Grants

• Roshan Institute supported the first annual diversity conference organized by Central Valley Cultural Heritage Institute at Fresno State on October 8-11, 2005. It is the first campus-community diversity conference comprising 30 workshops offered by Fresno State faculty, staff, students, and community members.

• In 2008, the Institute provided a seed grant to Fresno State for programmatic development in Persian and Iranian Studies at CSU Fresno.

• An endowed scholarship fund called Roshan Institute Scholarship for Excellence in Persian Studies was created in June 2007 to encourage the inception and continuation of course offerings in Persian Language and Iranian Studies at Fresno State.

• A social reception, including a performance of Persian classical music, was held in April 2009 to honor the first year’s achievement of the 17 students who received Roshan scholarships.

• Encyclopaedia Iranica is a multi-volume, multi-disciplinary research tool which is designed to fill a notable gap in the available reference works for Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Indic and Caucasian studies.  It is a project carried out by the Columbia University’s Center for Iranian Studies.  It aims at presenting a holistic picture of the history and culture of the societies and lands where an Iranian language was or is spoken.  Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is a proud sponsor of this highly worthwhile project. 

• A short video on Encyclopedia Iranica.

• In 2002, Roshan Institute issued a grant to Georgetown University for International Language Program and Research. 
   
• In June 2006, it awarded a grant to the French Department at Georgetown University for the production of an African play called Sigui, Siguila, Siguiya written by celebrated Ivorian author and professor of French and African Studies, Amadou Kone. The play successfully opened on November 30, 2006 with performances through December 3 at the University's new Davis Performing Arts Center. The production of this theatre project enhances and encourages intercultural communication in conjunction with the mission of the Institute.

• The Harvard Iranian Oral History Project is a collection of personal accounts of many of Iran’s most important and influential political leaders of the latter half of the twentieth century.  Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is proud to be a sponsor of this project.  Funding was provided to digitize the collection by transforming the audio recordings and transcripts into a stable, permanent electronic format that will be stored at Harvard Library’s Digital Repository.  The Repository technicians will take responsibility for the technical upkeep of the files and make them available on the Internet to a worldwide audience.  

• Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies
• Roshan Institute Graduate Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies
• Roshan Institute Undergraduate Scholarship for Excellence in Persian Studies
• Roshan Institute Endowment for Persian Programs
  
  The Center’s mission: “Roshan Institute” Center for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland aspires to be the premier center for the learning, understanding, and appreciation of Persian culture in the United States.  Toward this end, the Center seeks to provide outstanding course offerings and programs in Persian language, literature, history, and culture; to foster communication and community ties among people of Persian heritage and those interested in Persian studies; and to serve as a model for encouraging intercultural communication among peoples of varying backgrounds.
   

• International conference on Rumi
• "Fire of Love: A Musical Performance,” led by Maestro Hossein Omoumi
• “The Poetics and Politics of the Desired and the Dreaded: Women’s Presence in Iranian Cinema,” a discussion led by Professor Hamid Naficy

• “An Evening in Memory of Jaleh Esfahani,” a commemoraive event honoring the renowned poet.
• “Dirt: A Play Against Prejudice”.
• Lecture, Q&A, and Book Launch of Yaddashthaye ‘Alam.
• Poetry reading by Simin Behbahani.
• Reading and Misreading Iranian Women,” presentation by University of Virginia Professor Farzaneh Milani and novelist Bahiyyih Nakhjavani.
• Screening of the 2002 film “Ten”.
• “Iranica Heirloom: A Special Event in Celebration of the Encyclopaedia Iranica”.
• “Putting Women in Their Place: The Political Economy of Women’s Employment in Iran,” a lecture by Dr. Roksana Bahramitash.
• “The Intellectual Foundations of Iran’s Experience of Modernity,” a lecture by Dr. Farzin Vahdat.
• Roshan Institute’s third international conference, “Iranian Jewry: From Past to Present”.
• “Roshan Institute” Center hosted an event called “Esmail Khoi: A Retrospective”.
   

• “Iran – Architecture of People, Elements of Persian Architecture,” a public lecture and slide show presentation.
• Shirin Neshat served as an artist-in-residence for the Department of Art and she participated in the presentation “Arts and Artists in Iran and Iranian Diaspora”.
• “Styles of Political Leadership in 20th Century Iran”, a public lecture and slide show presentation by Dr. Farshid Moghimi.
• “Moon Sun Flower Gamer,” a film about Forugh Farrokhzad, modernist Iranian poet, in celebration of International Women’s Day.
• Shirin Neshat participated in the screening of her film “Women Without Men”
• Second Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series delivered by Professor Ervand Abrahamian
• Symposium: “Iran After the 2009 Elections: Domestic, Regional and International Dimensions"
• Cross-Cultural Luncheon: “Serving the Needs of Students of Persian Heritage”

• Lecture: “The Iranian Revolution After 30 Years: Domestic Challenges and Regional Implications” presented by Dr. David Menashari, Director at the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University.
• Lecture: “Pavillions in Persian Gardens: Origins, Typologies, and Conceptual Evolution” presented by Dr. Mohammad Gharipour, Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture at University of North Carolina – Charlotte.
• Ms. Sheida Mohamadi, a well known Iranina American writer and poet, served as the “Roshan Institute” Center’s Spring 2010 Writer-in-Residence where she offered weekly sessions in interpreting Persian minimalist stories.
• International Conference: “Toward a Culture of Civil Liberties, Human Rights, and Democracy in Iran”.
• Lecture by Ali Dehbashi, Editor-in-Chief of Iranian magazine: Bokhara.
• Lecture: “The Reconstruction of the Past and Its Consequences for Ancient Iranian Studies” presented by Dr. Touraj Daryaee, Associate Director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture at University of California Irvine.

• In 2006, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute awarded a fellowship to Dr. Susan Strauss for her two-year project titled Persian Language and Culture for Intermediate and Advance Level Study at the Department of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies.  The Institute also provided a fellowship to Ph.D. candidate, Parastou Feiz, for her dissertation, entitled “Language and Conceptualization: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Motion, Space, Time and Aspect in Persian and English Narratives”.  Dr. Feiz is now an Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at California State University, San Bernardino.

• An endowment for Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies was established in 2003 to provide support to future generations of graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the Persian Studies Program.

• Some recipients of Roshan Institute Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies are:

• A Roshan Institute seed grant was awarded to the Persian and Iranian Studies Program at University of Washington from 2007-2009, in support of the following activities:

This Grant supports a three-year pilot (2012-2015) to develop a Persian Language, Linguistics, and Culture program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature. The Grant provides support for an Instructor in Persian language, linguistics, and culture as well as Roshan Graduate Fellowships for students of Linguistics, Second Languages Studies, and graduate students of Persian. This program contributes to a better understanding of Persian language, linguistics and culture, not only by teaching the students about Persian language and culture, but also through research generating new knowledge about the Persian language. Through the Fellowship program, graduate students with an interest in Persian have the opportunity to pursue advanced degrees in Linguistics and Second Language Studies.

• Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute supported the “Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Iran 1501-1576” exhibition (October 2003-January 2004) organized by Asia Society and Museum in New York.

• The East-West Center focuses on collaborative, high-quality programs that expand knowledge, address critical policy issues and build capacity in the region.  A hallmark of the East-West Center’s approach is that it engages Americans and counterparts from Asia and the Pacific in cooperative research, dialogue and educational activities.

• Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute supported the 2009 Senior Journalists Seminar, entitled, “Bridging Gaps between the United States and Muslim World: Shaping Perspectives for Senior Journalists” from March 15 to April 9, 2009.  For the past five years, this EWC program has been shaping new perspectives and broadening thinking among journalists on complex and emotional issues.  The program has produced evidence that narrow attitudes can be broadened through people-to-people contact between the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds. 

• The Institute also supported the 2009 Asia Pacific Leadership Program, which links advanced and interdisciplinary analysis of emergent regional issues with experiential leadership learning.

• Through partnership with Iran Heritage Foundation, a non-political UK registered charity, the Institute sponsored a number of cultural and scholarly activities:

• Sadeq Hedayat Centenary Conference – Organized by the faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, the conference is sponsored by the Middles East Centre of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, Iran Heritage Foundation and Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute.  The conference was held on March 28-29, 2003 at St. Anthony’s Oxford, with 16 guest speakers (and three guest observers) from Britain, France, Iran, the United States and Canada.  It was an international conference to celebrate the centenary of Sadeq Hedayat’s birth and discuss various aspects of his life and works.

• The Study of Persian Culture in the West from the 17th to Early 20th Century  - Organized jointly by the Iran Heritage Foundation and in association with Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, took place from June 24-27, 2004 in St. Peterberg, Russia, in the Hermitage Theatre of the State Hermitage Museum.  The purpose of this conference was to investigate the history of the study of Persian History, literature, art and culture from the early 17th century to the end of the First World War, and to publish a selection of the papers in book form.

• Nezami Ganjavi: Artistic and Humanistic Aspects of the Khamsa. Organized by the Iran Heritage Foundation and Faculty of Oriental Studies (Cambridge University, England), this conference was held at Cambridge University, September 9-10, 2004.  According to publications of proceedings dated October 17, 2005, the provisional list of contributors includes Leili Anvar-Chenderoff, Michael Barry, Christoph Buergel, Mario Casari, Patrick Franke, Julie Misami, Angelo Piemontese, Alain Richard, Christine van Ruymbeke, Carlo Saccone, Asghar Seyed-Gorab, Kamran Talatoff, Ziva Vesel and Renate Wursch.  Mr. Buergel and Ms. Van Ruymbeke are editors of proceedings.
   
• Abbas Kiarostami: Visions of the Artist Program - Co-organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Iran Heritage Foundation, the program included a series of London-wide events held from April through June 2005 celebrating the achievements of Abbas Kiarostami and his impact on contemporary culture and society.  Critically acclaimed filmmaker, artist, photographer and poet Abbas Kiarostami is the most internationally celebrated Iranian cultural figure of the past and current century.  The program consisted of two exhibitions of Kiarostami’s photographs entitled “Trees in Snow,” the world premiere of his “Forest Without Trees” installation, the U.K. premiere of “Kiarostami’s Ta’ziyeh” installation, a conference entitled “Abbas Kiarostami: Image, Voice and Vision,” a complete film retrospective of films directed by Kiarostami, a complete file retrospective of films for which Kiarostami had written the script, the publication of two books and two special issues of journals about the work of the artist, and four in-conversation sessions with the artist. 

• Private Lives and Public Spaces in Modern Iran – Organized by the Iran Heritage Foundation, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute and the Persian Cultural Foundation in collaboration with the Oriental Institute, St. Anthony’s College, And Wadham College at Oxford University.  The July 7-10, 2005 conference provided an intense intellectual setting for the exploration of aspects of everyday life in nineteenth – and twentieth-century Iran.  In additional to prominent Iranian Studies scholars the conference brought to Oxford a number of promising PhD students who are writing dissertations which deal with issues rarely explored by scholars of Iran.

• Historiography and Political Culture in 20th Century Iran - Organized by the Iran Heritage Foundation and the Oriental Institute (Oxford University, England), this conference was held at Wadham College, Oxford University, September 17-18, 2004.  According to the publications of proceedings dated October 17, 2005, the provisional list of contributors includes Kamran Scot Aghaie, Abbas Amanat, Ahmad Ashraf, Touraj Atabaki, Oliver Bast, Kaveh Bayat, Houchang Chehabi, Afshin Marashi and Afsaneh Najmabadi. Mr. Touraj Atabaki is editor of proceedings. 

• Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute made major contribution to the IAB towards the construction of an Iranian Cultural Community Center in Watertown, Massachusetts. The President of the IAB, Soheila Shafai, announced the gift to the community at an IAB fundraiser in 2006.  As a consequence of the Institute’s matching grants awarded to IAB and the challenge presented to the community, the association's efforts resulted in raising a total of $300,000 for the project during 2006. The community center will be a place where Iranian Americans can come together and keep the Persian tradition alive by inviting the Boston community to participate in cultural and educational activities.

• In collaboration with Professor M.A. Amir-Moezzi, an outstanding scholar of Islam and Shi'ism, Centre d'Etudes des Religions du Livre, CNRS UMR 8584, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses, Sorbonne, Paris, France. 
The Koran Dictionary project was undertaken in June 2003 under the direction of Professor Amir-Moezzi, by an international team of authors, among the best specialists from various branches of Islamic and Koranic studies.  Open to non-specialist readers as well as to students of Islam and religious historians, over 500 entries are presented in alphabetical order. Its 1024 pages contain hundreds of bibliographical references and an exhaustive index making the dictionary an indispensable tool for research and an asset for all libraries. 
The entries relate to Koranic data: religious topics, moral and anthropological concepts, elements of nature, characters and figures, historical information, etc. Extra-Koranic data with regards to Islam, such as: intellectual and spiritual disciplines (theology, philosophy, exegesis, law, mysticism), history and text filiations, manuscripts, arts and literature, translations, different Koranic schools and their relations to other religions, are also covered. 


• Roshan Institute supported the exhibition, entitled, “Love and Yearning: Mystic and Moral Themes in Persian Poetry and Painting” (August 2003-February 2004) at the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C.  An on-line interactive program on the Haft Awrang (Seven Thrones) was developed in conjunction with the exhibit and continues to be featured on the Freer/Sackler Gallery website.

• The Institute is a sponsor of another exhibition, called “Falnama: The Book of Omens” displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery from October 2009 to January 2010.

• Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute awarded a series of grants to St. Andrew's Episcopal School (located in Potomac, Maryland) since 2002 to increase cultural awareness through artistic excellence. The grants supported the continuation of the school's annual art exhibition.  This exhibition showcases the work of professional artists each year from a different culture and provides a rich opportunity for the students and the surrounding Washington DC community to learn from the work of diverse artists in that particular culture.

• In 2008, an endowed fund called Roshan Cultural Heritage Scholarship Fund was established in 2008 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School as part of the school’s Touchstone Endowment Campaign.  This endowment plays an important role in St. Andrew’s effort to encourage cultural diversity and awareness.  Of its $12 million goal, the Touchstone Endowment Campaign has raised over $9 million as of April 2009.

• Dr. Grigor was awarded Roshan Institute Graduate Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies (History, Theory, and Criticism in Architecture) at MIT’s School of Architecture in 2003. Her dissertation, Cultivating Modernities: The Society for National Heritage, Political Propaganda, and Public Architecture in Twentieth-Century Iran, offers a detailed history and a critical analysis of the political underpinnings, pedagogical aims, and aesthetic ends of Pahlavi architectural culture between 1921 and the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Dr. Grigor took faculty position in the Fine Arts Department at Brandeis University in the United States.

• Pedram Khosronejad was awarded Roshan Institute Graduate Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies (Social Anthropology), at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales of Paris in 2004. Dr. Khosronejad worked on his dissertation: Lion Tombstones Among Nomad Bakhtiaris in The South-West of Iran under the guidance of Professor Thierry Zarcone (CNRS). His Ph.D. thesis focused on how religious and oral beliefs regarding death and dying lead to the creation of mortuary material culture and mortuary visual representation. Dr. Khosronejad‘s thesis emerged from interdisciplinary research based mostly on field research among the Bakhtiari nomads of Iran. He was named post-doctoral research fellow in the School of Philosophical, Anthropological and Film Studies at University of St Andrews, Scotland.

• In 2005, Chad Lingwood was awarded Roshan Institute Graduate Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies while he was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto in Canada. His dissertation, entitled "Jami's Salaman va Absal: A 15th Century Mystical Mirror for Princes in the Aq Qoyunlu Context," stemmed from his academic focus on classical Persian literature and medieval Iranian history. Dr. Lingwood took a faculty position in the Department of History at Grand Valley State University in the United States.

• In November 2006, Professor Sonja Brentjes of Aga Khan University in London was awarded a grant toward a two-year history research project about Iranians' identities in Iran and abroad. Objectives include: 1) recording and analyzing the imaginations of individual Iranians with regard to what constitutes the history of Iran; 2) contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the manner in which Iranian identities are constructed under the conditions of a dictatorial state; 3) documenting oral-history data; and 4) participating, academically, in the process of democratization and pluralist opinion formation in Iran. An expert on Islamic mathematics and science, Professor Brentjes has held faculty posts abroad, including a professorship at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations, Aga Khan University International in London.

• Funding was provided to University of Virginia Linguistics students, Annahita Farudi and Maziar Toosarvandi, in support of the Dari Language Fieldwork Project (developed in 2003). The primary goals of the Dari Language Project were to contribute to the preservation and perpetuation of Dari; fund and organize linguistic research, primarily on-site linguistic fieldwork; and disseminate the findings in both public and academic venues. The project, that has since spawned a Web site and the construction of an online dictionary, has received attention from online Iranian culture, and linguistics resources and has been acknowledged by authors of published works. Farudi and Toosarvandi have also published papers and presented related research by invitation in the US and Europe that is based on findings from the fieldwork.

• In June 2007, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute awarded a grant to Norooz Productions for the production of a second film in the Babak and Friends series and for the production of Mixed Nutz. The Babak and Friends series teaches children and parents alike about the beauty and richness of Persian culture, and encourages a better understanding of meaningful cultural differences among people. Babak & Friends – A First Norooz went a long way in achieving this initiative. The creative team on the Mixed Nutz production, which expands on Babak’s experience by including characters (his friends) from a variety of cultural backgrounds in his journeys, is comprised of the industry’s best talent from Pixar, Nickelodeon, Warner Brothers, and Disney.

• In June 2007, a grant was awarded by Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute for "The Rostam Project" toward the development of a comic book adaptation of "The Shahnameh" (The Book of Kings) in collaboration with Hyperwerks, an independent comic book publishing company. The completed comic books have helped to rekindle the knowledge and serve as an easy-to-read reminder of how significant the Shahnameh lessons are even today, especially to adults, and how they fortify the value system of the youth. They also provide Iranian youth with Persian characters and a story presentation just as attractive as the best comic-book heroes in the West, and provide non-Iranians a light but interesting introduction to one of the true cultural gems of Iran.

• Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has supported Ms. Baragchizaedeh toward her Master’s of Arts degree in Political Science from Northeastern University. Ms. Baragchizaedeh, a 2009 Roshan Fellow at the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, is an excellent scholar with already quite a few successes. These include a BA in Biomedical Engineering from Islamic Azad University in Tehran, acceptance as an Asian Pacific Leadership Fellow at University of Hawaii at Manoa, and employment at the UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office. She has committed herself to becoming the top of her class at Northeastern while continuing to volunteer in the local Persian community.

• Dr. Touraj Daryaee, of the University of California at Irvine, has been supported by RCHI for the Sasanika Project. This grant will be used to facilitate the publication of the Sasanika Series, monographs on Sasanian Iran; publication of the Sasanika Occasional Papers; as well as an honorarium for scholars abroad (namely those in Iran, Armenia, and Georgia) to submit articles related to Sasanika research.

• The APLP is widely recognized as a center of excellence for leadership education and a signature program of the East West Center. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has supported this academic year’s fellow, Ms. Azadeh Davari.
  
  This Roshan Fellow’s success in the APLP has led to her acceptance as a research intern with Energy Economics in June 2010 – December 2010. As an intern, she will be involved in energy economics projects in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as involved with groups looking at energy security issues for APEC countries.

• “Since 2009, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has continually supported the Senior Journalist Seminar.  This six-year running EWC program seeks to shape new perspectives and broaden thinking among journalists on complex issues.  The program has produced evidence that narrow attitudes can be expanded through interpersonal contact between the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds.”

• Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has given a grant to Dr. Mohammad Gharipour, Assistant Professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte in support of the publication of his book, Persian Gardens and Pavilions: Reflections in the Textual and Visual Media. This book; which explores pavilions as an integral part of Persian culture recognized in literary documents, painting, and history; reflects Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute’s mission to further active preservation of Persian culture and heritage.

• Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute supported the Academy for a celebration of Noruz at their March 2010 “ARTafterDARK” event. ARTafterDARK is a monthly party designed to encourage local support and exploration of the arts. The Noruz event took place on March 26th at The Academy of Arts and included a formal presentation of the Haft Sin, a live performance by Persian students active in the University of Hawaii Theater, Persian music, and a Persian inspired menu. The event was extremely well attended and highly acclaimed by the community.

• The Iranian Culture and Art Club of Fresno (KANOON) has been supported by Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute to further their commitment to multicultural education programs in the Fresno community. This specific grant went to educational materials to increase Persian language advancement, dance instructors for Persian dance workshops, and props and costumes for Persian cultural performances.

• Dr. Anousha Sedighi, Assistant Professor of Persian at Portland State University, received a grant from RCHI for her development of Persian language instructional materials. This grant will additionally support Dr. Sedighi’s upcoming Iranian Film Series on Iranian Women.

• Dr. Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and President of the ISIS, was given a grant from Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute in support of the ISIS Eighth Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies. This conference took place in Santa Monica, California in late May 2010. The conference was one of the most major conferences in Iranian Studies and included over two hundred (200) speakers and presenters from many major universities throughout North America and the world. Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is one of four co-sponsors for this momentous event.