UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies & Culture

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UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies & Culture

We study and promote Iranian culture in its widest sense, from its ancient history to its contemporary literature.

08/20/2026

⭐️ Graduate Student Spotlight ⭐️

Agnik Bhattacharya is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Art History | Visual Studies and the inaugural Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Doctoral Fellow. His research explores archaeology, colonialism, and competing national identities in the formation of modern Afghanistan and South Asia. His work has been supported by fellowships including the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies John F. Richards Fellowship and the UC Irvine Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies Keith Nelson Fellowship.

As the recipient of this year’s Jordan Center for Persian Studies Dean’s Gateway Award in Persian Studies, Agnik is conducting archival research in India, including at the Mahabodhi Society of India, the National Archives, and the State Museum of Lucknow. The award supports his research on Afghanistan, archaeology, and the cultural and intellectual connections between Afghanistan and South Asia.

08/10/2026

⭐️ Graduate Student Spotlight ⭐️

Melissa DePierro is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Visual Studies. Her research offers a comparative analysis of the visual and logistical use of animals as symbols of empire in the Ptolemaic and Seleucid empires.

This year, she is one of the recipients of the Jordan Center for Persian Studies’ fellowships, receiving both the Behzad Alimohammadi Fellowship and the Dean Gateway Award in Persian Studies. Through this fellowship, she will conduct research in Athens, Greece, and present her current dissertation research at a Human-Animal Studies in Classics conference in Kiel, Germany.

07/29/2026

⭐️ Graduate Student Spotlight ⭐️

Amirali Ardekanian is a PhD candidate in the Visual Studies Program at UCI whose research explores the mediatory role of photographic materials in the formation of modern Iranian identity and the reception of ancient Iranian history.

Amirali is one of three recipients of the Jordan Center for Persian Studies’ Summer Fellowship Program, having been awarded this summer’s Dean’s Gateway Award in Persian Studies. Through this fellowship, he will conduct archival research in Europe and present his findings at the 2026 Association for Iranian Studies Conference in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

06/16/2026

Join us on June 17 at 6:00 PM for a talk by Dr. Arvin Maghsoudlou, Curatorial Fellow in Ancient Iranian Art at LACMA.

“Give them a Cup of the Old”: The Reception and Recontextualization of Sasanian Silver Vessels

UC Irvine, Humanities Gateway 1341

Free and open to the public.

https://www.humanities.uci.edu/events/give-them-cup-old-reception-and-recontextualization-sasanian-silver-vessels

05/21/2026

Join us for New Horizons in Premodern Iranian Studies II on May 30th, 2026, from 8:30 AM–5:30 PM in Humanities Gateway 1030 at UC Irvine.

Explore new research on the history, art, archaeology, and cultures of premodern Iran.

https://www.humanities.uci.edu/events/new-horizon-premodern-iranian-studies-ii

04/24/2026

Join us for The Cedars of the Zagros Mountains? Rethinking the Mesopotamian Evidence and Its Connections with the Iranian Plateau, a lecture by Gioele Zisa.

Wednesday, April 29th, 6:00 PM
Humanities Gateway Room 1341

04/10/2026

Join us next week for a talk by Aydogdy Kurbanov, “Eastern Frontiers of the Sasanian Empire: Analysis of Sites and Finds in Southern Turkmenistan,” on April 16th at 6:00 PM in Humanities Gateway 1341 at UCI.

04/08/2026

Join us for a book talk with Dalia Dassa Kaye.
April 14th, 3:30 PM
Humanities Gateway 1030, UC Irvine

Dalia Dassa Kaye discusses Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy, examining the historical roots of U.S.–Iran tensions. Moderated by Jeffrey Wasserstrom.

This event will introduce material from and update the arguments in the author’s late 2025 Stanford University Press book. It will consider how to place the current war in Iran into historical perspective, and what is similar or different about Washington’s military actions compared to past and recent U.S. wars. These questions will be central to the discussion.

Sponsors: UCI’s Forum for the Academy and the Public, Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies, Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture, and Department of History.

03/20/2026

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Center for Persian Studies,

We would like to wish you, Iran and its people a better year to come. The same wish goes to Afghanistan and all those who partake in this important Pan-Iranian celebration across the world.

Nowruz Pirooz!

03/17/2026

Group photo from the Nastaran Akhavan Symposium on Iranian Religions

Address

1100 Humanities Gateway
Irvine, CA
92697

Telephone

+19498243638

Website

http://www.humanities.uci.edu/persianstudies//

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