Conference--The Wide World of Persian: Connections and Contestations, 1500-Present (2-3 May, Washington DC and College Park MD)

The Wide World of Persian:
Connections and Contestations, 1500 -Today

May 2-3, 2014

Co-Hosted by the Library of Congress and Roshan Institute of Persian Studies, University of Maryland

This conference is made possible by a Social Science Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship for Transregional Research with funds provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

DAY ONE, Friday May 2

Whittall Pavilion, Jefferson Building
Library of Congress
10 First Street, SE
Washington, DC

9:00am – 9:15am        Breakfast

9:15am - 9:30am         Opening Remarks

9:30am - 11:00am       Panel I: Identity and Politics

• Amin Tarzi, Marine Corps University, “Status and Politics of Persian Language in Afghanistan: A Brief Review”
• Muriel Atkin, George Washington University, “Tajiks and the Persianate World”
• Wazhmah Osman, Temple University, “Silencing the Unruly: The Lives, Legends, and Verses of Early Persian Women Poets”

11:00am – 11:30am     Coffee Break

11:30am – 1:00pm       Panel II: Language and Linguistics

• Pardis Minuchehr, George Washington University, “Persian as Lingua Franca: From Bosphorus to the Bay of Bengal”
• Willem Floor, Independent Scholar, “Cheraghkoshan across Time and Space, from Bulgaria to India”
• Corey Miller, University of Maryland, “Standard, National and Colloquial Varieties of Persian”

DAY TWO, Saturday May 3

Van Munching Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD
 

9:30am - 9:45am                     Breakfast

9:45am                                      Opening Remarks

10:00am – 11:30am                Panel III: Interchange and Exchange

• Rajeev Kinra, Northwestern University, “The Learned Ideal of the Mughal Wazīr: The Life and Intellectual World of Prime Minister Afzal Khan Shirazi (d. 1639)”
• Daniel Sheffield, Princeton University, “The Language of Heaven in Safavid Iran and Mughal India: Persian and Cosmology in the Thought of Āẕar Kayvān and his Followers”
• Ruzbeh Jamshidi, University of Maryland, “India as a Refuge: Anti-Arab Writing in Persian in India”

11:30am -1:00pm                    Lunch

1:00pm – 2:30pm                     Panel IV: Style and Script

• Alireza Korangy, University of Virginia, “Trans-regionalism and Mannerism: Some Notes on Sabk-i Hindi, its Post-Rationalized Contestations and the Persona of the Beloved”
• Simon Rettig, Freer|Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, “Script United? The Persianate Sphere and nastaʿliq Calligraphy around 1600”
• Fatemeh Keshavarz, University of Maryland, “Poetry as Politics, Worship, and Education: The Cosmopolitan World of Sa‘di of Shiraz”

2:30pm - 3:00pm                    Coffee Break

3:00pm - 4:00pm                    Closing Roundtable: Persianate Studies in Academic Disciplines

• Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, University of Maryland (Iranian Studies)
• Ahmet Karamustafa, University of Maryland (Islamic Studies)
• Rajeev Kinra, Northwestern University (South Asian Studies)