Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies

Joshua Landis is the Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies, the director of the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies and the director of the Center for Middle East Studies.

Despite the pandemic, the Farzaneh Family Center has expanded its reach and impact through collaboration with other universities, social media and advertising. In 2020, Farzaneh Family Chair Afshin Marashi stepped down after eight years of leadership, and new center director Joshua Landis has begun to build on his strong foundation. Marjan Seirafi-Pour provides administrative assistance and teaches Persian language for the center, and the Board of Directors includes Dean Scott Fritzen, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Mitchell Smith, Jalal Farzaneh and Mohammad Farzaneh.

The center focuses on research and outreach through events and distinguished visiting speakers. Since 2020 the center has organized 12 in-person and online events. One debate, titled “Iran versus Saudi Arabia, ” pitted the Dean of Johns Hopkins SIAS, Vali Nasr, against Greg Gause, head of the International Affairs Department at the Bush School of Government and Public Service. The webinar attracted over 420 participants from nine countries, and more than 1,000 have viewed the discussion online.

In 2020 the center sponsored a Persian classical music concert at OU with the Bâmdâd Ensemble and a Persian Cultural Week at Norman Public Library (photo pg. 32) with members of the Iranian Student Association and Iranian Cultural Association. And in November, Marjan Seirafi-Pour hosted the annual Persian Poetry Night, in which Persian language students recite and discuss Persian poems. Parents of students from several countries participated on Zoom.

Two of the center's faculty members published books this year: Associate Professor Manata Hashemi, Coming of Age in Iran, and Professor Afshin Marashi, Exile and the Nation. Iranian Studies faculty have also published five articles, including one co-authored by Assistant Professor Alexander Jabbari, “Sinicizing Islam: Translating the Gulistan of Sa‘di in Modern China, ” in the International Journal of Islam in Asia.

Following a restructuring of the award process, the Jafar and Shokoh Farzaneh Persian Literature Prize has been reactivated. The prize committee will announce the award winner at the Middle East Studies Association conference in October.

The center continues to offer student scholarships and awards. Forty-eight Iranian students received $96,000 in scholarships, and eight students received $1,000 Farzaneh Family Persian Language Scholarships. IAS student Alyssa Wiley was awarded the 2020 Iranian Studies Best Paper Prize for her research paper, “The Tudeh Party in Iran From 1941-1953: A Tool of the Soviet Union or a National Evolution of Iranian Politics. ”

Finally, the center also recently received a generous donation of Persian books from the private collection of Michael C. Hillmann, professor of Persian literature at the University of Texas.