Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to share new findings by Tytus Mikolajczak, the first Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fellow at The University of Chicago and at the Louvre Museum. Since April 2014, Mr. Mikolajczak has been documenting objects originating from the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the collections of the Oriental Institute in close collaboration with the Louvre. His report reveals that his diligent efforts have already resulted in several important discoveries.

Already within the first few weeks of the project, it turned out that the Achaemenid collection of the Oriental Institute Museum had many treasures waiting to be rediscovered. One of the most spectacular rediscoveries included stone blocks featuring Greek inscriptions, which were presumed lost. The project also brought to light numerous Persian inscriptions; fragments of pegs with inscriptions of Kings Darius I and Xerxes I; stone blocks and fragments of column bases inscribed in Old Persian; and unpublished fragments of glazed bricks from Persepolis, the decoration of which has close parallels to glazed bricks found in Susa, now in the Louvre.

The result of the yearlong fellowship will be the sharing of photographs of approximately 300 objects, and updated documentation for hundreds of additional objects with the Achemenet Project, whose online platform aims to be a reference for scholarly research and public interest in ancient Persia.

For more information on the Achemenet Project and to read the full report from Mr. Mikolajczak, please click on the links below.

read more

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate the twelve recipients of Roshan Institute Scholarship for Excellence in Persian Studies at California State University, Fresno for the 2014-15 academic year. While these students are pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide variety of subjects ranging from Economics and Business to Physics and Computer Science, they have all demonstrated a deep interest and commitment to learning and sharing Persian language and culture.

Please join Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute in celebrating Persian cinema and culture at the Persian Screen Film Festival Opening Night at the Honolulu Museum of Art on Saturday, September 6.

Guests are first invited to taste a special Persian-inspired menu created by chef Sean Priester in collaboration with Kan Zaman in the Luce Pavilion Courtyard, before enjoying the screening of “A Cube of Sugar” in the Doris Duke Theatre. UH Manoa’s Professor Farideh Farhi will also be present to speak about contemporary Iranian cinema and the Festival’s film selection which includes four award-winning films.

The six-month lecture series organized by Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at UMD in conjunction with the major exhibit “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book” at the Library of Congress is drawing to a close. Please join us for the final presentations:

“The Persian Book in Pre-Modern Turkey” by Professor Ahmet Karamustafa (UMD), August 13
“Forough Farrokhzad’s Biography and Unpublished Letters” by Professor Farzaneh Milani (University of Virginia), August 27

“Modern Literature in Afghanistan: Contributions to the Persian Book” by Dr. Wali Ahmadi (UC Berkeley), September 10

The World of Persian Literary Humanism: Spreading Culture through Books” by Professor Hamid Dabashi (Columbia University), September 17

Several hundred attendees have already enjoyed this lecture series since its inaugural presentation on March 27. All events are free and open to the public, and are held either at UMD or at the Library of Congress. The exhibit, which has garnered great public and media attention, will close on September 20.

On September 10, Dr. Ali Mousavi, Lecturer in Iranian Archaeology at UCLA, will present “Persepolis: the Life and Afterlife of a World Wonder.” The ruins at Takht-e Jamshid, known as Persepolis, are among the most formidable monuments that have gained a measure of symbolic status. The site has been the object of years of exploration from the nineteenth century to the present. Built by artists and workers of the four quarters of the civilized world in the late years of the sixth century BC, Persepolis became the richest city under the sun and was the epitome of the Persian Empire. The burning of the city in 330 BC both marked the end of the empire and the beginning of a new era: Persepolis’ afterlife. After its first destruction, the ruined city of the Persians attracted local dynasts who performed rituals and ceremonies at the site and who saw the ruins as the enigmatic deeds of their glorious ancestors. From one life to another, the site has continued to fascinate generations of kings and princes, travellers and adventurers, explorers and archaeologists. This lecture attempts to examine the history of the site as a whole from the time of its foundation down to the present day.

Dr. Farideh Farhi, Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was invited by Hawaii Public Radio to talk about the first Persian Screen Film Festival at the Honolulu Museum of Art. On the September 1st edition of “The Conversation,” she spoke about the Institute’s work to share Persian culture in Hawaii and beyond, and highlighted the importance of Iranian cinema in portraying contemporary society and themes. Please click on the link below to listen to the full interview.

The Persian Screen Film Festival is organized by the Doris Duke Theatre of the Honolulu Museum of Art and presented by Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. From September 6 – 12, a total of 12 screenings will feature four award-winning films from Iran. An opening-night reception will be held on September 6 with the participation of Dr. Farhi, followed by the screening of “A Cube of Sugar.” Please click on the link below for the full Festival schedule and more information.

read more

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 2014. 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.

Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, President of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) reported on the tremendous success of the Tenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference held on August 6-9, 2014 in Montreal. With 460 attendees from around the world and 100 panels organized on a wide variety of subjects in Persian Studies, this conference was the second largest event since the launch of the biennial conferences in 1998.

Roshan Institute has provided support for these efforts since 2002 and would like to congratulate the International Society for Iranian Studies on its wonderful achievement this year. We would also like to commend all of the Institute’s Fellows who presented their valuable research at this year’s event.