Ulrike and Jamshid Amouzegar Endowment

First Undergraduate Scholarship in Persian Studies

We take special delight in announcing the establishment of the Ulrike and Jamshid Amouzegar Endowment for an annual undergraduate scholarship at the University of Maryland. Dr. Amouzegar, a prime minister of Iran in the 1970s, has established this crucial award with the express aim of fostering Persian Studies at the academic level, and we at the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian Studies (RICPS) feel confident that his initiative will encourage other similar award endowments for meritorious undergraduates who may be interested in making Persian Studies a more central part of their curriculum and their career but who may face difficulties in doing so.

As specified in the Memorandum of Understanding signed by Dr. Amouzegar and Dr. Brodie Remington, UMD’s Vice-President for University Relations and President of the UMCP Foundation, the funds in the endowment “shall be used to provide scholarships for freshman and sophomore students who are seeking a double major, major or minor in Persian Studies at the University.” To be eligible, applicants must speak, comprehend, read and write the Persian language at an advanced level.” This would be inclusive of all variants of the language, such as Dari and Tajiki, as well as Persian, the standard language of modern Iran. We encourage all those who may know such candidates to nominate them for this unique award and to spread the word about this type of endowment.

We are deeply grateful to Dr. Amouzegar for having directed his giving toward the University of Maryland and for the confidence he has shown in our Center. Through this scholarship Dr. Amouzegar’s record of service to his country and his well-known personal attachment to the Persian language and Iranian history will inspire those capable and dedicated young men and women who may be interested in being academically trained in the fields of humanities and social sciences, as they relate to Persian-speaking societies and will help keep alive the tradition of teaching and research into the Persian and Iranian worlds in the coming decades and generations.

Endowment from the Amirsaleh family

Gearing up to Recognize Undergraduate Achievements

The College of Arts and Humanities announces the establishment of the Hossein Amirsaleh Student Award in Persian Studies. The award, established by [name of the foundation] and in the name of an Iranian-American philanthropist, consists of a citation and a monetary prize of $1,000, and will be given annually to an essay written by a UMCP undergraduate student; for a regular undergraduate course offered at the UMCP. The essay must be in English and nominated by the instructor to whom it was submitted in partial fulfillment of a regular course requirement. All submissions must include the essay as commented upon by the instructor as well as the instructor’s letter of nomination; they must be received at the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian Studies (RICPS) by May 31. 

The award will be given annually in June, beginning in 2007. To be eligible, the essays submitted should relate, wholly or in substantial part, to Persian Studies broadly defined, inclusive of topics in Persian language and literature, and humanistic or social science studies directed at the modern countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Persian-Speaking Central Asia as well as Iranian and Persian-speaking diaspora communities.  Each year, the Director of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC) will appoint a faculty committee for the purpose in consultation with the RICPS Director; the committee will evaluate the submissions and grant the award. 

The College of Arts and Humanities encouragers all undergraduate students to participate in this campus-wide competition and requests all UMCP faculty to bring this opportunity to the attention of their students.

CPS Gives First Undergraduate Essay Prize

Aaron Cordova, Junior, Computer Science student is the recipient of the first Hossein Amirsaleh Student Award in Persian Studies. The award, established in 2006 at the University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanities is in the name of a pioneer Iranian-American philanthropist; it consists of a citation and a monetary prize, and is given annually to an outstanding essay written by a UMCP undergraduate student for a regular undergraduate course offered at the UMCP. To be eligible, the essay must be in English and be nominated by the instructor to whom it was submitted in partial fulfillment of a regular course’s requirements. It should also relate, wholly or in substantial part, to Persian Studies broadly defined, inclusive of topics in Persian language and literature, and humanistic or social science studies directed at the modern countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Persian-Speaking Central Asia, as well as Iranian and Persian-speaking diaspora communities. 
Aaron wrote his essay for PERS 441 – Islam in Iran, taught in spring 2006 by Professor Ahmad Kazemi-Moussavi. Titled “Infallibility and Islamic Authority,” Aaron’s paper was evaluated overall as the best among a total of eight papers nominated for the award over three semesters.  A committee of faculty members at the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures assessed Aaron’s paper as “well-researched,” “coherent,” and “informative,” and judged the author as “quite familiar wit the topic” and “advancing a sustained line of argument.” Honorable mention went to a paper titled “The Metamorphosis of Women and Love in Modern Iran: A Textual Analysis.”  The author, Sara McFann, Junior Linguistic Major, submitted her paper to Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak in May 2007 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for PERS 353, Iranian Life in Literature. More information on RICPS’s Awards and Scholarships can be found at: http://www.languages.umd.edu/persian/Academic_Philantrophy.php

Persian Heritage Foundation of New York

Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series

The Center proudly announces the establishment of The Ehsan Yarshater Lecture Series Endowment in the University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanirties. As stipulated in the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the University of Maryland College Park Foundation and the Persian Heritage Foundation of New York, the purpose of this endowment is “to provide a biennial lecture series on Iranian Studies and/or support the subsequent publication of the lecture proceedings in Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Center for Persian Studies.”We are further pleased to announce that Dr. Ali Banuazizi, Porfessor of Social psychology at Boston College has accepted the Center’s invitation to be our first Ehsan Yarshater lecturer. Professor Banuzazizi will visit our campus March 5-9, 2007 and will deliver the first lectures on the topic of Martyrdom and Jihad in Iranian political culture. The exact title, time and place of the lectures, as well as other details of this important academic event are being developed at this time and will be posted on the RICPS web site in April 2006.