10 Years of Iranian Studies at Stanford
Established in 2004 and endowed in 2006, the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies at Stanford University promotes the interdisciplinary study of modern Iranian society, culture, politics and economy.
Iran as a civilization is one of the oldest in the world. Modern Iran has been a pivotal force in shaping the crucial region of the Middle East. It is increasingly important for scholars, policy analysts, and decision-makers in every field to understand the intricacies of modern Iranian society, and the interplay between economics, religions, ideologies, and political cultures that together shape Iran’s character and behavior.
"Ten years ago, there was not a single course on modern Iran offered here," writes the program's founder and director, Abbas Milani. "This year, we celebrated the graduation of three students receiving certificates or minors in Iranian Studies — now part of of Stanford’s Global Studies Minor. To date we have eight affiliated alumni and several more students enrolled."
The program sponsors many events on campus to educate the public on Iran and to encourage interaction among scholars. Over the course of the last eight years, the program has sponsored 285 events with some of the world’s most renowned scholars and artists from Iran, or working on that country’s culture and society. More than 45,000 people have attended these events.
Read the full Q&A with Professor Milani on Stanford.edu.
Rare Archival Resources
In the last few years, donations of libraries and private papers have helped Stanford achieve its goal to make the university a premier place for research on modern Iran:
- The private papers of Houshang Golshiri, one of Iran's most acclaimed writers, is housed in the Islamic & Middle East collection at the Green Library, which also includes extensive materials donated by Professor Milani.
- The private papers of Ardeshir Zahedi, former Foreign Minister under the Shah and a pivotal figure in modern Iranian politics. This collection will debut at the Hoover Archive in the spring of 2017.
- Most recently, the film archives of Dutch-Iranian filmaker Reza Allamehzadeh were donated to Stanford. The collection includes hundreds of hours of never-seen interviews with some of Iran’s most important modern figures.
The arrival of these resources, as well as the archive’s already rich collection on modern ideological movements in Iran, makes Stanford University a preeminent center of research on modern Iran.
Read more about library reasources on Iran via Stanford News.
New Initiatives
In the course of the last two years alone, the program has launched the Stanford Festival of Iranian Arts to highlight the rich culture of Iran through lectures, performances and workshops, the Iran 2040 initiative, to inquire into the issues facing the Iranian economy, and Science and Society: Frontiers of the Mind, a joint program between Iranian Studies and the Laboratory of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology at Stanford University Medical School.
"Helping launch this program, the gift of enjoying Hamid and Christina Moghadam’s trust and support, the generosity of Bita Daryabari, and the support of many more in the community have been, for me, an ennobling and humbling experience," says Milani. "Great as our accomplishments have been, I am convinced the best is yet to come."
