Professor Tabatabai at Boston Poetics Workshop- 3.28.2025
WLL’s own Professor Tabatabai will be presenting “The Double-Edged Sword of Literary Translation: Translating Persian to English and English to Persian” at this year’s Boston Poetics Workshop! You can attend his talk on March 28th in the Kilachand Hall first-floor common room- please RSVP at the QR code below.
Persian Translation Prize awarded to Sassan Tabatabai
Sassan Tabatabai won the 2023 Persian Translation Prize for his translation of Sadeq Hedayat’s Blind Owl. Tabatabai holds a prominent position as the head of the Persian program at Boston University, where he regularly teaches all levels of Persian language and literature. His multifaceted expertise extends beyond academia, encompassing roles as a poet, translator, editor, and […]
Lectures in Criticism: The Episodic Reception of Medieval Persian Women Poets (2/22)
The participation of women poets in medieval courtly or Sufi Persian literary cultures was acknowledged but did not result in their inclusion in literary histories. The lives and poems of figures such as Mahsati, Rabia, and Jahan, were memorialized in anecdotes and romantic narratives at certain critical junctures that led to the creation of phantom […]
Concert by Mina Deris, Payam Yousef, and Witness Matlou (12/2)
When: December 2nd from 8:00-10:00 PM Where: Tsai Performance Center (685 Comm Ave) Join us for a soulful musical performance featuring the masterful voice of Mina Deris (Arab-Iranian singer), Payam Yousef (kamancheh), and Witness Matlou (jazz piano). This performance explores the liminal spaces at the intersection of Iranian and jazz musical improvisation. Drawing on contemporary poetry, Mina Deris sings through the […]
Comparative Persianate Aesthetics Symposium
Boston University September 28-29, 2017 154 Bay State Road, The Eilts Room Free and open to the public Middle Eastern and South Asian studies in the last decade have been energized by the idea of the “Persianate” cultural realm in which the Persian language and courtly conduct (adab) played a central role in societies from the Balkans […]
Waiting at the Door of the Beloved: a Night of Sufi Poetry and Live Persian Music
WLL student Serena Tara writes: “Yesterday, Tuesday May 2nd I participated to the event “Waiting at the Door of the Beloved, an Evening of Live Persian Music and Sufi Poetry”. One of my former professors, Prof. Tabatabai, was coordinating the event. I was completely amazed by the performance. I was expecting two separate sessions, one […]
2014 Persian Symposium
Join us for the 2014 Persian Symposium! See the full schedule here!
Professor Sunil Sharma co-curates three exhibitions celebrating the Persian “Book of Kings”
The Shahnama, or “Book of Kings,” is an epic Persian poem completed 1,000 years ago. Three related exhibitions in Boston and Cambridge celebrate the millennium of the completion of this great work. Romantic Interludes: Women in Firdawsi’s Shahnama Museum of Fine Arts, Boston April 24, 2010 – January 16, 2011 Heroic Gestes: Epic Tales from Firdawsi’s Shahnama […]
MLCL welcomes new Assistant Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Sunil Sharma will join the department as Assistant Professor of Persianate and Comparative Literature beginning Fall 2009. Dr. Sharma has been teaching Persian language and literature and Indian film/literature courses at BU for several years. He is a leading scholar of Persian medieval literature and the literatures of […]