Dissertation Award

The best PhD dissertation on a theme of Iranian Studies is chosen based on several criteria, including imagination, novelty of approach, clarity in stating the problematic, methodological rigor, efficient and intelligent use of primary source material, quality of fieldwork, among others.

The Foundation may also recognize up to two runner-up dissertations with honorable mention and subject to budgetary considerations and the decision of an advisory board of readers, may also help towards the publication of outstanding dissertations.

Each year the award is granted to a dissertation approved during that academic year and announced in October/November of the year for which it is granted.

Dissertations must be nominated by the author's advisor and be accompanied by the Dissertation Committee's letter of acceptance. Two copies, one preferably digitized, must be submitted by August 15 to:

Notice of the awards appears in the MESA and ISIS mail list and newsletters, in Iran Nameh, and in various Persian language and other academic publications. It will also be posted on the FIS website.

The award for 2009 was conferred on Francesca Leoni  on November 16, 2009 with the following announcement.

November 16, 2009

The
Foundation for Iranian Studies is pleased to announce that the Committee on Selection of the Best Dissertation of the Year on a Topic of Iranian Studies of the Foundation for Iranian Studies has chosen Francesca Leoni’s dissertation “The Revenge of Ahriman: Images of Divs in the Shahnama, ca. 1300-1600,” submitted to the Faculty of Art and Archeology, Princeton University, as the recipient of the Foundation's annual Ph.D. dissertation award for the academic year 2008-2009.

In making its decision, the Committee, following the criteria established by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, noted that Francesca Leoni has made an "exceptional contribution to the field of Iranian Studies” by, among other achievements, “stating clearly the study’s problematic… constructing an adequate and efficient theoretical framework…developing and using successfully a rigorous methodology to bring together a significant array of primary and secondary sources, including several hitherto unknown or unpublished sources, in several languages drawn from several cultures to support an innovative approach to the study of Iranian iconography… relating illustrative art analysis in new imaginative ways to relevant socio-cultural, historical, psychological, and spiritual contexts… identifying nuanced deviations from the text in the illustrations of heroes and divs in over three centuries of Shahnameh manuscript production and explicating how the deviations illuminate and bring into focus specific ethical motives affecting patterns of transition from the aesthetics of beauty and ugliness to the values of good and evil… delineating a productive path to the study of how the didactic role the Shahnameh illustrators played as disseminators of values may help later historians to ground meaning in time and space… excellent organization of the work.”

The committee also cited Reza Pourjavady’s dissertation “A Shi`i Theologian and Philosopher of Early Safavid Iran: Najm al-Din Hajji Mahmud al-Nayrizi and His Writings” submitted to the Department of History and Cultural Studies of Free University of Berlin, and Roxane Farmanfarmaian’s dissertation “Passionate Constructions: Democracy and Islam in Anglo-American Relations with Iran, 1979-1989” submitted to the Board of Graduate Studies of the University of Cambridge, with honorable mention for high scholarship, originality, clarity, and significant contribution to Iranian Studies.

Notice of the awards will appear in the Foundation’s interactive web, MESA and ISIS newsletters and journals, in Iran Nameh, and in various Persian language and other academic publications.