Events and opportunities in Persian Studies include lectures, summer schools, conferences, seminars, fellowships, awards, scholarships, prizes, and grants.
Unlike the Iranian Studies covering research areas beyond the Persian, Persian Studies discipline is associated more with the Persian language, literature, and history.
Summer Schools
- ASPIRANTUM Persian Language Summer Schools in Yerevan, Armenia
- San Diego State University Persian Language Summer Intensive Course
- University of Wisconsin - Madison Persian Language Summer Schools
- University of Maryland Persian Summer Institute
- Georgetown University Persian Summer Courses
Persian Language Courses in Universities
- University of Oxford Farsi Language Courses
- University of Cambridge Persian Studies
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Persian Language Courses
- San Jose State University Persian Studies Program
- University of Oslo Persian Courses
What is Persian Studies?
Iran is one of the most influential countries of the Middle East, has strong ties to several global players, while at the same time is having tensions with other superpowers.
The official language of Iran is Persian, a language rich in history and literature. For an extended period, Persian was also the state of international communication in Asia's western and southern parts.
It keeps some significance on the international scale, as its variants are the official languages in neighboring Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Persian studies' discipline is a branch of the more complex Iranian Studies, which focuses on studying the Persian language and literature, both from a modern and historical perspective.
Although it might seem as though the major concerns of this field are solely philological, this is not entirely true. Persian speakers have played influential roles in the Near East's history and continue to do so; there are numerous archival documents of varying importance for the history of the region and the world in general, written in Persian. Thus, a Persian studies specialist might also be a researcher of linguistics, politics, history, culture, anthropology.
Persian Studies is a promising field of research that will reward its diligent student with valuable and exciting advantages and findings.
Persian Studies vs. Iranian Studies
As mentioned above, Persian Studies is only a branch of a larger and more complex discipline of Iranian studies. To some, it might seem a little bit redundant to have two disciplines for the study of the same country, but the reality is that Iranian Studies addresses a more comprehensive (from chronological and geographical points of view) area than Persian studies.
It is necessary to say that while the principal and focal language of study in Persian studies is Persian, Iranian studies' programs all around the world address in their studies dozens of other languages, many of which are not spoken in modern Iran. A good example is the case of Ossetian, which is spoken in an area currently controlled by Russia and has never belonged to the Iranian political milieu.
Thus, while choosing between these two disciplines, it is essential to know the difference between the more narrow Persian and more general Iranian Studies.
Persian Studies Programs in Iran
Any University in the Islamic Republic of Iran presumably has a department of Persian language and literature. Without a doubt, the best place to study Persian and anything related to the Persian language and literature would be Iran. The most prominent among the Persian studies programs in Iran are the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Shiraz University, Isfahan University, and the University of Tehran.