OVERVIEW
The Graduate Specialization in Ancient Iran and the Premodern Persianate World
is University of California, Irvine’s interdisciplinary platform for graduate study in premodern Iranian Studies. It is designed to provide Ph.D. students the interdisciplinary training they need to conduct advanced research in the art, archaeology, architecture, history, literatures and religions of Iran, as well as those peoples, regions and empires whose destinies were intertwined with Iran, or impacted by its cultures (e.g. ancient Greece and Rome, Armenia, or Islamic Western or South Asia). The University of California, Irvine boasts unparalleled faculty and programmatic resources for the study of ancient Iran and the wider premodern Persianate world, including the highest concentration of endowed chairs in ancient Iranian studies of any North American Institution. With especial faculty strengths in ancient Iran, the specialization’s broader historical scope encompasses the Bronze Age cultures of the Iranian Plateau, Mesopotamia and Central Asia up to the early modern empires of the Mughals, Safavids and Ottomans (ca. 3500 BCE – ca. 1740 CE). The specialization’s broad conception of premodern Iranian Studies is paralleled in, and supported by, the extensive programming of UCI’s Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture, which provides the primary focus of the specialization’s graduate workshop. The program is in a period of rapid expansion and is the process of converting into a Ph.D. Concentration, which will appear on students’ official transcripts. All current students will be automatically enfolded into the new program.
ADMISSIONS AND FUNDING
Prospective students who wish to pursue a Ph.D. in Iranian Studies at UCI must first apply through UCI’s central application system and be admitted to the doctoral program through which their potential advisor accepts students. UCI faculty who work in premodern Iranian Studies currently accept their students either through the Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies or Ph.D. Program in History. Students are encouraged to contact their potential advisors and the Director of the Specialization before they apply. Once they have accepted UCI’s offer of admission and enrolled, students join the interdisciplinary graduate specialization by submitting a summary of degrees earned and prior undergraduate and graduate coursework taken related to Iranian Studies, together with a brief statement of purpose that details their degree program, interest in the field, current or potential advisor, and potential dissertation research. This should be submitted via email to the Director of the Specialization at the start of their first quarter at UCI.
In addition to Ph.D. students whose doctoral work focuses on premodern Iran, the specialization is open to any student currently enrolledin a Ph.D. or M.A. program at UCI whose career goals would benefit from a deeper historical perspective and whose program provides sufficient flexibility to fulfill the requirements of the specialization. Students follows should follow the same procedure detailed above. Lack of previous degrees or coursework does not preclude admission. Applications to the specialization are reviewed on a rolling basis, although students are encouraged to apply as soon as they decide they wish to pursue it. All students accepted into the specialization are eligible to be affiliates of the Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture.
All students accepted to Ph.D. programs at UCI are guaranteed a five year funding package that includes a tuition scholarship and living stipend. In addition, every year the program offers two, competitive five-year fellowships endowed with a grant from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute and reserved exclusively for students a Ph.D. in Persian/Iranian studies. These are the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Graduate Fellowship in Ancient Iranian Studies and the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Graduate Fellowship in the Study of the Persian/Iranian World. The first fellowship supports Ph.D. students who are advised or co-advised by the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Presidential Chair in Art History & Archaeology of Ancient Iran. The second fellowship is open to students studying the Iranian world in any time period or discipline, in any UCI Ph.D. program and advisor that participates in the program.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS
The program structure of the Specialization consists of four required components: 1) coursework and workshop, 2) languages and specialized training, 3) examinations, and 4) the dissertation or thesis.
1) Coursework and Workshop Students must take four courses (seminar, lecture or independent study) that deal with the art and archaeology, history, or religions of ancient Iran and the premodern Persianate world, its legacy, or methodological or theoretical issues related to its study (e.g. field methods, historical linguistics, critical theory, art law, ethics, museology). These can also include language courses that provide the training necessary to conduct advanced research in the study of premodern Iran (e.g. Avestan, Old Persian, Bactrian, Pahlavi, Aramaic, ancient Greek, Arabic, New Persian etc.). Topics-vary courses will be offered under, or be crosslisted with, the specialization’s designator (“IRAN”) while others will be provided through their normal departmental designators and approved by the program director. All approved courses will be advertised on the program’s webpage. When a student counts a theoretically focused seminar towards the specialization, the topic of the seminar paper is expected to involve some aspect of the premodern Iranian or Persianate world. In order to encourage interdisciplinarity, students will be expected to take at least one course from a program other than their own offered under or crosslisted with the specialization’s course designator. In addition, students are expected to participate in the Premodern Iranian Studies Workshop, Conference and Speaker Series. This is a collaborative faculty-student initiative whose content and discussions are focused, in part, on the lectures, conferences and symposia organized by the Jordan Center that year. Faculty and students may also present papers or works in progress. All graduate students in the specialization are expected to participate when in residency.
2) Languages and Specialized Training In addition to the modern languages required by students’ home program, all students must prove competence in at least one premodern language relevant for conducting research in the Iranian world. Doctoral students will be expected to gain competency in at least two premodern research languages. This can take the form of a reading exam administered by the director of the specialization or the completion of coursework at UCI or another institution equivalent to that needed to gain intermediate competency, including summer intensives. Depending on a student’s objectives and needs, languages may include any Old or Middle Iranian language (e.g. Avestan, Old Persian, Middle Persian, Bactrian, Sogdian etc.), relevant Mesopotamian, Mediterranean or Caucasian languages (e.g. Akkadian, Aramaic, Syriac, Old Armenian, ancient Greek and Latin, etc.), and any language with a substantial corpus of texts relevant to the study of the medieval or early modern Persianate world (e.g. Classical New Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Ottoman Turkish, etc.). According to their focus and in consultation with their advisor, a student may elect to count either a summer of archaeological fieldwork, a course in numismatics or digital archaeological methods, or a curatorial internship at a museum in lieu of a second premodern language. According to their focus and in consultation with their advisor, a student may elect to count one of the following in lieu of a second premodern language: a summer of archaeological fieldwork, a course in numismatics or digital archaeological methods, or a curatorial internship at a museum or specialized collection. Students always have the option to do these in addition to a second language and the program will endeavor to find opportunities and (if possible) funding to make it feasible for them to do so.
3) Examinations For doctoral students, the director must approve that at least one area of the qualifying examination incorporates premodern Iran or the Persianate world as a central concern. One member of the candidate’s qualifying examination committee is normally core or affiliated faculty of the specialization. Plan II M.A. students must have significant premodern Iranian Studies content in their examination. There are no requirements concerning qualifying examinations for Plan I M.A. students.
4) Dissertation Doctoral students must complete a dissertation that engages the study of the premodern Iranian world as part of their broader project. This can either be the sole focus of the project, the most common scenario, or an important subcomponent informing earlier, later or coeval developments (e.g. a study of ancient or medieval Iranian art and architecture informing the study of modern or contemporary visual arts or literature). After advising and before advancement to candidacy, the program director will confirm their approval of the proposed topic through email. Ph.D. students writing an in-process M.A. thesis en route to the Ph.D. and Plan I M.A. students will similarly gain approval of their M.A. thesis topic. Alternatively, a research or seminar paper written under the guidance of one or more of the specialization faculty will be submitted to the director. There are no requirements concerning theses for Plan II M.A. students (see examination requirements).
ADVISING
Students are required to contact and meet with the director of the specialization: 1) when they apply to map out their plan of study and as needed throughout coursework to ensure seminars, languages etc. fulfill requirements, 2) prior to setting their examination areas to ensure one area sufficiently addresses premodern Iranian content, and 3) before formal approval of their dissertation/thesis proposal to ensure the dissertation/thesis adequately involves premodern Iran. Students who satisfactorily complete the specialization will be provided for their dossier an official letter signed by the Director of the Specialization and Director of the Jordan Center of Persian Studies and Culture detailing and certifying their interdisciplinary training.
COURSES
Please consult the UCI Registrar for approved courses and current topics-vary courses.
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The following courses are offered through the Specialization and are often crosslisted with other programs:
IRAN 290: Special Topics in Premodern Iranian Studies
IRAN 292: Seminar in Premodern Iranian Studies
The following topics-vary courses may be offered both as independent directed readings courses or as group classes:
IRAN 280: Studies in Old Iranian
IRAN 281: Studies in Middle Iranian
IRAN 282: Studies in Classical Persian
IRAN 294: Curatorial Methods
IRAN 295: Special Methods
Specialization faculty may offer individualized directed readings through the following:
IRAN 293: Directed Readings in Premodern Iranian Studies
PROGRAM CONTACTS:
Faculty Administration
Matthew P. Canepa Ph.D.
Director of the Specialization
Professor and Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Presidential Chair in Art History and Archaeology of Ancient Iran
2000 Humanities Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697-2785
(949) 824-3532
Staff Administration
Geneva Lopez-Sandoval
Graduate Office Director
Office of Graduate Study, School of the Humanities
143 Humanities Instructional Building
Irvine, CA 92697-3390
(949) 824-4303, lopezg@uci.edu
Program Manager, Jordan Center for Persian Studies
1st Floor Humanities Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697-3370
(949) 824-3638, sjalalip@uci.edu
Faculty
Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Presidential Chair in Art History and Archaeology of Ancient Iran
Professor of Art History | Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies
Director of the Specialization in Ancient Iran and the Premodern Persianate World
Maseeh Chair and Director, Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture
Professor of History | Ph.D. Program in History
Professor of Art History | Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies
Assistant Professor of Teaching | Department of Anthropology
Current Graduate Students
Arnold Alahverdian (PhD Candidate)
aalahver@uci.edu
Advisor: Touraj Daryaee
Arnold Alahverdian’s dissertation deals with the fifth-century Sasanian world. In it he contextualizes a fifth-century revolt in the Caucasus within broader developments in the Sasanian world (invasions, socio-political developments, ideological developments), focusing mostly on Sasanian-Armenian relations. He works on mostly Armenian, Syriac, and Middle Persian sources, especially literature dealing with the reigns and “persecutions” of Peroz I and Yazdgerd II. A segment of his dissertation also studies a narrative of sanctified warfare (especially its gendered rhetoric) within broader late antique developments (this includes elements from the Iranian epic tradition). Areas of Interest: Late Antique history, Sasanian History, Armenian History, Iranian Epic Tradition, Religion, identity, and violence in late antiquity, World History, Near Eastern / Middle Eastern History.
Agnik Bhattacarya (PhD Student)
Advisor: Matthew P. Canepa
Agnik Bhattacarya (BA, Sanskrit University; MA, Presidency University, Kolkata) joined the PhD Program in Visual Studies as the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Graduate Fellow in Ancient Iranian Studies working under Prof. Canepa. Mr. Battacharya works on eastern Iran and ideas of nationhood in Afghanistan. He plans to research the visual and spatial politics of the formation of the Kushan Empire, which encompassed eastern Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Gandhara. His particular interest is the history of archaeology and role of Kushan Empire in the formation and contestation of nationhood and identity in modern Afghanistan.
Ileana de Giuseppe (PhD student)
idegiuse@uci.edu
Advisor: Matthew P. Canepa
Ileana de Giuseppe received her B.A. (Summa cum laude) in Cultural Heritage from Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (Ravenna) and M.A. (Summa cum laude) in History, Preservation and Enhancement of the Artistic and Archaeological Heritage and Landscape, with a specialization in Archaeology). Ileana has excavated for several seasons at Persepolis with the Italian-Iranian project at Tol-e Ajori as well as numerous sites throughout the Mediterranean. Her research focuses on problems of the materiality, visuality and practices of transculturation in changing identities across the lands of the former Achaemenid after Alexander.
Mark Gradoni (PhD student)
mgradoni@uci.edu
Advisor: Touraj Daryaee
Mark Gradoni is a doctoral student at the University California, Irvine, in the department of History, where he focuses on the history of the Sasanian Empire. He holds a M.A. in the Humanities with a concentration in Art History and Archaeology from Hood College, as well as B.A.s in History and Ancient Studies from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. His academic training is interdisciplinary, combining archaeological, art historical, and historical methodologies. He studies Iran and the broader Near East in Late Antiquity with interests in public engagement with archaeology, and the phenomenon of pseudo-archaeology in popular media.
Nastasya Kosygina (PhD student)
nkosygin@uci.edu
Advisor: Matthew P. Canepa
Nastasya Kosygina earned her B.A. in Classics and B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her research interests include archaeology and material culture of the late antique eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia; human relationships to materiality and their effect upon the material debris of praxis; etic and emic concepts of “magic” vs premodern landscapes of doing; non-luxury material culture and human intentionality; the unintelligible word and the non-legible inscription, as well as Greek and Syriac epigraphy and paleography.
Leighton Smith (PhD student)
leightss@uci.edu
Advisor: Touraj Daryaee
Leighton Smith earned his BA at University of California, Santa Cruz and joined the PhD Program in History as the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Graduate Fellow in the Study of the Persian/Iranian World working under Prof. Daryaee. Leighton is interested the mutual impact of Iranian political and religious cosmologies with a special focus on non-Zoroastrian Iranian religions within late antique Iran, especially Manichaeism.
Liz Wells (PhD Candidate)
mallorew@uci.edu
Advisor: Matthew P. Canepa
Liz Wells is a scholar of transcultural exchange and visualities of authority in the late antique Mediterranean, the late antique Near East, and the early European Middle Ages. Her dissertation focuses on the Visigothic Kingdom and its engagement with the visual and spatial cultures of kingship in the Mediterranean and Western Asia. It weaves together ideas, approaches, and theoretical matrices from several of these fields and disciplines and bring them to bear on art historical material that rarely receives attention outside of the limited confines of early medieval art history. Among its goals is to introduce a more capacious and more humanistic conception of the Mediterranean and Near East during the period of c. 400-800 CE.
Layah Ziaii-Bigdeli (PhD Candidate)
lziaiibi@uci.edu
Advisor: Matthew P. Canepa
Layah Ziaii-Bigdeli’s background is in Iranian archaeology and art history. She earned a B.A. in ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at Columbia University and an M.A. in Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies with an emphasis on Islamic art at Rutgers University. Her master’s thesis examines Nishapur figural buff ware with an intention to understand the quality of modern conservation and its effects on scholarship. Currently, she is interested in problems of transition from Sasanian period to Islamic Iran. Her dissertation project studies the intersections between foodways and identities in the Sasanian and early Islamic period focusing particularly on Iranian silver and its impact on cultural practices and vessels of all mediums across Iran and Central Asia.