Conference Program is available here.

Conference Abstracts are available here.

Call for Papers
International Conference

20 Years of "Iran and the Caucasus": a Breakthrough

October 21-23, 2016
Aghveran, Armenia

The Editorial Board of Iran and the Caucasus (published by BRILL Academic Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands) has the honour to organise an international multidimensional conference dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Journal.

It was back in 1996 when the first volume of Iran and the Caucasus, now a renowned and exemplary periodical, was published with the efforts of scholars from Armenia and abroad. That very first volume comprised the best academic directions in a broader geographic area of Iran and the Caucasus, including articles from the fields of history, literature, religion, linguistics, ethnography and anthropology, etc. Since then, 20 volumes have been published, each of them having several issues (during the last years it appears in four issues per year). Currently Iran and the Caucasus is available both in print and online (with thousands of downloads yearly).

From the very first days of its emergence, strict academic criteria have been implemented and adopted by the Journal – factors, which were the main guaranties for the success. Unlike many other scholarly publications, Iran and the Caucasus has never put any restrictions on materials’ length, making special accent exclusively on their quality and academic value. For 20 years, long and short articles, book reviews, essays, letters, etc., published in Iran and the Caucasus, have enriched the wider field of Irano-Caucasica with invaluable academic findings and research.

By organising this conference, the Editorial Board of Iran and the Caucasus and the Organising Committee of the “20 Years of Iran and the Caucasus: a Breakthrough” international conference, alongside with many contributors of the journal, Editorial Board members and peer-reviewers, aim at hosting the academically oriented generation of scholars in the field, that would like to further advance research through publishing new scholarly materials in Iran and the Caucasus.

Thus, all interested parties are invited to apply as a guest to enjoy many presentations and, of course, participate in this gathering and deliver a paper.

The conference is open to any topic in the field of Iranian, Caucasian, Turkic, Islamic, Middle Eastern Studies from ancient times to the modern period. Anthropology, linguistics, religion, literature, history, politics and other relevant academic disciplines will be in the scope of this scholarly forum.

Academics of any educational and professional level are invited to submit papers and panel proposals relating to all aspects of humanities and social sciences on Irano-Caucasica, including:

• National and ethnic diversity of peoples and their identities;
• Iranian and Caucasian peoples in the crossroads of history from ancient times till our days;
• Folklore and popular literatures of the region;
• Languages and dialects of Iran and the Caucasus;
• Political realities and issues;
• Religion and confessions; Christianity, Islam, Ethno-confessional groups (the Yezidies, Mandaeans, Extreme Shi‘as, Sufi groups, etc.)

We also invite specialists and professionals of academic publishing (particularly Editors, reviewers, as well as representatives of publishing houses) to present papers for a special panel on challenges of academic publishing in humanities and social sciences.

Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and alongside with a brief CV including contact details are to be emailed by April 21, 2016 to:

Dr. Vahe S. Boyajian, email: vboyajian@gmail.com

If you apply as a guest, please send your CV and title your email as “Conference guest in Armenia”.

A notification about acceptance of the papers will be sent by May 21, 2016.

Full papers and the payment of the registration fee are due till June 21, 2016.

The scheduled time for each presentation will be 15 minutes, plus 5 minutes for Q&A. The working language of the Conference is English. Separate sessions may be organized in Persian and Russian.

The proceedings of the conference are planned to be published in the forthcoming volumes of Iran and the Caucasus.

The conference will be held at the Aghveran Crystal resort. Crystal Resort is located 45km from Yerevan. It is surrounded by Tsaghkunyac Mountains and breath-taking views of forests of Aghveran.

Plain registration fee for the conference is USD 120. However, all are free to choose an option offered by the Organising Committee, which amounts USD 400 and includes plain registration fee, expenses for all meals and banquets in Armenia, sightseeing and cultural programme, and 4 nights’ (Oct. 20-21, 21-22, 22-23, 23-24) accommodation in Aghveran Crystal resort.

For the scholars coming from the region (the Caucasus) there will be limited funding to cover some expenses.

The next circular will be prepared right after the deadline for the abstracts, and will contain details on programme, registration fee, accommodation in Yerevan, visa issues, etc.

Organising Committee

• Garnik Asatrian – Yerevan
• Sekandar Amanolahi – Shiraz
• Said Amir Arjomand – New York
• Pavel Avetisian – Yerevan
• Timirlan Aytberov – Makhachkala
• Uwe Blaesing – Leiden
• Dariush Borbor – Tehran
• Johnny Cheung – Paris
• Levon Yepiskoposian - Yerevan
• Albert Hoffstaedt - Leiden
• Anna Krasnowolska - Krakow
• Irene Nakhchkebia – Tbilisi
• Antonio Panaino – Ravenna
• Mikhail Pelevin – St. Petersburg
• James Russell – Cambridge, MA
• Adriano Rossi – Naples
• Dan Shapira - Jerusalem
• Wolfgang Schulze - München
• Giusto Traina – Paris
• Garry Trompf – Sydney
• Levon Boghos Zekian – Venice

Executive Committee

• Victoria Arakelova
• Vahe S. Boyajian
• Khachik Gevorgian
• Matthias Weinreich
• Matteo De Chiara
• Agnes Korn
• Naindeep Singh Chan

This conference is supported by ARMACAD