Events at: Online Event

The Persianate Understanding of Japan: The Reach and Limits of Inter-Asian Exchange

The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: The Persianate Understanding of Japan: The Reach and Limits of Inter-Asian Exchange on January 25, 2024. *Please note that this lecture will not be recorded. Following the Japanese defeat of Russia in 1905, intellectuals from Iran, India, and Afghanistan looked to Japan as a model […]

Twelver Shiite Martyrologies in Turkic: The Politics of Translation and Ritual in Early Modern Iran

The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Twelver Shiite Martyrologies in Turkic: The Politics of Translation and Ritual in Early Modern Iran on March 2, 2024. The talk will discuss the political, social, and ritual function of Turkic in early modern Iran through the genre of martyrology. […]

Debating Islam at the Court of the Great Mughal

The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Debating Islam at the Court of the Great Mughal on February 22, 2025. How did Muslims in early modern South Asia debate what constituted correct Muslim practice? This presentation explores the intersection of politics and piety by examining religious […]

Translating Persian, Universalizing Islam: The Case of Rumi’s “Moses and the Shepherd”

The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Translating Persian, Universalizing Islam: The Case of Rumi’s “Moses and the Shepherd” on March 8, 2025. The tale of Moses and the Shepherd is one of the best-known stories from Rumi’s Masnavi. In this lecture, Austin O’Malley examines how […]

Learning and Transformation within the Boundaries of Tradition: An Institutional Analysis of Shi’a Political Jurisprudence

The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Learning and Transformation within the Boundaries of Tradition: An Institutional Analysis of Shi’a Political Jurisprudence on October 18, 2025. This study is centered on the question of how transformation occurs in Shi’a political jurisprudence through the interaction between entrenched institutional structures and emerging demands. In […]

Great Figures of Contemporary Persian Literature: A Critical Examination of the Concept of “Greatness” in Literature

The sessions are all in Persian Persian Literature Reading Club’s new panel discussion series in the year 2025-2026 will focus on: The Giants of Modern Persian Literature Initiated by: Dr. Farzan Sojoodi Dr. Hessam Dehghani Location: Seminar Room, Department of Asian Studies Presented by the UBC Persian Literature Reading Club in collaboration with the Department […]

Rewriting Romance: Khvājū Kirmānī’s Humāy-u Humāyūn as a Post-Mongol Epic

The event recording is now available: The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies presents: Rewriting Romance: Khvājū Kirmānī’s Humāy-u Humāyūn as a Post-Mongol Epic on November 22, 2025. Humāy u Humāyūn recounts the love story of the Syrian prince Humāy, who falls for the Chinese princess Humāyūn and embarks on an adventurous quest […]

Visions of Man’yōshū: Reimagining Japan’s Oldest Poetry Collection in the Medieval and Modern Eras

Join us for an online talk by Dr. Małgorzata K. Citko-DuPlantis (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), who will be discussing her book project on the Man’yōshū. This talk considers Man’yōshū—Japan’s earliest anthology of vernacular poetry—as a continuously evolving and unstable discourse. The collection’s medieval life unfolded through a wide range of its manuscripts, commentaries, handbooks, poetic […]

Time Out of Joint: War, Memory, and the Limits of the Postwar in Grave of the Fireflies

Please join us for an online talk by Dr. Jiajun Liang, who will be discussing the Studio Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies. Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Japanese animation, Grave of the Fireflies is a tragic portrayal of civilian suffering in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat in World War II and is often considered […]