The University of Oklahoma’s Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies is pleased to announce a competition for the Jafar and Shokoh Farzaneh Prize for Best Article on Persian Literature.
This $2,000 prize will be awarded to the best published article on any topic relating to Persian literature. The winner will also be invited to present a public lecture at the University of Oklahoma and to serve on the award selection committee for the following year. To be eligible for consideration, articles or book chapters must have been published in English or Persian in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals or edited volumes between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023. Publications must be on Persian literature specifically and not other related fields.
Submissions should be emailed to Marjan Seirafi-Pour at marjan@ou.edu by May 1, 2024.
Award: $2,000
Deadline: May 1, 2024
Results will be announced in summer 2024 at the 14th Biennial Iranian Studies Conference.
Award Committee:
2022 winner: Vahid Davar
For: "Relation to Relating: A Sketch for the New Epic"
Vahid Davar is a PhD researcher in Persian Studies at the University of St. Andrews. His collection of poetry, Sefr-e Safar (The Book of Journeys), was highly commended for the 2019 Ahamad Shamlou Prize. His second book, Ahd-e Nassim (Nassim's Testament), forms part of the British Museum exhibit, "Atlas of the World", 2022.
The prize committee, composed of Dr. Alexander Jabbari and Dr Jane Mikkelson, wrote about Mr. Davar's essay: Davar's essay is an exciting, original exploration of Persian literary futures. Drawing on a wide array of theoretical and literary sources — Jorge Luis Borges, the Caribbean critic Édouard Glissant, Ferdowi's Shahnameh, recent writings by Abbas Abdi — Davar's work of creative criticism argues urgently and eloquently for the need to reorient the Persian literary imagination around places, dialects and literatures that have been historically considered peripheral or marginal. Taking the island of Qeshm as a possible node of connection, Davar argues that the Persian canon can and should be reimagined from the "periphery," where the point is not to reassert a singular, monolithic, nation-bounded culture but to discover and nurture a vibrant, Glissant-esque poetics of relation that reaches outside of itself and creates new cosmopolitan possibilities for Persian literary imagination.
2021 winner: Dr. Jane Mikkelson
For: “Flights of Imagination: Avicenna’s Phoenix (ʿAnqā) and Bedil’s Figuration for the Lyric Self," Journal of South Asian Intellectual History 2 (2019): 28-72.
Jane Mikkelson is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia (College Fellows). In 2019, she received a joint Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Her research focuses on comparative literature, Persian literature and Islamic thought, translation studies, and theories of literature, with a particular interest in comparative projects that connect early modern Near Eastern, South Asian and European literary and religious cultures. Her work has been published in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, University of Toronto Quarterly, Journal of South Asian Intellectual History, Modern Philology and elsewhere. Her first book project, Steadfast Imagining, examines practices of lyric meditation in the early modern Persianate world, situating these practices alongside premodern theories of literature and of the imagination.
The Farzaneh family has been long-time supporters of the University of Oklahoma and the College of International Studies. The Farzaneh Family’s gift to the University of Oklahoma supports Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies at OU and includes scholarships pf up to $1,000 per year to OU students studying the Persian language.
Eligibility Criteria:
Deadline: April 1
Mehdi Firoozabadi, who graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1969 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering, was an international student from Iran who served as the President of the International Advisory Committee at the University of Oklahoma. His love for the University of Oklahoma was inspired by the warmth and support that he received from the university, its students and the surrounding community during his four years in Norman. His brother Amir fondly remembers waiting with anticipation to receive letters from Mehdi stamped, “Norman, OK USA.” In 1970 after graduation, Mehdi returned home to Iran to honor his scholarship from the National Iranian Oil company and go to work for them in the field. Although it was tough, dirty work, Mehdi kept a positive attitude and was promoted to superintendent of Lavant, an offshore petrolatum company in the Persian Gulf. He was happily married for six months when tragedy struck, and his car crashed into a river canyon. He lost his life on June 7, 1975.
Now, Amir, a proud US citizen who considered his brother a “model citizen,” wishes to honor Mehdi’s legacy and show his appreciation for the University of Oklahoma by helping future generations of Iranian Americans and other students who seek to promote the enduring friendship between the Iranian and American people as Sooners.
Scholarship applicants must meet the following specific criteria:
Deadline: February 1
*Application is through OU's CASH scholarship hub.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Any student unable to complete the program will be required to return the full amount of the award to the College of International Studies.
The deadline for this scholarship has passed.
The Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies awards scholarships of up to $3,000 to deserving students who intend to minor in Iranian studies and who show a commitment to taking Persian and International & Area Studies courses that satisfy the requirements for a minor in Iranian studies.
Applicants must have a 3.0 GPA or higher.
Deadline: March 12, 2024
NOTE: Students can receive the scholarship more than once.
The deadline for this scholarship has passed.
The OU Iranian Studies Best Paper Award is awarding a $250 prize for the best undergraduate research paper on a topic in the area of Iranian Studies. Papers must:
This award is open to University of Oklahoma students only.
Questions regarding the prize should be directed to Manata Hashemi at hashemi@ou.edu or Afshin Marashi at amarashi@ou.edu.
Prize: $250
Deadline: May 2, 2024
2023 winners:
2022 winner: Andrew Wall, "Feminine Beauty in Iranian Cinema: How Filmmakers in a Censored Industry Represent the Problems Women Face in Iran through Art"
2021 winner: Gabriela Ramirez-Perez, “The Periphery Takes Center Stage: Behind the Scenes in the Medieval Islamic World”
2020 winner: Alyssa Wiley, "The Tudeh Party in Iran from 1941-1953: A Tool of the Soviet Union or a Natural Evolution of Iranian Politics"
2019 winner: Lindsey Eisenmann, "American Colonialism and the Illusion of Power in US-Iranian Relations"
2018 winner: Adam Oberlitner, "Queer Theology: Theological, Theocratic, and Secular Influences on Iran's Relationship with Transgender Bodies"
2017 Winner: Jared Johnson, for his paper titled, "Iran's Others through Cinema."
