Both began learning Persian at UMD and have shown remarkable progress. We would like to join RIPS at UMD in commending their academic excellence and enthusiasm for Persian language and culture.

Joseph Sammarco and Siobhan Cully are recipients of the Amouzegar Undergraduate Scholarships, which recognize students who have submitted exceptional papers on subjects related to Persian language or culture. Mr. Sammarco is a Persian Studies major and an active participant in UMD’s Iranian Students Association. Ms. Cully is an English major with a minor in Creative Writing, who is considering further work in Persian Studies.

On May 30-31, 2014, the International Qajar Studies Association held its Fourteenth Annual Conference. Twenty-two distinguished historians and researchers from around the world gathered at the Iranistik Institute of the Otto-Friedrich University in Bamberg, Germany, to present their scholarly work on topics related to “Literature and Writing in Qajar Iran.” The keynote speech on “Poet-Laureate Bahar in the Constitutional Era” was delivered by Professor Homa Katouzian (University of Oxford), and was followed by several engaging panels including presentations by Professor Abbas Amanat (Yale University), Dr. Roxane Haag-Higuchi (Bamberg University), Professor Todd Lawson (Toronto University), Dr. Tomoko Morikawa (Hokkaido University), Mira Xenia Schwerda (Princeton University), and Dr. Simin Fasihi (Al-Zahra University). Several of these papers will be published in the IQSA Journal in 2015. The conference also included a reception by the Deputy-Mayor of Bamberg at the historic townhall, a visit to the Islamic Art Museum and meals. About seventy individuals attended the conference on each day. Please click on the link below to view the full conference program.

Pictured are: (top left to right) Professor Homa Katouzian (University of Oxford), Professor Abbas Amanat (Yale University), and Professor Manoutchehr Eskandari-Qajar (President, IQSA) and the Deputy-Mayor; (bottom left to right) Dr. Tomoko Morikawa (Hokkaido University) and the Islamic Art Museum.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce that Dr. Kaveh Abhari and Arya Mirdjalali have been appointed as IT and Cultural Consultants. We look forward to benefitting from their valuable contributions and expertise in furthering the mission of the Institute.

Dr. Abhari is an interdisciplinary researcher and program evaluator at University of Hawaii at Manoa. He works on the application of social technologies to spur learning and innovation, and contributes to several interdisciplinary studies on ICT applications to special education, public education, higher education, and alternative education. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering and completed his PhD in strategic marketing management as well as communication and information science.

Mr. Mirdjalali has a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Southampton (UK) and is the co-founder of techylib.com. TechyLib is a platform that enables the community of tech enthusiasts to share and learn about science and technology. He is currently a contractor and software developer at Viacom Inc. Viacom is the owner and operator of MTV networks, Paramount Pictures and over 170 other media networks around the world.

The Louvre organized another event showcasing Persian culture this spring. On March 24, on the occasion of the International Women’s Day and Noruz, more than 200 participants were treated to a full day of guided tours on Persian art and artifacts. They visited the Department of Islamic Art and the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities where they admired and learned about masterpieces and treasures of Persian art and archaeology in the Museum’s collections.

The workshop seeks to examine this period that includes not only aspects of cohesion and fracture but also renewal and reconstitution of the Persian-speaking world. It asks participants to consider how “connections and contestations” around language, literature, and culture helped define the shifting contours of the wide world of Persian at different moments and places. How did local understandings and engagement with Persianate norms change during this time? What have been the transnational and transregional spaces that allow(ed) for the manifestation of Persian cultural, linguistic, and political norms and their ability to connect (or distinguish) various peoples and places throughout this period? How have the “connections and contestations” linked to Persian shaped the literature, culture, history, and politics of the Persian world today?

On March 24, on the occasion of International Women’s Day and Noruz, the Louvre organized a full day of guided tours dedicated to Persian and Islamic art. This program was part of the Museum’s outreach efforts and was attended by almost 200 participants who enjoyed learning about the artwork presented in the Department of Islamic Art and the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities. The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund, established at the Louvre Museum in 2011, made possible these tours as well as the concert series.

In addition, the first Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fellow, Tytus Mikolajczak, began his fellowship work this spring at the Oriental Institute Museum (OIM) of the University of Chicago in collaboration with the Louvre. Mr. Mikolajczak’s efforts through spring 2015 will focus on documenting approximately 350 objects selected by one of the Project Directors, Professor Pierre Briant (Collège de France), from more than 2,500 pieces in the OIM’s Achaemenid collection. As a result of the fellowship, detailed and illustrated records on hundreds of stone vessels, glazed brick fragments, coins, cylinders and architectural elements all originating from the Achaemenid Empire will be made available on the website of the Achemenet research program.

Top left to right: Maryam Gharassou, Pasha Karami, Pantea Alvandipour, Siamak Jahangiry and Ali Bahrami Fard; bottom (© Artéphoto.com – Stéphane Olivier – Musée du Louvre): tours in the Persian art galleries.

On March 16, families and children learned about the beauty of Persian traditions and the significance of Noruz through cultural items on display, arts and crafts activities such as ‘yarn-painting’ inspired by Persian carpets and Persian-style egg decorating, lectures on Noruz philosophy and history, and an elegant Haftsin table. In the spirit of Persian hospitality, the 1,800 guests who attended ARTafterDARK: Roshan Institute Noruz on March 28 were greeted with pomegranate juice upon arrival. During the evening, they admired an elaborate Haftsin table, enjoyed poetry readings and a slideshow of Persian scenes, viewed the Museum’s Persian Art galleries and created their own works of art in the form of paper maché eggs and mosaics of Persian-inspired tiles. Both events featured Persian music and food to complete the visitors’ journey through the world of Persian culture and Noruz traditions.

This collaborative fellowship between the Department of Islamic Art of the Louvre Museum and the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago is made possible through the support of the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund at the Louvre, named in honor of the founding Chair and President of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. During 2014-2015, Mr. Mikolajczak will document the Oriental Institute Museum’s collection of Achaemenid objects under the guidance of Dr. Matthew Stolper (John A. Wilson Professor Emeritus of Oriental Studies, Oriental Institute), Dr. Jack Green (Chief Curator, Oriental Institute Museum), Professor Emeritus Pierre Briant (Collège de France) and Yannick Lintz (Director, Department of Islamic Art, Louvre). The results of this fellowship will greatly contribute to the Achemenet Program at the Louvre, which aims to gather and make accessible online materials pertaining to the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

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Roshan Institute would also like to commend Ms. Mixon as well as all other graduate students pursuing excellent Ph.D. work in Persian Studies at UNC. Their research areas range from Persian poetry and literature to Sufism and Shi’ism.

Jipar Duishembieva, this year’s Roshan Institute Fellow, is making continued progress toward the completion of her dissertation “Central Asian Intellectuals of Semirech’e Oblast of Russian Turkestan, 1905-1924.” In investigating the role of Muslim intellectuals and education in Central Asia, she uses Persian-language sources, prose and poetry from 16th – 20th centuries such as Mantiq at tayir, Qissa-i ghurbā vā mush, Šāhnāmeh, Layla and Majnun, Khosrow and Shirin that were part of the traditional school curriculum at the end of the nineteenth century on the territory of nowadays Kyrgyzstan.

Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at UMD and the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress are also collaborating on the conference “The Wide World of Persian: Connections and Contestations, 1500-Today” on May 2-3. This event will feature a panel of twelve scholars from universities around the country who will examine the early modern to contemporary times which features some of the defining moments in the lifespan and legacy of the Persian world.

In additional news, Roshan Institute for Persian Studies launches its first annual newsletter (2012-2013), which looks back on a year of dynamic programming and events.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Achievements Awards were distributed among all students who participated and submitted projects centered on predefined Persian language topics. Presentations were made in Persian to an audience of 200 Iranian-American community members and judges. The program was well received by the attendees, who observed with delight 33 students from different levels of language proficiency present various subjects. In one section, young students participated in a very impressive and lively session of the life of Hakim Abolghasem Ferdosi much to the surprise of the audience. At the end of the event, each teacher received gifts and recognition for their efforts.

Please click on the links below for more information on the ICAC and to watch the award ceremony.

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From February 10 – May 8, DePauw University’s Richard E. Peeler Art Center presents “Persian Visions: Contemporary Photography from Iran.” Featuring 58 works of photography and video installations by 20 of Iran’s most celebrated photographers, this exhibition gathers personal perspectives of contemporary Iran filtered through individual sensibilities, while simultaneously addressing public concerns. “Persian Visions” was developed by Hamid Severi for the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran and Gary Hallman of the Regis Center for Art, University of Minnesota.

“Displacements: The Craft Practices of Golnar Adili and Samira Yamin” at the Craft & Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles is on view through April 27. Taking the repetitive craft practices of paper-cutting and hand-stitching beyond traditional parameters, these two Iranian-American artists utilize old family photographs and archives to produce mixed media and multimedia works that are steeped in diasporic loss and longing.

Other noteworthy exhibitions that have closed recently include “Recalling The Future: post revolutionary Iranian art” (The Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London); Parastou Forouhar’s “Kiss Me” (Rose Issa Project, London); and “Persepolis: Word & Image” (The William Benton Museum of Art, Connecticut).

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Roshan Institute is pleased to sponsor the Tenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, which will be held from August 6 – 10, 2014 in Montréal, Canada, under the leadership of current ISIS President Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi. It will be hosted by the Centre for Iranian Studies at Concordia University (whose Director Professor Richard Foltz is the Conference Chair) and the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. Almost 100 panels are planned on a variety of subjects in Iranian Studies. The final Conference Program will be forthcoming.

“Illustrating the Persian Book” will be followed by a six-month long series of presentations. Distinguished scholars from Harvard University, Boston University, University of California, Berkeley, and Freer and Sackler Galleries, among several others, will speak about The Book of Kings, Persian mystical literature, Persian manuscripts, and much more. These presentations will be held at the University of Maryland or at the Library of Congress. Please click on the link below for a full schedule.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to support the full six-month long academic series organized in conjunction with the major exhibit “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book.”