2015 Archives - Roshan

Launch of Roshangar: the Roshan Undergraduate Persian Studies Journal at UMD

Nov 16, 2015

It is with great joy that Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute announces the launch of Roshangar, the very first undergraduate journal in Persian Studies at Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland. This biannual academic publication is totally designed and run by a group of talented undergraduate students, under the guidance of former Roshan Institute Fellow, Ida Meftahi, Visiting Assistant Professor at Roshan Institute for Persian Studies.

The peer-reviewed journal is accompanied by the Roshangar website, which features film and book reviews, interviews with scholars and artists, as well as highlights of local Persian events.

Submission of high quality research papers (1,500-2,000 words) is open to all undergraduate students nationally and internationally, as long as they are related to Persian Studies.

The first edition of Roshangar will be published electronically in January 2016.

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New Roshan Institute Professorship in Persian Studies at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Nov 3, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased and proud to announce a new endowment at UNC-Chapel Hill for the establishment of Roshan Institute Professorship in Persian Studies, in the College of Arts and Sciences.

This grant creates the first Persian studies endowed professorship at Carolina. Housed in the Department of Asian Studies, the new faculty member will teach Persian language and culture courses, and enable the university to offer a minor in Persian Studies.

In 2013, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute established an endowment for Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies for graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill. The two endowments combined bring the Institute’s total gifts to $1 million in support of the university’s growing Persian studies program.

Chaired by Dr. Carl Ernst, William Kenan Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, the Persian studies program is supported by the department of Asian studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations.

University of Washington Persian and Iranian Studies Gala

Oct 17, 2015

The UW Persian and Iranian Studies Program announced its Autumn Gala will take place on Saturday, October 17, 2015, from 6:00pm to 9pm, at the Mercer Island Community Center, 8236 SE 24th Street, Mercer Island, WA.

Guests will enjoy a catered dinner, live performances and an auction. Speakers include several UW faculty: Professor Selim Kuru, Chair of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilization Department and Director, Persian and Iranian Studies Program; Professor Samad Alavi, Assistant Professor of Persian and Iranian Studies; and Joel Walker, Jon Bridgman Associate Professor of History. The keynote speaker is Babak Parviz, Vice President at Amazon and Affiliate Faculty at UW.

Organized and presented by community members, in collaboration with UW, the Gala will raise funds for the Persian and Iranian Studies program, students and faculty. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is proud to support the event and is offering a matching grant.

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Welcome to Dr. Mohamad Navid Bazargan at Roshan Institute for Persian Studies

Oct 14, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to welcome Professor Mohamad Navid Bazargan to the faculty of Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, starting fall 2015. He will hold the position of Visiting Assistant Professor in the area of Persian literature and culture.

Professor Bazargan has been an Assistant Professor of Persian Literature at Tehran Azad University since 2005. During this time, he has served on the academic Boards of The Great Encyclopedia of Islam, The Encyclopedia of the Persian Language, and as editor of Journal of Culture and Literature at Azad University in Roudehen. He was a Visiting Scholar at California State University of Northridge from 2013 to 2014. Dr. Bazargan’s scholarship spans canonical texts such as the Shahnameh and the Masnavi. And, his studies, talents and personal involvement in modern literature, painting and calligraphy greatly enrich his work.

Find more about Roshan Institute for Persian Studies

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Fall 2015 Roshan Institute Lecture Series at San José State University

Oct 10, 2015

The Persian Studies Program at San José State University is holding several exciting lectures this fall designed to celebrate Persian art, literature and culture. On September 8, graphic illustrator and co-author of Operation Ajax, Daniel Burwen will deliver a talk on “Retelling the Story on the 1953 CIA Coup in Iran in Graphic Form.” On October 6, the University will welcome Arash Davari, Ph.D. candidate, UCLA, Political Science, for a lecture on “A Return to Which Self? Ali Shari’ati and the Articulation of an Indeterminate Collective Subject in Revolutionary Iran,” followed by a poetry reading with Iranian-American poet Soraya Shalforoosh on October 15. Finally, the screening of Fifi Howls from Happiness, a documentary about Iranian artist, Bahman Mohassas, will be held on November 18, followed by a discussion with film producer Marjaneh Moghimi. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to support these events and the Persian Studies Program of SJSU.

Grant Awarded to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sep 6, 2015

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is proud to announce a grant to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in support of three upcoming projects related to Persian arts and culture: a digital publication cataloguing the Museum’s collection of 600 coins excavated at the Iranian city of Nishapur between 1935 and 1948; and two events planned in conjunction of the exhibition The Great Age of the Seljuqs (April 26 -July 24, 2016). On display at this special MET exhibition will be luster-painted ceramics, silk textiles, manuscripts, and ornate metalwork created during the reign of the Seljuqs, a Turkish dynasty that ruled Iran and Anatolia from 1038 to 1307.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s leading art museums, with a collection spanning more than 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present. Its collection of Islamic art is the most comprehensive in the world. It includes more than 12,000 of the finest objects, dating from the seventh to the 20th century. Outstanding holdings include the collections of more than 450 Islamic carpets; pages from a sumptuous copy of the Shahnameh, or Book of Kings, created for Shah Tahmasp (1514-76); and a 14th-century glazed ceramic mihrab, or prayer niche, from a theological school in Isfahan.

Find out more about the MET

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