Iranian Studies Departments and Centers in the World

Dec 20, 2020 in Persian Language

Khachik Gevorgyan

Updated on December 15, 2024

In this blog post, we have tried to present Iranian Studies centers, institutes, departments, programs worldwide. It seems an endless work to complete such a list, and we will update it regularly.

This list only presents the Iranian Studies Centers outside the Islamic Republic of Iran. You can read our previous post if you are interested in Persian language courses in Iran.

In this list, we have also included the Persian Studies programs, i.e., programs within the University that only teach the Persian language.

There is absolute chaos in the way the Iranian or Persian studies programs or departments are presented. It isn't easy to understand the difference between program, center, institute, school, department, fund, language program, major program, minor program. We call all these entities "Centers".

There are Iranian Studies centers within departments; endowed chairs, and unendowed professorships within departments of universities that are part of other schools; university schools affiliated with institutes; academies related to associations; majors inside minors; programs within centers offered by the foundations inside the departments outside the University but inside the faculty affiliated with a school and related to the institute, and so on.

Another ambiguity is that a program of Iranian Studies can often be a part of the following departments or schools: Middle Eastern Studies, Islamic Studies, Religious Studies, Philosophy, Oriental Studies, Near Eastern Studies, Linguistics, Politics, International Relations, History, and so on. We have included some of such cases in this list. If you know of any relevant programs, please send them to us, and we will update the list immediately.

The other problem is the websites of Iranian Studies centers. The website technologies of many Iranian Studies departments, centers, schools, programs seem to have remained in the early 90s. Even if the center, program, the department is inside one of the best universities, with a great website, the Iranian Studies center's website is often very inconsolable. The present state of the website technologies of Iranian Studies may become a topic of another article.

In this list, we have presented only the centers that have at least a working website. We have most probably missed many centers because the centers do not have a properly working website.

Please, if you find a missing entity, or you think we should delete something from this list, please let us know via email: [email protected]

At the end of the article, we also present the Iranian Studies foundations, associations, and language programs. We have also prepared the list of Iranian Studies Journals.

The list is presenting the Iranian Studies centers in each country. This list only gives the name of the Center and a link to the website. In the future, we will also add a description of each Center. The format of this article is not yet complete. We are working on updating this list regularly.

Thank you, and I hope this is a helpful list.

Iranian Studies in Armenia

Faculty of Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University

Institute of Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia

Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian-Armenian University, Yerevan

Iranian Studies in Australia

Persian Program, Australian National University

Farsi Courses, The University of Queensland

Iranian Studies in Austria

Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Iranian Studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Department of Oriental Philology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo

Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo

Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Sarajevo

Iranian Studies in Bulgaria

Iranian Studies, Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, Sofia University

Iranian and Persian Studies in Canada

Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto

Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies, University of Toronto

Learn Farsi, School of Continuing Studies, University of Toronto

Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University

Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Simon Fraser University

Learn Persian, Simon Fraser University

Department of Asian Studies, The University of British Columbia

Persian Language Program, The University of British Columbia

Persian Courses, York University

Minor in Iranian Studies Program, Concordia University

Iranian Studies in Denmark

Middle Eastern Studies, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

Persian Language Summer School (4-8 weeks)

From Jul 07, 2024 to Aug 30, 2024

Yerevan, Armenia

See Details & Apply

Iranian Studies in France

Institut d'études iraniennes, l'Université Sorbonne Nouvelle

Department of Persian Studies, University of Strasbourg

Eurasia Department, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco)

Centre de Recherche sur le Monde iranien, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Iranian Studies in Germany

Institute of Iranian Studies, Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universitat Berlin

Institute of Iranian Studies, Goettingen University

Iranian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Bamberg

Iranian Studies, Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Marburg University

Iranian Studies, Asia Africa Institute, University of Hamburg

Near and Middle Eastern Studies program, Heidelberg University

Institute of the Near and Middle East, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Iranian Studies in Georgia

Giorgi Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, Ilia State University

Center of Iranology, Georgian International Academy of Sciences

Iranian Studies in India

The Centre of Persian & Central Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Department of Persian, Jamia Millia Islamia

Department of Persian, University of Delhi

Persian language instruction, Ahmedabad University

Department of Urdu & Persian, Gujarat University

Institute of Persian Research, Aligarh Muslim University

Department of Arabic & Persian, University of Calcutta

Department of Persian, University of Mumbai

Department of Persian, University of the Punjab

Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan Institute of Advanced Studies in Urdu, Persian and Arabic, Punjabi University

Persian Language Courses, Deccan College

Iranian Studies in Israel

Alliance Center for Iranian Studies (ACIS), Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University

Ezri Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, University of Haifa

Department of Middle East Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Bar-Ilan University

Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Iranian Studies in Italy

Department "Italian Institute of Oriental Studies - ISO", Sapienza University of Rome

Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna

Department of History and Cultures, University of Bologna

Department of Asian, African and Mediterranean Studies, University of Naples “L’Orientale”

Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca' Foscari University of Venice

Italian Institute for the Middle and Far East (IsMEO)

Iranian Studies in Kazakhstan

Center of Iranian Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University

Iranian Studies in Lithuania

Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University

Iranian Studies in the Netherlands

Amsterdam Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Amsterdam

Iranian and Central Asian Studies, Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Leiden University

Islam and Arabic Research Group, Utrecht University

Iranian Studies in Norway

Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo

Iranian Studies in Poland

Department of Iranian Studies, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw

Department of Iranian Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow

Iranian Studies in Russia

Department of Iranian Philology, Faculty of Asian and African Studies, St. Petersburg State University

Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Russian-Iranian Center, Russian State University for the Humanities

Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Higher School of Economics (HSE University)

Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, Russian Academy of Sciences

Section of Iranian languages, Department of Indo-European Languages, Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences

Institute of Oriental Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences

Iranian Studies in Sweden

Iranian Languages at the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University

Language Courses in Arabic and Persian, Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University

Iranian Studies in the United States of America

Persian Language Summer School (4-8 weeks)

From Jul 07, 2024 to Aug 30, 2024

Yerevan, Armenia

See Details & Apply

School of Middle Eastern & North African Studies, Arizona University

Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program (GIDP) in Persian and Iranian Studies, Arizona University

In 2016, Dr. Kamran Talattof with the support of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences received a multimillion-dollar grant from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute to establish the Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Persian and Iranian Studies. He founded the program in 2016-2017.

Berkeley Initiative for Iranian Studies, UC Berkeley

The UC Berkeley Initiative for Iranian Studies is a broad and multi-disciplinary initiative which supports research, teaching, and programming bringing together a multitude of aspects of Iranian Studies. Its mission is to encourage and support the study of the broader Iranian world in a range of scholarly fields from ancient times to the present.

Persian Cultural Studies, Boston University

Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University

The Ehsan Yarshater Center for Iranian Studies was established at Columbia University in 2018 with the support of a generous gift from the Persian Heritage Foundation in honor of Professor Ehsan Yarshater's remarkable scholarship and his lifelong dedication to the study of Iran's culture and history.

Persian Courses, Department of Modern Languages & Literatures, California State University, Fullerton

Persian Studies Program, Georgetown University

Support for the Persian Studies Program is provided, in part, by the Jalinous Endowed Fund for Persian Culture and Language Studies. The Jalinous Fund supports lectures, programming, faculty and student research, and teaching and related to the Persian language and culture at Georgetown University.

Persian program,Department of Classical & Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations, George Washington University

Persian program, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, George Mason University

Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

Persian program, Department of Central Eurasian Studies (CEUS), Indiana University

Persian language program, New York University

Iranian Studies Initiative, New York University (ISI-NYU)

The Iranian Studies Initiative at NYU (ISI-NYU) provides an intellectual and academic space for NYU faculty members and graduate students to study Iranian history, culture and society. Supported by the Gallatin School of Individualized Study and the Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, ISI-NYU draws on faculty members from departments and centers across the University. ISI-NYU includes a translation service, a lecture series, lunch discussions and other public events, from art exhibitions to film screenings.

Persian Language Courses, NC State University

Persian Studies Minor. Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University

Minor in Persian. Portland State University

Persian Language Studies, Near Eastern Studies Program, Princeton University

Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmini Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, Princeton University

The Center was established in 2012, supported by a generous gift from alumni and Board of Trustees members Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Class of 1980, and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani, Class of 1974. Launched to promote groundbreaking independent scholarship and teaching, the Center adds a new dimension to programming first inspired by the Pahlavi Fund, which dates to 1969 and exists to promote a new understanding of Iranian society and culture.

Persian Language Program, Department of Linguistic Asian/Middle Eastern Languages, San Diego State University

Persian Studies Program, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, San Francisco State University

Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies, Stanford University

Established in 2004 and endowed in 2006, the Program is part of the Stanford Global Studies Division in the School of Humanities and Sciences.The program provides an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary platform for the study of modern Iranian history, culture, politics, society, and economy. The Program also serves as a forum for scholars, experts, practitioners, and artists from Stanford and beyond to teach, collaborate, and study Iran.

Persian language courses, Language Learning and Research Center, Stony Brook University

Iranian Studies Initiative, University of Michigan

Farsi language courses, University of Connecticut

Persian Language Program, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania

Persian/Farsi Minor, University of Pittsburgh

Persian Major or Minor, Middle East Center, University of Utah

Persian Program, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Maryland

In 2007, Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute made a $3 million leadership gift to the University of Maryland College Park Foundation and in 2008, a major and a minor in Persian language and studies were developed. As a result, the existing four-year old "Center for Persian Studies" expanded into the current Roshan Institute for Persian Studies.

Persian courses, California State University, Northridge

Heritage Persian Program, University of California San Diego (UC San Diego)

Program of Iranian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLA

Pourdavoud Institute for the Study of the Iranian World, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

The Pourdavoud Institute serves as a disciplinary home to stimulating intellectual encounters and exchanges for scholars working on ancient Iran and the ancient world, and contributes to the development of collaborative research projects in such diverse areas as Assyriology, Biblical Studies, Central Asian studies, Classics, Egyptology, ancient History, Indology, Sinology, and the Study of Religion.

Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions, UCLA

In 2023, UCLA has received a commitment of $11 million from the Persian Heritage Foundation to establish the Yarshater Center for the Study of Iranian Literary Traditions, a research hub that aims to advance knowledge of ancient Iranian literature and culture worldwide.

Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture, University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine)

The Samuel Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture serves as an umbrella organization for various activities related to the study of Iran and the Persianate world at the University of California, Irvine. Dedicated to drawing on the strengths of the entire UC Irvine campus, the Center focuses on interdisciplinary research projects that bridge the arts, humanities, engineering, medicine, and the sciences.

Iranian Studies Initiative, University of California, Santa Barbara

The Iranian Studies Initiative (ISI) was established in 2010, supported by the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Endowment and the Gramian-Emrani Foundation. The program offers Persian language courses and various courses on Iran across multiple disciplines, with significant contributions from over a dozen faculty members.

Department of Middle East Studies, University of Southern California in Los Angeles

Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

Persian program, Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), Rutgers University

Iran and Persian Studies Minor and Middle East/South Asia Studies major, Middle East/South Asia Studies Program, University of California, Davis

Persian Language Program, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago

Persian Program, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies, University of Oklahoma

The Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies serves as the hub for Iranian Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Established in 2010 as an academic program within the OU David L. Boren College of International Studies, the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies expanded into a center in 2016 through a generous donation by the Farzaneh Family.

Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, San Francisco State University

Persian program, Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Virginia

Persian and Iranian Studies Program, Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of Washington

Persian program, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Wisconsin

Program in Iranian Studies, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University