Dushanbe, Tajikistan

The American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS), in partnership with The Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan

Persian; Tajik-Persian

Advanced beginning, intermediate and advanced (elementary Tajiki-Persian)

June 10– July 29, 2010

Dates are inclusive of travel and the pre-departure orientation in Washington, DC. Students are required to participate in the full program, including the pre-departure orientation. All travel will be arranged for participants following selection.

The CLS Program offers courses designed to develop students’ listening, reading, speaking, spoken interaction, and writing skills. Students will receive a minimum of 20 hours per week of formal classroom instruction. Students will be provided Farsi and Tajik language textbooks and selected readings from classical Persian texts, newspapers, and short stories.

A number of native Persian speakers will be available to work with students outside of class on topics and materials of their choice, such as writing, reading on specialized or class topics, and conversational and comprehension skills. Cultural excursions will be organized each weekend, usually on Saturdays, to visit museums and historical sites in and around Dushanbe.

All components of the CLS Program have been developed as part of the language acquisition process. CLS participants are required to attend all program components, including, but not limited to, language instruction (formal/informal), cultural activities, and excursions. Absences will only be excused for medical or other approved reasons.

Students will be paired in rented apartments that are within walking distance of the Academy of Sciences Center. Students will be given stipends to eat on their own, usually as a group in nearby local restaurants.

The American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS) is a non-profit, non-governmental overseas research organization. It is an academic consortium of universities and museums in North America with interests in the study of Iranian culture and civilization. Its officers are scholars who represent the member institutions and serve voluntarily as trustees.

AIIrS seeks to support the advancement of knowledge and understanding of Iran and the larger Persianate world from the earliest periods to the present. The Institute’s purview comprises the historical Iranian world of Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia, as well as the modern political state of Iran. The Institute works with humanists and social scientists to promote Iranian Studies in the American curriculum and to facilitate interdisciplinary research on Iran in the United States. It also sponsors international scholarly exchange to increase and stimulate academic interaction, collaboration, and productive dialogue between students and scholars in Iran and the United States.

The Institute was founded in 1967. From 1969 until late 1979, the Institute maintained a center in Tehran with a resident American director, providing hostel facilities and bringing together American and Iranian colleagues. In 1979, political difficulties between the governments of Iran and the United States resulted in the closing of the Tehran center.

For the next two decades, the Institute devoted itself to furthering Iranian Studies in the United States by offering graduate students grants and annual prizes for dissertations on Iranian Studies and holding joint conferences, among other initiatives. In 1998, the AIIrS was invited by the Iranian government to restart scholarly activities by sending graduate students to study Persian in Tehran.

Since then, the AIIrS has been developing new competitive grant programs to foster reciprocal exchanges and cooperation between American and Iran academic communities, and to reestablish an American academic presence in Iran. At the same time, the Institute continues to represent American institutions of higher education and research in the field of Iranian Studies in the United States.

Learn more about the American Institute of Iranian Studies at: http://www.simorgh-aiis.org/

Established in 1951, The Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan is the main scientific center of the country, housing 20 research institutes and 3 science centers located throughout the country. The Academy has three main divisions: physico-mathematical, chemical, and geological sciences; biological and medical sciences; and the humanities and social sciences.

Learn more about the Academy at: http://www.ant.tj (Russian language only).