The Persian Language, Linguistics, and Culture Program in the College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature is offering Intensive Beginning Modern Persian during Summer Session II. Persian 111 is an Intensive Beginning Modern Persian course equivalent to PERS 101 and PERS 102. This course provides students with basic vocabulary and the most important grammar structures in order to communicate in oral and written.
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to report that almost 4,000 enthusiastic visitors attended Bank of Hawaii Family Sunday: Noruz and ARTafterDARK: Roshan Institute Noruz in March 2014. Both events are part of the Museum’s 2014 Persian Culture Program Series supported by Roshan Institute.
On March 16, families and children learned about the beauty of Persian traditions and the significance of Noruz through cultural items on display, arts and crafts activities such as ‘yarn-painting’ inspired by Persian carpets and Persian-style egg decorating, lectures on Noruz philosophy and history, and an elegant Haftsin table. In the spirit of Persian hospitality, the 1,800 guests who attended ARTafterDARK: Roshan Institute Noruz on March 28 were greeted with pomegranate juice upon arrival. During the evening, they admired an elaborate Haftsin table, enjoyed poetry readings and a slideshow of Persian scenes, viewed the Museum’s Persian Art galleries and created their own works of art in the form of paper maché eggs and mosaics of Persian-inspired tiles. Both events featured Persian music and food to complete the visitors’ journey through the world of Persian culture and Noruz traditions.
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce that Tytus Mikolajczak, Ph.D. student in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at The University of Chicago, has been selected as the first Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fellow.
This collaborative fellowship between the Department of Islamic Art of the Louvre Museum and the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago is made possible through the support of the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund at the Louvre, named in honor of the founding Chair and President of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. During 2014-2015, Mr. Mikolajczak will document the Oriental Institute Museum’s collection of Achaemenid objects under the guidance of Dr. Matthew Stolper (John A. Wilson Professor Emeritus of Oriental Studies, Oriental Institute), Dr. Jack Green (Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum), Professor Emeritus Pierre Briant (Collège de France) and Yannick Lintz (Director, Department of Islamic Art, Louvre). The results of this fellowship will greatly contribute to the Achemenet Program at the Louvre, which aims to gather and make accessible online materials pertaining to the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate Candace Mixon, the first recipient of Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies, established at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. Ms. Mixon, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Religious Studies, is currently working on her dissertation entitled “Representations of Public Piety in Persian Images and Texts” in which she examines the linguistic, cultural, and religious contexts that inform public piety and the family of the Prophet Muhammad in contemporary Iran. She will use Roshan Institute Fellowship to continue her Ph.D. research during summer 2014.
Afsaneh Haddadian was recently selected as the 2014-2015 Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Fellow. Currently a first year Ph.D. student in the Jackson School for International Studies at the University of Washington, Ms. Haddadian will focus her research on local and sub-national governance in Iran and Afghanistan, and children’s rights in Iran.
Jipar Duishembieva, this year’s Roshan Institute Fellow, is making continued progress toward the completion of her dissertation “Central Asian Intellectuals of Semirech’e Oblast of Russian Turkestan, 1905-1924.” In investigating the role of Muslim intellectuals and education in Central Asia, she uses Persian-language sources, prose and poetry from 16th – 20th centuries such as Mantiq at tayir, Qissa-i ghurbā vā mush, Šāhnāmeh, Layla and Majnun, Khosrow and Shirin that were part of the traditional school curriculum at the end of the nineteenth century on the territory of nowadays Kyrgyzstan.
Roshan Institute Lecture Series organized in conjunction with the exhibit “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book” continues with “The Persian Book of Kings: Vicissitudes of a Foundational Text in Iranian Culture” by Dr. Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak on April 25 at 12 pm (please click the link below for more information).
Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at UMD and the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress are also collaborating on the conference “The Wide World of Persian: Connections and Contestations, 1500-Today” on May 2-3. This event will feature a panel of twelve scholars from universities around the country who will examine the early modern to contemporary times which features some of the defining moments in the lifespan and legacy of the Persian world.
In additional news, Roshan Institute for Persian Studies launches its first annual newsletter (2012-2013), which looks back on a year of dynamic programming and events.
The Iranian Culture and Art Club (ICAC) is a nonprofit organization that offers Persian language and dance classes as well as public programs celebrating Persian culture for the Fresno community. The ICAC reported the successful conclusion of the 2013-2014 academic year with the organization of a student ceremony on June 8.
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Achievements Awards were distributed among all students who participated and submitted projects centered on predefined Persian language topics. Presentations were made in Persian to an audience of 200 Iranian-American community members and judges. The program was well received by the attendees, who observed with delight 33 students from different levels of language proficiency present various subjects. In one section, young students participated in a very impressive and lively session of the life of Hakim Abolghasem Ferdosi much to the surprise of the audience. At the end of the event, each teacher received gifts and recognition for their efforts.
Please click on the links below for more information on the ICAC and to watch the award ceremony.
The Shahnama, an epic poem from the 10th century that chronicles Iran’s mythical history before the founding of Islam, has been immortalized in numerous illustrated copies. The illuminated pages of the 16th-century Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, known as the most beautiful edition ever created, are reproduced in this new publication, which succeeds the Metropolitan Museum’s celebrated out-of-print deluxe facsimile edition of 2011. This new volume combines the vibrant, high-quality reproductions of the deluxe edition with enlightening information and a smaller, more accessible format. The fascinating text introduces the Shahnama to readers and describes the material world depicted in the intricate paintings. It also includes a brief description of the stories depicted in the illustrations and an illustrated “Who’s Who” to help readers identify major characters in the epic. These features provide readers a deeper engagement with this captivating masterpiece. Sheila R. Canby is the Patti Cadby Birch Curator in Charge of the Department of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This spring, several exhibitions celebrate the talent and creativity of Iranian artists. The Fine Arts Gallery of CSU Los Angeles recently opened “Contemporary Iranian Photography,” on view through May 7. This exhibit is of paramount importance as during the last decade, Iranian photographers have become a significant part of the contemporary art scene. In fact, Iranian photography, far more than Iranian painting or sculpture, deals with such sensitive issues as identity, gender, history, and the role of language in constructing truth and reality. This exhibit is curated by Abbas Daneshvari, Simin Dehghani, and Marjan Asgari.
From February 10 – May 8, DePauw University’s Richard E. Peeler Art Center presents “Persian Visions: Contemporary Photography from Iran.” Featuring 58 works of photography and video installations by 20 of Iran’s most celebrated photographers, this exhibition gathers personal perspectives of contemporary Iran filtered through individual sensibilities, while simultaneously addressing public concerns. “Persian Visions” was developed by Hamid Severi for the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran and Gary Hallman of the Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota.
“Displacements: The Craft Practices of Golnar Adili and Samira Yamin” at the Craft & Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles is on view through April 27. Taking the repetitive craft practices of paper-cutting and hand-stitching beyond traditional parameters, these two Iranian-American artists utilize old family photographs and archives to produce mixed media and multimedia works that are steeped in diasporic loss and longing.
Other noteworthy exhibitions that have closed recently include “Recalling The Future: post revolutionary Iranian art” (The Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London); Parastou Forouhar’s “Kiss Me” (Rose Issa Project, London); and “Persepolis: Word & Image” (The William Benton Museum of Art, Connecticut).
As part of Roshan Institute Lecture Series organized in conjunction with “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book” exhibit at the Library of Congress, Professor Afsaneh Najmabadi will discuss Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran (WWQI). WWQI is a comprehensive digital resource that preserves, links, and renders accessible primary-source materials related to the social and cultural history of women’s worlds in Qajar Iran. Since March 2014, the digital archive also features an interactive Research Platform which enables and encourages research collaboration and exchange of ideas among scholars and users of the website. Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran and its Research Platform are major initiatives led by Dr. Najmabadi, Francis Lee Higginson Professor of History and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University, and proudly supported by Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute.
