Third Biennial Symposia Iranica

Hosted by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, on 11-12 April 2017.

Featuring 32 panels with 111 speakers from five continents, 2017’s Symposia Iranica was the largest gathering of the field in the UK for nearly a decade. In an encouraging testament to the global reach, vitality and scale of emergent scholarship in Iranian studies, we received 20 per cent more submissions during the call for papers in 2016 than for the inaugural event in 2013, with the review committee fielding more than 400 proposals in total. Of these, just under a third were accepted following double blind peer review.

Our invitor to Cambridge for a second time, Professor Charles Melville’s assistance was crucial at every stage of
organisation over the past two years and we owe him great thanks for his unceasing support and encouragement, and the many hours that he has dedicated to seeing this project through to fruition at every turn and over every obstacle.

Convivial dinners were held at Gonville and Caius College and Pembroke College, which also hosted the prize giving.

Lastly, we wish to to recognise with gratitude the advice and support of Drs Parita and Siamack Bagheri with our opening reception at the Fitzwilliam Museum, organised to celebrate the career of Charles Melville, now Emeritus Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge; to Lord Chris Smith, Master of Pembroke College for co-hosting the event with Symposia Iranica; and are indebted to Drs Bagheri and Hildon Water for their sponsorship of the event. Thanks are also due to the museum’s staff for their hard work and to curators Drs Stella Panayotova and Victoria Avery for their organisation of a special exhibition of Persian manuscripts for the occasion.