Announcement and Call for Applications: Iran Graduate Student Workshop
To build bridges across Persian and Iranian Studies programs, scholars from New York University’s Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Department and the Gallatin School (ISI-NYU), Princeton University’s Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Middle East Center announce the Iran Graduate Student Workshop (IGSW). The workshop will provide a valuable venue for academic exchange and production, giving distinguished young scholars of the field an unrivalled opportunity to present and promote their research.
On May 4-5, 2018, the University of Pennsylvania will host the second gathering of this joint workshop, to be followed by similar meetings at the other campuses every two years. This second workshop in 2018 will consist of PhD students that are near ABD status and preparing their dissertation proposals (i.e., typically in their 2nd or 3rd year of graduate work). In addition, the first cohort will participate again, as discussants, in the 2018 workshop, as they approach the end of their graduate work.
Applicants for the second round, in 2018, must focus on modern Iran (roughly 18th-20th centuries), other countries of the Persianate world, or diasporas, or conduct relational histories and comparative work; and will be drawn from disciplines and programs in the humanities and social sciences, including anthropology, art history, economics, history, literature, politics, sociology, and related fields.
IGSW Purpose:
- To provide graduate students with intellectual feedback on their research, encompassing both area studies and disciplinary critiques, twice in their graduate student careers.
- To ensure that graduate students of Iran are aware of, and make their work accessible to, scholars from other parts of “their” area (i.e., the Middle East broadly defined) as well as from their own discipline, whether it be history, literature, or the social sciences.
- To use the above points to make sure that graduating scholars who focus on modern Iran will continue to be placed, if not more frequently placed, in both area studies and disciplinary departments.
- To help doctoral students improve skills in scholarship and teaching.
To apply, please send to the following materials igsw2018@gmail.com by August 15, 2017:
- One letter of recommendation from an advisor or committee member supporting the research project and attesting to the student's good standing in their program of study.
- Curriculum vitae
- Research proposal of 1,000 words on argument, methods, and evidence to be used in dissertation Decisions on applications will be sent out by September 30, 2017. If selected by the IGSW committee, participants will be expected to attend workshops in years 2018 and 2020. Travel and accommodation for accepted applicants will be provided by the IGSW.