Intensive Summer Persian 2022: Understanding Modern Iran through Literature and Film

UPDATE: This program has been cancelled. Throughout the summer and autumn 2022 we will be working on a project to help people from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus seeking refuge in Armenia. Please check back for updates or contact us at info@mejlisinstitute.org.

June 20 – July 29, 2022

Yerevan, Armenia

Times: Monday through Friday, 4.5-7 hours per day

Duration: 6 weeks, 170 class hours  

Program

This intensive summer course is designed for students who have already covered the basics of Persian grammar and would like to make a significant leap in their language skills over the summer while gaining a deeper understanding of the culture of modern Iran. The course will last six weeks, and every week will be devoted to particular topics, such as politics and the regime, gender and sexuality, family, migration, traditions and modernity, education and educational systems, language, literature, arts and censorship etc. Every day in the first part of the day (9 am–1.30 pm) students will be doing a grammar review, read excerpts from works of modern Persian prose and practice discussing related topics. A special emphasis will be placed on the vocabulary, and course participants can expect to have mastered about 1500 new words by the end of the program. Twice per week in the evenings (7–10 pm) students will attend film screenings. Each screening will be prefaced with a short introductory lecture and followed by a moderated discussion. The list of films (shown with English subtitles) includes both classics of Iranian cinematography and lesser-known films. The discussions will be held in Persian, and participants of the program can expect not only to significantly expand their vocabulary but also to make a great progress in their speaking and aural comprehension skills. 

The final syllabus of the course will be designed based on appicants' levels of Persian and interests. Excerpts from the works by the following authors are likely to be  included in the program: Bozorg Alavi, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Samad Behrangi, Sadeq Chubak, Simin Daneshvar, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Nader Ebrahimi, Mahmoud Golabdarehi, Ebrahim Golestan, Houshang Golshiri, Sadegh Hedayat,  Mohammad-Ali Jamalzadeh, Morteza Moshfegh Kazemi, Ahmad Mahmoud,  Abbas Maroufi, Zoya Pirzad, Gholam-Hossein Sa'edi, Bahram Sadeghi, and others. 

Films 

(the list is preliminary and may change)

The Report(1977) Abbas Kiarostami

The Night It Rained (1967) Kamran Shirdel

Brick and Mirror (1964) Ebrahim Golestan

Beehive (1975) Fereydun Gole

Parviz (2012) Majid Barzegar

Mum's Guest(2004) Dariush Mehrjui

Coup 53 (2019) Taghi Amirani

P Like Pelican (1972) Parviz Kimiavi

Tehran Has No More Pomegranates! (2006) Massoud Bakhshi

White Nights(2003) Farzad Motamen

Fish & Cat (2013) Shahram Mokri

The Hunter(2010) Rafi Pitts

The Cow(1969) Dariush Mehrjui

Iran Is My Land (1999) Parviz Kimiavi

Application process

The deadline to apply is May 1, 2022. The deadline to pay the fees is May 20, 2022. The applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis; we therefore strongly encourage interested students to apply as early as possible. Those whose applications are received after the course capacity is filled will be placed on a waiting list.  

Fees

The course fee is $2300. The fees are to be paid as a donation made through a bank transfer by May 20, 2022. 

Intensive Summer Persian 2022 is a fundraiser program. Apart from the funds used to pay the salary of the instructors and the running expenses, all funds collected will be used to purchase Persian and Armenian literature books for our library.

Applicants who wish to attend the course but cannot afford to pay the course fees can be issued a partial or full fee waiver. To request a waiver, please send us an e-mail separately after filling the application form and arrange for a reference letter to be sent from your academic supervisor or another mentor who can attest to your merit and the situation of financial need. Since students’ donations constitute our main source of funding, we encourage applicants to consider applying for scholarships offered by their universities or seek other forms of external funding prior to applying for tuition waivers. 

Instructors 

Maryam Torabi, is a scholar of Medieval Armenian and Persian literary traditions. Having studied Armenian and Persian literature in Isfahan, Maryam came to Armenia to work on her doctoral dissertation, which she is currently completing in the Department of Linguistics at Yerevan State University. She focuses on the language of the eighteenth-century poet Sayat-Nova exploring his engagement with Persian poetry. Apart from teaching Persian in Yerevan and Armenian in Isfahan, she has formerly served as the librarian of the Blue Mosque in Yerevan. 

Shauheen Daneshfar is a filmmaker, still photographer and cinematographer. 

In 2011 he completed his training at the Iranian Young Cinema Society and after having worked on numerous film projects as director, cinematographer, production manager etc. he obtained his BA in Cinematography at Tehran University of Art in 2018. In 2016 he served as the director of the 12th Nahal Student Short Film Festival. Currently he is completing his MFA in Film and Media program at Stockholm University of the Arts.

Place

Why study Persian in Armenia? Historically, Armenia has been at the crossroads of different cultures and languages, and for centuries it was a part of the Persian-speaking world. Today, Armenia retains close ties with Iran, and Yerevan is a popular destination for students and tourists from Iran. One frequently hears Persian spoken on the streets of Yerevan, and our course participants will have plentiful opportunities to practice Persian outside of class. 

Mejlis Institute is located in one of the last surviving old neighborhoods of central Yerevan in a reconstructed old house amidst a lush fruit garden with beautiful views of the city. While remaining close to the busy city center, here students can immerse themselves in the idyllic atmosphere of old Yerevan.  Film screenings and other social events will take place in the open air in the garden.