Rafa joon
Nadia Farjood and San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo welcomed their angel of hope, Rafael Omid Farjood Campillo, on October 26, 2023. Their son joined the world at 8 lbs, 5 oz. and 21.5 inches. Rafa joon hopes to see you at a future PCC event! The Farjood Campillo family is grateful for this community’s love and support.
Mrs. Rouhi Shaghaghi
Mrs. Rouhi (Rouhandokht) Shaghaghi passed away on October 4, 2023. She was born in 1936 in Tabriz, was married when she was 16 years old, and lived most of her life in the North (Chalous) and Tehran. Mrs. Shaghaghi chose San Diego as her permanent home as of 2009. She was a force of nature—intelligent, kind, happy, and entrepreneurial. She was a skilled seamstress and hairdresser, so much so that the spouses of Iranian government officials and artists/performers were her clients. She worked hard all her life and was the major force behind sending her children to study overseas. Mrs. Shaghaghi was viewed as a lioness by people who were around her and she was much loved. She took in children or adults who needed care throughout her life. She was diagnosed with dementia and later developed heart and kidney disease. She is survived by two sons, Hamid and Farzin, and a daughter, Zarin.
She will be greatly missed.
Aria Fani’s New Book to be Published in 2024
Congratulations to Aria Fani on the publication of his new book, Reading across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Literary Nationalism, published by the University of Texas Press, which will be out in April 2024.
Aria Fani is an assistant professor and director of Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. He serves as the current deputy editor of Iranian Studies and is a co-investigator of the Translation Studies Hub at UW. Here is a short review from the publisher’s website:
Reading across Borders is a groundbreaking critique of the very concept of literature in Iranian and Afghan contexts. With an outstanding command of literary history, primary texts, and the appropriate theoretical underpinnings, Aria Fani invites us to question decades of received wisdom that have relied on the constructed exceptionalism and glorification of ‘Persian literature.’ Through such a radical reassessment, Fani paves the way for a vastly more inclusive and socially responsible way of approaching Persian-language literary production, giving the reader the tools for a long overdue problematization of the myths of national identity and unexamined adages on the canon of Persian literature. ~Leyla Rouhi, Mary A. and William Wirt Warren Professor of Romance Languages, Williams College
UCLA receives $11 million to Establish the Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions
Thanks to the vision and generosity of the Persian Heritage Foundation, UCLA has established the Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions. The Yarshater Center, conceived as a leading research hub for the publication and dissemination of Iranian literary traditions worldwide, will have a momentous impact on the study of the Iranian world. Through the active dissemination of its research ventures and publications, the Center will set new standards of excellence and attract a new generation of scholars to the field.
The center was named for the late Ehsan Yarshater, the inaugural Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies at Columbia University, whose lifework has had a profound impact on the study of the Iranian world globally. Among the many original projects Yarshater initiated are the Bibliotheca Persica, a collection of pioneering publications foregrounding Iranian literary traditions; A History of Persian Literature, a projected 20-volume survey of Persian literature; and the Encyclopaedia Iranica, widely regarded as the most comprehensive and accessible reference work on the Iranian civilization. (Excerpts from the press release purdavoud.ucla.edu.)
ANS Congratulates Mehdi Sarram on 60 Years of Membership
The American Nuclear Society is pleased to congratulate Mehdi Sarram on the 60th anniversary of his membership. He joined the society in 1963 when he was an undergraduate in nuclear energy at the University of Michigan and has served in the nuclear energy industry as a nuclear engineer, reactor operator, professor, and mentor. He was born in Kerman, Iran, and immigrated to the U.S. (Excerpt from ANS News, September 2023 edition.)
Dr. Sarram is a member of PCC and lives with his family in Carlsbad, California.
