Faculty & Staff
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Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak For 19 years Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak was professor of Persian language and literature and Iranian culture and civilization at the University of Washington. He has studied in Iran and the United States, receiving his Ph.D. in comparative literature from Rutgers University in 1979, and has taught English and comparative literature and translation studies, as well as classical and modern Persian literature at the University of Tehran, Rutgers University, Columbia University, and the University of Texas. Professor Karimi-Hakkak is the author of 19 books and over 100 major scholarly articles. He has contributed articles on Iran and Persian literature to many reference works, including The Encyclopedia Britannica, The Encyclopaedia Iranica, and The Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. His works have been translated into French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, and Persian. He has won numerous awards and honors, and has served as president of the International Society for Iranian Studies and several other professional academic organizations. Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak is married and has two sons, Kusha Karimi and Kia Karimi. |
Graduate Faculty
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Nahal Akbari Nahal teaches Persian and also directs curriculum and materials development at the Persian Flagship post-BA Program. Since 1996, she has taught ESL, ESP, academic writing courses, and Persian as an additional language. She has a Ph.D. in second language teaching and learning from the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her research interests include intercultural rhetoric, academic literacy, and second language writing. |
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Hadi Golkar Hadi is a Persian lecturer with nearly 20 years of experience in second language education in various professional and academic settings. He earned his M.A. in applied linguistics from IUST, Tehran, Iran in 1997. He obtained his ECDL in computer from Brighton College, U.K. in 2004. Hadi has also worked as a professional translator and copy editor for several years. |
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Abbas Mousavi Abbas received his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics with a focus on second language testing from Griffith University, Australia. He is a native speaker of Persian and holds a BA in English Literature and an M.A. in applied linguistics and TESOL. Abbas has been a language educator since 1997 in higher education institutions in Iran, Taiwan and Australia. He is the editor of An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language Testing (4th edition in press). His major areas of research include language testing, assessment of second language proficiency, test development and validation, and technology in language testing. |
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Behnaz Razavi Behnaz Razavi is the Program Assistant in the Post-BA Persian Flagship Program. She started as a conversation partner in January of 2007 discussing current events about Iran with Post-BA Persian Flagship students to help improve their speaking skills. She became the Head Conversation Partner in August of 2007 assisting the program director, Dr. Nahal Akbari, with choosing and hiring conversation partners. With her active presence, she found herself more involved with the program organizing various events and working on administrative matters. As she continued her studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, she took the part-time position of the Program Assistant of the Post-BA Persian Flagship Program in April 2009. She is currently a senior in Persian Studies and Agribusiness at the University of Maryland, College Park. She continues working as the Post-BA Persian Flagship Program Assistant while working as the Head Conversation Partner of the Undergraduate Persian Flagship Program. |
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Shima Khaki |
Undergraduate Faculty
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Ali Abasi Ali R. Abasi completed his Ph.D. in second language education at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His research interests include second language writing and adult learning. His recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Second Language Writing, English for Specific Purposes, Adult Basic Education and Literacy Journal, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, Literacy & Numeracy Studies: An International Journal, and Journal of English for Academic Purposes. |
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Michelle Ayazi Michelle Ayazi received her Bachelor's in Business Management at the California State University, Northridge in 2003. Inspired by her two amazing undergraduate study abroad experiences, after graduating, she moved to the Polish city of Lodz to teach English at a private language school. She has accumulated 12 years' experience in student advising and six years' experience in international education. Michelle received a Master's in International Education Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2008. Her thesis was on connecting study abroad with education for peace. While attending graduate school at UM, she worked as a graduate assistant in the University Career Center and the Study Abroad Office. After returning from her first trip to Iran in the summer of 2008, Michelle joined the Persian Studies department at UM as the Undergraduate Coordinator. |
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Hoda Makar Hoda has a B.S. in Communications from Northwestern University, with a concentration in French, and an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, where she also completed Ph.D. coursework. Raised in the Middle East, Hoda has lived and spent time in Egypt, Kuwait, Greece, Cyprus and England. Hoda has worked with international scholarship students at the Embassy of Kuwait, and has recruited international students for Carnegie Mellon University's Public Policy School. At the University of Maryland, Hoda served as Associate Director of the College Park Scholars International Studies program and as Associate Director of the Global Communities program. She has served on the advisory board of the Project on Religion, Culture, and Globalization and is current president of the Washington area Global Nomads group (GNWA). |
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Nick Seetin Nicholas is a graduate assistant for the Language Flagship programs in Arabic and Persian. He has a B.A. in History from Randolph-Macon College and is a graduate student in the History Department studying ancient Mediterranean history. He is also highly interested in archaeology, and has been fortunate to excavate at sites both in North America (Jamestown, VA) and abroad (the Athenian Agora in Greece). His current area of research is ancient cult and worship, specifically the spread of Persian and Egyptian mystery cults in the Roman Empire. |
3215 Jiménez Hall College Park, MD 20742