Shahla Adel took her students to the Ackland Museum for a tour based on the intersection of language and culture in Persian art objects using a collection of pieces. The tour was led by the museum‘s Object-Based Teaching Fellow, providing an opportunity for the students to engage in examining miniature paintings, calligraphy, manuscript pages as well as an inscribed helmet and ancient pottery in several galleries of the museum.

As part of the EE course requirement and grade, Dr. Claudia Yaghoobi’s “ASIA 124: Iranian Post-1979 Cinema” students made 8-minute films related to the themes of the class with an original idea of theirs. Students received guidance from both Dr. Yaghoobi and the course GRC, Che Sokol. The campus and public community was invited on Nov. 30 and Dec. 5, 2017 at 12:30 pm to a public screening and Q&A of the student films.

Are you interested in learning about Moroccan Languages and Cultures? The Arabic Program organizes a Moroccan Table every Thursday from 2-3pm at the Kitchen of New West Bldg. (2nd Floor). Students have a chance to learn the Moroccan Arabic Variety and explore the different aspects of the Moroccan culture. The table is open to students from all disciplines and to all levels. For more information about the table, you may contact Prof. Shahu (kshahu1971@unc.edu). If you are willing to join, but the time is not convenient for you, let him know so that he can figure out a time that works for everybody.

Teaching Assistant Professor of Arabic Bud Kauffman is teaching a new Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC) course entitled “The Language of Refugeeism”. Throughout the semester, students have studied and discussed various aspects of the refugee experience through the lens of historical perspectives and contemporary media resources. The materials introduce topics including historical refugee incidents, causes and effects of the current refugee crisis, and challenges that refugees face related to physical and psychological trauma, educational and professional opportunities, and the politics of refugee resettlement.

Jan Bardsley gave invited lectures this fall in New York at Siena College and the Wang Center, SUNY Stony Brook: “Millennial Maiko: The Geisha Apprentice in Japanese Popular Culture.” Last spring she spoke at University of Oregon, SUNY Fashion Institute for Technology, and Durham Tech, and presented “Democracy’s Poster Girls: Beauty Queens and Fashion Models in Cold War Japan” at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo in June.

Associate Professor Pamela Lothspeich has been awarded a Senior Research Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This fellowship will allow her to spend the fall semester in India to work on her book on the Ramlila theatrical tradition in North India.  Dr. Lothspeich regularly teaches a course on the Ramayana in which she incorporates this research.

Students in Assistant Professor Claudia Yaghoobi’s first-year seminar, “Wars and Veterans: Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” were asked to create a virtual exhibition on war and veterans with the help of staff from the Ackland Art Museum.  Their work, which was based on their perceptions after taking the course, was on display in the Maker Space at the Ackland on May 3.

Assistant Professor Claudia Yaghoobi new book, Aṭṭār, Persian Sufism, and European Mysticism has been published by Purdue University Press. Traversing linguistic, national, and disciplinary boundaries, her book calls into question the presumed differences between medieval Islam and the West and makes possible a rich dialogue between civilizations that have historically been pitted against one another. This interdisciplinary study of medieval Persian Sufi tradition and ʿAṭṭār (1145-1221) opens up a new space of comparison for reading and understanding medieval Persian and European literatures.

On April 27, seven students in Assistant Professor Claudia Yaghoobi’s “Middle Eastern Women Writers” presented their research at the eighteenth annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research in the category, Diversity and Equity Track.  Leah Balkoski, Neusha Zadeh, and Tahjamare Warren won an award for their presentation on Forough Farrokhzad’s poetry: “The Self Reflected: Mirrors in Persian Poetry.”

Congratulations to Diego Morro Paredes who participated in the seventh annual Chinese Bridge Speech Contest for University Students in New England (East USA division), on April 22.  Diego won second place in the advanced level!  An exchange student from Spain, Diego was a student in Associate Professor Wendan Li’s fourth-year Chinese class, and an advisee of Senior Lecturer Yi Zhou.