First Biennial Iranian studies conference

I really, really enjoyed the conference as a whole! I have never met so many young scholars who can relate to what I study in one place before! The conference was very well organized and everything ran extremely smoothly! It was wonderful to be able to meet so many professors and publishers and to get advice. Also the Q&A was surprisingly interesting!
— Feedback, spring 2013

Hosted by the Institute of Iranian Studies, University of St Andrews, at St Mary’s College, on 13-14 April 2013.


It was our pleasure to welcome 99 early career speakers to the University of St Andrews for the inaugural Symposia Iranica, with a programme of twenty-four panels, three colloquia and our first Early Career Scholars’ Q&A.

Participants came from across the United Kingdom as well as Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland in Europe, and from Australia, Canada, China, India, Israel, Russia, Turkey and the United States to present.

Total applications reached 360 proposals from thirty countries during the call for papers. Of these, offers were extended to just 40% following double-blind peer review.

Particular thanks goes to Professor Ansari for taking a chance on the concept for this conference and offering St Andrews as host to pilot it, as well as his recommendation of one of his PhD students, Michael Pye, as co-organiser.

Cover: Khaju Bridge, Isfahan. Used by kind permission of © Zerega.

 
REV Cover-2013-.jpg

Presenters

  • Weapon Wounds among the Prehistoric Inhabitants of the Central Plateau of Iran: the Voice from Tepe Hissar

    Zahra Afshar, Durham University, UK

  • Investigating Ceramic Production in Southwest Iran in the 7th-6th Millennium BC: The Application of Scientific Techniques

    Alison Meakes, University of Nottingham, UK

  • Merlons and Parapets: the Achaemenid Architecture of Qaleh Kali

    Amanda Dusting, University of Sydney, Australia

  • The Ceramic Sequence of Achaemenid and Post-Achaemenid Iran

    Iona Katherine McRae, University of Sydney, Australia

  • Painting Depiction: An Illustrated Manuscript of Yūsuf va Zulaykhā Attributed Mu‘in Musavvir

    Elizabeth Rauh, University of Michigan, US

  • Life of the Devotional Object: A Persian Talismanic Scroll and its Historical Context(s)

    Marian Smith, University of Michigan, US

  • Collecting Calligraphy: Persian Calligraphic Specimens in the Abdülhamid II Albums

    Ashley Dimmig, University of Michigan, US

  • The Literary Tradition of the Ismailis of Badakhshan

    Konstantin Vasiltsov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

  • “Lang” is not “Leng”! New Light on the Etymology of the Terms “Chahar Lang” and “Haft Lang” in Bakhtiari

    Sima Zolfaghari, Leiden University, the Netherlands

  • Little-Known Persian Works on the Muslim Sacred Places of Central Asia

    Nikolay Terletsky, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

  • The Building Legacy of the Ishqiya: The Mosque and Mausoleum in Katta Langar, Uzbekistan

    Mustafa Tupev, University of Bamberg, Germany

  • The Image of Chinggis Khan in Early Safavid Historiography

    Gregory Aldous, University of Wisconsin–Madison, US

  • Divine Spark: the Prelude to the Tobacco Regie of 1890

    Leonardo Davoudi, University of Oxford, UK

  • Foreign Goods, Native Consumption: Economy as a Field of State-Society Interaction in Early Twentieth-Century Iran

    Serhan Afacan, Leiden University, the Netherlands

  • Russia and the Merchants of Tabriz, 1880s to 1911

    Moritz Deutschmann, European University Institute, Italy

  • Persian Studies and the Military in Late Imperial Russia (1863-1917): State Power in the Service of Knowledge?

    Denis Volkov, University of Manchester, UK

  • Some Chinese Visual Sources for the Siyah Qalam Paintings

    James White, University of Oxford, UK

  • ‘Friend and Brother’? The Mughal-Safavid Artistic Perception and Portrayal of Each Other, 1600- 1650

    William Harper, Koç University, Turkey

  • Iranian Influences on Buddhist Art: The Depiction of Flames in the Iconography of the Art of Gandhara

    Emilia Smagur, Jagiellonian University, Poland

  • The Impact of Shi’i Elements on Iranian Traditional Art and Architecture - A Case Study: SaqqaKhaneh in Iran

    Nooshin Shafiei, Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, UK

  • The Alexander Romance in the Khodaynamag: A Search on the Pre-Islamic Alexander Tradition in Persia through the Early Arabic and Persian Sources

    Haila Manteghi-Amin, University of Exeter, UK

  • Letters and Epistolary Communication in Abu-l-Qasim Firdausi’s “Shahnameh”

    Sofiya Lakhuti, Russian State University for the Humanities, Russia

  • The Arabic Translation of Firdausi’s Shahnameh

    Jouni Harjumäki, University of Helsinki, Finland

  • “Libra Turned Her Scales to Castanets”: Muhammad’s Ascension Through the Zodiac in Nizami Ganjavi’s Makhzan al-Asrar

    Matthew Hotham, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US

  • “Badayi’ al-Vaqayi’” by Zayn al-Din Vasifi and Memoir Writing in Classical Persian Literature

    Evgeniya Nikitenko, Russian State University for the Humanities, Russia

  • Challenging the Male Gaze in the Work of Mehraneh Atashi: Bodyless

    Asieh Harati, Concordia University, Canada

  • Broken Mirrors and Translucent Veils: The Past and the Present Portrayal of Iranian Women in Western Eyes

    Maryam Ala Amjadi, University of Kent, UK

  • Learning Sexuality in Iran: An Inter-Generational Study

    Nafiseh Sharifi, SOAS, UK

  • Some Aspects of Protocol at the Court of Shah ‘Abbas

    Dolores Perpiñán Silla, University of Alicante, Spain

  • Western Ears in Iran: Early Modern European Travel Literature and the Sonic Culture of Safavid Iran

    Huub van der Linden, University College Roosevelt Academy, the Netherlands

  • The Poet and the Lord of the Slaves: Riza Quli Khan Hidayat and the Qajar Embassy to Khiva

    Mira Xenia Rossipaul, Princeton University, US

  • Late Ottoman Views on Ancient Iran and their Political Applications

    Enis Erdem Aydın, Boğaziçi University, Turkey

  • Prevailing Religious and Political Discourses: The Safavid Image in Sixteenth Century Ottoman Historiography

    y Yasin Arslantas, Bilkent University, Turkey

  • From Ceramics to History: Pottery’s Contribution to the History of Ghazni

    Agnese Fusaro, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

  • Evidence of the Use of Persian in Monumental Epigraphy from Ghazni

    Viola Allegranzi, Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, France

  • Late Funerary Monuments from Ghazni: some Morphological and Linguistic Remarks

    Martina Massullo, Aix-Marseille University, France

  • Ziyārāt of Ghazni: an Historical and Religious Heritage

    Valentina Laviola, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy

  • The Last Nawab of Arcot (d.1855) and the Politics of Persian Renewal in Mid-19th Century India

    Kevin Schwartz, University of California, Berkeley, US

  • Persian Learning in the Bengal Presidency with Special Reference to Fort William College

    Mohammad Jafar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

  • In Memory/Memoriam of the Madarvatan: Khushro Shirin, Yezdegard Sheriar and the Politics of Parsi Theatre

    Rashna Nicholson, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

  • The Rise of Persian under the Mughals

    Neelima Joshi, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

  • The ‘Ajam Community in Kuwait: Migration and Settlement from the last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century to the Discovery of Oil in 1938

    Mohammad Alhabib, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

  • Relations between the Zoroastrians and the British during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

    Alexandra Buhler, SOAS, University of London, UK

  • “Old Rules, New Games: British Policy in the Early Years of the Anglo-Soviet Occupation of Iran, 1941-1943”

    Rowena Abdul Razak, University of Oxford, UK

  • The Maragha Observatory: a Centre of Knowledge Transfer During the Mongol Empire

    Qiao Yang, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israe

  • A Land of Many Colours – Religion in Mongol Iran Under the Il-Khan Arghun (1284-1291)

    Na’ama Arom, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

  • Messiahs, Mongol Converts and Inter-Religious Violence in the Ilkhanate

    Jonathan Brack, University of Michigan, US

  • The Ilkhans, the Pax Mongolica and Problems of Communication and Contact

    Gillian Bateman, SOAS, University of London, UK

  • Seven Scenes, One Act: Repetition of the Narrative Moment in a Haft Paykar Cycle

    Matthew Gillman, University of Chicago, US

  • Reception and Perception in the Paintings of Reza ‘Abbasi

    Naciem Nikkhah, SOAS, University of London, UK

  • “Your true vocation is art:” Transformations in Ottoman and Safavid Miniature Painting in the Late 16th - early 17th Centuries

    Melis Taner, Harvard University, US

  • Persian Style, Christian Subject: Edmund Dulac’s Rendition of the Adoration of the Magi Using Persian Painting Techniques

    Jaimee Comstock-Skipp, Williams College, US

  • Iranian Children and Intercultural Encounters

    Samaneh Zandian, University of Warwick, UK

  • “Born Again” Across Borders: Evangelical Christianity Among Iranian Migrants to the UK

    Mari Michener Oye, University of Cambridge, UK

  • Migration of the Elite? Biographies of Highly Skilled Iranian Migrants in Germany and the USA

    Uta Lehmann, University of Osnabrück, Germany

  • Long Distance Activism

    Pardis Shafafi, University of St Andrews, UK

  • Inventing the Future: US-Iranian Relations and Reform in Iran, 1961-63

    Michael Willcocks, University of Manchester, UK

  • In Search of Democracy: John F. Kennedy’s Failed Programme of Political Reform in Iran

    David Collier, Boston University, US

  • Decision Making Processes of the Carter Administration Regarding the Iranian Revolution

    Steven Terner, Tel Aviv University, Israel

  • Newly Found Notes and Letters of Allahyar Saleh, Mohammad Mosaddegh’s Last Ambassador to the United States

    Farshad Kashani, University of East London, UK

  • The Jews in Iran and their Response to Iranian Nationalism

    Miriam Nissimov, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

  • “A Line with no Order” - on the Quest for Order and the Search for Authentic Iranianness in Pahlavi Iran

    Menachem Merhavy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

  • “Keys to the Borders”: Kurdish Identity in the Early Modern World

    Djene Rhys Bajalan, University of Oxford, UK

  • Religious Nationalism vs. Secular Nationalism: ‘Nationalism’ in the Political Thought of Ayatollah Khomeini and Kemal Ataturk

    Izzettin Sumer, University of Exeter, UK

  • Iranian Jewish Emigration from Iran in 1950 and Post-1979: Framing their Cultural and Nationalistic Identities

    Allessandra Cecolin, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK

  • Itinerant Style: the Impact of the Architecture of Iran in Anatolia through the Prism of the Izz al-din Keykavus Hospital in Sivas

    Richard Piran McClary, University of Edinburgh, UK

  • The Mahaleh Bala and Mahaleh Paein Structures of Persian Cities

    Eisa Esfanjary-Kenari, University of Edinburgh, UK

  • Performative Architecture: a Theoretical Shift in the Examination of “Neighbourhood Takiyehs” in Persian Cities

    Sahar Hosseini, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, US

  • Night, Public Spaces and Urban Activities - a Case Study: Mashhad, Iran

    Atepheh Amid, University of Westminster, UK

  • From Margin to Margin: Comparative Literature in Iran

    Haidar Khezri, Mardin Artuklu University, Turkey

  • Sepehri’s Poetic Identity in “We Nothing But Look”

    Maryam Serajiantehrani, University of Cambridge, UK

  • Douglas Craven Phillott and his Contribution to Iranian Studies

    Esmaeil Haddadian Moghaddam, University of Leuven, Belgium

  • The Purple Feminist: Masculinities and Femininities in Goli Taraghi’s Selected Short Stories

    Amir Vafa, University of Sheffield, UK

  • Shaykhs and Khātūns: the Ladies of the Court and their Relationship with Sufism in Ilkhanid Territories

    Bruno De Nicola, University of St Andrews, UK

  • The Shrine of Shaykh Aḥmad-i Jām and Patronage by Shāh-Rukh and Gawhar-Shādi

    Shivan Mahendrarajah, University of Cambridge, UK

  • Mahan and Taft: Patronage of Ni‘matullahi Khanaqah Complexes in the Early Safavid Period

    Peyvand Firouzeh, University of Cambridge, UK

  • The Heritage of Khwaja Ahrar: Naqshbandis and Chaghatay Rulers in 16th-century Central Asia

    Yusen Yu, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK

  • The Perception of Zoroastrianism in Early Islamic Literature: the Case of Shahrastani

    Mehmet Alici, Istanbul University, Turkey

  • From Men and Mithra to Mithras?

    Agnieszka Fulinska, Jagiellonian University, Poland

  • Remember me! The Effect of Islamic Beliefs on Ghosts on Iranian Film and Theatrical Adaptations of Hamlet

    Azadeh Ganjeh, University of Bern, Switzerland

  • The Case of Black Magic in the Avesta

    Paul Schwerda, Harvard University, US

  • Ta’ziyeh: the Socio-Political Aspects of a Theatrical Performance

    Maryam Golabi and Meysam Soleimani, Middle East Technical University, Turkey

  • British-Iranian ‘Accented’ Cinema in the Aftermath of the Iranian Post-election Protest

    Naz Massoumi, University of Bristol, UK

  • Envisaging ‘Iranianness’ Inside-Out: Photo Blogs and Contemporary Iranian Visual SelfRepresentation

    Shireen Walton, University of Oxford, UK

  • Censorship and Silence in Contemporary Iranian Art

    Kirstie Imber, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

  • Discourses on Iran and its Challenges for the Iranian Tourist Industry

    Masood Khodadadi, Glasgow Caledonian University

  • The Inscription of Assurbanipal in the Cyrus Cylinder

    Miles Lester-Pearson, University of St Andrews

  • Recumbent Bulls and the Iconography of Submission: Notes on the Evolution of Bull Protome Sculpture in Elam and Persia

    Ana Becerra, University of Sydney, Australia

  • The Aegean Policy of Darius the Great

    Daniel Beckman, University of California, Los Angeles, US

  • Contact and Commerce between the Achaemenid Empire and South Asia

    Sureshkumar Muthukumaran, University College London, UK

  • Poetry of the Dead: a Socio-literary Study of the Poetry on Tombstones in Iran – the Case of Behesht-e Zahra

    Fatemeh Shams, University of Oxford, UK

  • Sacred Defence Through the Lense of Persian Haiku

    Faryaneh Fadaeiresketi, Leiden University, The Netherlands

  • The Emergence of Modern Kurdish Poetry: A Discursive Analysis

    Farangis Ghaderi, University of Exeter, UK

  • Classical Allusions in Modern Poetry: A Comparison between the Poetic Styles of Shafii Kadkani and Guangzhong Yu

    Zhe Lin, Peking University, China

  • Iran’s Nuclear Policy from 2002 to 2012: Continuities, Changes and Identity Dynamics

    Morgane Colleau, University of Exeter, UK

  • Bureaucratic Psychologies at War: Encounters between the Jacksonian Bush-Obama Administrations and the Populist Ahmadinejad Administration

    Nima Rassooli, San Francisco State University, US

  • The Role of Mahdaviyat in the Internal Politics of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

    Arash Guitoo, Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, Germany

  • The Obstacles to Diplomacy in Iran-US Relations: Failed Negotiations on Iran’s Nuclear Programme

    Helia Farahnoosh, University of Glasgow, UK

  • The Securitisation Turn: the Rise of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran’s Foreign Policy

    Hesam Forozan, Durham University, UK

  • Second Biennial

    Downing College, University of Cambridge, 8-9 April 2015.

  • Third Biennial

    Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, 11-12 April 2017.

  • Fourth Biennial

    St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, 13-14 April 2019.