Roshan Institute for Persian Studies recently announced the full line-up of fall semester courses. Elementary, Intermediate and Advanced Persian language will be offered as well as courses in Modern Iran, Iranian Cinema, Persian Media and several others. Please click on the attached flyer for the full listing.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate Professor Fatemeh Keshavarz on her appointment as Director of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland, effective August 1. Professor Keshavarz joined UMD in 2012 as Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies and Director of Roshan Institute for Persian Studies (RIPS). Under her leadership, RIPS has continued to grow as the premier center for the learning, understanding, and appreciation of Persian culture. In her new role with the SLLC, Professor Keshavarz will focus on strengthening the collaborative scholarly bonds among the departments while continuing to advance Persian Studies as Roshan Institute Chair and Director of RIPS. Please join us in extending our sincere congratulations and best wishes to Professor Keshavarz.

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The Tenth Biennial Conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies will be held on August 6 – 9 in Montreal, Canada. Organized under the leadership of the International Society for Iranian Studies President, Professor Mehrzad Boroujerdi, and members of the organizing committee, the Tenth Biennial Conference will include 100 panels with over 400 presenters who are renowned faculty members, active scholars, and promising students in Persian Studies. A number of additional events such as book launches, concerts, receptions and readings will also take place. Please click on the link below to access the conference webpage and view the full schedule.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to continue its support of the Biennial Conference this year and congratulates ISIS and all participating presenters for their outstanding efforts to promote Persian Studies scholarship.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute and the Honolulu Museum of Art are delighted to announce the Persian Screen Film Festival, which will be held at the Museum’s Doris Duke Theatre from September 6 – 12. The Festival will begin with an opening night reception, followed by the screening of “A Cube of Sugar” (“Ye Habe Ghand”) by award-winning director Seyyed Reza Mir-Karimi and Iran’s submission for the 2013 Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film. Also included in the line-up are “Snow on the Pines” (“Barf Rooy-e Kaj-Ha”) by Payman Mooadi in his directorial debut; “The Orange Suit” (“Narenji Poush”), winner of the Best Director award at Fajr International Film Festival; and “The Last Step” (“Peleh Akher”) which received the FIPRESCI prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2013. Please click on the link below for the full schedule.

The Persian Language, Linguistics, and Culture Program at UH Manoa is now accepting applications for Roshan Institute Fellowships for Persian Language and Culture for Fall 2014.

This Fellowship program supports graduate students at the University of Hawai‘i and in particular, the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature in their study of Persian language and culture. Fellows must be full-time students in good academic standing and taking Persian language and culture courses offered by the Persian Language, Linguistics, and Culture Program. Fellowships carry a stipend of $2,500 up to $5,000, and are available for one year with the possibility of renewal based on the Fellow’s academic performance.

Dr. Carl Ernst, William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at UNC, was the principal organizer of a major workshop on “Practice, Performance, and Politics of Sufi Shrines in South Asia and Beyond,” held on August 1-4 in India. Fourteen international scholars gathered to discuss new research related to the central role of Sufi shrines in Southeast Asia, North Africa, West Africa and other regions. Afterwards, Professor Ernst traveled around India to give lectures on the subjects of Sufism and Islam in several universities and cultural centers. Please click on the link below for a full account of the workshop.

Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, President of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) reported on the tremendous success of the Tenth Biennial Iranian Studies Conference held on August 6-9, 2014 in Montreal. With 460 attendees from around the world and 100 panels organized on a wide variety of subjects in Persian Studies, this conference was the second largest event since the launch of the biennial conferences in 1998.

Roshan Institute has provided support for these efforts since 2002 and would like to congratulate the International Society for Iranian Studies on its wonderful achievement this year. We would also like to commend all of the Institute’s Fellows who presented their valuable research at this year’s event.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce its continuing support of the Senior Journalists Seminar, a signature program of the East-West Center, in 2014. Launched in 2003, the Senior Journalists Seminar is a 21-day professional dialogue, study and travel program intended to enhance media coverage and elevate the public debate regarding religion and its role in the public sphere, specifically as it regards US-Muslim relations.

Dr. Farideh Farhi, Professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was invited by Hawaii Public Radio to talk about the first Persian Screen Film Festival at the Honolulu Museum of Art. On the September 1st edition of “The Conversation,” she spoke about the Institute’s work to share Persian culture in Hawaii and beyond, and highlighted the importance of Iranian cinema in portraying contemporary society and themes. Please click on the link below to listen to the full interview.

The Persian Screen Film Festival is organized by the Doris Duke Theatre of the Honolulu Museum of Art and presented by Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. From September 6 – 12, a total of 12 screenings will feature four award-winning films from Iran. An opening-night reception will be held on September 6 with the participation of Dr. Farhi, followed by the screening of “A Cube of Sugar.” Please click on the link below for the full Festival schedule and more information.

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On September 10, Dr. Ali Mousavi, Lecturer in Iranian Archaeology at UCLA, will present “Persepolis: the Life and Afterlife of a World Wonder.” The ruins at Takht-e Jamshid, known as Persepolis, are among the most formidable monuments that have gained a measure of symbolic status. The site has been the object of years of exploration from the nineteenth century to the present. Built by artists and workers of the four quarters of the civilized world in the late years of the sixth century BC, Persepolis became the richest city under the sun and was the epitome of the Persian Empire. The burning of the city in 330 BC both marked the end of the empire and the beginning of a new era: Persepolis’ afterlife. After its first destruction, the ruined city of the Persians attracted local dynasts who performed rituals and ceremonies at the site and who saw the ruins as the enigmatic deeds of their glorious ancestors. From one life to another, the site has continued to fascinate generations of kings and princes, travellers and adventurers, explorers and archaeologists. This lecture attempts to examine the history of the site as a whole from the time of its foundation down to the present day.

The six-month lecture series organized by Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at UMD in conjunction with the major exhibit “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book” at the Library of Congress is drawing to a close. Please join us for the final presentations:

“The Persian Book in Pre-Modern Turkey” by Professor Ahmet Karamustafa (UMD), August 13
“Forough Farrokhzad’s Biography and Unpublished Letters” by Professor Farzaneh Milani (University of Virginia), August 27

“Modern Literature in Afghanistan: Contributions to the Persian Book” by Dr. Wali Ahmadi (UC Berkeley), September 10

The World of Persian Literary Humanism: Spreading Culture through Books” by Professor Hamid Dabashi (Columbia University), September 17

Several hundred attendees have already enjoyed this lecture series since its inaugural presentation on March 27. All events are free and open to the public, and are held either at UMD or at the Library of Congress. The exhibit, which has garnered great public and media attention, will close on September 20.

Please join Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute in celebrating Persian cinema and culture at the Persian Screen Film Festival Opening Night at the Honolulu Museum of Art on Saturday, September 6.

Guests are first invited to taste a special Persian-inspired menu created by chef Sean Priester in collaboration with Kan Zaman in the Luce Pavilion Courtyard, before enjoying the screening of “A Cube of Sugar” in the Doris Duke Theatre. UH Manoa’s Professor Farideh Farhi will also be present to speak about contemporary Iranian cinema and the Festival’s film selection which includes four award-winning films.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to congratulate the twelve recipients of Roshan Institute Scholarship for Excellence in Persian Studies at California State University, Fresno for the 2014-15 academic year. While these students are pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in a wide variety of subjects ranging from Economics and Business to Physics and Computer Science, they have all demonstrated a deep interest and commitment to learning and sharing Persian language and culture.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to share new findings by Tytus Mikolajczak, the first Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fellow at The University of Chicago and at the Louvre Museum. Since April 2014, Mr. Mikolajczak has been documenting objects originating from the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the collections of the Oriental Institute in close collaboration with the Louvre. His report reveals that his diligent efforts have already resulted in several important discoveries.

Already within the first few weeks of the project, it turned out that the Achaemenid collection of the Oriental Institute Museum had many treasures waiting to be rediscovered. One of the most spectacular rediscoveries included stone blocks featuring Greek inscriptions, which were presumed lost. The project also brought to light numerous Persian inscriptions; fragments of pegs with inscriptions of Kings Darius I and Xerxes I; stone blocks and fragments of column bases inscribed in Old Persian; and unpublished fragments of glazed bricks from Persepolis, the decoration of which has close parallels to glazed bricks found in Susa, now in the Louvre.

The result of the yearlong fellowship will be the sharing of photographs of approximately 300 objects, and updated documentation for hundreds of additional objects with the Achemenet Project, whose online platform aims to be a reference for scholarly research and public interest in ancient Persia.

For more information on the Achemenet Project and to read the full report from Mr. Mikolajczak, please click on the links below.

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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to welcome Dr. Ziad El Morr to the Louvre where he will undertake major research on Iranian metalwares in the Department of Islamic Art. The Louvre has one of the most remarkable collections of metalwares from Iran and the greater Iranian world, spanning 11th through 19th century. The goal of the Islametal Program is to identify the materials and techniques used to create these objects through a comprehensive archaeometallurgical analysis. This multi-year project will result in a reference catalogue on Persian and Indian metalwares and an international conference.

During his fellowship, from September 2014 – August 2015, Dr. El Morr will focus on objects from the Medieval Persian world (11th-13th centuries) encompassing utilitarian objects of both basic (oil lamps, mortars, ewers) and high quality (candlesticks, incense burners, pen cases inlaid with precious metals and bearing signatures). He will conduct visual and metallurgical analyses, and interpret their results on approximately 100 objects currently displayed in the galleries as well as located in the museum’s storage area and at the conservation lab.

Dr. El Morr received his Ph.D. in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Bordeaux 3 in France in 2011 and held a post-doctoral position at the Institut de Recherche sur les Archéo-MATériaux (IRAMAT) prior to joining the Louvre. His fellowship is made possible through the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fund established at the Louvre in 2011, which supports several scholarly and public programs related to Persian art and culture each year.

For more information on the Louvre’s Department of Islamic Art and its collections, please click on the link below.

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Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce that Assef Ashraf was awarded a Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies for 2014-2015. Mr. Ashraf is currently in his final year of doctoral studies in the Department of History at Yale University, where he is working under the direction of his advisor, Professor Abbas Amanat (also Director of Yale Program in Iranian Studies), and dissertation committee members, Professors Alan Mikhail and Paul Bushkovitch. Mr. Ashraf’s Ph.D. dissertation is entitled “From Khan to Shah: Political Culture, State Formation, and Patronage in Qajar Iran, 1785 – 1834” and examines governance practices in the context of the consolidation of power and the creation of a state by the Qajars.

Mr. Ashraf’s area of specialization is the history of the Middle East. More broadly, his interests include the history of Iran from the early modern to the present, comparative early modern Muslim empires, travel literature, and the culture and economy of gift-exchange. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute would like to commend Mr. Ashraf for his contributions to Persian Studies scholarship and extends its best wishes for a successful year.

Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran (WWQI) is a remarkable tool for the study and the understanding of Iranian women’s lives during the Qajar era (1786 – 1925). Directed by Dr. Afsaneh Najmabadi, Professor of History and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University, WWQI facilitates access to primary-source materials from both private and public domains.