Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate Soodabeh Malekzadeh, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at UC Irvine, on receiving a summer fellowship to support her doctoral research on the Sasanian era. Ms. Malekzadeh’s dissertation, entitled “Bahram V: The Romantic Hunter-King or a Judo-Arab Emperor?” will cover the reign of Bahram V, his biography, the cultural, military and religious connections and relations of the 5th-century Persian Empire with the Roman Empire as well as Bahram’s enduring legacy as a romantic hunter-king in Persian literature and art. She is working under Professor Touraj Daryaee, Howard C. Baskerville Professor of History, and expects to complete her degree in 2017.

Dr. Carl Ernst, William R. Kenan Jr., Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, reported the recent achievements of graduate students in Persian Studies at UNC. Rose Aslan successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation on the topic, “From Body To Shrine: The Construction Of Sacred Space At The Grave Of `Ali ibn Abi Talib In Najaf.” She has accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at California Lutheran University. Candace Mixon, the first recipient of Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies established at UNC in 2013, completed a month-long research trip to Iran this summer, where she studied ritual practices for her Ph.D. dissertation on “Representations of Public Piety in Persian Images and Texts.” In addition, Matthew Lynch has been accepted for a two-week course in advanced Persian at the Sa’di Foundation in Tehran in August.

Roshan Institute Lecture Series organized in conjunction with the exhibit “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book” at the Library of Congress continues this summer with four presentations by distinguished scholars. On July 9, Dr. Amy Landau, Associate Curator of Islamic and South Asian Art at the Walters Art Museum will discuss “Librarians, Patrons and Poets: The Personal Dimension of Persian Manuscripts.” Dr. Ulrich Marzolph, Professor of Islamic Studies at Georg-August University, Göttingen, will present “The Printing Press as an Agent of Tradition in Iran: Revisiting Elizabeth Eisenstein’s The Printing Press as an Agent of Change” on July 23. UMD’s own Dr. Ahmet Karamustafa, Professor of History, will deliver the lecture “The Persian Book in Pre-Modern Turkey” on August 13. Finally, Farzaneh Milani, Professor of Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures and Women, Gender & Sexuality at the University of Virginia, will present “Forough Farrokhzad’s Biography and Unpublished Letters” on August 27.

The Lecture Series will conclude in September with two final presentations. The exhibition will be on view through September 20.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to share the news that Dr. Touraj Daryaee, Howard C. Baskerville Professor in the History of Iran and the Persianate World, has been named Director of the Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at the University of California, Irvine. Professor Daryaee is a specialist in Iranian history, in particular the Sasanian Empire, and has been teaching in the Department of History at UCI since 2007. The same year, he was named Associate Director of the Jordan Center, which serves as an umbrella organization for various activities related to the study of Iran and the Persianate world at the university. It sponsors and houses research and publication projects such as Sasanika and Nāme-ye Iran-e Bāstān. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate Professor Daryaee in his new role and wish him our best.

read more

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce the publication of Contemporary Iranian Art: From the Street to the Studio by Dr. Talinn Grigor, Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University. Pre-orders are now available – please click on the links below for more information.

In the first comprehensive look at Iranian art and visual culture since the 1979 revolution, Talinn Grigor investigates the official art sponsored by the Islamic Republic, the culture of avant-garde art created in the studio and its display in galleries and museums, and the art of the Iranian diaspora within Western art scenes. Divided into three parts—street, studio, and exile—the book argues that these different areas of artistic production cannot be understood independently, revealing how this art offers a mirror of the sociopolitical turmoil that has marked Iran’s recent history.

Exploring the world of galleries, museums, curators, and art critics, Grigor moves between subversive and daring art produced in private to propaganda art, martyrdom paraphernalia, and museum interiors. She examines the cross-pollination of kitsch and avant-garde, the art market, state censorship, the public-private domain, the political implications of art, and artistic identity in exile. Providing an astute analysis of the workings of artistic production in relation to the institutions of power in the Islamic Republic, this beautifully illustrated book is essential reading for anyone interested in Iranian history and contemporary art.

read more

The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris) is presenting “UNEDITED HISTORY, Iran 1960-2014” at ARC. Comprising over 200 works for the most part never shown in France before, the exhibition brings a fresh eye to art and visual culture in Iran from the 1960s up to the present. Its survey of the contemporary history of the country is arranged in sequences; the years 1960–1970, the revolutionary era of 1979, the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988) and the postwar period up until today.

Bringing together twenty artists from the years 1960–1970 and representatives of the new generation, the exhibition focuses on painting, photography and cinema, as well as key aspects of Iran’s modern visual culture: posters and documentary material ranging from the Shiraz-Persepolis Festival of the Arts to the revolutionary period and the Iran-Iraq war. Whether already historic figures (Bahman Mohassess, Behdjat Sadr, Kaveh Golestan, Bahman Jalali) or members of the contemporary scene (Barbad Golshiri, Arash Hanaei and others), all the artists base their work on a critical approach to form and media. Down the generations, they have played their part in a reassessment of the way the political and social history of their country has been written. The exhibition and its accompanying book invite us to broaden our perception of Iran and its modernity.

read more

Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at UMD reported the success of the lecture series held in conjunction with the Library of Congress exhibit “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book.” Since the inaugural event on March 27 featuring Professor John Renard (St. Louis University), the series has continued throughout the spring with well-attended presentations by Professor Afsaneh Najmabadi (Harvard University), Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak (UMD), Jessika Kenney (Cornish College of the Arts) and Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz (UMD), and Dr. Massumeh Farhad (Freer Sackler Galleries).

Two lectures are programmed this month. On June 11, Dr. Sunil Sharma, Chair, Department of Modern Languages & Comparative Literature, and Associate Professor of Persianate & Comparative Literature at Boston University, will present “Woven Words and Painted Pictures. The Persian Book in India.” On June 25, freelance illustrator Rashin Kheiriyeh will discuss “The Persian Book: Animation and Illustration.” Both events will be held at the Library of Congress from 12 – 1 pm. Please click on the link below to see the details on these and additional lectures scheduled during the summer.

In addition to the above lectures, The Library of Congress and Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at UMD are pleased offer an additional presentation entitled “Fighting Pediatric Cancer in Iran” by Ms. Saideh Ghods on June 30. Ms. Ghods is a wonderful Iranian woman philanthropist, entrepreneur and community organizer. She is also the founder of the MAHAK, one of the most impressive charitable organizations in Iran that supports children with cancer. 

Daniel Beckman is the recipient of Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies at UCLA for 2014-2015. He recently completed his fifth year of graduate studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. His dissertation research focuses on examining the ways that the Achaemenid Persian empire used written treaties to control the Greek states on the Aegean frontier, and covers a wide range of Iranian, Mesopotamian, and Greek source materials. He will be presenting some of his finding under the title “Achaemenid Satraps and the Aegean Frontier” at the Tenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference in August 2014.