Louvre Islamic Art New Wing

May 23, 2012

Louvre museum opens its new wing and galleries dedicated to Islamic art to the public on September 22, 2012. The creation of a new wing dedicated to Islamic art at the Louvre represents a decisive phase in the architectural history of the palace and in the development of the museum. 

With a roof designed to look like a floating sheet of silk, is the most important architectural feat since its glass pyramid. The new gallery allows the museum to properly display the most exceptional collections of Islamic art in the world, owing to its geographic diversity, the historical periods covered, and the wide variety of materials and techniques represented.

J

Congratulations to Professor Keshavarz

May 18, 2012

Fatemeh Keshavarz, born and raised in the city of Shiraz, completed her studies in Shiraz University, and University of London. She taught at Washington University in St. Louis for over twenty years where she chaired the Dept. of Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from 2004 to 2011. In 2012, Keshavarz joined the University of Maryland as the Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Language and Literature, and Director of the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies.

read more

J

New Board Member Announcement

Apr 27, 2012

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce the addition of a new member to its Board of Director. The current Directors and Officers of the Institute are delighted to welcome Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw to that function. We are confident that her background and expereince will be extremely valuable in advancing the Institute’s mission. Dr. Hinshaw currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. 

She previously served as provost and executive vice chancellor of the University of California, Davis. Before joining UC Davis in 2001, she served as dean of the Graduate School and vice chancellor for research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

J

Retirement Congratulations

Apr 3, 2012

James E. Alatis, Dean emeritus of the School of Languages and Linguistics (SLL), will retire this year after an extraordinary 45 years of service to Georgetown University that began when he joined the Linguistics department in 1966. In 1973, he was named Dean of the SLL, a post he held for over two decades. As dean, Alatis played a critical role in attracting grant support and other resources that helped build key academic areas for which Georgetown is still widely known, among them the program in sociolinguistics, the Georgetown Roundtable on Languages and Linguistics (GURT), and bringing distinguished faculty members to the SLL.

He also never tired of teaching and advocating for the Modern Greek Program, which he had founded upon his arrival in 1966. Alatis wrote, edited, or co-edited more than twenty volumes and published over forty articles on bilingualism, language policy, and language teaching. Among his many distinguished career highlights was Alatis’ leadership as the first executive director of TESOL – Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages – a global association of English language teaching professionals dedicated to developing and maintaining professional expertise in English language teaching worldwide. His contributions to the field are celebrated by the annual James E. Alatis Award for Service to TESOL.

J

New Book Announcement

Mar 23, 2012

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce the translation and publication of ‘Ancient Iran from the Air’ by Roshan Institute Fellows, David Stronach and Ali Mousavi. “This book features many of the exceptional landscapes and monuments of Iran as seen through the lens of the world’s foremost aerial photographers, George Gerster. The photographs, which were taken between 1976 and 1978, are presented in six chapters, each authored by one or more scholars of international repute, and the work as a whole is edited by two of the main contributors, David Stronach and Ali Mousavi. 

Ancient Iran from the Air takes the reader on an aerial odyssey that explores the country’s infinitely varied landscapes; many of the more noted sites associated with Iran’s rich prehistoric past; the capitals of the Achaemenid and Sasanian empires; the memorable monuments of Saljuk and Safavid Isfahan; and, last but not least, on a journey that celebrates the age-old virtues of Iran’s largely unsung vernacular mud-brick architecture.”

J

FLY ZONE Shahla Arbabi

Feb 3, 2012

FLY ZONE strives to express the voice of the civilian during conflict. Each image is powerful and, at times, painful to consider. Here the silent witness of war is considered, and as viewers we are forced to consider their defenselessness and fragility. It is in that reflection that we begin to empathize and acknowledge our own vulnerability and theirs. Shahla Arbabi is a painter and mixed media artist whose work has been featured in over thirty solo and over forty group exhibitions. 

She has exhibited widely in Europe and the United States, both in private galleries and in such prestigious venues as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Her work has been the subject of numerous studies of contemporary painting and can be found in more than two dozen private and public collections, including the permanent holdings of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, of the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies, as well as The Washington Post and of the Carnegie Institute.

read more

J