New Grant for two-year Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Postdoctoral Fellowship in Iranian Linguistics at the University of Toronto

Mar 30, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has awarded a new grant to the University of Toronto to fund a two-year Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Postdoctoral Fellowship in Iranian Linguistics, in support of Dr. Arsalan Kahnemuyipour’s current research project on the syntax of nominal linkers.

Dr. Arsalan Kahnemuyipour (pictured) is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Language Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga campus, and at the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Science (St. George campus). His areas of expertise are syntax, morphology and the syntax-phonology interface. He earned his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto in 2004 and was an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, Syracuse University from 2004 to 2010.

In 2018, Dr. Kahnemuyipour was awarded a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to launch a six-year research project (2018-2023) on nominal linkers. The project is to focus on Iranian languages in its first phase, lasting two to three years, and expand the research to other languages in the second phase.

The selected Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Postdoctoral Fellow in Iranian Linguistics will play a critical role in the first phase of the project, which will include a systematic comparative investigation of Persian and other Iranian languages. This investigation will seek to establish the properties of nominal linkers in each of the Iranian languages, starting with the Persian case known as the Ezafe. A comparative study of these Iranian languages will enrich our understanding of the nominal-linker phenomenon and the structure of these languages, and help place the languages on the map of linguistic research. In addition, the project will help document Iranian languages (some of which may be endangered), and thus contribute directly to the preservation of Persian culture.

The position is expected to start in Fall 2019.

Find more about the Postdoctoral opportunity

Read more about the Syntax on Nominal Linkers project

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RCHI Board of Directors appoints Dr. Kaveh Abhari to the position of Vice Chair

Mar 20, 2019

The Board of Directors of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce the appointment of Director Kaveh Abhari, Ph.D., to the position of Vice Chair. In his new role, Dr. Abhari will be assisting RCHI Founder and Chair, Dr. Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali, with her ever-expanding work and accomplishments in support of the Institute’s mission.

Dr. Abhari has been versed in the work of Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute since 2011, first as a volunteer student aide and, later, as a website and cultural Consultant, while also occasionally serving as a Program Officer. He was elected to RCHI Board of Directors in May 2018.

Dr. Abhari currently is an Assistant Professor of Management Information Systems (MIS) within the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University and an Affiliate Faculty at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He previously was an Adjunct Assistant Professor and MIS Lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences. He also has a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from his native Iran.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Abhari in his new position!

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Congratulations to Professor Matthew Canepa on the release of his second book, The Iranian Expanse

Mar 12, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute wishes to congratulate Dr. Matthew Canepa, Professor of Art History and Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Presidential Chair in Art History and Archaeology of Ancient Iran at UC Irvine, on the release of his second book, The Iranian Expanse: Transforming Royal Identity through Architecture, Landscape, and the Built Environment, 550 BCE-642 CE (University of California Press, 2018).

The Iranian Expanse covers 1,000 years of art, archeology and history of ancient Iran, from the Achaemenid period to the arrival of Islam, and explores how kings in Persia and the ancient Iranian world utilized the built and natural environment to form and contest Iranian cultural memory, royal identity, and sacred cosmologies. This large-scale study critically examines the construction of a new Iranian royal identity and empire, which subsumed and subordinated all previous traditions, including those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Anatolia. It then delves into the startling innovations that emerged after Alexander under the Seleucids, Arsacids, Kushans, Sasanians, and the Perso-Macedonian dynasties of Anatolia and the Caucasus, a previously understudied and misunderstood period.

Professor Canepa is an award-winning historian of art, archaeology and religions of Persia and wider Iranian world. His first book, The Two Eyes of the Earth (University of California Press, 2009; paperback edition, 2017,) is a pioneering comprehensive study of the artistic, ritual and ideological interactions between the late Roman and Sasanian empires. It was awarded the 2010 James Henry Breasted Prize from the American Historical Association for best book in English on any field of history prior to the year 1000 CE and the Archaeological Institute of America’s von Bothmer Publication Fund.

Learn more about The Iranian Expanse

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Congratulations to Dr. Anousha Sedighi on her recent publication, The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics

Mar 4, 2019

Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is delighted to announce the publication of The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics (Oxford University Press, 2018) edited by Dr. Anousha Sedighi and Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi.

The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics offers a comprehensive overview of the field of Persian linguistics, discusses its development, and captures critical accounts of cutting edge research within its major subfields, as well as outlining current debates and suggesting productive lines of future research. Leading scholars in the major subfields of Persian linguistics examine a range of topics split into six thematic parts. 

Following a detailed introduction from the editors, the volume begins by placing Persian in its historical and typological context in Part I. Chapters in Part II examine topics relating to phonetics and phonology, while Part III looks at approaches to and features of Persian syntax. The fourth part of the volume explores morphology and lexicography, as well as the work of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature. Part V covers topics such as language contact and teaching Persian as a foreign language, while the final part examines psycho-, neuro-, and computational linguistics. The volume is an essential resource for all scholars with an interest in Persian language and linguistics.

Dr. Anousha Sedighi is Professor of Persian and Head/Founder of the Persian program at Portland State University. She has published two other books, Agreement Restrictions in Persian (Rozenberg & Purdue, 2008) and Persian in Use: An Elementary Textbook of Language and Culture (Leiden University, 2015) for which she received a Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies in 2010. Persian in Use has been re-published for the fourth time since 2015 due to popular demand and is currently used at more than 20 universities in the U.S. as well as internationally in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada.

Dr. Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi is Senior Lecturer of Persian Language and Linguistics at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. She has published on morphology, psycholinguistics, translation, teaching Persian as a second language, and second language acquisition.

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