Our story
“The idea occurred to me in 2011 during my secondment by Iran Heritage Foundation to Sussan Babaie, who led the Foundation’s partnership with the Association for Iranian Studies on their ninth conference, taking place in Istanbul, summer 2012.
Essentially, if the traditional concept of a large, prestigious field-wide academic conference could be turned on its head with early career researchers being the star attraction, then senior academics could instead focus on playing a purely supporting role rather than on presenting papers. This would gift aspiring academics with a greater share of time and attention for feedback and discussions, opening up opportunities to stimulate their research progress further, gain insights into the career pathways ahead, better enable networking across disciplines with the wider field and peers; and ultimately, be happier, more confident and competitive as a result. Hence: Symposia Iranica, which exists to emulate that environment and deliver opportunities offered nowhere else in Iranian studies worldwide.”
Our mission
Symposia Iranica is dedicated to supporting the next generation of academic talent in Iranian studies across SHAPE.
We welcome postgraduate students and recent postdocs working on any period, geographical location or methodology across the arts, humanities and social sciences. Specifically, we create opportunities for personal and professional development and facilitate dialogue and exchange to catalyse new relationships and collaboration networks; facilitate intergenerational knowledge and skill-sharing; provide a supportive peer context; encourage interdisciplinary engagement; re/energise participants; and foster international collaboration and mobility to develop a framework for sustained individual and group academic success.
In order to achieve this, we offer a wide range of services to facilitate excellence in pedagogy and scholarship and responsible leadership through events, initiatives, fellowships, training, prizes and publications.
Why we matter
Symposia Iranica was founded in 2012 to address the limited opportunities for peer engagement and scholarly exchange available to junior researchers in Iranian studies. In a field as dispersed as ours, there is a glaring need for an open, engaging, appreciative and supportive community offering friendship and mentorship to localise and integrate its early career researchers in their wider field of study, support their endeavours and extend to them every advantage at our disposal.
In a testament to the vitality of emerging research in Iranian studies, we have since brought together 459 early career researchers in our conferences from a pool of more than 1,600 applicants.
Our promise
Registration is made as affordable as possible. Every penny we raise in grants is put towards subsidising the full economic cost of participation for our early career participants. In 2019, the subsidy amounted to 74% and it has averaged 67% overall since 2013.
The organisers cover their own expenses and administrative overheads, and have covered over 20% of conference costs themselves to date.
Forthcoming initiatives
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Fellowships
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Announcements
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Elevator Pitches
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Publications