The College of SBS congratulates faculty Andrea Gerlak, Simin Karimi, Josephine Korchmaros, Maha Nassar, Lori Poloni-Staudinger, Jessica Retis, Stacey Tecot, Stephanie Troutman Robbins, and Ada Wilkinson-Lee for receiving the 2024 Women of Impact Award from the Office of Research, Innovation & Impact.
Please join us on Sunday, April 21, 2024 for a virtual talk by Dr. Austin O’Malley (University of Arizona) launching his book, The Poetics of Spiritual Instruction: Farid al-Din ʿAttar and Persian Sufi Didacticism.
The event will be solely online. To join us on Zoom, go to https://go.umd.edu/omalley
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi is returning to the University of Toronto to deliver a lecture on the women’s uprising in Iran. Ebadi, an honorary doctorate holder at the University, is known worldwide for staunchly supporting the rights of women, children and refugees in Iran.
Ebadi will deliver her lecture, “Women, Life, Liberty: Human Rights and the Women’s Uprising in Iran,” on September 22 in Convocation Hall. Ebadi’s visit coincides with the one-year anniversary of the start of the Iranian “Woman, Life, Liberty” movement that began in response to the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
The lecture is a partnership with U of T’s Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies in the Faculty of Arts & Science, a world leader in the study of Iranian history and culture. The institute runs regular symposiums, including in the weeks leading up to Ebadi’s lecture.
Dr. Stephanie Cronin is currently the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Research Fellow (2018-2025) at St. Antony’s College and in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. She previously wasRoshan Institute Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford (2015-2018); Senior Research Fellow at the University of Northampton (1999-2009); Lecturer in the Contemporary History of the Near and Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1993-1997); Lecturer in the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge (1993-1994); and Fellow of the British Institute of Persian Studies (1983-1987). She is the author of Armies and State-building in the Modern Middle East: Politics, Nationalism and Military Reform (I. B. Tauris, 2014); Shahs, Soldiers and Subalterns in Iran: Opposition, Protest and Revolt, 1921-1941 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Tribal Politics in Iran: Rural Conflict and the New State, 1921-1941 (Routledge, 2006); and The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran, 1910-1926 (I. B. Tauris, 1997). She received her Ph.D. in History (1992) and her M.A. in Middle East Studies (1981) from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Explores and theorises the modern and contemporary art of Iran from the mid-twentieth century to the present
“This book deals with the exploration and theorisation of Modern and Contemporary art of Iran through the examination of art movements and artistic practices in relation to other cultural, social and political discourses during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It focuses on discourses and their impact on art movements and practices and aims to selectively explore certain prevailing debates in action during this time. To come to grips with the way that artistic trends in Iran can be traced within the intellectual and political landscape of the country mainly from the 1940s to the present, Keshmirshekan articulates new ideas for relating art to its wider context – whether social, cultural or political – and to bring together critical and historical evidence in order to provide an insight into current artistic concerns. The book explores these underlying themes and discourses through a series of case studies, including through close scrutiny of works of artists.
The Unviersity of Washington is excited to share that the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization has a new name: Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC). They have made this change to acknowledge and embrace the diversity of the regions they study, to raise the visibility of the courses and activities offered, and to stay up-to-date with developments in their fields of study. This name reflects the great variety of approaches and interests in their scholarly work and course offerings, and believe it best represents the work they do and the communities they serve, now and in the future. MELC’s new webpage can be found at https://melc.washington.edu and for more information, visit https://melc.washington.edu/news/2022/09/20/nelc-has-new-name
Published in association with Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali, Founder and Chair, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute
Series Editor: Professor Stephanie Cronin
Covering the history of Iran and the Persian world from the medieval period to the present, this series aims to become the pre-eminent place for publication in this field. As well as its core concern with Iran, it will extend its concerns to encompass a much broader and more loosely defined cultural and linguistic world, including Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Xinjiang, and northern India. Books in the series will present a range of conceptual and methodological approaches, looking not only at states, dynasties, and elites but at subalterns, minorities, and everyday life.
Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies at the University of Toronto celebrated Persian New Year by hosting the Nowruz Festival of Women Poets on Saturday, March 26, 2022, co-presented by the Aga Khan Museum. The event sold out within days and featured both live and virtual performances from some of the world’s most celebrated poets and musicians dedicated to Persian art, language, and culture.
April 29, 2022 – 5 PM GMT(9 AM PST, 12 PM EST)
What fellowships and grants exist out there?What are the different options for students & postgraduates?What do students or postgraduates need to secure one?
Mark your calendars for our next Presidential Session on “Fellowships and Grants in Iranian Studies” with AIS President, Naghmeh Sohrabi, AIS Council Member, Dr. Hosna Sheikholeslami, and Dr. Stella Morgana.The online event will be held on Friday, April 29 at 12pm EST and will be moderated by AIS Student Representatives Dr. Rowena Abdul Razak and Layah Ziaii-Bigdeli.To register, visit: https://tinyurl.com/AISPresidentialSessions
James F. Harris, 81, eminent scholar of 19th-century German history and longtime dean of the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) at the University of Maryland, died Feb. 22, 2022, of heart disease at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. His deanship was marked by numerous academic and philanthropic achievements, including the development of an integrative approach to Middle East studies delivered in part through the creation of the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies and the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, the first centers of their kind in the U.S. under his leadership, the college also collaborated with the UMD Libraries and Office of Information Technology to establish the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, which has become a leading intellectual hub and international center for digital humanities.
The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund within the Louvre Endowment Fund has received an exceptional donation of $2.3 million from American Friends of the Louvre thanks to the generosity of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute.
In 2011, Dr Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali and her son Pierre Omidyar became the first philanthropists to support the Louvre Endowment Fund through Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. They created a specific fund to advance research in art history and promote cultural outreach linked to the Persian world. Thanks to this partnership, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has also created the first Louvre fellowship programme.
This new donation will allow for the creation of a second Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali fellowship for the Louvre: the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities and the Department of Islamic Art will therefore each benefit from a new fellow. The donation also brings greater funding for cultural outreach and research relating to the Persian world within the Musée du Louvre.
We at RCHI are very pleased for Mojtaba, our former PhD fellow, and wish to extend our congratulations to all who have assisted him on his journey. This new position speaks volume of the reputation of the Persian Studies program at UArizona, which we are proud to have been supporting for years.
