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.
Courses, offered by the affiliated faculty, are the backbone of Center’s academic and pedagogical mission. These include courses on language, literature, history, music and culture at undergraduate and graduate levels.
The academic courses are administered through different Departments. The Humanities Language Learning Program offers courses on Persian language. Courses in ancient, medieval, and modern Persian history are administered by the Department of History. Courses on modern Persian literature and the literature of Iranian diaspora are offered through the Department of Comparative Literature, and courses on Persian music are housed within the Department of Music. There will also be occasional offerings in Avestan, Old Persian, Parthian, Middle Persian (Pahlavi) languages.
The Center serves as the institutional home for the Nāme-ye Iran-e Bāstān, The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies, published by Iran University Press, the first refereed electronic journal on the history of Iran entitled The Bulletin of Ancient Iranian History (www.iranancienthistory.com).
The Center also sponsors the Sasanika project which serves as the focal point for the study of the Sasanian Empire (224-651 CE) and research on the history of ancient Persia and Late Antiquity.
There are currently no publications in this series "Studies in Ancient Iranian Civilization".