The Near East Section The African Middle Eastern Division The Library of Congress Invites you To Celebrate Nowruz with graphic artist and filmmaker, Hamid Rahmanian, Who will present an innovative version of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (“The Epic of the Persian Kings”) Based on illustrations from thousands of Iranian, Mughal Indian, and Ottoman manuscripts

Another exciting initiative, The Democracy Fund, was launched by Director on our Board, Pierre Omidyar on January 15th, 2013. The Democracy Fund will address the ongoing work of improving the political system/process in the United States. For further detail on the mission and vision of The Democracy Fund see the link below.

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Pierre Omidyar looked out over Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley this past February, scanning the horizon with his camera in hand. All the billionaire eBay founder could see for miles were huge, belching chimneys taller than houses and mountains of red bricks drying in the winter sun. Kids of 12 or 13 lugged bricks on their backs to and from these ovens, 80 pounds at a time. Ninety percent of the workers here in Bhaktapur, the heart of Nepal’s brick sector, are slaves. Day after day they incur more debt to the traffickers who found them these jobs and hovels to live in nearby.

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This Handbook is a current, comprehensive single-volume history of Iranian civilization. The authors, all leaders in their fields, emphasize the large-scale continuities of Iranian history while also describing the important patterns of transformation that have characterized Iran’s past. Each of the chapters focuses on a specific epoch of Iranian history and surveys the general political, social, cultural, and economic issues of that era. The ancient period begins with chapters considering the anthropological evidence of the prehistoric era, through to the early settled civilizations of the Iranian plateau, and continuing to the rise of the ancient Persian empires. The medieval section first considers the Arab-Muslim conquest of the seventh century, and then moves on to discuss the growing Turkish influence filtering in from Central Asia beginning in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Dr. Kamran Talattof’s 2011 book, Modernity, Sexuality, and Ideology in Iran: the Life and Legacy of a Popular Female Artist, was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title, and was announced in January 2012 issue of Choice Magazine. The Latifeh Yarshater Award Committee has also unanimously chosen Karmran Talattof’s Modernity, Sexuality, and Ideology in Iran: the Life and Legacy of a Popular Female Artist, and Farzaneh Milani’s Words, Not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement both published by the University of Syracuse Press in 2011, as joint recipients of the 2012 award. Kamran Talattof is professor of Persian and Middle Eastern and North African Studies at University of Arizona. 

The Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland and the National Geographic Present An Evening With Rumi: Persian Mystical Poetry and Music

The University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities has appointed Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz director of the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies (RIPS) as well as Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies in order to extend teaching, research and outreach for Persian language, literature, history and culture in the region and beyond. Dr. Keshavarz plans to focus her attention on raising the academic profile of the center on and off campus and producing the next generation of leaders in the field of Persian studies.

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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. 

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.

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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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

There are people in this world who might never be photographed, people you may never see, nor hear of. Nevertheless they, like you, have special lives and riveting stories. These photographs are of everyday people, people who are more like you than you might think. They cry, laugh, dream, and feel the same emotions as you do. They are special too and deserve fair representation.

EBay’s billionaire founder and proponent of good works was addressing a roomful of White House Fellows in a closed-door question-and-answer session last month, hours before President Obama’s State of the Union address, when a query stumped him: What do you hope to accomplish the rest of your life?

The event organized by UMD’s Roshan Institute Center for Persian Studies, which will be held at UMD during the week of November 14, 2011. This year, the Third Biennial Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series will feature the renowned art historian Professor Priscilla Soucek of New York University, who will speak on the topic The Bibliophile Impulse in Iranian Art and Culture. You can find more information on the attached brochure; following is a short list of the lectures’ times, titles, and venues:

It is with deep regret that we bring to friends of Persian Culture and Studies the sad news of the passing of Dr. Hossein Ziai, professor of Islamic and Iranian Studies and Director of Iranian Studies at UCLA