Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate Dr. Matthew Stolper and the six students who worked under his supervision during summer 2013 on the Persepolis Fortification Archive (PFA) Project at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. The PFA is a group of thousands of tablets discovered by archaeologists from the Oriental Institute in 1933. They offer a rare insight into the Achaemenid Persian Empire, including its languages, art, history and administration. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Fellows Emily Wilson, Tytus Mikolajczak, Erin Daly, Christina Chandler, Katherine Livingstone and Seunghee Yie made valuable contributions to the ongoing initiative to identify, catalogue and record seals on these tablets and fragments.

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American Friends of the Louvre’s annual newsletter reported the appointment of the Louvre Museum’s new President-Director, Jean-Luc Martinez. Mr. Martinez is a renowned archaeologist and scholar, and previously held the position of Director of the Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities of the Louvre. His priority projects for the coming years are the refurbishment of galleries, renovation of visitor spaces, and maintaining the excellence of scholarly research at the Louvre.

AFL also reported the success of “Shirin Neshat: Portraits of Women” held on February 3, with the support of the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund at the Louvre. The renowned Iranian photographer and video artist spoke about many of her acclaimed works, including Turbulent/Rapture/Fervor (1998).
(Shirin Neshat, “Roja,” The Book of Kings © Shirin Neshat)

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce its support of the British Library’s Persian manuscripts project. The Library has one of the most significant collections of Persian manuscripts in the world, in terms of both its size and importance. It consists of over 11,000 works and includes some of the most famous miniature paintings of the Persian school. The project involves creating catalogue records for manuscripts which are uncatalogued, standardizing the existing print records and creating digital files, as well as digitizing 50 of the most beautiful manuscripts. These records and manuscript pages will be available on the British Library’s website, allowing easy access to this remarkable collection to the widest audience.

Da (Mother): Memoirs of Seyyedeh Zahra Hoseini, as Recorded by Seyyedeh A’zam Hoseini was published by Sureh-ye Mehr, the official publisher of the Artistic Center of the Islamic Development Organization, in 2008. According to the publishers, it became the biggest seller in the shortest period in Iranian publishing history. This article analyzes the conditions of production, distribution and reception of that work, and compares it to the canon of other contemporary Iranian war narratives. It argues that the unusually wide and varied reception of a traditional discourse of sacrifice, nationalism and revolutionary fervor was facilitated by the fashionable format of the woman’s memoir, in addition to a formidable propaganda machine.

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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to welcome new Assistant Professor Samad Alavi. Professor Alavi is a scholar of modern Persian literature and will complete his Ph.D. this winter at UC Berkeley. He presented his research on the Iranian critic and poet Mohammad Mokhtari at the 6th biennial conference of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies in September. Accompanying him were former Roshan Institute Fellows James Gustafson and Stefan Kamola, who presented their own works on Qajar Iran and Persian historiography, respectively. The Institute would like to congratulate the newest Roshan Institute Fellow, Jipar Duishembieva, whose dissertation focuses on the intellectual environment of 20th century Central Asia. The Persian and Iranian Studies Program also announced a complete listing of events for the year.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate the recipients of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Achievement Awards whose accomplishments were recognized at the ceremony held by the Iranian Culture and Art Club of Fresno on June 9. During the ceremony, ten students under 9 years old made presentations on subjects ranging from animals and colors to seasons and holidays. Seven students between 10 and 16 years old also spoke about various subjects and recited poems in Persian. A grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute made possible gift certificates for these and other outstanding students as well as supported Persian language learning tools during the academic year 2012-2013.

Already appealing to top graduate students worldwide, UNC’s allure will only increase thanks to the creation of Roshan Institute Fellowships for Excellence in Persian Studies. These new fellowships, made possible through Roshan Institute Fund for Excellence in Persian Studies established by a grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, will provide much-needed support for Carolina’s efforts to attract and retain graduate students of the highest quality. Plus, they will allow the University to increase diversity among its graduate student population by helping offset additional costs incurred by international and out-of-state students.