2019 Archives - Page 2 of 3

Dr. Narges Nematollahi appointed as Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Assistant Professor of Persian Language at the University of Arizona

Nov 17, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute congratulates Dr. Narges Nematollahi on her new appointment as Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Assistant Professor of Persian Language at the University of Arizona, upon completion of her dual Ph.D. in Central Eurasian Studies and Linguistics from Indiana University in August 2019. At the UA, Dr. Nematollahi will continue teaching the four years of Persian language courses that she has been teaching since Fall 2018, in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, while finishing her doctoral dissertation entitled “The Iranian Epistolary Tradition: Origins and Developments (6th century BCE to 7th century CE).”

Dr. Nematollahi’s research is focused on the epistolary tradition in pre-Islamic Iran, composed in Aramaic, Parthian and Middle Persian languages, and how it is transformed in the early medieval Iran, under the influence of Arabic. Her broader areas of research are stylistics of Old-, Middle- and Modern Persian, historical linguistics and formal linguistics of Iranian languages. She also holds a Master’s degree in Ancient Languages and Cultures from Tehran University, Iran, and a Master’s degree in Religion Studies, focused on Zoroastrianism, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK.

In addition to teaching Persian language courses at all levels, Dr. Nematollahi will greatly contribute to the activities and programs of the Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Persian and Iranian Studies (“Roshan GIDP”) at the UA’s Graduate College. Directed by Professor Kamran Talattof, Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Chair in Persian and Iranian Studies, the Roshan GIDP offers M.A., Ph.D., and Minor degrees focusing on modern or classical Persian literature, Iranian (or other Persian speaking societies’) culture, history, religion, social organization, and politics.

Both the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Professorship of Persian Language and the Roshan GIDP have been established with significant endowments provided to the UA by Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute.

New Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Postdoctoral Fellow in Iranian Linguistics at the University of Toronto

Nov 10, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Songül Gündoğdu as the new Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Postdoctoral Fellow in Iranian Linguistics, in support of the “Syntax of Nominal Linkers” project led by Dr. Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, Associate Professor of Linguistics, at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Songül Gündoğdu received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Department of Linguistics at Boğaziçi University in Turkey. Her main areas of research interest are morphosyntactic aspects of Iranian languages, such as the Persian Ezafe, which links the noun with its modifiers in an iterative manner. She is a native speaker of Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish) and Turkish, and has conducted joint research on the comparative analysis of linking markers between these languages.

Dr. Gündoğdu joined Professor Kahnemuyipour in September 2019, for a two-year term, to work on the first phase of his five-year project, which aims to investigate the syntax of nominal linkers across languages. Starting with the better-studied Persian case known as the Ezafe, in its first stage, the project takes on a systematic comparative investigation of several Iranian languages to establish the properties nominal linkers in each of these languages possess. The project team is currently compiling data on several Iranian languages–Kurmanji, Zazaki, Gilaki, Sorani Kurdish and Ossetian–to provide a cross-classification of nominal linkers based on a detailed study of their properties in these languages.

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Lecture on Iranian Women Writers by UC Irvine Professor Nasrin Rahimieh, as part of the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Lecture Series at UMD, October 20, 2019

Oct 28, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce that the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, will present a lecture by Dr. Nasrin Rahimieh, as part of its Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Lecture Series for the academic year 2019-2020. The talk entitled “The Latest Iranian Women Writers: What We Expect, What We Find in Their Works” will take place on October 20, on campus.

Dr. Nasrin Rahimieh is Howard Baskerville Professor of Humanities, Professor and former Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature, and the Director of the Humanities Core Course at the University of California, Irvine. Her teaching and research are focused on modern Persian literature, the literature of Iranian exile and diaspora, contemporary Iranian women’s writing. Among her publications are Missing Persians: Discovering Voices in Iranian Cultural History (Syracuse University Press, 2001,) Forugh Farrokhzad, Poet of Modern Iran: Iconic Woman and Feminine Pioneer of New Persian Poetry co-edited with Dominic Parviz Brookshaw (I B Tauris, 2010) and Iranian Culture: Representation and Identity (Routledge, 2016).

The lecture is in English and is open and free to the public.

Sunday, October 20, 2019 | 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. | HJ Patterson Hall Atrium | University of Maryland, College Park

Find out more about the event

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Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Symposium on Ancient Iranian History and Civilization: Persianate Cultures of Power and Global Elite Networks, at UC Irvine, June 13, 2019

Jun 13, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is pleased to announce that the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Symposium on Ancient Iranian History and Civilization, titled “Persianate Cultures of Power and Global Elite Networks: Transmission, Translation and Transculturation,” successfully took place on Thursday, June 13, 2019, at UC Irvine’s Humanities Gateway.

The conference included ten scholars from the United States and Europe who presented papers on the topic, and took part in discussions with an audience of nearly 80 members of the community as well as students and faculty.

This symposium was organized by Professor Matthew Canepa, Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Presidential Chair in Art History and Archaeology of Ancient Iran at UC Irvine, who presented a paper entitled, “Toward a New Transmillennial Understanding of Persianate Visual and Spatial Cultures: Theorizing Transmission, Translation, and Transculturation.” Opening remarks were made by Professor Touraj Daryaee, Maseeh Chair and Director of the Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at UC Irvine.

Find out more about Professor Matthew Canepa

Find out more about UCI Jordan Center

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Second North American Conference in Iranian Linguistics at The University of Arizona, April 19-21, 2019

Apr 19, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute wishes to congratulate the University of Arizona Department of Linguistics, and in particular Professor of Linguistics Simin Karimi, for successfully organizing the Second North American Conference in Iranian Linguistics (NACIL 2) that was held on April 19-21, 2019, at the UA.

Sponsored by Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, NACIL 2 provided attendees an opportunity to present recent academic research on a diverse range of topics in syntax, semantics, morphology and phonology of Persian and many other Iranian languages. The conference keynote speakers included Dr. Arsalan Kahnemuyipour, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto; Dr. Agnes Korn, Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France; and Dr. Richard Larson, Professor of Linguistics at Stony Brook University. Professor Larson was the principal organizer of NACIL 1, which was held at Stony Brook University in April 2017, with a grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute.

Invited guest speakers to NACIL2 were UA Laureate Professor of Linguistics Noam Chomsky, who presented two talks, one on his most recent views regarding the current developments of Generative Linguistics and a second talk on political issues related to Iran; and UCLA Professor of Linguistics Anoop Mahajan who presented a talk about Indo-Iranian linguistics.

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce that NACIL 3 will take place in April 2021, at UCLA.

Find more about the conference

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