushkovitch. Mr. Ashraf’s Ph.D. dissertation is entitled “From Khan to Shah: Political Culture, State Formation, and Patronage in Qajar Iran, 1785 – 1834” and examines governance practices in the context of the consolidation of power and the creation of a state by the Qajars.

Mr. Ashraf’s area of specialization is the history of the Middle East. More broadly, his interests include the history of Iran from the early modern to the present, comparative early modern Muslim empires, travel literature, and the culture and economy of gift-exchange. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to commend Mr. Ashraf for his contributions to Persian Studies scholarship and extends its best wishes for a successful year.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to welcome Dr. Ziad El Morr to the Louvre where he will undertake major research on Iranian metalwares in the Department of Islamic Art. The Louvre has one of the most remarkable collections of metalwares from Iran and the greater Iranian world, spanning 11th through 19th century. The goal of the Islametal Program is to identify the materials and techniques used to create these objects through a comprehensive archaeometallurgical analysis. This multi-year project will result in a reference catalogue on Persian and Indian metalwares and an international conference.

During his fellowship, from September 2014 – August 2015, Dr. El Morr will focus on objects from the Medieval Persian world (11th-13th centuries) encompassing utilitarian objects of both basic (oil lamps, mortars, ewers) and high quality (candlesticks, incense burners, pen cases inlaid with precious metals and bearing signatures). He will conduct visual and metallurgical analyses, and interpret their results on approximately 100 objects currently displayed in the galleries as well as located in the museum’s storage area and at the conservation lab.

Dr. El Morr received his Ph.D. in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bordeaux 3 in France in 2011 and held a post-doctoral position at the Institut de Recherche sur les Archéo-MATériaux (IRAMAT) prior to joining the Louvre. His fellowship is made possible through the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund established at the Louvre in 2011, which supports several scholarly and public programs related to Persian art and culture each year.

For more information on the Louvre’s Department of Islamic Art and its collections, please click on the link below.

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