The San José State University Persian Studies Program invites you to attend “Engaging Iran and the Iranian Diaspora after the Nuclear Agreement: Opportunities and Challenges”, a multi-disciplinary conference and conversation that will be held at SJSU Martin Luther King Library on Friday, October 21, 2016. Panelists from SJSU College of Arts & Humanities, College of Social Sciences, and School of Business, as well as members of local nonprofits, will discuss the significance of the US/Iran Nuclear Agreement and the ways in which members of the Iranian diaspora and academic communities can sustain the historic agreement and build initiatives to engage with Iran.

The Keynote Address will be given by Dr. Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan, and author of Engaging the Muslim World and the blog, Informed Comment. The conference will be followed by the world premiere of the stage adaptation of Together Tea, a novel by Marjan Kamali. Written and directed by Dr. Matthew Spangler, SJSU Professor of Theater Arts, the play features acclaimed actress Leyla Modirzadeh. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce a lecture and book signing by Dr. Ida Meftahi, speaking on her first book, Gender and Dance in Modern Iran: Biopolitics on Stage, as part of “The Persian Book Lecture Series” presented by the Library of Congress and Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at University of Maryland, College Park.

Dr. Meftahi is a Visiting Assistant Professor in contemporary Iranian culture and society at Roshan Institute for Persian Studies. In addition to teaching, Dr. Meftahi is the director of the Lalehzar Street Digital Archive, a project of the Roshan Initiative for Digital Humanities, as well as faculty advisor for Roshangar: Roshan Undergraduate Journal for Persian Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations from the University of Toronto (2013) for which she received a Roshan Institute Fellowship for Persian Studies. Her book, Gender and Dance in Modern Iran: Biopolitics on Stage (Routledge, 2016) investigates the way dancing bodies have been providing evidence for competing representations of modernity, urbanism, and religiosity across the twentieth century.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016 | 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Thomas Jefferson Building, African Middle Eastern Reading Room, LJ-220 | Library of Congress

Find out more about the event

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce that Nicholas Boylston was awarded a Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies for the completion of his dissertation in academic year 2016-2017. Mr. Boylston is currently in his final year of doctoral studies in the Department of Theological and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, where he is working under the direction of his advisor, Professor Paul Heck. His dissertation entitled, “Writing the Kaleidoscope of Reality, the Significance of Diversity in 6th-12th century Persian Metaphysical Literature: Sana’i, ‘Attar and ‘Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani,” argues that the pluralist and perspectivist characteristics of the writings of these three Persian authors result from their conscious and original synthetic engagements with diverse discourses of their era, and that their works are best read holistically.

Mr. Boylston’s area of specialization is Persian literature and Islamic intellectual history through the lenses of religious, intellectual and literary pluralism. He was Preceptor of Persian in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University for academic year 2014-2015. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to commend Mr. Boylston for his contributions to Persian Studies scholarship and extends its best wishes for a successful year.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute mourns the passing of acclaimed Iranian film director, photographer, artist and poet, Abbas Kiarostami on July 4, 2016, in Paris at the age of 76. Kiarostami was one of the most influential Iranian artists, who gave the Iranian cinema the international credibility that it has today.

Kiarostami was born in 1940 in northern Iran. After a degree in fine art at Tehran University, he worked as a graphic designer and for a film ad agency before joining the Centre for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanun) in 1969. It was during his two decades at Kanun that Kiarostami worked on what is known as the Koker trilogy, the three films that established his international reputation as a director of considerable sensitivity and intellectual rigor: Where Is the Friend’s Home? (1987) won the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno film festival, Life, and Nothing More (1992) and Through the Olive Trees (1994). Kiarostami’s upward ascension as a major film director was confirmed in 1997, when his seventh feature, Taste of Cherry –a study of a man driving around looking for someone to help him commit suicide– was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.