Bioraphies

 

Listed alphabetically by surname

Eskandar Abadi was trained at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Tehran.  In the 1980s he continued his studies in Linguistics and Political Studies at the Universities of Frankfurt and Marburg. In 1997 he obtained a PhD in General and Germanic Linguistics with a thesis on auctoriality and narrative perspective in Thomas Mann's novel Der Zauberberg. His publications include a monograph on the Wolfgang Bergsdorf's concept of power and language (Marburg 1985) and a revised version of his doctoral thesis with the titleErzaehlerprofil und Erzaehltechnik im Roman 'Der Zauberberg' - Eine Untersuchung zu Auktorialitaet und Perspektive bei Thomas Mann (1998). Besides being an academic, Eskandar Abadi is also a accomplished satirist, fiction writer for children, singer and violinist with over a dozen literary and musical publications to his name. He is currently an editor of the Persian Radio Service 'Deutsche Welle' in Bonn, Germany.

Hossein Abadian was born in 1962 in Lar, Iran. He is Associate Professor at the Department of History at Qazvin International University. He received his PhD from Shahid Beheshti University (Tehran) in June 2004. His thesis deals with the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. Also he earned his BA in Iranian history (1988) and his MA on the Iranian Constitutional Revolution from the same University (1991). His research interests deal with Iranian intellectualism, political Shiism and the history of political parties in Iran (1906-1979). Some of his publications are: Iran from the Collapse of Constitutionalism to the Coup of 1921(2006); The Crisis of Constitutionalism in Iran (1906-1911) (2004); The Biography of Dr Mozaffar Baqa'i (1998); Theoretical Principles of Constitutional and Legitimate Governments(1995); 'Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution' in Iranian Studies(2005); 'Iranian Intellectuals and the Possibility of Dialogue with West' in Report on Dialogue (2004); 'Toilers Party and the Islamic Revolution' in Historical Studies (2003); 'Taqizadeh, Kaveh newspaper and the Possibility of Renewal of Iran' in Iran Nameh (2003).

Firuza I Abdullaeva is Lecturer in Persian Literature, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, Fellow of Wadham College and the Keeper of the Persian special collection of the Wadham College library. She holds a PhD in Iranian Philology, St Petersburg University, 1989; BA, MA in Iranian Languages, Literature and Art, 1983 (Honours), Faculty of Oriental Studies, St Petersburg University. She has held various positions in the past including: Associate Professor in Persian language and literature, Department of Iranian Philology, Faculty of Oriental Studies, St Petersburg University (1995–2005), Senior Research Associate, British Academy Shahnama Project, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, UK (2002- 2004), Assistant Professor in Persian, St Petersburg State University (1989–1995), Lecturer in Persian language and literature, St Petersburg State University (1985–1989). Dr Abdullaeva was also Fulbright visiting professor, Middle Eastern Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2001), and is member of the historical school, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (2002). Her research interests include Persian language and literature (classical and modern); Persian codicology and Book Art; Persian Sufi poetry; courtly patronage of the belles-lettres in medieval Iran, early Persian Qur'anic exegesis. Her publications include: Modern Persian Poets on the Banks of the Neva (1999); The Courtly Life of a Poet: Farrukhi from Sistan (2000); Early Persian Exegesis (2000); Commentary on the Qur'an (An 11th Century Lahore Manuscript) (2001); Persian Classical Poetry (10-11th Centuries CE) (2002); 'A Turkish Prose Version of Firdawsi's Shahnama in the Manuscript Collection of the St.Petersburg University  Library' in Manuscripta Orientalia (1997).

Siavash Abghari earned his PhD at the University of Georgia, and is now an Associate Professor of Finance and Chair of Business Administration at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia. He is the Chairman of the Department of Business Administration at Morehouse College as well as the Coordinator and Director of the Banking and Finance program there. He worked in Iran for several years as the head of the Department of Urban Co-opertatives for the Ministry of Land Reforms.  His publications have appeared in the Journal of Third World Studies, the Journal of Accounting and Finance Research, the Iranian Journal of Culture and Politics, the Journal of East West Studies, and the Asian Economic Review as well as in numerous proceedings and several books

Fariba Adelkhah received her MPh (sociology) from the University of Strasbourg and her PhD from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris (1989). She is currently Research Fellow at the Centre d' Etudes et de Recherches Internationales/Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques in Paris. Dr Adelkhah is the author of La revolution sous le voile. Femmes islamiques d'Iran (1991); Etre moderne en Iran (1998) and numerous articles. She has co-authored Thermidor en Iran (1993); and co-edited Ramadan et politique (2000) and L'Iran (2005). She has produced Bons baisers de Damas, a film video (2004). Her research focuses on the political anthropology of Iranian society and Islamic modernity. She is member of the editorial board of Iranian Studies and Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Mediterranee.

Janet Afary is an Associate Professor of History and Women's Studies at Purdue University, Indiana. She received her MA from Tehran University and her PhD in Modern Middle East History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of The Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism(1996), which was also translated and published in Iran in 2000 and co-author ofFoucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (2005). Dr. Afary was awarded year-long fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS). She has co-edited three volumes and published numerous articles, many of which have also been translated or reprinted in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Iran, Japan, Spain, the Netherlands, France, and Britain. Dr. Afary is the current President of the Association for Iranian Studies (2004-2006) and the former president of the Coordinating Council for Women in History of the American Historical Association, and the Association for Middle East Women's Studies.

Wali Ahmadi received his PhD in Persian and Comparative Literature from UCLA in 1997. He is an Assistant Professor of Persian Literature, University of California, Berkeley (2000-present) and his research interests deal with modern literature, literary theory and history, Afghanistan and Iran. Some of his publications are: Anomalous Visions: History and Form in the Modern Literature of Afghanistan (forthcoming); The Barren Sky of Hope: Contemporary Persian Poetry in English Translation (in process); 'Dar har jang, haqiqat nakhostin qorbani ast' in Zarnegar (2003); 'Annemarie Schimmel dargozasht' in Zarnegar (2003); 'After September 11: The Faculty Reflects' in California Monthly (2001); 'Baz-khwanesh-e mafhum-e trazhedi dar Arastu va Nicheh' in Critique & Vision (2000-2001); 'Karavis: az hoqqeh ta haqiqat' in Zarnegar (2001).

Nozhat Ahmady is Assistant Professor at the Department of History at al-Zahra University (Tehran). She holds a PhD in Iranian History from al-Zahra University (2001) as well as a BA in History from Isfahan University (1990) and an MA from al-Zahra University (1994). Dr Ahmady is a member of the Women Association of History Researchers NGO, and head of its branch in Isfahan. Some of her publications are: 'Tashayyo' va vaqf dar dowreh-ye safavi' inMajalleh-ye  elmi-ye pazhuhesh-e daneshkadeh-ye adabiyat va olum-e  ensani-ye  daneshgah-e Esfahan (2005); 'Zanan-e vaqf dar paytakht-e safavi', in Majmu'eh-ye maqalat-e hemayesh-e Esfahan va safavieh (2001).

Mahdi Ahouie is currently a PhD candidate in International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (IUHEI) - University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has received his Master's degree from the University of Geneva in 2003 specialising in international history and politics. He previously studied at the School of International Relations in Tehran. Before moving to Switzerland, he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), the think tank of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies. He is currently writing his doctoral dissertation on the cultural origins of Iranian foreign policy towards Israel. He has also worked as a research fellow at the International Centre for Geopolitical Studies (ICGS) in Geneva and has been a lecturer at the ICGS Summer University Course on 'Geopolitics and International Relations' held for a selected group of diplomats, businessmen, and post-graduate students in 2005 and 2006. His main fields of interest relate Iran's foreign policy prior to and after the Islamic Revolution, Middle East geopolitics and contemporary history, Islamic fundamentalism and reformism, democratisation and development in the Middle East. Amongst his publications are Iran's Policy towards the Middle East Peace Process: Evolutions and Consequences (2003), 'Peace Process in the Perspective of Revolutionary Iran: Will Tehran Ever Take Part?' in MIT Iran Analysis Quarterly (2004), and The New Geopolitics of the Middle East and Iran-Israel Relations (2006).

Amir Ismail Ajami is currently the Associate Director of International Agriculture Programs at the University of Arizona, where he is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies. He received his MA in Sociology from Tehran University and his PhD in Rural Sociology from Cornell University. Previously he was an Associate Professor and Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Pahlavi University, Shiraz, Iran and Director of the Rural Research Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Iran. In addition, Ajami has worked as Development Officer in the Department of Economics and Social Affairs in the United Nations Secretariat, New York, with the Johns Hopkins Population Center as a Research Scientist and at the Duke University Center for Demographic Studies as a Visiting Scholar. His research interests include peasant studies, agrarian reform, rural stratification, and social change. Some selected publications include: 'Social Class, Family Demographic Characteristics, and Mobility in Three Iranian Villages' in Sociologia Ruralis (1969); Shesh-dangi: A Study in Rural Sociology (in Persian) (1969); Land Reform and Modernization of the Farming Structure in Iran (1973); 'Differential Fertility in Peasant Communities' in Population Studies (1976); 'Co-operatives' in Encyclopaedia Iranica (1993); 'From Peasant to Farmer: A Study of Agrarian Transformation in an Iranian Village 1967-2002' in International Journal of Middle East Studies (2005).

Cyrus Alai was born in Iran and received his PhD degree (Dr.-Ing.) from the Technische Universitaet, Berlin-Charlottenburg. He completed the Executive Controls Program -- a management course -- at the University of Syracuse, USA, and lectured at the University of Tehran for eight years. Dr Alai founded a group of engineering companies in Iran, which he directed for twenty years. He settled later in the United Kingdom, working as a consulting engineer and studying the history of cartography in his free time. He served nine years as the honorary treasurer of the International Map Collector's Society and wrote numerous articles on the cartography of Persia and the traditional cartography of classical Islamic societies. His articles (in English and Persian) appeared in several prestigious cartographic and cultural periodicals, such as:  Map CollectorIMCoS JournalMercator's WorldPortolan,Journal of the Iran SocietyIranshenasi (Persian), etc. The entry 'Geography iv, Cartography of Persia' in the Encyclopaedia Iranica, has been written by him. He also collects old maps of Persia and owns perhaps the largest personal collection of such maps. Dr Alai has recognised that Persia has been mapped extensively for centuries but the absence of a good carto-bibliography has often deterred scholars from making use of such maps. Therefore, he embarked on a lengthy investigation into the old maps of Persia and visited major map collections and libraries in many countries, producing General Maps of Persia, 1477-1925(2005).

Nozar Alaolmolki is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Hiram College. He received his PhD in Political Science at Miami University. His areas of expertise are international relations, comparative politics and political economy. He served as a Fulbright teaching scholar in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in 1995 for seven months. He was a recipient of a 3-year grant that took him and a number of his colleagues from Cleveland State University to Kyrgyzstan for the development of academic program at the Osh State University. He is an associate member of the Center for the Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. His current research interests include regional cooperation organisations, and he is finishing a book manuscript on Militant Islamists. Among his publications are: Life after the Soviet Union: the newly independent republics of Transcaucasus and Central Asia (2001); The Persian Gulf region in the twenty first century: stability and change (1996); Struggle for dominance in the Persian Gulf: past, present, and future prospects (1991).

Elizabeth Alexandrin submitted her PhD dissertation, entitled 'The “Sphere of Walayah”: Isma'ili Ta'wil in Practice according to al-Mu'ayyad (d 1078 CE)', at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University in April 2006.  She has worked as a research assistant in the Department of Jewish Studies and as a lecturer in the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, before joining the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba in a tenure-track post in Islamic Studies this year.  Her recent scholarly contributions grapple with a wide range of issues in medieval Islamic philosophy and mysticism, as reflected in her publications: 'The Sciences of Intuition and the Riches of Inspiration: Najm al-Din Kubra in Jami's Nafahat al-uns' in B. T. Lawson ed. Reason and Inspiration (2005); 'Éléments de bibliographie sur Nasir al-Din Tusi' in Z. Vesel and N. Pourjavadi eds. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi: Philosophe et savant du XIIIe siècle  (2000); and 'Razi and His Mediaeval Opponents: Discussions concerning Tanasukh and the Afterlife' in Cahiers de Studia Iranica (2002).

Tariq Ali was born and grew up in Lahore, now part of Pakistan. While studying at the Punjab University, he organised demonstrations against Pakistan's military dictatorship. His parents sent him to England to study at Oxford, because they feared for his safety due to his connections to radical movements. There he quickly became a leader and a distinguished spokesman for anti-imperialism. His extensive knowledge of history and his dedication to the ideals of the Enlightenment made him a popular figure in the radical circles of the 1960s and early 1970s. His reputation began to grow during the Vietnam War, when he engaged in debates against the war with such figures as Henry Kissinger and Michael Stewart. During the 1980s and early 1990s he set up an independent film company producing a wide range of documentaries on politics, culture and cinema, including a trilogy on three philosophers: Spinoza, Locke and Wittgenstein.  After 9/11 he became increasingly critical of American and Israeli foreign policies, and emerged as a leading critic of American foreign policy across the globe. He was also a vigorous opponent of American relations with Pakistan that tended to back military dictatorships over democracy. His book Bush in Babylon attacks the invasion of Iraq by American president George W. Bush. The book has a unique style, using poetry and critical essays in portraying the War in Iraq as a failure. His previous book, Clash of Fundamentalisms, puts the events of the September 11 attacks in historical perspective, covering the history of Islam from its foundations. Since 1991 he has been working on a set of historical novels that have become known as 'The Islam Quintet': Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree (1992); The Book of Saladin (1998); The Stone Woman (2000) and A Sultan in Palermo (2005). Other recent publications include Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope (2006); Rough Music (2005); Speaking of Empire and Resistance: Conversations with Tariq Ali  with D. Barsamian (2005); Street-Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties(New ed. 2005); Conversations with Edward Said (2005); Bush in Babylon (2003). His novels have been published in dozens of languages including, most recently, Persian.

Christine Allison (BA Oxford, PhD SOAS) is tenured lecturer in Kurdish at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris.  Her research interests are: orality and literacy in the Near and Middle East, oral literatures, memory studies, Kurdish literature and culture,  in particular the Kurdish minority religions such as Yezidism.  She is a member of the CNRS/INALCO/EPHE/Paris III research team 'Mondes Iranien et Indien'. Her publications include The Yezidi Oral Tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan (2001); ed. with Ph. Kreyenbroek Kurdish Culture and Identity (1996).

Mehrdad Amanat was born in Tehran. He received a BS in Civil Engineering (1976), an MA in Islamic Studies (1979) and a PhD in History (2006), all at UCLA. His publications include: 'Prelude to Exile: Nationalism and Social Change in Contemporary Iran' in R. Kelleyed ed.  Irangeles:  Iranians in Los Angeles (1998); 'Zurkhaneh' in J. L Esposito ed. Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World (1995)with Nikkie Keddie 'Iran Under the Later Qajars, 1848-1922' in  P. Avery, G. Hambly and C. Melville eds The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 7 (1991).

Camron Michael Amin received his PhD from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago in 1996. He is Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He is the author of The Making of the Modern Iranian Woman: Gender, State Policy and Popular Culture, 1865-1946 (2002) and a co-editor of The Modern Middle East: A Sourcebook for History (2006).

Fariba Amini received her BA from George Mason University in Sociology and her MA in History from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales in Paris.  She also holds a certificate of Business Administration from Georgetown University. Fariba Amini has been a long time human rights activist in the Washington DC area.  She was instrumental in the formation of the Alliance for Defense of Human Rights in Iran and was the editor of its bi-weekly newsletter.  She is also active in the American Iranian community in the Washington DC area and organised the Iranian American Volunteer Association which held a successful fundraising event for Bam earthquake victims.  She has written extensively on the issues of politics, culture and human rights in Iran on the website Iranian.com and has done over 40 interviews with well-known political figures including former American diplomats in Iran.  Her articles are posted on several other websites as well.  She is currently editing the biography of her father, Nosratollah Amini, who was the former mayor of Tehran and Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq's personal attorney. Her publications include Letters from Ahmad Abad(2004), Mosaddeq's personal letters to Nosratollah Amini while exiled in Ahmad Abad.  Ms Amini is currently the President of the Foundation for Educational Progress, a non-profit organistion that attempts to send educational materials to Afghanistan, Iran, and other Persian-speaking countries.

Hooshang Amirahmadi holds a PhD in planning and international development from Cornell University and is a professor of planning and public policy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.  He is also director of the University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Professor Amirahmadi has served as chair and graduate director of his department at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and as the University Coordinator of the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program. He is founder and president of the American Iranian Council, a research and policy think tank devoted to improving dialogue and understanding between the peoples of Iran and America. Dr Amirahmadi is also a founder of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis and served as its director for many years. He is the author ofRevolution and Economic Transition: The Iranian Experience (1990), and three other books in Persian on civil society, industrial policy, and geopolitics of energy. Dr Amirahmadi has edited of ten books on Iran and the Greater Middle East, and 16 conference proceedings on US-Iran relations. His edited books include The Caspian Region at a Crossroad: A New Frontier of Energy and Development (2000); Small Islands, Big Politics: The Tomb and Abu Musa Islands in the Persian Gulf (1996); The United States and the Middle East: A Search for New Perspectives (1993); Post-Revolutionary IranIran and the Arab World (1988); andReconstruction and Regional Diplomacy in the Persian Gulf (1992). Dr Amirahmadi's writings have been translated and published in Europe, Iran, and the Arab world. 

Raisa I Amirbekyan received her BA from the Fine Arts Education Faculty, the Armenian State Kh. Abovyan Pedagogical Institute,1969; her MA in Art History from E. Repin Institute of Russian Academy of Arts, St Petersburg, and her doctoral degree in Art History from the State Institute of Fine Arts Research, Moscow, Russia (1988). Her dissertation is titled '18th Century Kashmiri Miniature Painting: Illustrative Cycles of Sufi Codices'.  During 1977-2000 she was a senior research fellow at Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran), Yerevan, Armenia. Since 2003 she has been an associate professor at the Armenian State University, Department of Iranology, Yerevan, Armenia. Her research interests focus on cultural-historical and ethnographical aspects of Iranian peoples and specificity of the contact zones (Armenian-Iranian, Armenian-Iranian-Kurdish, Talish-Iranian-Azerbaijanian, and Bukhara Jews-Iranian-Uzbekistanian), Qajar and Safavid miniature painting; Persian diplomatica, calligraphy and ornamentation, Byzantine and Armenian miniature painting, Coptic textiles design. Her publications include Golshan-e Afghan Ali Akbar Oraqzai with V.V. Kushev (in Russian) (forthcoming); 'The Culture and Arts of Talish People' in Talish People History (in Russian) (2006); Sufism as Reflected in Safavid Art (forthcoming).

Masserat Amir-Ebrahimi received her MA in Urban Sociology in 1986 and her PhD in Human, Economic and Regional Geography in 1999) from the Universite de Paris X – Nanterre. Since her return to Tehran in 1986 she has worked extensively with different municipal and urban organistions on several projects related to Tehran, especially in the very populated areas in the south of Tehran. From 2001-2005 she was the executive and scientific coordinator of the Atlas of Tehran Metropolis (Published in 2005 in Tehran by TGIC in three languages), a collaborative project between the Tehran Geographical Information Centre (TGIC- Municipality of Tehran) and 'Le Monde Iranian' CNRS in Paris, where she is an associate researcher. She lectured in the Environment Department of the University of Tehran from 2001-2003. She was also the initiator and coordinating member of the 'Public Spaces in Iran' project, an International collaborative grant (Reconceptualizing Public Spheres in the Middle East & North Africa) between 2002-2004 for SSRC (Social Science Research Council – New York). For 2006-2007 she will be the Nikki Keddie-Balzan Fellow at UCLA, in the Departments of Sociology and Geography. Currently she is conducting new research on gender and public spaces in Iran, and continues her studies on the emergence of new public spheres and the impact of weblog writing on the daily lives of women and youth in Tehran. She has published more than 30 articles in Persian, French, English, Italian, and German. Her recent articles are 'La jeunesse iranienne dans le miroir du blog' Cahiers de L'Orient (2005); 'I giovani alla ricerca dello spazio perduto' with Z. Jalali-Naini in Limes: l'Iran tra maschera e volto'(2005); and Atlas of Tehran Metropolis, a book co-authored with B. Hourcade, S.M. Habibi, and Sh. Zarrin (2005).

Mahshid Amirshahi occupies a place of choice in the gallery of Iranian authors. She started her career early in life and was soon hailed by art critics for her precocious talent as well as the high quality of her writings. Her refined prose, which became more and more sophisticated from book to book, promoted her to one of the most prominent figures of contemporary Persian literature. Her force of character and artistic rigour have kept her from following the literary or political fashions that every now and again shake and shape the intelligentsia of Iran. Her ties with literature and politics remind one of those of Andre Gide. As devoted as the latter to creating literature of great value, she does not hesitate to intervene in crucial public issues. At the dawn of the revolution that brought Khomeini to power, Mahshid Amirshahi's deep respect for human dignity, so palpable in her writings, made her take publicly position against the effervescence of fundamentalism and fend for the slender chance of a secular democracy with all her might. This standpoint forced her into exile, where she kept on writing her novels as well as fighting against Islamism. Her publications include The Blind Alley (1966), Bibi Khanom's Starling (1968), After the Last Day(1969), First Person Singular (1970), An Anthology of Short Stories (1972), At Home (1987),Away (1995), Short Stories (1998), Abbas Khan's Wedding (1998), Dadeh Good Omen(1999), Miscellaneous (2000), Shahrbanoo's Honey Moon (2001).

Amir Mohammad Amirtash was born in 1937 in Mashhad, Iran. He graduated from ENSPS (Paris- France) in 1964 (BSc in Physical Education). He received an MA in Psychology from Tehran University in 1967, an MSc in PE from the University of Oregon, Eugene -- USA (1980) and a PhD in Administration in PE from the University of Oregon, Eugene (1982). Currently, he is Associate Professor at the Tarbiat-e Mo'allem University in Tehran, Iran. Dr Amirtash is the founder of Team Handball in Iran. He has been the President of the Iranian National Handball Federation for several years, Dean of the Iranian Institute for Physical Education and Sports and author of several books on Physical Education, Handball, Sport Sociology and Psychology. Moreover he has produced various national and international articles that have been printed in the scholarly journals or presented in national or international scientific conferences. His research interests deal with administration and organisational behaviour in physical education and sports, team handball, physical education and fitness.

Elena Andreeva is an Associate Professor of History at Virginia Military Institute, where she teaches Middle Eastern Studies and World History.  Dr Andreeva has a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from New York University and a BA and MA from Moscow State University.  Her research focuses on the interaction between East and West, Iranian history and culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and aspects of colonialism and imperialism in the Middle East.  She has published articles on Persian and Dari literature, on Russian Orientalism, and on Russian travellers to Iran.  Her forthcoming book Iran and Russian in the Great Game: Russian Travelogues about Iran will be the first book to introduce and examine the approximately 200 travelogues about Iran published in Russian.  Among her articles are: 'Russian Travelers to Iran in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries' in Encyclopaedia Iranica(2005); 'Iran in World War I' in Encyclopaedia of World War I:  A Political, Social, and Military History (2005); 'Iran in World War II' Encyclopedia of World War II:  A Political, Social, and Military History (2004); 'Travelogues of Berezin, a Nineteenth-Century Russian in Iran' inSociety and Culture in Qajar Iran: Studies in Honor of Hafez Farmayan (2002).

Miguel Angel Andres-Toledo is at the present Research fellow at the University of Salamanca (Spain). As a doctoral candidate he is working on a critical edition of the Avestan and Pahlavi texts of books eleventh-fourteenth of the Videvdad. His publications include 'Jahi-: la prostituta en los textos zoroástricos', in Actas del Séptimo Seminario de Estudios sobre la Mujer en la Antiguedad (forthcoming).

Koorosh Angali received his high school diploma in 1968 in Iran; and his first BA in Public Relations in l970, from the College of Mass Communication Sciences. In 1976 he migrated to the United States, and received his second BA in Fine Arts from the Humboldt State University in 1980. In 1993 he enrolled in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his Master's degree in 1998, and his PhD in 2004, both in the field of Iranian Studies. Until June 2006 he taught Persian Syntax and Grammar at the University of California at Berkeley, and De Anza Community College, in Cupertino, California. As of July 2006 he has occupied a post doc position at University of Texas at Austin, as Senior Research Fellow. In 1997 he published a compilation of his Persian poetry titled In Search of One's Own Self.  Koorosh Angali is also an artist. His exhibitions include: Life As Art As Life; group show (2005) and exhibitions at the Seyhun Gallery in Tehran (2002). He is also the first prize winner of the Ovissi Gallery Art Contest (1996) and Humboldt State University Art Contest (1980).

Ali M Ansari (BA (Lon), PhD (Lon)) is a Reader in Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Associate Fellow of the Middle East Programme, Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House). Currently his research focuses on contemporary political developments in Iran; democratistion; political myth, ideology and historical narratives; 'Persia' in the Western imagination. Dr Ansari is the author of: Confronting Iran: The Failure of US Policy and the Roots of Mistrust (2006); Modern Iran Since 1921: The Pahlavis and After (2003); Iran, Islam & Democracy: The Politics of Managing Change (2000); 'Persia in the Western Imagination' in V. Martin ed. Anglo-Iranian Relations Since 1800 (2000); 'Iran and the US in the Shadow of 9/11: Persia and the Persian Question revisited' in Homa Katouzian ed. Iran Faces the 21st Century, (2006); 'Cultural Transmutations: The Dialectics of Globalisation in Contemporary Iran' in T. Dodge and R. Higgot eds Globalisation and the Middle East: Economy, Society & Politics (2002); 'The Myth of the White Revolution: Mohammad Reza Shah, 'Modernisation' and the Consolidation of Power' in Middle Eastern Studies (2001); 'Iranian Foreign Policy under Khatami: Reform and Reintegration' in A. Ehteshami and A. Mohammadi eds. Iran and Eurasia (2000); 'Continuous Regime Change from Within' in The Washington Quarterly (2003).

Leili Anvar-Chenderoff was born in 1967 in Tehran. She was a former student of the Ecole Normale Superieure (Ulm), Persian and English literature and civilistion at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris). Dr Anvar-Chenderoff  received her PhD in Persian Literature with a thesis entitled 'From Paradox to Unity: A Study of the Divan-e Shams' (1998). She was Lecturer at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle in English and American Civilisation (1992-2001) and currently she is Lecturer in Persian Language and Literature at INALCO, Paris. She is also attached researcher to the CNRS (UMR Monde Iranien et Indien). Dr Anvar-Chenderoff is Head of the Iranian Languages Department (Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales); co-founder and member of the Research group on the relationships between the Anglo-Saxon world and the Middle East (Anglorient, University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, University of Marle la Valle, EHESS); member of the scientific board of IISMM (Institute for the Study of Islam and the Islamic Societies, attached to the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris). Her publications include 'Le genre hagiographique a travers leTadhkirat al-awliya de Farid al-Din Attar' in Saints Orientaux (1995); Noms de personnes en Islam, translation from English into French of A. Schimmel's Islamic Names (1996); 'Attar', 'Rumi', 'Vin' in Le dictionnaire Critique de l'Esotérisme (1998); 'L'amour de Majnun pour Leyli: folie ou sagesse?' in Les fous d'amour dans les litteratures medievales orientale et occidentale (2005); Orient, Mille ans de Poesie et de Peinture (2004); Rumi (2004).

Roya Arab is completing a Master's degree in Public Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, where she also received her BA in Archaeology. Her interests are in the socio-economic and political contexts of an artefact, once it has been removed from or highlighted in the landscape, for study and/or display. She has visited various sites around Iran and collaborated with scholars on excavations and public outreach studies, including workshops at the National Museum in Tehran. She assisted in the teaching programme and the accompanying booklet for students about the Achaemenids for IHF which was in conjunction with the British Museum's Persian Exhibition in 2005-6. Prior to studying archaeology, Roya was a singer/song writer and recorded with various artists. Academic publications: with Th. Rehren, 'Die Expedition zur Pyrotechnologie von 1968' Persiens Antike Pracht (2004), 'The Pyrotechnological Expedition of 1968' in IAMS (2004).

Shokoh Arabi-Hashemi received his PhD from the Islamic Azad University. Dr Arabi-Hashemi's publications include 'Kamal al-Din Behzad va negareshi bar asar-e u' inFaslnameh-ye Honar (1998); 'Esfahan-e asr-e Safavi', in Faslnameh-ye Farhang-e Esfahan(1999); 'Sheklgiri va pishraft-e Joufa' in Faslnameh-ye Farhang-e Esfahan (1999); 'Kelisaha-ye Armaniyan-e Jolfa', in Faslnameh-ye Farhang-e Esfahan (2000); 'Monasebat-e Shah Abbas ba Aramaneh' in Faslnameh-ye Hasti (2000); 'Gozareshat-e sayyahan-e orupa'i-ye asr-e Safavi darbareh-ye Aramaneh-ye Jolfa', in Ketab-e Mah (2003); 'Naqsh-e Aramaneh dar tejarat-e asr-e Safavi' in Majmu'eh-ye maqalat-e hamayesh-e Iran Zamin dar gostare-ye tarikh-e Safaviyeh(2004).

Mazdak Asgary is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where he serves on the Student Assembly, the undergraduate student government, is an Ambassador for the College of Arts and Sciences, and is a writer for Turn Left, Cornell's Premier Liberal Voice.  He also serves as Vice President of the Ivy Council, the student government of all eight Ivy League universities, is a Resident Advisor for incoming students, is a Student Supervisor for the Department of Computing and Information Technologies, and is a Tradition Fellow and has been placed on the Dean's List since his inception at Cornell.  Mazdak Asgary is co-author of the paper entitled 'Multi-National Corporations and College Students' Knowledge about International Business Ethics: An Empirical Study' in Journal of Business Case Studies (forthcoming).

Nader Asgary is an Associate Professor of International Business and Economics and the Director of Center for International Business at SUNY-Geneseo. He earned his PhD from the University of Houston-Central in 1991.  His primary research interests are international business, comparative economic development, and applied microeconomics.  He has many publications in economics, international business and ethics. His publications include: 'Family Homeostasis Theory and Its Application to International Human Resource Issues' in Journal of Global Business with Alf Walle (2005); 'Relative Employment and Earnings of Female Household Heads in Mexico, 1987-1995' in Journal of Developing Area with Jose Pagan (2004); 'Toward a Model for International Business Ethics' in Journal of Business Ethics with Mark Mitschow (2002); 'Money Demand and Quantity Constraints: Evidence from the Soviet Interview Project' in Economic Inquiry with Paul Gregory and Manouchehr Mokhtari (1997).

Hesameddin Ashna is a member of the Faculty of Islamic Studies, Culture, and Communication, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran. He received his MA in Islamic Studies and Communication (1992) and his PhD in Culture and Communication (2004), both from Imam Sadiq University. The title of his thesis is 'US Public Diplomacy in Iran 1954-1979'. Dr Asha currently teaches international communication, cyber communication, research methods in communication studies, political communication and international and intercultural communication. His publications include Aggression and Culture, the Collection of Documents on Unveiling (1992) and From Politics to Culture: State Cultural Policies in Iran 1921-1941(2004), and numerous articles in the following journals, where he is also a member of the editorial board: RasanehSanjesh va pazhuhesh, Nameh-ye pazhuhesh-e farhangi, and Shi'eh shenasi. Dr Ashna is a member of the International Association of Media and Communication Research, the Iranian society for Information Society, the Iranian Society for Cultural and Communication Studies, and the National Centre for Globalisation Studies.

Daryoush Ashouri was born in Tehran in 1938. He studied at the Faculty of Law, Political Science and Economics of the University of Tehran, and has been visiting professor at the universities of Tehran, Oxford and Tokyo. He has worked as essayist, translator, encyclopaedist, and lexicographer, and is the author, compiler and translator of about 25 books. His intellectual interests cover a wide interdisciplinary range, including political science, literature, philosophy and linguistics. His main interest is in the cultural and linguistic affairs of his native country Iran, as a third world country encountering modernity. He has made important contributions to the development of Persian vocabulary in the domains of human sciences and philosophy, compiled in the Farhang-e olum-e ensani. Among his major works is a hermeneutical, intertextual study of the Divan of Hafiz (Erfan va rendi dar she'r-e Hafez)(1998). He has translated the works of Nietzsche, Machiavelli, Shakespeare and others into Persian.

Nilufar Ashtari, of Belgo-Iranian descent, is an independent scholar and multi-media artist. She earned her PhD at the University of Wales, Swansea in 2004. Her thesis examines the history of Iranian cinema in its wider social and political context and establishes the link between gender, nationalist political and cultural processes in contemporary Iran. Currently, she works as a consultant for the Yellow Design Foundation, covering the influence of design on the perception of security in transit zones of public transport.  Ashtari's research interests are in the areas of Iranian culture, especially cinema, and how it is constructed and constantly negotiated, with regard to its Islamic, gendered identity. Special attention is paid to Iran's propaganda cinema and the processes and practices that allow for the creation of a counter-culture and cinema. Other research interests include theories of social, public and urban space in relation to the built environment and cultural identity. Articles are forthcoming in two edited books and in Gender and History Journal, and Critique: Journal for Critical Studies of the Middle East.

Sebouh David Aslanian is a PhD candidate in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He holds an MA in Political Science from the Graduate Faculty at the New School for Social Research, an MPhil from Columbia University, and has served as an Executive Editor of Conference: A Journal of Philosophy and Theory.His publications include: ''The Treason of Intellectuals'? Reflections on the Uses of Nationalism and Revisionism in Armenian Historiography' in Armenian Forum (2003); 'Dispersion History and the Polycentric Nation: The Role of Simeon Yerevantsi's Girk vor Kochi Partavchar'in The Armenian National Revival of the Eighteenth Century(2004) and 'Trade Diaspora Versus Colonial State: Armenian Merchants. The English East India Company and the High Court of Admiralty in London, 1748-1752' in Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies (2006). He is currently completing a dissertation in economic history entitled 'From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: Circulation and the Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa, Isfahan, 1605-1747'. He is also working on a co-authored book with H. Berberian on a commercial biography of a transnational Armenian merchant family originally from New Julfa, tentatively entitled The Cosmopolitans: The House of Sceriman (Shahrimanian) between New Julfa and Venice.

Farhad Assar received a BSc and an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tehran and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He was then involved in post-doctoral research in enhanced oil recovery processes from 1983 to 88 at Heriot-Watt University. Dr Assar was technical manager with ICI Chemicals and Polymers Plc., Wilton, Middlesbrough, England (1988-91) and has been the Sir Harold Bailey Research Associate, St Catherine's College, Oxford since 2005. His current academic interests are focused on Parthian history and numismatics. His publications include: 'Recent Studies in Parthian History: Part I' in The Celator (2000); 'Recent Studies in Parthian History: Part II' in The Celator (2001); 'Recent Studies in Parthian History: Part III' in The Celator(2001); 'Parthian Calendars at Babylon and Seleucia on the Tigris' in Iran (2003); 'Genealogy and Coinage of the Early Parthian Rulers. I.' in Parthica (2004); 'The Genealogy of the Parthian King Sinatruces (93/2-69/8 BC)' in The Journal of the Classical and Medieval Numismatic Society (2005); 'Genealogy and Coinage of the Early Parthian Rulers. II. A Revised Stemma' in Parthica (2005); 'History and Coinage of Elymais During 150/149 – 122/121 BC' in Name-ye Iran-e Bastan. The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies(2006); 'Moses of Chorene and the Early Parthian Chronology' in Electrum (2006); 'A Revised Parthian Chronology of the Period 165-91 BC' in Electrum (2006); 'A Revised Parthian Chronology of the Period 91-55 BC' in Parthica (2006); 'An Early Parthian “Victory” Coin' inParthica (2006).

Touraj Atabaki is Professor of Modern History at the University of Amsterdam and Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Social History. He studied theoretical physics (BSc, MSc) and history at the National University of Iran and the University of London, and received his MA and PhD from the Utrecht University. Touraj Atabaki holds the endowed chair of Social History of the Middle East and Central Asia at the Department of History of the University of Amsterdam and is in charge of the Department of the Middle East and Central Asia at the International Institute of Social History. He has published numerous articles on Iran, the Caucasus and Central Asia. His books include Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Powers in Iran (1993), Beyond Essentialism. Who writes Whose Past in the Middle East and Central Asia? (2003); editor of Post-Soviet Central Asia (1998); co-editor with E. J. Zurcher Men of Order, Authoritarian Modernisation in Turkey and Iran (2004); co-editor with S. Mehendale Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora (2005); Iran and the First World War: Battleground of the Great Powers (2006); editor of The State and the Subaltern: Society and Politics in Turkey and Iran (forthcoming). His current work focuses on ethnic issues in contemporary Iran, historiography of everyday life and comparative subaltern history in Iran and the former Soviet south.

Kamal Athari received his BA in Economics from the University of Tehran (1975).  He is currently the Head of Economic Studies of the Tehran Master and Comprehensive Plan project -- Iran Centre of Urban Development and Architecture Research and Studies. He was also the Head of Economic Studies of the Tehran Conurbation project – Iran Centre of Urban Development and Architecture Research and Studies Tehran Conurbation. An advisor on urban development legislation at the Iran Parliamentary Research Centre (1996 – 2002) and Head of economic studies on peripheral and marginal settlements in Iran at the Iran Centre of Urban Development and Architecture Research and Studies (1995). His research interests focus on political economy (Iran) and urban economics. His publications include 'In Search of Social Justice' in Social Welfare Quarterly (2001); 'Justice in Space' in Seven City Publication(2002); 'Globalisation: Inevitable Continued Production Revolutions' in Majlis and Research Journal (2004).

Michael Axworthy visited Iran many times in the 1970s as a teenager and travelled extensively over the country with his family. In the early 1980s he studied history at Peterhouse, Cambridge before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in 1986. After a variety of jobs in London and postings in Malta and Germany he served as the Head of Iran Section in the Middle East Department of the FCO from 1998-2000, that period coinciding with the improvement in UK/Iran relations at the beginning of the Presidency of Mohammad Khatami. He visited Iran again in 1999 in that capacity. He left the FCO in 2000 and since then has been making a living in Cornwall as a writer and editor. He has written a book on Nader Shah (for publication in the summer of 2006), and has attended conferences in Bamberg, London, Durham and Oxford on Iranian history and current affairs subjects, making some presentations, which will be published as articles. One of these is about the Greek traveller (and biographer of Nader Shah) Basile Vatatzes. He has also been a regular contributor to the Gulf2000 Internet forum, and
has written a series of pieces on contemporary Iran and other subjects for Prospect Magazine. Since October 2005 he has been teaching Middle East History at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter on an informal basis.

Kathryn Babayan received her PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University and is an Associate Professor of Iranian History and Culture at the Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan. She specialises in the cultural and social histories of Safavid Iran. She is the author of Mystics, Monarchs and Messiahs: Cultural Landscapes of Early Modern Iran (2003) and a co-author of Slaves of the Shah: New Elites of Safavid Iran, with S. Babaie, I. Baghdiantz-McCabe, and M. Farhad (2004). Her most recent scholarship on female friendships will appear in Islamicate Sexualities Studies: Translations across Temporal and Geographical Zones of Desire, co-edited with Afsaneh Najmabadi (forthcoming).

Askar Bahrami was born in 1967 in Shush, Iran. He holds an MA  in Culture and Languages of Ancient Iran (Tehran University, 1999) and a BSc in Geology (Isfahan University, 1988). His publications include: Iranian Feasts (2004); 'Parthian Glossary' in H. Rezaei Bagh-Bidi'sHandbook of Parthian Language (2006). He has also translated various works into Persian, such as M. Boyce's Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (2002) and P. D. Netsley's, The Stone Age (2003). Some of his articles in Persian are: 'Figures of Children in the Literature of Ancient Iran' in Adabiyat-e Kudak va Nowjavan (1996); 'Avesta' inDanesnameh-ye Sebheh Qarreh (2006); 'Kushans: A Political History' in The Comprehensive History of Iran, Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia (forthcoming); 'Zurvanism' in The Comprehensive History of Iran, Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia (forthcoming).

Farahnaz Bahrampour was born in 1963 in Tabriz. She is a graduate student in history at Islamic Azad University, Shabestar. She received her BA in History in 2000 and her MA in 2004. She is presently a librarian at the Shahriyar Library in Tabriz. She has presented various papers in conferences 'The economy of Azarbaijan in the Safavid period (International Symposium of Iranology, 2004); 'The silk road as an economic and cultural bridge in history (International Symposum of Iranlogy, 2004); 'Reciprocal effects of Iranian and Arab cultures in the Umayyad and Abbasid periods (Third Emulation Religion Congress, 2002); 'The economy of the Persian Gulf and Siraf (The Siraf International Congress, 2005).

Golbarg Bashi was born in Iran, raised in Sweden, and educated in Britain.  She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Bristol University, and a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University. She holds a First Class BA (with Honours) in Middle Eastern Studies from  the University of Manchester and an MSc in Women's Studies from Bristol University. The title of her PhD thesis is 'A Feminist Critique of the Human Rights Discourse in Iran'. Her research interests are in women's studies, Black and Third World feminisms and post-colonial theory. Her publications include 'Crisis in Iranian Women's Studies' in Gooya (2005); 'Eyewitness History: Interview with Ayatollah Montazeri' in Payvand News (2006); 'A Historic Landmark: Women's Rights Gathering in Tehran on June 12th' in Open Democracy (2006); 'The Proper Etiquette of Meeting Shahrnush Parsipur in the United States' (forthcoming); 'Oriental Express: On Women's Memoir Industry' (forthcoming).

Oliver Bast is Lecturer in Persian Studies at the University of Manchester. He read History and Persian Studies at Berlin (Humboldt-Universitaet), Tehran (University of Tehran) and Paris (Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris III). He received his joint doctorate (thèse en co-tutelle) from the universities of Bamberg (Otto-Friedrich Universitaet Bamberg, Germany) and Paris III. Between 1995 and 1997 he was a research fellow at the French Foreign Ministry's Institut Français de Recherche en Iran (IFRI) in Tehran where he organised the international conference La Perse et la Grande Guerre, which was jointly hosted by IFRI and the Iranian Foreign Ministry's research centre IPIS. He joined the University of Manchester in 2000. His research interest is the Modern History of Iran with a special emphasis on political and diplomatic history. His publications include: 'Council for International Propaganda (SOVINTERPROP) and the Genesis of the Iranian Communist Party (1920/21)' in Touraj Atabaki ed. Iran and the First World War (2006); 'Putting the Record Straight: Vosuq al-Dowleh's Foreign Policy in 1918/19' in T. Atabaki and E. J Zuercher eds.Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization under Ataturk and Reza Shah (2004); Les Allemands en Perse pendant la Première Guerre mondiale (1997) and La Perse et la Grande Guerre (2002).

Masoud Bayat was born in 1968 in the city of Zanjan. He finished high school in 1987 and received his higher education at the University of Tehran, from where he got his BA, MA and PhD. Then he was employed as an academic member of Department of History in the Faculty of Humanities of Urmia University. He is currently Deputy of the Faculty in educational affairs. Dr Bayat's research interests deal with the history of Iran during the Timurid era and the historical upheavals in Zanjan province. He has written two books: Islamic Revolution in Zanjan (2006); A Look at the Ups and Downs of Democratic Party of Azarbaijan (2006).

Ali Banuazizi is Professor of Cultural Psychology at Boston College and Codirector of the Program in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. After receiving his PhD from Yale University in 1968, he taught at Yale and the University of Southern California before joining the Boston College Faculty in 1971. Since then, he has held visiting appointments at the University of Tehran, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, and Oxford University. He served as the founding editor of the journal of Iranian Studies, from 1968 to 1982. He is a past President of the Association for Iranian Studies (AIS) and of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA). Ali Banuazizi is the author of numerous articles on society, culture, and politics in Iran and the Middle East, and the coeditor (with Myron Weiner) of three books on politics, religion and society in Southwest and Central Asia, including The StateReligion, and Ethnic Politics in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan (1986), The Politics of Social Transformation in Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan (1994), and The New Geopolitics of Central Asia and Its Borderlands (1994).

Michael Beard received his PhD in Comparative Literature from Indiana University in 1974.  He then taught for four years at the American University in Cairo, and has been teaching in the English Department at the University of North Dakota since 1989. His research interests include genre theory, comparative aesthetics (Persian, Arabic, European), and popular culture. His publications include Hedayat's 'Blind Owl' as a Western Novel (1990) and a series of translations in collaboration with Adnan Haydar: notably Khalil Hawi's Threshing Floors of Hunger (1984) and In Forbidden Time:  Love Poems by Henri Zoghaib (1991). With Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak he has published Edges of Poetry: Selected poems of Esmail Khoi (1995). Most recently he has published two volumes of translation from the poems of Abbas Kiarostami: Walking with the Wind/Hamrah bad (2001, trans. with A. Karimi-Hakkak) and A Wolf Lying in Wait / Gorgi dar kamin (2006, trans. with the late K. Emami).  He is also translator of a forthcoming collection of poems by Adonis (Ali Ahmed Sa'id), Mihyar of Damascus, his Songs. Currently he is the co-editor of the journal Middle Eastern Literatures(incorporating Edebiyat), and, with Adnan Haydar, co-edits a series, 'Translations from the Middle East'.

Simin Behbahani, renowned Iranian poet and human rights activist, was born in Tehran in 1927, of literary parents. Her first poem was published when she was only fourteen. She has produced a prodigious body of work and has been admired and acclaimed by an ever-growing number of readers inside and outside Iran. Simin Behbahani has revolutionised the rhythms of the Persian ghazal, a free flowing, lyrical poetry style similar to the western sonnet, and the dynamics that produce it. Called by many critics 'the king of contemporaryghazal', she has created a distinct poetic voice, at once traditional and provocatively contemporary. With poignancy, passion, and purpose, her poetry has conquered the heart of its many readers. Concern for social justice has been one of the strongest drives in her poetry. As the 'voice of freedom rising against repression everywhere' she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1997. She was also awarded a Human Rights Watch Hellman-Hammet grant in 1998, and the Carl von Ossietzky Medal in 1999 for her struggle for freedom of expression in Iran. She was honoured in 2002 by Columbia University'sEncyclopaedia Iranica for the unparalleled beauty of her poetry and her lifelong devotion to freedom and social justice.

Maziar Behrooz is Assistant Professor of history at San Francisco State University and the author of Rebels With a Cause (1999) and Reflections on the History of Rebels with a Cause(2006).

Sohrab Behdad is Professor and John E. Harris Chair in Economics, Denison University. He is a former member of Faculty of Economics of the University of Tehran. His publications include (with Farhad Nomani) Class and Labor in Iran: Did the Revolution Matter? (2006); coeditor with Farhad Nomani Islam and Everyday Life: Public Policy Dilemmas (2006).

Houri Berberian is Associate Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach, and the Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Minor Program. She received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988 and her MA and PhD in Middle Eastern and Armenian History from the UCLA in 1993 and 1997, respectively. She is the author of several published and forthcoming articles, including 'Traversing Boundaries and Selves: Iranian Armenian Identities during the Iranian Constitutional Revolution' in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and Middle East (2005); 'Armenian Women and Women in Armenian Religion' in Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (2004); the prize-winning 'Armenian Women in Turn-of-the-Century Iran: Education and Activism' in Iran and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Nikki R Keddie (2000); 'The Dashnaktsutiun and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1905-1911' in Iranian Studies (1996); 'Armenian and Iranian Collaboration in the Constitutional Revolution: The Agreement between Dashnakists and Majles Delegates, 1908' an annotated translation with introduction in The Modern Middle East: A Sourcebook for History (forthcoming); Armenians and the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911: The Love for Freedom Has No Fatherland (2001). She is currently working on two projects, one on issues of Iranian-Armenian identity and memory and the other, a co-authored work with Sebouh David Aslanian, tentatively titled The Cosmopolitans: A Commercial Biography of the Sheriman Family of Julfa and Venice.

Bhaswati Bhattacharya is a Research Fellow affiliated with the International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden, and the University of Leiden. Her specialisation is maritime trade in the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800. She has published numerous articles on the subject. Currently she is working on a history of the Armenian community who came to India from New Julfa, Iran. One of the questions addressed in this research is the relationship between Iran and India from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Recent publications include 'Between Fact and Fiction - Khwaja Gregory or Gurguin Khan - The 'Evil Genius' of Mir Qasim' in J. Gommans and O. Prakash eds Circumambulations in History: Essays in Honour of Professor D. H. A. Kolff (2003); 'Armenian-European relationship in India, 1500-1800: No Armenian Foundation of the European Colonial Empire?' in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (2005).

Carol Bier is Research Associate at The Textile Museum in Washington, DC. Trained in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, early in her career she resided in Shiraz to document Sasanian monuments and rock reliefs, the results of which are now housed in the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art. From 1984 to 2001 she served as Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections at The Textile Museum and continues to pursue her research on patterns as the intersection of art and mathematics. Among her publications are: The Persian Velvets at Rosenborg(1995); Ed. Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart: Textile arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran, 16th-19th century (1987).

Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah received a BA and an MA in Persian from Dhaka University, Bangladesh. He has also obtained a degree of Mumtazul Muhaddethin from Madrasa-i Alia Dhaka. He is currently a PhD student at SOAS and the title of his dissertation is 'Influence of Persian on Shah Muhammad Sagir's Yusuf Zulaikha and Alaol's Padmavai'.  He is also an assistant Professor of Persian in the Department of Persian, Dhaka University, Bangladesh.  His main publications are 'Origin and Development of Tazia in Iran' The Dhaka University Studies, (1994); 'Indo-Iranian Thought: A World Heritage' The Dhaka University Studies, (1997); 'Origin and Development of Persian Drama in Iran' The Dhaka University Studies, (2000); 'Indo-Iranian Relation during the Vedic and Avestic period'Journal of  the Center for Social Science Research, (2000)'Influence of Persian in the Sub-continent During the Ghaznavid Period'Social Science Review (2001)'Baṃgla Bhaṣay Arabi Farsi sabda o avidhan'Sahity Patrica, Journal of the Department of Bengali, Dhaka University, (1995); 'Pherdausi o tar sahnama (Ferdowi and his Shahnamah)' News Letter, monthly magazine of the Iranian Cultural Centre Dhaka, (1990); 'Sufi Kabi Maolana Rumi (Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi as a Mystic Poet)' High Court Majar Quarterly (1994).

Ilker Evrim Binbas studied Political Science at the Middle East Technical University (BSc Ankara/Turkey), and History at Hacettepe University (MA, Ankara Turkey). Currently, Ilker Evrim Binbas is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Binbas is studying the Oghuz Khan narratives and their role in late medieval Islamic political discourse. Since January 2006, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the University of Oxford.

Stephen Blum received his PhD from the University of Illinois (1972) with a dissertation on performers of sung poetry in northern Khorasan. His research interests centre on the history of musical thought and on musical analysis, especially analysis of sung poetry in Iran and elsewhere. He taught at the University of Illinois and at York University, Toronto, before assuming his present position at CUNY in 1987. He has held guest professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and the University of Texas-Austin. His publications on Iranian topics include the entries on 'Central Asia' and 'Iran: regional and popular traditions' in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001); 'The Concept of the Asheq in Northern Khorasan' in Asian Music (1972, Persian translation 2002); 'Changing Roles of Performers in Meshhed and Bojnurd, Iran' in B. Nettl ed. Eight Urban Musical Cultures (1978); 'Musical Questions and Answers in Iranian Xorasan' in EM: Annuario degli Archivi di Etnomusicologia dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (1996); 'The Morning of Freedom Rose Up: Kurdish Popular Song and the Exigencies of Cultural Survival' with A. Hassanpour, in Popular Music (1996).

Habib Borjian teaches the Department of Comparative Literature and Languages Hofstra University. He took graduate courses on Iranian Studies at Columbia University while completing his graduate work in engineering. Dr Borjian further pursued his studies on Iranian languages, which resulted in an MA in Ancient Iranian Languages, University of Tehran (1998), and a PhD in Iranian Linguistics, Yerevan State University (2004). His research interests include Iranian languages and dialects, Central Asia and the Caucasus, history of Persia and Eurasia. He has published dozens of articles on the subjects above, in the Encyclopeadia Iranica and in major journals and collected works. His books areOrthography of Iranian Languages (2000) and Median Dialects of Isfahan (2006).

Mehrzad Boroujerdi is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at Syracuse University. He received his BA in Political Science and Sociology from Boston University, and his PhD in International Relations from the American University in Washington, DC. He has been a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a Rockefeller Foundation fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. He is presently an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. Dr Boroujerdi is the author of Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism (1996). His articles have appeared in Bulletin of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis, Critique: Journal for Critical Studies of the Middle East, Iranian Journal of International Affairs, International Third World Studies Journal and Review, Journal of Peace Research, Middle East Economic Survey, Oxford Encyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World, and more than a dozen edited books and Persian-language journals. He is the General Editor of the Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East series published by Syracuse University Press and the Book Review Editor of theInternational Journal of Middle East Studies. Dr Boroujerdi's research interest is on the intellectual history of modern Iran.

Vladimir Boyko is Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Director of the Centre for Regional Studies at Barnaul State Pedagogical University (Barnaul, Russia). He obtained his PhD from the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He held visiting positions at Ruhr University (Germany), Harvard University (USA) as respectively DAAD and Fulbright scholar. Dr Boyko's research interests include history, politics and international relations in Central Asia, he is a member of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies, Royal Asiatic Society (UK) and the International Institute for Strategic Studies (UK). He is editor/co-author of about 10 books and more than 100 articles on Afghanistan and adjacent countries: Russia, Siberia, and Central Asia: Interrelation of Peoples and Cultures (2005); Greater Altai in Geopolitics of Central Eurasia - Central Asia and Caucasus. Regional Developments: Interaction and Encounter of Strategies (2005); 'Afghanistan's International Relations in 1930s' in Afghanistan and Security of Central Asia(2005); 'Central Asian Emigration in Afghanistan in 1920s - early 1930s' in Uzbekistan Tarihi(2004); Regionalism in Afghanistan: 'Herat republic' of Abdul Rahim - Muslim Countries at CIS Borders (2001).

Sonja Brentjes studied mathematics at the Technical University, Dresden (1969-1973), history of mathematics at Karl Marx University, Leipzig (1973-1976) and Arabic and Near Eastern cultures at Martin Luther University, Halle/S and Wittenberg (1978-1982). She received her first doctoral degree in 1977 from the Technical University, Dresden on the history of linear programming and her second doctoral degree in 1989 from Karl Marx University, Leipzig on history of number theory in Islamic societies (9th-13th centuries), followed in 1991 by a habilitation at the University of Leipzig. She worked until 1997 at the Karl Sudhoff Institute for History of Medicine, Science and Mathematics in Leipzig. Between 1997 and 2004 she worked as a senior researcher at Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin and the Institute for History of Science, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main. Since 2004, she has been an associate professor at the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, Aga Khan University in London. She is elected member of the International Academy for History of Science, Paris. She worked on history of mathematics, science and cartography in Islamic societies and Catholic, Protestant and secular societies in Europe in three major fields: transmission of ancient Greek mathematical texts; exchange of knowledge between Islamic societies and Catholic and Protestant societies; ancient sciences at institutions in Islamic societies. Her publications include: 'Pride and Prejudice: The Invention of a Historiography of Science in the Ottoman and Safavid Empires by European Travellers and Writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries' in J. Brooke and E. Ihsanoglu eds Religious Values & The Rise of Science in Europe (2005); 'Mapmaking in Ottoman Istanbul between 1650 and 1750: a domain of painters, calligraphers, or cartographers?' in: C. Imber, K. Kiyotaki, and R. Murphey eds Frontiers of Ottoman Studies(2005).  

Gay Breyley is Faculty of Arts Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the School of Music - Conservatorium at Monash University, Australia. Her current project is a study of selected musical and poetic texts of Persian-speakers in Australia. In 2005 she completed her PhD at the University of Wollongong, with a thesis on 'Memory, Music and Displacement in the Minor Memoirs of Evelyn Crawford'. Her publications include articles in the Journal of Australian Studies, Borderlands, Altitude and Prose Studies, chapters in C. Huff ed. Women's Life Writing and Imagined Communities (2005) and S. Williams et al eds The Regenerative Spirit: Australian Post-Colonial Reflections (2004), and Breyley's own book (edited and translated),Changing the Curtains, the Money and the Guns (1997). This book is a volume of transcribed oral histories, most of which she recorded in eastern Germany. Her research interests include Iranian and Central Asian musical and literary cultures, migration, the effects of past conflicts and current policies on displaced lives, disillusionment with revolution and other forms of political change, memory and humour.

Dominic Parviz Brookshaw teaches Persian Language and Literature (medieval and modern) at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University, Montreal. He received his BA (1998) and MA (2005) from the University of Oxford and is currently a DPhil candidate at the same university. Before moving to McGill, he taught Persian Language and Medieval Persian Literature at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford from 2002 to 2005. He is currently the Assistant Editor of Iranian Studies.His research interests include medieval Persian and Arabic lyric poetry, modern and medieval Persian prose writing, and women in the Qajar period. His recent publications include 'Odes of a Poet-princess: The Ghazals of Jahan-Malik Khatun' in Iran (2005); 'Palaces, Pavilions and Pleasure-gardens: The Context and Setting of the Medieval Majlis' in Middle Eastern Literatures (2003).

Elizabeth M Bucar, holds a BA in Government from Harvard University, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago, and is completing a PhD in Religious Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School.  She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgetown University. Her research and writing focuses on clerical rhetoric and women's social movements within two religious traditions: Roman Catholicism and Shiite Islam. She is currently completing her dissertation, Creative Obedience: Feminist Ethics From the Rhetoric of Pope John Paul II and Ayatollah Khomeini, which analyses Ayatollah Khomeini's and Pope John Paul II's writings on women in order to uncover their strategies for soliciting obedience to a vision of women's moral duties. Her publications include the edited volume, Does Human Rights Need God? (2005) and 'Speaking of Motherhood: The Epideictic Rhetoric of John Paul II and Ayatollah Khomeini' in Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics (2006).

Matthew Canepa is Assistant Professor of Roman and Near Eastern Art at the College of Charleston, Charleston South Carolina. Dr Canepa received his BA from the University of Colorado and an MA in the Humanities from the University of Chicago with a concentration on the languages and civilistions of the classical world and ancient Near East. He pursued his doctoral research at the University of Chicago, earning his PhD in June 2004.  He has been the recipient of numerous research grants including a fellowship from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. A specialist in the art and cultures of the late Roman Empire and Sasanian Iran, his present research focuses on cross-cultural interaction in the ancient world. Among other projects, he is currently publishing the book Transformation of the Classical Heritage under the editorship of Peter Brown. Another book is entitled The Two Eyes of the Earth: Competition and Exchange in the Art and Ritual of Kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran.

Alberto Cantera is at present Assistant Professor at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Formerly he has worked in a research project at the Institut fuer Iranistik of the Freie Universitaet Berlin. His publications include Studien zur Pahlavi-Uebersetzung des Avesta(2004); 'Die Behandlung der indogermanischen Lautfolge *(C)RHC- im Iranischen' inMuenchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft (2001); 'Die indogermanischen Vorformen von avestisch uruu- und damit verwandte Probleme' in Indogermanische Forschungen (2001); 'Die Zwischenlagerung der Leiche im Zoroastrismus' in Archaeologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan (2002); 'Medical Fees and Compositional Principles in Avestan Videvdad' in Name-ye Iran-e Bastan. The International Journal for Acient Iranian Studies (2005).

Carlo G Cereti was born in Turin in 1960. In 1985 he received the Degree in Lingue e Civilta Orientali (IUO). He has taught postgraduate courses at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University (1986-1987) and in 1992 he earned his Doctorate in Iranian Studies. He was post-doctoral fellow (IUO) and a visiting scholar at the University of Goettingen (1993-1994), a contract professor at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Rome 'La Sapienza' (1995-1998), a member of the Kommission für Iranistik of the Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1997-1999) and 'directeur de recherche invite' and thereafter 'membre associe' of the UMRS Monde iranien, CNRS (2002).   He is the author of many works such as The Zand i Wahman Yasn. A Zoroastrian Apocalypse (1995). His main current research projects are: 1) Middle Persian Dictionary Project, together with Prof. Shaul Shaked, Hebrew University, associate editor. 2) Sylloge Nummorum Sasanidarum, (eds) M. Alram and R. Gyselen, editor of vol. V on Husraw II, together with M. Alram. A selective list of his sixty publications includes: 'Zarathustra / Zoroastrismus', inReligion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Handwoerterbuch fuer Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (2005); 'Middle Persian Geographic Literature: the Case of the Bundahishn' in R. Gyselen ed. Contributions à l'histoire et la geographie historique de l'empire sassanide (2005); 'Un canone mazdeo?' in Testo sacro e religioni. Ermeneutiche a confronto (2006).

Houchang Esfandiar Chehabi is of Iranian and German descent and was born in Tehran in 1954.  He studied Geography at the University of Caen, France, and International Relations at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris before going to Yale University, where he received an MA in International Relations in 1979 and a PhD in Political Science in 1986.  He then taught at Harvard University and UCLA, and in 1998 became a professor of international relations and history at Boston University.  He is the author of Iranian Politics and Religions Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini (1990), principal author of Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 Years (2006); and co-editor, with Juan Linz, of Sultanistic Regimes (1998).  His articles have appeared in Aus Politk und ZeitgeschichteDaedalusDiplomacy and StatecraftDuEspritGovernment and Opposition,International Journal of the History of SportInternational Journal of Middle East Studies,Iranian StudiesPolitical Science Quarterly, and several edited volumes.  His main research interests are the cultural history of Iran since the nineteenth century and Iran's relations with neighbouring countries and South Africa.

Mohammad Reza Chitsaz received his BA in Archaeology from Tehran University in 1988, an MA in History of Ancient Iran from the Islamic Azad University in 1991, and a PhD in History of Ancient Iran from Islamic Azad University in 2002. He currently teaches ancient Iranian history at Islamic Azad University in Tehran and is head of the 'Costume and Clothing' section of the Great Islamic Enclyclopaedia. He has numerous publications, with the most recent being: 'Elamite Political History', 'Elamite Coins', 'Elamite Art and Architecture',  and 'Persian Clothing and Costume (Pre-History – Qajar)' in Great Islamic Encyclopaedia(forthcoming); 'Aramaic Inscriptions on Elamite Coins' in Archaeology Journal of Tehran University (forthcoming).

Matteo Compareti was born in Padua in 1971. He graduated from Venice University Ca' Foscari (1999) at the Faculty of Oriental Languages and Literatures (main language: Chinese). He received his PhD in Iranian Studies from the University of Naples (2004). His main research interests include the archaeology and art of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia with a focus on the iconography of Mazdean divinities of the Sasanian period and Sogdiana during 5th-8th centuries. He participated at the excavations of the sites of Uch Kulakh (region of Bukhara), Uzbekistan (Fall 2002): Italian-Uzbek Archaeological Mission; Kurgan Vardanze(region of Bukhara), Uzbekistan (Fall 2002). At present he is an active member of the group studying under the leadership of G. Scarcia at Venice University Ca' Foscari, focusing on many aspects of Iranian culture during Islamic and (especially) pre-Islamic periods.

Stephanie Cronin received her BSc from the London School of Economics and her MA and PhD from SOAS. She has taught at SOAS and at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge and is now Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow, University of Northampton. Her publications include The Army and the Creation of the Pahlavi State in Iran, 1910-1926(1997); Tribal Politics in Iran: Rural Conflict and the New State (2006); The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Riza Shah, 1921-1941 (2003); Reformers and Revolutionaries in Modern Iran: New Perspectives on the Iranian Left (2004); Subalterns and Social Protest: History from Below in the Middle East and North Africa (2006). Her current work focuses on subaltern responses to modernity in Iran. She has recently published 'The Tehran Crowd and the Rise of Riza Khan: Popular Protest, Disorder and Riot in Iran' in International Review of Social History (2005) and 'Resisting the New State: Peasants and Pastoralists in Iran, 1921-1941' in Journal of Peasant Studies (2005).  She is also completing a new book entitledShahs and Subalterns: Urban Politics and Popular Protest in Iran. Dr Cronin is a member of the editorial boards of Iranian Studiesand Middle Eastern Studies and a member of the advisory council of Qajar Studies.

Ghazzal Dabiri is currently a PhD candidate and Teaching Fellow at the UCLA. She received a BS from the University of Miami in Microbiology and Immunology and an MA from UCLA in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Her research interests encompass the development of literary genres and the focus of her current research is on the origin and development of Persian epics. She has taught elementary Persian at UCLA and at Santa Monica College. She is currently teaching intermediate Persian at UCLA. She is also working on a digital library project researching Persian manuscripts. The project's aim is to catalogue and digitise one of the largest Middle Eastern manuscript collections in the United States for web publication. She has been Associate Editor of Jusur Magazine and helped coordinate and organise the Jusur Graduate Student Conference.

Ashk P Dahlen is a reseacher in Iranian Studies and translator of classical Persian Literature into Swedish. He has a PhD in Iranian Languages from Uppsala University, Sweden, and his main research interests are Islamic spirituality, Persian Sufi literature and modern Islamic thought. He is the author of Islamic Law, Epistemology and Modernity: Legal Philosophy in Contemporary Iran (2003) and has published several articles on Persian literature and Sufism in various journals such as Orientalia Suecana and Svensk Religionshistorisk Arsbok(Swedish Journal of History of Religions). Among his Swedish translations are Song of the the Reed: Selected Poems of Jalal al-din RumiThe Lama'at of Fakhr al-din 'Araqi andGhazaliyyat of Shams al-din Hafez.

Gholamreza Dar-Katanian receid his BA in History from Tabriz University in 1992 and will be completing his MA in History at Islamic Azad University at Shabestar in August 2006. His publications include 'Women's Cultural Movements and the Establishment of Girls Schools in Iran' in Proceedings of the Second Iranology Conference (2004); 'Water Sharing Methods Among Farmers in the District of Tabriz During the Qajar Era' in Proceedings of the Second Iranology Conference (2004); 'The Role of the 29 Bahman Uprising in the Victory of the Islamic Revolution as Documented in the Materials of the National Archives' in Management of National Archives (2004).

Touraj Daryaee received his PhD in History from UCLA in 1999 and was appointed Assistant Professor of Ancient History at California State University, Fullerton in the same year. He is now Associate Professor of Ancient History and the Vice-Chair of the History Department at California State University, Fullerton. His interests and research include the history of ancient Persia, Armenia, Zoroastrianism and Old and Middle Iranian languages. He is the editor ofName-ye Iran-e Bastan, The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies and the onlineBulletin of Ancient Iranian History. Some of his publications include: The Spirit of Wisdom (Menog i Xrad), Essays in Memory of Ahmad Tafazzoli, co-edited with M. Omidsalar (2004);Sahrestaniha io Eransahr, A Middle Persian Text on Late Antique Geography, Epic and History(2002); 'Sasanians and their Ancestors' in Societas Iranologica Europoea – Proceedings(2005); 'A Note on the Great Seal of King Peroz and Middle Persian Nycny' in Indo-Iranian Journal (2005); 'Two Recently Discovered Inscribed Sasanian Silver Bowls', with J. Lerner and D. Akbarzadeh, in Bulletin of the Asia Institute (2001, 2005); 'The 'Bow of Rustam' and the 'Gleaming Armor' of the Parthians: Notes on the Parthian Epic Ayadgar i Zareran' inElectrum (2005).

Olga M Davidson is currently Visiting Associate Professor in the Program of Middle Eastern Studies at Wellesley College. Her teaching interests centre on Persian and Arabic languages and literatures, comparative literature, and women's studies. She was Chair of the concentration in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Brandeis University, 1992-97. Besides her academic duties, she has served as Chair of the Board, Ilex Foundation, since 1999. She is author of Poet and Hero in the Persian Book of Kings (1994) and Comparative Literature and Classical Persian Poetry (2000). The first book has been published in Persian translation as Sha'er va pahlavan dar Shahnameh (2000). She is also the author of several articles, including 'Formulaic Analysis of Samples Taken From the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi' in Oral Tradition (1988); 'The Haft Khwan Tradition as an Intertextual Phenomenon in Ferdowsi'sShahnameh' in C. A. Bromberg, B. Goldman, P. O. Skjaervo, and A. S.  Shahbazi eds  In Honor of Richard N Frye: Aspects of Iranian Culture Bulletin of the Asia Institute (1990); 'Women's Lament as Protest in the Persian Book of Kings' in G. R. G. Hambly ed. Women in the Medieval Islamic World (1998); 'The Text of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and the Burden of the Past' in Journal of the American Oriental Society (1998).

Ali Dehbashi studied Persian literature and started his journalistic career in his youth, working with such literary and cultural magazines as Arash, Borj, Cheragh, Donya-ye Sokhan, and Adineh. In 1990, he founded Kelk, a prominent monthly magazine with a wide readership in Iran and abroad. Since September 1999, Ali Dehbashi has held the position of the editor-in-chief of Bukhara, a monthly magazine that covers a wide range of subjects in Iranian studies. So far 50 issues of Bukhara have been published, along with some theme issues on the life and works of some of the most renowned authors and poets, such as Rabidranath Tagore, Gunter Grass, Osip Mandelstam, Umberto Eco and Virginia Woolf. As Director ofShahab Publications, Dehbashi has published and/or edited 45 books, including: Travelogue of Mozaffar al-Din Shah to Europe (1982); Travelogue of Sherley Brothers (1983); Travelogue of Hajj Sayyah (1984); Letters of Jalal Al-e Ahmad (first volume, 1985); Correspondence of Kamal al-Molk (1987) and several memorial volumes on the life and works of Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh (1998), Abdol Hosein Zarrinkub (1999), Fereidun Moshiri (1999), Sadeq Chubak (2001), Sadeq Hedayat (2001), and Bozorg Alavi (2005).

Bianca Devos is Research Associate and a PhD candidate at the University of Freiburg, Germany, where she coordinates the Digital Persian Archives database project. She received her MA in Islamic Studies and Economics in 2005. Her research interests focus on aspects of modernisation in the early Pahlavi period with a dissertation topic on press politics under Reza Shah. Her book Kleidungspolitik in Iran: Die Durchsetzung der Kleidungsvorschriften fuer Maenner unter Reza Schah is forthcoming. She has received a one-year scholarship to study at Tehran University by the German Academic Exchange Office (DAAD) in 2001-02 and a State of Baden-Wuerttemberg research grant to work in Iranian archives in 2004.

Andreas Dittmann teaches at the Department of Geography, the University of Bonn, Germany. His research interests focus on Human Geography, Social Geography, Development Geography, Cultural Geography, Geography of Violence, Time and Space Perceptions. His geographical interests include Northern Africa (Egypt, Libya), South and Central Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan), and Southern Africa (Botswana, Namibia). Dr Dittmann's publications include 'Focusing Kabul. Afghanistan's Capital as a Chessboard of the New Great Game' in Geographische Rundschau International (2006); with G. J. Arez eds Kabul - Aspects of Urban Geography (2005); 'Das New Great Game der Aufbauhilfe in Afghanistan' inPetermanns Geographische Mitteilungen (2004); 'Segregation und Migration in staedtischen Zentren zwischen Hindukusch und Himalaya' in W. Gamerith, P. Messerli, P. Meusburger and H. Wanner eds. Alpenwelt - Gebirgswelten. Inseln, Bruecken, Grenzen. Tagungsbericht und wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen des 54. Deutschen Geographentags (2003); with J. Clemens, 'The Power of Maps and the War against Terrorism in Afghanistan. A critical Review of German News Maps', in Internationales Asienforum (2004).

David Durand-Guedy obtained his PhD from the University of Aix-en-Provence under the direction of J.-Cl. Garcin in 2004. He also graduated from the Ecole Normale Superieure and Ecole des Langues Orientales (INALCO). He was trained in Arabic at the French Research Institute in Damascus (IFEAD, now IFPO) and Sorbonne University. He benefited from a four-year doctorate fellowship at the French Research Institute in Iran (IFRI) and has lived in Tehran since 1999. Dr Durand-Guedy specialises in the history of pre-Mongol Iran, especially the Saljuq period. His PhD dealt with the history of Isfahan and the transformation of the local society during the Turkish domination (publication is forthcoming). His main research interests include urban elites, particularly in Western Iran; the attitude of the Turks toward city life, and cultural divides inside Iranian territory. He also works on Saljuq historiography, such as Imad al-Din's unpublished chronicle of the Saljuqs. He will be in Turkey for the year 2006-7. His most recent publications are: 'Iranians at War under Turkish Domination: The Example of Pre-Mongol Isfahan' in Iranian Studies (2005); 'Un fragment inedit de la chronique des Salguqides de Imad al-Din al-Isfahani: le chapitre sur Tag al-Mulk' in Annales Islamologiques (2005); 'Memoires d'exiles. Lecture de la chronique des Salguqides de Imad al-Din al-Isfahani' in Studia Iranica (2006).

Hormoz Ebrahimnejad received a BA in History from the University of Mashhad in 1980, after which he completed a Master's degree in Paris specialising in reformist movements and revolutionary doctrines. His MA dissertation was entitled 'Les doctrines revolutionnaires en Islam shiite' (1987). His PhD on the question of dynastic succession in Iran (1726-1834), completed at the Sorbonne (1995), focused particularly on the formation of state power in the 18th- and 19th century through an analysis of the kinship system of the reigning Qajar tribe that governed in Iran until 1925. His doctoral research has resulted in the publication of a book entitled Pouvoir et Succession en Iran (1999). The response of the nascent modern state in Iran to new epidemics forms the link between his study of the Qajar dynasty and his present interest in the history of medicine at large. Since 1998 he has been working on the process of medical modernistion in Iran with the support of the Wellcome Trust. He is currently Research Officer at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine (Oxford).  His major publications on the history of medicine in Iran include Medicine, Public Health and the Qajar State: Patterns of Medical Modernization in Nineteenth-Century Iran (2004); 'Religion and Medicine in Iran: From Relationship to Dissociation' in History of Science (2002); 'Epidemie, medecine et politique dans l'Iran du XIXe siecle' in Studia Iranica (2001); 'Theory and Practice in Nineteenth Century Persian Medicine: Intellectual and Institutional reforms' inHistory of Science (2000).

Eckart Ehlers is Professor of Geography at the University of Bonn, Germany.  He was Secretary General of the International Geographical Union (IGU) 1992-2000, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of IHDP 1996-2001, Chairman of the German National Committee of Global Change Research 1996-2002, and honorary member of the Iranian Geographical Society. Since 1968 his research has focused on Iran. His publications include 8 monographs on topics of Iranian geography and approximately 100 scholarly articles in journals, including: Arabisch-Persischer Golf, Erdoelwirtschaft with Erhard Gabriel (1977); Iran : Ein Bibliographischer Forschungsbericht mit Kommentaren und Annotationen(1980); Suedkaspisches Tiefland (Nordiran) und Kaspisches Meer(1971);Traditionelle und moderne Formen der Landwirtschaft in Iran (1975).

Kaveh Ehsani is a geographer and regional planner who has studied at Johns Hopkins University. Currently he is a Research Scholar at the University of Illinois in Chicago, a visiting professor at the Central European Univerity in Budapest, and a member of the editorial boards of the quarterly journals Goft-o-Gu (Dialogue) and Middle East Report. His current areas of research include post-revolution urban change in Iran, the sociology of declining post-industrial oil company towns; and the environmental impact of agro-industrial projects. Some of his recent publications are 'Democratic Struggle Under Siege: Nuclear Standoff and Mounting Repression in Iran' in Middle East Report Online (2006); 'Rural Society and Agricultural Development in Post-revolution Iran' in Critique (2006); 'Social Engineering and the Contradictions of Modernization in Khuzestan's Company Towns' in International Review of Social History (2003).

Parviz Ejlali received his BS in National Development from Shiraz University in 1977 and his MA in Social Science from Mazandaran University in 1987.  He earned his PhD in Sociology from Islamic Azad University in 1995. He worked as a social worker from 1982 until 1987, and as an official English translator from 1985 up to 1988 in Hamedan.  Since 1989 he joined the Management and Planning Organistion of Iran in Tehran, and since 2003 he has been a faculty member at the Institute of Management and Planning MPS), Tehran. Furthermore, since 1989 he has been a part-time lecturer in different social science faculties of Tehran, and for the time being he continues to teach as a part -time lecturer in Islamic Azad University in Tehran. His main publications (all in Persian) include Cultural Policy and Planning In Iran (2001), Irrational Man: Theories of Vilfredo Pareto (2002); Social Change and Popular Films in Iran (1930-1979) (2004).

Maryam Ekhtiar is a scholar and specialist in the field of later Persian art and culture. One of her particular areas of expertise is calligraphy.  She received her PhD from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at New York University in 1994 and has worked and taught at various museums and universities in the United States, namely the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York University and Swarthmore College. She served as Senior Research Associate for the exhibition, Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, and was co-editor and a major contributor to the catalogue.  In 2002 she was a Morgan Whitney Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is currently Research Associate in the Islamic Department.

Parviz Emamzadeh Fard was born in Shiraz in 1952. He received his BA and MA degrees in political science from Texas A&M University in Kingsville, Texas, USA, and his PhD from Islamic Azad University in Tehran.  Since 1987, he has been a faculty member in the Faculty of  Law and Political Science, Islamic Azad University in Karaj, teaching the undergraduate course on the Persian Gulf and its problems and a graduate course on international relations. His research interests deal with the international system after the Cold War and the Persian Gulf region; globalistion and the Middle East countries; the American Middle East and Persian Gulf Policy; Israel and the 'Greater' Middle East. Some of his publications are: 'The Structure of American-Israeli Relations and the Extent of its Influence on Israeli Foreign Policy Decision-making' in Political Science Quarterly (2005); 'The US and UK Policies toward the Middle East Peace Process after the Cold War' in Studies on Europe, Special on the US-UK(2005); 'Foreign Policy Decision-making Patterns in the Arab Countries of the Persian Gulf' inCollection of Papers: Fifteenth International Conference of the Persian Gulf, March 2004(2004).

Haleh Emrani was born in Tehran in 1963. Her elementary and secondary schooling was in Tehran. She obtained her MA in History with emphasis on Late Antique Near East from California State University, Fullerton in 2005 and is currently working towards her PhD in the same field at the UCLA.  Her concentration is on the position of women in late Sasanian and early Islamic Iran, as well as the religious issues of the time. She has also created and is maintaining the following professional websites: www.sasanika.com – Sasanika: Late Antique Near East Project; www.IranAncientHistory.com – Bulletin of Iranian Ancient History.  Her publications include a review of Jamsheed K. Choksy, Evil, Good, and Gender: Facets of the Feminine in Zoroastrian Religious History in Nameye Iran-e Bastan: The International Journal of Ancient Iranian Studies (2006).

Anisseh Van Engeland-Nourai is a jurist and a political analyst.  She holds a PhD from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, a Master in Laws from Harvard Law School, a Master in International Relations from Université Paris II – Assas, and a Master's in Iranian Studies from Paris III --Sorbonne. She was previously a research assistant on terrorism, a research assistant on Islamic law and a visiting researcher on human rights at Harvard Law School. She has worked for NGOs around the world on issues such as capacity building, advocacy, women empowerment, refugees and immigration. Her field of expertise are international human rights, human rights in Iran, international humanitarian law, Islamic humanitarian law, refugees' issues, terrorism and torture. She has published articles in all these fields and is a consultant for several universities, research centres and think tanks worldwide. She is now an ICRC delegate. Her publications include: 'Torture and High Coercive Interrogations: Is there a Line under International Law?' in International Studies Journal (2006); 'Islamic Humanitarian Law and International Humanitarian Law: Two Visions of Just World?' inInternational Studies Journal (2006).

Kouross Esmaeli, the director of The Legacy of the Imam, is a visual artist currently living in the United States.  The Legacy of the Imam is a documentary that charts Iran's contemporary transsexual rights movement and is based on one of the five pieces that he produced in 2006 for the US-based network, Current TV. Before turning his attention to the visual arts, Mr Esmaeili studied modern Arabic and Persian literature at New York's Columbia University with intermittent residences and studies in Paris, Cairo and Tehran. His translations of contemporary Persian prose can be found in the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature, Strange Times My Dear. After leaving graduate school, he made his first film in 2000. Whistle has been shown at various US and international film festivals and was recently included in After the Revolution: Contemporary Artists from Iran at Koldo Mitxelena Museum in San Sebastian, Spain and Kunstforeningen in Denmark. At NewYork's independent video collective, Paper Tiger Television, Mr Esmaeli helped produce two videos related to the events of 9/11/2001, Turning Tragedy into War and Who's Paying the Price? In 2003 he travelled to Iraq to co-produce a documentary for MTV on life from the perspective of young Iraqis and American soldiers.  His photographs from Iraq, Greetings without Flowers, exhibited in New York and Boston, have travelled the United States with the anti-war exhibit,Eyes Wide Open. He is currently dividing his time between New York and Boston where he teaches video, photography, and film studies at the New England Institute of Art.

Mansoureh Ettehadieh obtained her PhD in 1979 from the University of Edinburgh. She taught history in the department of history of the University of Tehran from 1963 to 2000. She is the founder of the publishing house Nashr-e Tarikh-e Iran, which specialises in the history of the Qajar period. She is the author of Peydayesh va tahavvol-e ahzab-e siyasi-e mashrutiyat (2002); Majles va entekhabat az mashruteh ta payan-e Qajariyeh (1996); Zendegani-ye siyasi Reza Qoli Khan Nezam al-Saltaneh (2000); editor of the second and third volumes of Reza Qoli Khan Nezam al-Saltaneh, surat-e jalesat-e dowlat-e movaqqat (2000) and Reza Qoli Khan Nezam al-Saltaneh, mokatebat va moraselat (2000), Inja Tehran ast, majmu'eh-ye maqalat darbareh-ye Tehran (1998). She has also written two novels Zendegi bayad kard (1997) and Zendegi khali nist (1999). She is currently engaged in working on a recently acquired booklet, which is the register of Sheikh Fazlallah Nuri and contains over 1400 transactions. The subject matter of these transactions cover a wide range of social and judicial questions of great importance for the social history of the late Qajar period and are being analysed and prepared for publication.

Nasser Fakouhi is associate professor and a member of the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran. He was Head of this Department from 2004 to 2005. A PhD holder in Political Anthropology from the University of Paris in 1993, Dr Fakouhi returned to Iran the same year. He is the ex-president of the Anthropological Society of Iran and a current member of Board of the Directors of the Iranian Sociological Association. He is working presently, in the framework of a group of different anthropologists and specialists on Iran, to create an International Society of Iranian Anthropology. His fields of interest are ethnicity, development and political Studies. His geographical focus has been on the western part of Iran (Luristan and Kurdistan). During the last decade Fakouhi has striven to renovate the field of Iranian anthropology and to incorporate into it modern subjects, i.e., urban anthropology, economic and political problems of Iranian cities. Dr Fakouhi has published many books and papers in scientific journals. Some of his books arePolitical Violence, Theories, Forms and Solutions (1998); Political Mythology, Art and Power(1999); From Culture to Development (2000); Anthropological Theories (2002); Urban Anthropology (2004); Labyrinth of Globalization (2005). Two of his forthcoming works areVisual Anthropology, A Reader (2006) and Anthropological Short Essays (2006). Fakouhi has also a very active presence in the media and the public intellectual life of Iran.

Samira Farahani received her BA in Social Communication-Journalism from the Islamic Azad University of Tehran in 1998. She has since been active in various capacities with several professional NGOs, and has acted as a consultant for community development issues with relevant organisations, especially in the fields of environment and sustainable development. Her publications have appeared in GFI newsletter, CAWTARFRW organization monthly, Avamonthly. She has also published a book entitled What We Learned, which documented the output of the Community Empowerment - Mangrove Conservation Project. She has presented conference papers at National and international events like: Land Reform and its Impacts on Natural Resources of Iran, WFAR, Valencia, 2004; CE for Mangrove Conservation, International Workshop on the Asiatic Cheetah Conservation, Iran, 2004; Development Projects Impacts on Poverty Reduction, IRDEPs Workshop, Phnom Penh, 2004; MDF5, Beirut, 2005. She is currently affiliated with the Afghanistan programme of Ockenden International as a senior community development advisor.

Mahdi Farhani-Monfared is Professor of History at al-Zahra University in Tehran. He received his MA from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (1991) and his PhD from Tarbiat-e Modarres University, Tehran (1999). His research interests include the history of medieval Iran. His most recent publications are: Emigration of Shiite Scholars from Jabal Amel to Iran under the Safavids (1999); Politics and Culture at the End of the Timurid and Early Safavid Period (1468-1505) (2002), both in Persian.

Edward K Faridany received his BA in Economics and Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley (1963), his MA (1966) in Middle East Studies, and his MBA (1967) from Harvard University. In the first phase of his professional life he worked at OPEC in Vienna, at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, and various oil companies. He then became an independent scholar pursuing his interests in Iran which has culminated in his current research interest is in the commercial and diplomatic activities of Robert Sherley and those closely associated with him, from his initial journey to Iran in 1598 until his death there in 1628.

Mohsen Farsani teaches Persian Language at the Association Philotechnique in Paris (2005-2006).  He is currently a PhD candidate at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, and his dissertation is entitled 'Etymological and Lexicological Studies of the Iranian Language'.   His research interests focus on lamentation of the Bakhtiari nomads of Iran, poems and songs of the Bakhtiari nomads of Iran, a comparison of the oral poetry of the Bakhtiari, traditional songs and dances of the Bakhtiari of Iran, stone lions in the Bakhtiari tribe and other Iranian tribes. His publications include Divan-e Molla Zolf-Ali Bakhtiari (1995); Zabanshenasi chist? (1995);Lamentations chez les nomades bakhtiari d'Iran (2002-2003); Analysis of the Persian Poem(1993, in Persian).   He is also working on a dictionary of the Bakhtiari language, for which he has so far assembled 50,000 entries.

Maryam Farzaneh studied at the Islamic Azad University in Shahr-e Rey, where she received a BA in History in 1990. She received an MA in post-Islamic Iranian History from Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch in 2000. Her current research covers women's education, women's cultural organistions and women's clothing during the government of Reza Shah. Her publications include 'The Effect of Nader Shah's Disease on his Role as Ruler' in Roshd-e Tarikh (2005); and 'Preliminary Practical Actions for Establishing Shir-o-Khorshid-e Sorkh' in Payam-e Helal (forthcoming).

Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh was born in Ahvaz and spent his elementary and middle school years in that city, but was forced to move to his ancestral city of Isfahan in 1980 upon the onset of the Iran-Iraq War.  Volunteering as a Red Crescent junior medic and the Mobilistion Force (Basij) in Isfahan, he was involved in the war efforts from the age of 14-16.  In 1984 he moved to the United States where he finished his high school education and attended college studying Nursing and Health Care Management.  Working as a healthcare professional for over seven years, Mr Farzaneh followed his passion to study history and received both his BA and MA in History from California State University, Fullerton, and is currently a PhD Candidate in University of California, Santa Barbara.  An active member of the UCSB's Center for Middle East Studies, he mentors the undergraduate class and the Model Arab League and teaches different history classes in the area.  He is the founder ofAsturias International Record Company, an independent record corporation, and the creator of the Maze Called the Middle East, a one-day seminar about culture, politics, and Middle Eastern societies.

Sasan Fatemi received his PhD in Ethnomusicology from the Universite de Paris X - Nanterre. His thesis is entitled 'Light Urban Music in Iranian Culture: Reflections on the Notions of Classical and Popular'. He is a lecturer in Ethnomusicology at University of Tehran and his research interests focus on the folk music (urban and rural) of Iran, Central Asia and Azerbaijan; nursery rhymes of Iran; general classification of music (folk/classical/popular); music and festivities. His publications include: 'Le chanteur silencieux, un aprercu de la vie musicale en Iran' in CEMOTI, (2000); 'Music, Festivity, and Gender in Iran from the Qajar to the Early Pahlavi Period' in Iranian Studies (2005); Musiqi va zendegi-ye Musiqiya 'i dar Mazandaran (2002); Ritm-e kudadan dar Iran (2003).

Schirin Fathi is currently employed as an Hochschulassistent (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the Department of the History and Culture of the Middle East  (Hamburg University, Asia-Africa Institute). She received her PhD in Islamic Studies from Hamburg University (1993) and her MA in Middle Eastern Studies and Economic Development from George Washington University (1983). Dr Fathi graduated in International Relations from George Washington University (1981). She was a research fellow in the Europe in the Middle East: Political Key Concepts in the Dialogue of Cultures Programme at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. She had also a three-year stay in Jordan with the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation to conduct research for her PhD. She was employed at the World Bank and free-lance worker on documentary films. Her research interests include transnational Islamic reception, Arab nationalism, Arab-Israeli conflict, liberalistion and transition in the Middle East, conspiracy theories. Her recent relevant publications include: Jordan - An Invented Nation? Tribe-State Dynamics and the Formation of National Identity (1994); Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Specificity: The Case of Jordan (1999); Nahostlexikon. Der israelisch-palastinensische Konflikt von A-Z (2001); 'Jordanian Survival Strategy: The Election Law as a “Safety Valve”' in Middle Eastern Studies (2005); 'The Evolving Arab Reception of the Holocaust and Palestinian Textbooks: A Contribution to Democracy and Peace Education?' in M. al-Haj, R. Mielke, I. Du Bois and N. Smidt eds Education, Multiculturalism and Empowerment: Israeli and German Perspectives (2006).

Nematollah Fazeli received his PhD in Social Anthropology from SOAS in 2004; his thesis was entitled 'Anthropology and Political Discourses in Twentieth Century Iran', and he is now a full time lecturer at Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran. He obtained his BA in Sociology from the University of Tabriz in 1988 and his MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Tehran in 1991. His main fields of interest are social anthropology and cultural studies. He has carried out research on higher education, contemporary Iranian culture, and the history of anthropology in Iran. His current research focuses on ethnography, social anthropology, politics of culture, cultural change, knowledge studies and contemporary Iranian and British culture. Dr Fazeli's publications include 'Barrasi-ye mardomnegari  va tatbiqi-ye farhang-e daneshgahi dar Iran va Britania'  in Nameh-ye Ensanshenasi (2004); 'Mardomnegari-ye farhang-e naqd dar olume ejtema'i-ye Iran” Ketab Mah-e Olume Ejtema'i.  (2002); 'Mardomnegari tamashachian film-e dokhtara-e farari' Ensanshenasi (2001); 'Jelveha-ye mardomshenakhti-ye farhang-e Iran' in Sima-ye farhangi-ye Iran (2001).

Christiane Fellbaum received her PhD in Linguistics from Princeton University. She is a Senior Research Scientist in the Cognitive Science Laboratory at Princeton. Her work focuses on computational linguistics and lexical semantics. She is a co-developer of WordNet, a large lexical database. She is a founder and current president of the Global WordNet Association.

Ali Ferdowsi holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of History and Political Science at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California. His research interests are related to the intellectual history of Iran in the Islamic period. Dr Ferdowsi's publications include 'Haj Sayyah and the Encumbrance of Attachment' in Iran Nameh (2001); 'Raw Desire: The Litany of Revolutionary Hangover in Iran' in Iran Nameh (1998).

Behrang Foroughi is a PhD Candidate and a research associate at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. His research area is adult education and community development; examining the citizenship learning aspect of participatory community development in Iran, India and Canada. He has been working with UNICEF and UNDP-funded rural development projects in Iran prior to working with the International Development and Relief Foundation and the City of Toronto in Canada. He has been actively involved in organistion and coordination of major events of the Iranian Association at the University of Toronto (IAUT). He has also been reporting the Iranian stories of the multicultural Toronto through his column in Shahrvand.

Babak Fozooni obtained his first degree in Psychology from the University of Keele. He completed a Master's in Research Methods in Psychology (University of Reading), followed by a Master's in Critical Psychology (University of Reading) and a Masters' in Film and Television Studies (University of Westminster). He received his PhD in Psychology from Manchester Metropolitan University. He has taught at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of East London. His published works include articles on cinema, football and the politics of the Middle East, such as 'All Translators are Bastards!' in South African Journal of Psychology  (2006); 'A Critique of the Iranian Psy-Complex' in Annual Review of Critical Psychology  (2006); 'Kiarostami Debunked!' in New Cinemas (2005); 'Religion, Politics and Class: Conflict and Contestation in the Development of Football in Iran' in  Soccer & Society (2004). His current interests include Critical Psychology, Vygotsky and Bakhtin.

Ali Gheissari is Professor of History at the University of San Diego, specialising in the intellectual and political history of modern Iran. He studied at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Tehran, and at St Antony's College, Oxford. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Tehran, the Oriental Institute at Oxford, UCLA, and Brown University. Selected publications include Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty, with Vali Nasr (2006); Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century (1998); Persian Translation of Immanuel Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Ethics, with Hamid Enayat (1991); 'Poetry and Politics of Farrokhi Yazdi' in Iranian Studies (1993); 'Truth and Method in Modern Iranian Historiography and Social Sciences' in Critique (1995); 'Critique of Ideological Literature: A Review of Intellectual and Doctrinaire Writings in Iran' in Iran Nameh (1994); 'Modernity and Nationalism in the Literature of the late-Qajar and early-Pahlavi Iran (1921-1941)' in Iran Nameh (2000); 'Iran's Democracy Debates' with Vali Nasr, in Middle East Policy(2004); 'Despots of the World Unite! Satire in the Persian Constitutional Press: IntroducingMajalleh-ye Estebdad, 1907-1908' in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2005); 'Merchants without Frontier: Trade, Travel, and a Revolution in late Qajar Iran' in R. Farmanfarmaian ed. War and Peace in Qajar Persia: Implications Past and Present(forthcoming).

Elham Gheytanchi teaches Sociology at Santa Monica College, California. She earned her BA (1995) and an MA (1998) in Sociology from UCLA. She completed PhD courses in Sociology at UCLA in 2001. Her MA thesis entitled 'Civil Society in Iran: Politics of Motherhood and Public Sphere' was published in the International Sociology Journal (2001). Her field of research has been women in post-revolutionary Iran. Her other publications are 'Chronology of Events Regarding Women in Iran since the Revolution of 1979' (appendix to Nikki Keddie's article) in Social Research Journal (2000); 'Women in the Islamic Iranian Public' in N. Gole and L. Ammaneds. Islam in Public: Turkey, Iran, and Europe (2006). In addition to sociological research, Ms Gheytanchi has written literary reviews and criticism on contemporary Iranian literature in the Persian Book Review JournalKarnameh andIranian.com. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Ms Gheytanchi has also been a consultant to various broadcasting companies and radio programmes in the USA and Europe.

Mehrdad Ghodrat-Dizaji is Assistant Professor of Ancient Iranian History at Urmia University. He received his PhD in Ancient Iranian History from Tehran University (2005). His thesis was about Adurbadagan during the Sasanian Period and was conducted under the supervision of Dr Shirin Bayani and Dr Zhaleh Amuzegar. He also received an MA degree from the same university (1995) and his MA thesis dealt with the scientific and cultural movementof Iran in the sixth century.  His research interests are: Sasanian Iran, especially historical geography and historiography and the historiography of Ancient Iran. Some of his publications are: 'Afrasiyab' in The Great Islamic Encyclopaedia (2000); 'Tarikh-e mokhtasar-e al-Dowal' in Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (2002); Sasanian Iran (forthcoming).

Eshrat Gholipour was born in 1951 in Masjed Soleiman, Iran. She has been trained as a teacher in social science. Ms Gholipour has taught in various institutions in Iran including the Education Ministry (1972-2002) and the Tehran Training and Educating Centre (Children jail). She was a  member of the board of directors of the Children Rights Support Assembly and manager of the Children Rights Support Assembly Journal. In between 2002-2005 she was the manager of Shush Children House and manager of the 'Making Powerful Children'project which addresses the problems of children in difficult situations, with an emphasis on street children. Since 2005 she has been the executive manager of the Omid Mehr Foundation which focuses on helping disadvantaged young girls and women in Iran by strengthening the social, emotional, and economic competencies of these girls and by providing them with a sense of self-worth and opportunities to experience a full range of life options through self-empowerment, education and training.

Gad Gilbar holds degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA 1969) and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (PhD 1974). He is Professor of Economic History (Middle East) and head of the Tujjar Project at the University of Haifa. He served as Rector and Pro-Rector of the University of Haifa (1997-2000, 2001-2004). He has been a visiting scholar / professor at several universities and research institutions in the United States, including Harvard, Lehigh and RAND. In Israel he was senior research fellow at the Dayan Center (Tel Aviv University) and fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies (Hebrew University). He served as a member of Israel's Council for Higher Education (1990-95) and participated in the Israel-Jordan economic cooperation talks (1993-95). He has published books and articles on the economic history of Qajar Iran; the history of Islamic entrepreneurship; and the political economy and demography of the contemporary Middle East. His books include: Ottoman Palestine 1800-1914Studies in Economic and SocialHistory (ed.) (1990); Population Dilemmas in the Middle East (1996); The Middle East OilDecade and Beyond (1997); Competing Commercial Networks in the Mediterranean(forthcoming); 'The Muslim big merchant-entrepreneurs of the Middle East, 1860-1914' in DieWelt des Islams (2003); 'The rise and fall of the tujjar councils, 1884-85', forthcoming).

Christopher Gow is a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick. His thesis is entitled 'Iranian Cinema in Long Shot' and examines the relationship between the New Iranian Cinema and emigre Iranian filmmaking. He received an MA with honours in English Literature with Film Studies & Television Studies at the University of Glasgow. His research interests include transnational and world cinemas and emigre filmmaking. He has presented at conferences on the following topics: 'Deathwish: Iranian Style: Representations of Masculinity in Iranian Cinema', examining and comparing depictions of men in pre-revolutionary, post-revolutionary and diasporic Iranian cinema at the British Royal Society for Middle Eastern Studies (June 2003 - University of Exeter); 'Sohrab Shahid Sales and the New Iranian Cinema', looking at the influence of pre-revolutionary Iranian filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Sales upon contemporary Iranian cinema and filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami at the AISbiennial conference, April 2004; and 'Representations of Children in Iranian Cinema' atScreen (July 2004 -University of Glasgow) .

Farhad Hakimzadeh is Chief Executive of the Iran Heritage Foundation, a UK registered charity that was establish by him and a few like-minded Iranians in 1995 to promote the cultural heritage of Iran. The Foundation has increased its activities substantially in these ten years and is now the partner of choice for many of the major museums and universities in Western Europe and North America when it comes to the organization and execution of projects dealing with the history and culture of Iran. He received his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Omid Hamedani is lecturer in Persian Language and Literature at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, from which he also received his BA and MA. His main area of interest is the philosophical interpretation of mystical texts and literary theory. His MA thesis 'A Phenomenological Analysis of Shabestari's Garden of Mystery' is an interdisciplinary study describing Shabestari's theosophy on the basis of phenomenology. His doctoral dissertation 'From Rumi's Mystical Contemplations to the Mystical Elements in Martin Heidegger's Path of Thinking (An Analytico-Critical Study)' promises to be a careful analysis of the mystical elements in Heidegger's thought in comparison with Rumi's theosophy and mysticalWeltanschauung. His publications include 'The Silent Speaker' in Journal of Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University (2003); 'A Phenomenological View of the Experience of Existence as Depicted in the Blind Owl and Nausea' in Journal of Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University (2004); 'Toward a Gnostic Reading of Sana'i's Treasures of Wisdom'in Mahmud Fuoohi ed. Sana'i' Commemorative Volume; 'From Ash'arite Theology to  Sufi Beliefs' in Journal of Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Ferdowsi University(forthcoming).

Zahra Hamedi was born in Shiraz in 1967. She obtained her BA in History from Shiraz University (1988) and her MA from the Research Institution of Human Science and Cultural Studies (1991). She is currently a PhD student at al-Zahra University. She has been a member of the Science Board of History Group at Darab University for twelve years and a member of the Women's Association of History Research and Research Assembly of Darab University. She is interested in research about cultural activities, especially on women in Iran in modern times. Her publications include 'Short History of Establishing New Schools in Fars in the Qajar Period' in Farsshenasi (1993); 'Short History of the Press in Shiraz From Constitutional to the End of Qajar' in Farsshenasi (1994); 'Historical Applications of Asar-Ajam and its out Looks as a Local History' in Ketab-e-Mah (2001); 'The Role of Women in Establishing Modern Schools in Iran in the Late Qajar Period' in International Seminar of Women in Different Periods of Iran's History (2003); 'The Khoshneviszadeh Family's Role in Establishing Girls Schools in the Late Qajar

and Early Pahlavi Period in Fars' in Farsshenasi (2005); 'Comparing Womens 'Activities in Establishing Girls Schools in Qajar and Pahlavi in Fars' in International Seminar of Woman in Iranian History (2005); Compilation of 'The Study of Modern Schools and the Results of Modern Instruction in Fars in the Late Qajar Period' (forthcoming); Edition of Mohammad Ali Masud al-Molk's Ebrat al-Nazerin (forthcoming); 'Obstacles in Establishing Modern Schools for Women in Iran in the Years of 1906-1911' (forthcoming).

Noosheen Hashemi is a private investor and philanthropist with a strong passion for entrepreneurship and economic development. Her career began at Avantek, a semiconductor company in Silicon Valley and progressed into Oracle Corporation where she worked from 1985 to 1995 and took active part in software's meteoric rise as an industry. Her unmatched work ethic propelled her to frequent promotions and at the age of 27, she was named Vice-President of the now multibillion dollar company. In 1991, she won Oracle's 'Against All Odds Award' for her role in the company's financial turnaround. In 1996, Ms Hashemi joined Quote.com, a profitable internet finance portal, as Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. In 1997, she left Quote.com to start a family and the company was soon sold to Lycos. Ms. Hashemi remains an active investor in internet and enterprise software segments. Ms Hashemi is the President of the HAND Foundation, a private family foundation focused on the prevention of child abuse and the development of a global middle class. She is also the Chairman of PARSA Community Foundation. In addition, she serves on the board of MIT's Iranian Studies Program as well as the advisory board of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives. She is also a board member of the New America Foundation, a public policy institute whose purpose is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and ideas to the fore of public discourse in the United States She holds a BS in Economics from San Jose State University and an MS in Management from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Abolfazl Hassanabady is the director of the Documentation Office of the Foundation for Islamic Research. His research interests focus on oral history, the history of Mashhad, and the constitution of the province Qods-e Razavi. His publications include Tarikh-e shafahi dar Iran (2006); Sadat-e razavi dar Mashhad az aghaz ta payan-e Qajariyeh (2006)  and various articles.

Thomas Hayoz studied Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and History at the University of Berne, Switzerland. He is Teaching Assistant for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the same university and is currently writing his PhD thesis on Indo-Persian historiography in the eighteenth century. He specialises in Central Asian, Iranian and South Asian history and Persian historiography. He recently published an article on Persian historiography in Bengal in the eighteenth/nineteenth centuries: 'Historiographie als Selbstdarstellung. Tarikh-i Nusratjangi – ein indo-persisches Geschichtswerk um 1800' in Etudes Asiatiques (2005).

Mary Elaine Hegland holds a PhD in Social Cultural Anthropology, and is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies at Santa Clara University in California. Her current research interests are aging and the elderly in Iran and among Iranians in California, change in Moharram rituals in Iran, women in Shiite Muslim rituals, female education and work in Iran, change and modernistion, local level politics, changing family and kinship systems, and Iranian anthropological fieldwork and methods.  Hegland has published about Shiite Muslim women's rituals in Pakistan; religion, ritual, and revolution in Iran; women and politics; and Iranian emigrants in the United States. With E.Friedl she co-edited a special issue on Ethnography in Iran of Iranian Studies (2004). 

Farzaneh Hemmasi received her BA in History from Oberlin College and her MA and MPhil in Musicology from Columbia University.  Currently she is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at Columbia University. Her dissertation research, which is funded by the Canadian Embassy's Canadian Studies programme and Columbia University, is a multi-sited ethnographic project on the transnational production and dissemination of Iranian popular music in Toronto and Los Angeles. She has presented papers on this and prior research at annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Ethnomusicology.  Ms Hemmasi has been a Teaching Fellow and a Hutner Fellow at Columbia, and was awarded a Foreign Language Area Studies grant for the study of Persian. Her research interests include social dance and club cultures (the subject of her MA thesis) and the music of Central Asia. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked in internet radio in New York City and as a Program Associate within the Open Society Institute.

Edmund Herzig holds the Soudavar Chair in Persian Studies at the University of Oxford. He received his BA in Russian and Persian from the University of Cambridge and his DPhil in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. His thesis was entitled 'The Armenian Merchants of New Julfa, Isfahan: A Study in Pre-Modern Asian Trade'.  Dr Herzig's principal research interests are the contemporary history of Iran (currently focusing on the political and international history of the Islamic Republic, and on the relationship between history and national identity in modern Iran); Safavid history; the history of Armenia and the Armenians with special interest in the Armenians of Iran. His selected publications are The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity, with M. Kurkchiyan (2005); 'Regionalism, Iran and Central Asia' in International Affairs (2004); 'Venice and the Julfa Armenian Merchants' in B. L. Zekiyan and A. Ferrari eds Gli Armeni e Venezia. Dagli Sceriman a Mechitar: il momento culminante di una consuetudine millenaria (2004); The New Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (1999); 'The Rise of the Julfa Merchants in the Late Sixteenth Century' in C. Melville ed. Safavid Persia: The History and Politics of an Islamic Society (1996).

Patricia J Higgins is University Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Plattsburgh State University of New York.  She received a PhD in 1974 from the University of California, Berkeley, based in part on her 1969-71 research on education and socialistion in elementary schools of Tehran, Iran. She carried out additional research on Iranian education as a Fulbright Lecturer at Tehran University (1977-78). Since 1988 she has been engaged in studies of the adaptation of Iranian immigrants to the United States and analyses of Iranian elementary school textbooks. She has also promoted the use of anthropology in K-12 education and the introduction of anthropology to a wider audience through NSF-funded teacher development projects, a ten-year summer workshop for middle school students partially funded by NEH, development of internship programs, numerous presentations for educators and local audiences, editorship of Practicing Anthropology (1990-96) and organistional activity within the Council for Anthropology and Education and the American Anthropological Association. She has published articles based on her research and service activities in the Journal of Research and Development in EducationIranian StudiesSignsAnthropology and Education QuarterlyHuman Organization, and Practicing Anthropology as well as chapters in several edited volumes. She has held leadership positions in the Council on Anthropology and Education, the Society for Applied Anthropology, and the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the DANESH Institute.

Shabnam Jane Holliday was born in Iran in 1975 to an English father and an Iranian mother. Following the 1979 revolution most of her childhood was spent in Syria and Egypt. She graduated from the University of Exeter with a BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies. She spent her second year at the Centre for Teaching Arabic, University of Alexandria, Egypt. Before completing her BA, Ms Holliday spent the summer of 1995 in the Gaza Strip as a volunteer at the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. After graduating, she moved to Qatar to work with the British Council promoting British education and then to London, where she worked for First Conferences Ltd, an international conference company, as a conference organiser, web strategist and director of the pharmaceutical business unit. She returned to studying the Middle East in 2002 when she did her MA in Middle East Politics at the Politics Department, University of Exeter. She is currently a third year PhD student at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. Her thesis is entitled 'Discourses and Counter-discourses of Iranian National Identity during the Khatami Period'.

Mehri Honarbin-Holliday is a practising artist and academic. She earned her BA in Art and Design from Canterbury Christ Church University (first class honours, 2001) from which university she also received her PhD in Media and Cultural Studies in 2005.  Her current and forthcoming projects include: preparatory work towards a book on Transition and Change, Young Iranian Women and Spaces of Resistance; preparatory research for an AHRC Project; forthcoming research project with Creative Partnership (2006-8): 'Reflexive and Critical Links with Young Women in Dover'.  Her publications include 'Art Education in Iran: Women's Voices' in International Institute of the Study of Islam in The Modern World (ISIM) (2004).

Bernard Hourcade (b. 1946) is a geographer attached to the CNRS and the research team of  Mondes Iranien et Indien. He received his PhD in Geography (Paris, 1975). He is the founder and former Director of the research group “Monde Iranien” (CNRS, University Sorbonne Nouvelle Inalco, EPHE) (1993-2005). He taught French civilistion at the French Institute of Tehran (1970-1972); was a Lecturer of geography, University of Pau, France (1972-1978), Director of the French Institute of Iranian Studies in Tehran [Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1978-1993)] and has been a CNRS Research Fellow since 1983.  As resident in Iran, or through yearly research trips to Iran since 1970, Dr Hourcade has conducted research in social, cultural and political geography of Iran, and on urban Iranian societies in collaboration with Iranian scholars and public Iranian institutions. Among his publications about Iran are:Téhéran capitale bicentenaire, (1992); L'Iran au XXe siècle. Paris, (1996) (with Y.Richard & J.P.Digard); Atlas d'Iran. (1998); L'Iran. Nouvelles identités d'une république. (2002); Atlas of Tehran Metropolis( 2005).

Alice C Hunsberger, author of Nasir Khusraw, The Ruby of Badakhshan: A Portrait of the Persian Poet, Traveller and Philosopher (2002), earned her PhD in Persian Literature and Islamic Studies from Columbia University, following her BA (cum laude) from New York University in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. Her dissertation, which analysed Naser Khosrow's philosophy of the soul, including its Greek and Neoplatonic antecedents, won second prize in the Best Dissertation in Iranian Studies competition of the Foundation for Iranian Studies.  Her Master's thesis examined Nasir al-Din Tusi's Ismaili philosophical text,Aghaz o Anjam. Currently an adjunct Assistant Professor of Religion at Hunter College, City University of New York, Dr Hunsberger has taught courses on Islam, Sufism, women and Islam, philosophy of religion, approaches to religion, and Persian spiritual poetry, twice receiving the Hunter College President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.  While a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London (1999-2001), she taught courses and lectured internationally on Naser Khosrow's life and thought. In addition, Dr Hunsberger has taught on-line courses for Oxford, Stanford and Yale on modern Middle East topics, and also lived one year in Isfahan, Iran (1977-78), teaching history of science at the (formerly Aryamehr) University of Technology. Besides her academic work, Dr Hunsberger works as a professional executive of international organistions, including Amnesty International and, currently, Asia Society and Museum, New York.

Aliakbar Jafari is currently doing his PhD in Marketing at the Management Research Centre of the University of Wolverhampton Business School. His research interests cover areas such as macro consumer behaviour, postmodern culture, consumer culture theory and cultural globalistion. His PhD research investigates the impact of cultural globalistion on the identity of young Iranians and the varying relationships between their identity construction and consumption patterns. He received his MSc (2004) in International Marketing Management from the University of Leeds (as a Chevening Scholar of the British Council), MA (1999) in English Literature from the University of Tehran, and BA (1997) in English Literature from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. He previously worked as an international marketing expert for the Iranian automotive industry (1997-2003) and taught advanced English courses at language schools in Tehran and Karaj (1993-2003). His publications include his Persian translation of: Roosevelt Grady, Louisa R. Shotwell's novelette for teenagers,(1997); Storms Never Abate (in Persian, 1995).

Maryam Jamarani is a PhD candidate at the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, Australia. She received her BA and MA in English Literature from the Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran.  Her research areas are applied linguistics and intercultural communication. She is focusing her PhD research on the identity re-construction of first generation Iranian female migrants in Australia.  Her research interests are intercultural communication, acculturation, language and culture maintenance, identity, migrant groups and gender.

Houshang Jeirani was born in the west of Iran. He is a political scientist and obtained his MA from the University of Tehran in 1998. He has more than a decade of experience in journalism and has worked as a political correspondent at several newspapers and magazines such as HamshahriEntekhab,  Report on Dialogue, etc. At the present time, he works as a senior analyst in a UK-based Company for foreign investment in Iranian projects, and as a freelance journalist as well. His research interests include civil society in Iran, domestic political issues with concentration on political parties, government and media, and international politics with concentration on the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf issues. His publications include: 'Women under the Reformist Government', in Reyhaneh (2005); 'Once Upon a Time in No.91, Dialogue among Civilistions Ends' in Gooya News Website (2005).

Yuka Kadoi received a PhD in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh in 2005 and has been awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh to work on the project entitled 'Migration Theory in Art History: Foreigners in Islamic Art'.  She has been researching the art of the medieval Iranian world with special reference to its stylistic and iconographic associations with Central and East Asia.  Her recent publications include 'Beyond the Mandarin Square: Garment Badges in Ilkhanid Painting' HALI, (2005); 'Aspects of Frescoes in Fourteenth-century Iranian Architecture: The Case of Yazd' in Iran (2005).

Kourosh Kamali-Sarvestani received his BA in 1994 and his MA in 1999, both in Persian Literature. He is the Founder and current Director of the Fars Encyclopaedia and the Fars Studies Foundation. He has also been the Deputy Manager of the Hafez University in Shiraz. He has published widely and his publications include A Glance at Fars (1998); Love Poems of Sa'di (1988); ed. Encyclopaedia of Fars - Historical Monuments (2006); plus nine volumes ofSa'di Shenasi published over an extended period of time.

Ramine Kamrane received his PhD in Political Sociology at the Universite de Paris X -- Nanterre in Paris, and his DEA in philosophy at the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne in Paris. He has worked as a research fellow at the Centre de l'Histoire des Systemes de Pensee Modernes, at the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne, and as a lecturer at the Institut National des Langues Orientales. His research interests include political regimes, international relations, theology, contemporary Iranian history and critical theory. His publications includeLa fatwa contre Rushdie, une interpretation strategique (1997); Setiz va modara (1999); ed.L'acteur et ses raisons, melanges offerts a Raymond Boudon, Paris (2000); 'Aspects de la mondialisation politique' in Cahiers des sciences morales et politiques (2003); and Iran, l'islamisme dans l'impasse (2003).

Younes Karamati was born in 1970 in Tehran. He is a Researcher and Head, Department of the History of Science, Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia (Tehran).  After receiving his BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, he got his MA in History of Culture and Civilistion of the Islamic Nations from Islamic Azad University, and wrote his thesis entitled 'Mathematical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate'. He has written several articles for different volumes and encyclopaedias includingEncyclopaedia IranicaEncyclopaedia of the World of Islam, and the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia. His publications also include Karnameh-ye Iranian (2001); Nakhostin gamha-ye jabr (Persian translation and commentary of Khwarazmi's al-jabr wa l' muqabala) (2001);Hava shenakht (2002); Dar qalamrow-ye riyaziyyat (An extract of Kashani's Miftah al-hisab) (2002); Abu Reyhan-e Biruni (2006).

Persis M Karim was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area by her Iranian father and French mother.   She received her Master's degree in Middle Eastern Studies in 1993 and her PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Texas at Austin in 1998. She is an Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State University in San Jose, California where she teaches literature and creative writing. She is the author of several articles on Iranian American literature and the editor of Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora (2006) and co-editor of A World Between: Poems, Short Stories and Essays by Iranian-Americans (1999).

Mohammad Karimi-Zanjani-Asl is a research fellow at the Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia.  Mr Karimi Zanjani Asl has a BA degree in Political Science from Islamic Azad University (1994). Over the past ten years, he has published 125 articles and 21 books (compilation, translation and editing). His most recent publications include: Sohravardi According to Shahrzuri and Eshkevari (2005); Sohravardi, Eshraq Philosophy, and the Ismaili Response to Ghazzali (2005); 'Shiite Institutions and the Cultural Revival in the Islamic World' in al-Tawhid (2003); 'Marriage in Ancient Iran: Typology and Customs' in An Anthology of Iranian Studies (2000); Indo-Iranian Illuminative Philosophy in the Early Islamic Centuries(2003); Tanqih al-abhath li al-milal al-thalath  (2004); al-Risala al-sharafiyya fi taqasim al-olum al-yaqiniyya ( 2004); 'The Iranian World from the Ancient Avestan Texts to the Earliest Achaemenian Inscriptions' Quarterly Journal of the Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries (2005); Nahaya al-zohur (2006); Shiite Dar al-Ilm's  and the cultural revival in the Islamic world (2006).

Massoud Karshenas is Professor of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague. He is external coordinator of research on social policy in the Middle East and North Africa region at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), and a Research Fellow of the ERF. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge. He is the author ofIndustrialization and Agricultural Surplus : A Comparative Study of Economic Development in Asia (1995) and co-editor with Valentine M. Moghadam of Social Policy in the Middle East : Political, Economics and Gender Dynamics (Social Policy in a Development Context) (2006).

Manouchehr Kasheff has been teaching Persian at Columbia University since 1974. He is the Secretary and Treasurer of the American Association of Teachers of Persian, and has written a number of articles for the Encyclopaedia Iranica, the Encyclopaedia of Asian Studies, andIran-Shenasi. He has translated books by A. J. Arberry, S. Runciman and T. S. Eliot into Persian.

Homa Katouzian is a social scientist, historian, literary critic, and poet.  He is Iran Heritage Research Fellow, St Antony's College and member, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, an honorary fellow in the Department of Politics, University of Exeter, and Editor ofIranian Studies, Journal of the Association for Iranian Studies. He obtained all his university degrees in England and became Lecturer in Economics at the University of Leeds, 1968-69, and Lecturer (later Senior Lecturer) in Economics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, 1969-1986. He was a fellow of the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton  (2001), Visiting Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego (1990), Visiting Professor of Economics at UCLA (1985), Economic Consultant, UNCTAD, UN, Geneva (1982), Visiting Associate Professor of Economics, McMaster University (1977-78), Visiting Iranian Fellow, St Antony's College, Oxford (1975-76). His publications have appeared in English, other European languages, and Persian.  His books in English include Sa'di, the Poet of Loving and Living (forthcoming, 2006); Iranian History and Politics, the Dialectic of State and Society (2003); Sadeq Hedayat:The Life and Legend of an Iranian Writer (1991, 2002); State and Society in Iran: The Eclipse of the Qajars and the Emergence of the Pahlavis (2000); Musaddiq and the Struggle for Power in Iran (1990, 1999); Musaddiq's Memoirs (1988); The Political Economy of Modern Iran (1981); Ideology and Method in Economics (1980).

Ralph Kauz was born in1961 in Besigheim/Germany.  He received his PhD from Bamberg University in 1994, and title of his dissertation was 'Political Parties and People in Iran: The Hezb-e Demokrat-e Iran and its Leader Qavam al-Saltaneh'(in German).   He then received his Habilitation in Sinology.  Dr Kauz's research interests focus on relations between Iran, Central Asia, and China (Middle Ages and Early Modern Period); international relations and political system of Iran; political and economical history of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. His publications include Die Verfassungsaenderung in Iran: Eine Chance fuer innere Stabilitaet? (1990); Die Partei der Islamischen Republik (1992); Politische Parteien und Bevoelkerung in Iran: Die Hezb-e Demukrat-e Iran und ihr Fuehrer Qavam os-Saltana(1995); Politik und Handel zwischen Ming und Timuriden: China, Iran und Zentralasien im Spaetmittelalter (2005); Hormuz dar dowrehha-ye Yu'an va Ming (2005).

Hamid Keshmirshekan is a Visiting Associate at the Sub-Faculty of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Oriental Institute, Oxford University. He was the organiser of the International Conference on Contemporary Iranian Art at the University of Oxford in July 2005. He was awarded a post-doctoral grant by the Barakat Trust to do his post-doctoral research project entitled 'Reproducing Modernity: The Art of Post-revolutionary Iran since the Late 1990s' at the University of Oxford, 2004-5. He obtained his PhD in History of Art from SOAS in 2004 with a thesis entitled 'Contemporary Iranian Art: Neo-traditionalism during the 1960s and 1990s'. He received his MFA (Master of Fine Art) in 1994 and his BFA (Bachelor of Fine Art) with First Class Honours in 1991 from the University of Tehran. Dr Keshmirshekan is currently working on the abovementioned conference proceedings entitled Modernity and the Iranian Artist as author/editor. Apart from his academic activities, Dr Keshmirshekan is also an artist. He has had six solo exhibitions of his works. The latest one was the exhibition of his prints and paintings at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS in London in 2004. His recent publications include 'Post-1997 Iranian Art: The Emergence of New Artistic Discourses' in Iranian Studies(forthcoming); 'Neo-Calligraphism and its Different Varieties in Modern Iranian Painting' inEastern Art Journal (forthcoming); 'Discourses on Post-revolutionary Iranian Art: Neo-traditionalism during the 1990s' in Muqarnas (2006); 'Neo-traditionalism and Contemporary Iranian Painting: The Saqqi-khaneh School in the 1960s' in Iranian Studies (2005).

Farhad Keyvan received his PhD in Physics from UCLA in 1996. He participated in physics and engineering research at the Jet Propulsion Lab as well as the Fermi National Accelerator Lab.  His later focus was on a career in Telecommunication Engineering. Dr Keyvan is the founder of Netservia Labs, as well as other technology and healthcare start ups. He is the Project Leader for the PersiaNet (or Persian WordNet) Project in collaboration with the Global WordNet Group at Princeton University.

Shervin Khamseh received a BA (1992) and an MA (1997) in Persian Literature at Tarbiat-e Modarres University in Tehran and a PhD (in Sep. 2003) in Persian Literature from the University of Tehran.  Dr Khamseh has been teaching Persian Literature at Islamic Azad University - Tehran since 1999.  Her research interests focus on modern Persian poetry (Nima Yushij, Ahmad Shamlu, Mahdi Akhavan Sales, Forugh Farrokhzad and Sohrab Sepehri); mythology and its influences on the mirror of poetry. The title of her doctoral dissertation is 'Mythology and Archetypal Motifs and its Influences on the Modern Persian Poetry'.

Azam Khatam received her MA in Cultural Sociology from the Faculty of Social Science, Allameh Tabataba'I University, and her BA in Sociology from the Faculty of Social Science, University of Tehran. Her research interests are cities, culture and politics, urban social policy and social agency, empowerment and informal settlements, and women's employment. Her recent research projects are social housing in Iran, housing planning and economic studies office, Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning (2006); State and Empowerment Projects in Informal settlements: case of Saveh, World Health Organisation Office in Iran (2006); Tehran Population, housing trends and life quality indicators, UPARC (2005-6); Bam, Reconstruction after Disaster, Iranian Sociological Association, Urban Group (2005); Authority and Public Space in Iran, a collaborative research project funded by Social Science Research Council (2004); Women's economic status and employment in Iran (2000-1); Children Conditions in Tehran and Informal Settlements in the Metropolitan Tehran Region: A Comparative Analysis, UNICEF (2000). Some of her recent publication are 'Reforme et societe civile: l'exemple des conseils municipaux' in Esprit (2003); 'Globalisation and Labor Force', in Majles and Pazhuhesh (2004); 'Experience of Forming City Councils in Iran', in Goft-o-Gu (2003); 'People's Government Role in Empowerment Projects', in Haft Shahr (2002-3). She has also served as guest editor of Goft-o-Gu and a special issue on 'Society and Public Spaces' ofIranshahr.

Frik Aziz Khatami-Tirgordi was born in Tehran in 1979, in an Armenian family. In February 1988 his family rmoved to Armenia and started their new life in Abovyan.  In 1997 he entered the Yerevan State University as an undergraduate student at the Faculty of History. In 1998 Mr Tirgordi started to specialise in the common history at the Department of the World History. In 2001 he  received a BA and became a graduate student in the Department of World History. In 2003 he received an MA and his dissertation was titled 'US-Iranian Relations in 1945-1979'. Since 2003 he has been a PhD student at the same department working on a doctoral dissertation titled 'Iran's Foreign Policy and the USA in 1978-1989'. His research interests focus on modern Middle Eastern history; the history of Iran's foreign policy in the 20th century; Iran's current relations with the West; Iran's nuclear programmes as a threatening factor to international security, and regional stability. His recent publications include: 'The US and the Iran-Iraq War in 1980-1988', in Qantekh (2005); 'Iran and the Afghan Civil War in 1979-1989' in Merdzavor Arevelq (2005); 'The Ideological Preconditions of the Islamic Revolution of Iran', in Iran Nameh (2005).

Elaheh Kheirandish is a historian of science, with a specialty in the sciences of the Islamic world. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1991. Her appointments include positions as Lecturer (Harvard University 2003-present; Brandeis University 1998-99), Research Associate (Harvard University 2001-present; Packard Humanities Institute 2000-04; Brown University 1999-2000), and Resident Research Fellow (Dibner Institute, MIT 2002-03; Academy of Philosophy, Tehran 1993-1995). Her main research area is the history of mathematical sciences with a focus on optics and mechanics, and her projects and publications range from the Arabic and Persian traditions of ancient Greek sciences to the applications of the new technologies to historical studies. Her projects include 'The Archimedes Project' (collaborative project with the Max Planck Institute in Berlin 2001-04), and the 'IOTA Project: Index of Optical Terms in Arabic' (2002-03); her board activities include 'ISMI: The Islamic Scientific Manuscript Initiative' (2005-present), and Commission for the History of Science and Technology in Islamic Civilisation (1997-2001). Her publications include: The Arabic Version of Euclid's Optics (1999), forthcoming books on early Arabic optics and mechanics, and several articles, most recently 'Mixed Mathematical Sciences: Optics and Mechanics in the Islamic Middle Ages' in Cambridge History of Science(forthcoming), and 'The Many Aspects of Appearances: Arabic Optics to 950 AD' in The Enterprise of Science in Islam (2002). Her book in progress A Dialogue of Baghdad and Isfahan draws from a course she has been recently offering at Harvard under the title 'From Alexandria to Baghdad: Classical Sciences in Islamic Lands'.

Gholam Khiabany holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Westminster (London), an MA in Communication from the University of Westminster, and a BA in Media Studies from the University of East London.  He is currently senior lecturer in Mass Communications and course leader of BSC Media Studies programme, Department of Applied Social Sciences, London Metropolitan University. He has thought media and communication since 1996 with positions at the University of East London, the University of Westminster, and the University of Surrey Roehampton. His research interests centre on media and social change and the relationship between communication, development and democracy with particular reference to Iran.. His publications include: articles in Global Media and CommunicationMedia, Culture and SocietyInternational Communication GazetteGlobal Trends in Communications, in addition to several book chapters on international communication, globalisation and culture. Selected Publications are: 'Religion and Media in Iran: Imperative of the market and the straightjacket of Islamism', Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (2006); 'The Politics of Broadcasting in Iran: Continuity and Change, Expansion and Control', in D. Ward and A. McNicholas, eds  Television and Public Policy: Change and Continuity in an Era of Liberalization (2006); 'Modernity and the many faces of 'digital divides': Digital Dynamics in Iran', in P. Golding and G. Murdock, edsUnpacking Digital Dynamics: Participation, Control, and Exclusion (2006); 'Faultlines in the agendas of global media debates', Global Media and Communication (2005); 'Globalisation and the Internet: Myths and Realities', Trends in Communication (2003).

Shahram Kholdi has been a Graduate Teaching Fellow and PhD candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester since September 2005. He holds a BA (Hons.) and MA in Political Science from the University of Toronto (2004). He also holds a BA in Law from Islamic Azad University, Tehran (1993).  His major area of study is the historiography of the 1979 revolution in general, with specific attention to political memoirs and oral history. His major publications are: 'Law, Value, Society: On the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran' in Jame'eh-ye Salem (1996); 'Women's Right of Life: Religious and Non-Religious Readings' in Jame'eh-ye Salem (1996).

Keyvan Khosravani was born in Tehran in 1938 and earned his Master's of Architecture with high honours from the University of Tehran in 1962.  With a scholarship he went on to study for two years at the Ecole Superieure Nationale des Beaux Arts.  In 1964 he had his first solo exhibition at the Maison Internationale at the Cite Universitaire in Paris. After his return to Iran in 1966, he was involved in the first festival of arts in Shiraz for which he was the lighting designer for the illumination of Persepolis, Hafezieh and other amphitheaters.  For thirteen years he was the creator of the official wardrobe of Empress Farah Diba and was instrumental in reviving Iranian handicrafts and fabrics. His architectural work includes the Mehmansara-ye Na'in for the Ministry of Tourism, residences in Farmanieh and other buildings. He was involved in grass-roots efforts to preserve historical districts in Tehran, including Udlajan. Since moving to Paris 25 years ago, Mr Khosrovani has restored the apartment once owed by George Sand and continued his cultural activities to promote and preserve Iranian heritage.

Chad Kia is a preceptor in Literature Humanities and a PhD candidate in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.  His research concentrates on the relationship of medieval poetry to figurative manuscript paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He has studied Islamic Art with Priscilla Soucek at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and has taught the history of Islamic art at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. In 2002 he curated an exhibition entitled 'Trans/Revelations: Persian Annotations in the Quran' at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University. His article on text and image in a fifteenth century manuscript at the Metropolitan Museum of Art will be published in Muqarnas in 2006.

Mana Kia is a doctoral candidate in the joint program in History and Middle East Studies at Harvard University. She received her MA in Near Eastern Studies from New York University and her BA in International Studies from Vassar College. Her primary research interests are modern Iranian history, Indian Ocean migration (particularly between Iran and British India), and feminist historiography. She is writing her dissertation on the ways in which migrants from Iran in the Indian Ocean negotiated parochial differences during the 18th-20th centuries. Her publications include 'Negotiating Women's Rights: Activism, Class, and Modernization in Pahlavi Iran' in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2005); 'Iran' in Muslim Cultures Today: A Reference Guide (2006); 'Women's Unions and Organizations: Iran' and 'Women's Unions and Organizations: Afghanistan' inEncyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (2005); and 'Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Historiography of Modern Iran' (co-authored with Afsaneh Najmabadi and Sima Shakhsari) inHistoriography and Political Culture in Twentieth-Century Iran (forthcoming).

Nobuaki Kondo received his MA in 1991 and his PhD in 1997 from the University of Tokyo. He was a research associate at Tokyo Metropolitan University (1994-2002). He is now an associate professor at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2002-). His research interests focus on the history of Qajar Iran, especially, law and society in Qajar Tehran, and the history of  the Persianate world. His publications include: 'The Vaqf and Religious Patronage of Manuchihr Khan Mu'tamad al-Dawlah', in R. Gleave ed. Religion and Society in Qajar Iran (2005); 'The Case of “Doubled Vaqf”: A Study on Qajar Shari' Court' (in Japanese) in Annals of Japan Association for Middle Eastern Studies (2004); ed. Persian Documents: Social History of Iran and Turan in 15th-19th Centuries (2003); 'The Vaqf of Ustad 'Abbas: Rewrites of Deeds in Qajar Tehran' in N. Kondo ed. Persian Documents: Social History of Iran and Turan (2003); 'The Socioeconomic Background of Khans of Yazd: An Analysis of their Public Building and Vaqf Endowments' in R. Gyselen and M. Szuppe eds Matériaux pour l'histoire économique du monde iranien (1999); 'Qizilbash Afterwards: The Afshars in Urumiya from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century' in Iranian Studies (1999).

Agnes Korn studied Indo-European linguistics in Hamburg and Vienna and graduated from Vienna University, Austria, with a thesis on Old Indic metrics. She then taught German in Slovakia and worked on a Persian dictionary project in Graz, Austria. Since 1998 she has taught Indo-European languages at the Department of Comparative Linguistics of the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany, where she also did her PhD with a thesis on the historical grammar of Balochi.  Her current research focuses on the development of the Western Iranian languages. Her publications include Towards a Historical Grammar of Balochi. Studies in Balochi Historical Phonology and Vocabulary (2005); 'Balochi and the Concept of North-West Iranian' in C. Jahani and A. Korn eds The Baloch and Their Neighbours: Ethnic and Linguistic Contact in Balochistan in Historical and Modern Times(2003); Metrik und metrische Techniken im Rgveda. Streckformen in Trimeter-Versen (1998); 'The Ergative System in Balochi from a Typological Perspective' in B. Mahmoodi Bakhtiari ed.Studies on the Typology of the Iranian Languages (forthcoming).

Irina Koshoridze holds a PhD in Art History and is the Head of the Department of Oriental Arts at the Museum of Fine Arts, Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi, Georgia. She graduated from Tbilisi State University, Department of History of Art. Her doctorial thesis was about Georgian kilims of the nineteenth century (1993). She has lectured about Georgian and Caucasian traditional textiles, Islamic visual and decorative art (USA, Israel, German, GB, France) and participated in numerous international conferences, such as the Ninth and Tenth International Conferences on Oriental Carpets, and various conferences on Islamic art and Qajar studies. She is also the Director of the Master's Degree programme in Museum Studies at Tbilisi State University and has prepared the curriculum in Islamic Art for Art History and the Oriental studies Faculties at the same  university. Dr Koshoridze is the co-founder of the Georgian Textile Group and the Georgian Museum Association. In 2002-2003 she was Fulbright scholar at New-York University. Her research interests include the different topics of Islamic art and Georgian-Iranian cultural relations from the Safavid to the Qajar periods.  Her most recent publication is titled Qajar Portraits (2005).

Hermann Kreutzmann received his university education at the Technical University of Hannover and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet, Freiburg. He studied anthropology, geography and physics. He received his PhD from the Free University of Berlin in 1989 and his Habilitation from the University of Bonn in 1994. He was a visiting professor at the University of Washington, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies (1994-1995); Chair of Cultural Geography and Development Studies, Director of the Institute of Geography, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuernberg (1996-2005); Chair of Human Geography, and has been Head of the Centre for Development Studies, Geographic Sciences, at the Free University of Berlin since 2005. His research interests focus on empirical research in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Tibet and Xinjiang, minority livelihoods, migration, pastoralism, water management and development studies. His recent publications include 'Pastoral practices and their transformation in the North-Western Karakoram' in Nomadic Peoples (2005); 'Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and the opium world market' in Geographische Rundschau - International Edition (2005); 'The Karakoram Landscape and the Recent History of the Northern Areas' in S. Bianca, ed. Karakoram: Hidden Treasures in the Northern Areas of Pakistan (2005); 'Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time: A Survey in the Eastern Hindukush and Karakoram' in Himalayan Linguistics 4. Web-Journal (2005); ed. Sharing Water:  Irrigation and Water Management in the Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya (2000).

Maria Kritikou received her BA in Iranian Languages and Sanskrit from SOAS in 2003. In September 2004 she attended the first Indo-European Summer School at the Free University in Berlin. Since 2003 she has been a PhD student in Indo-European Studies at UCLA.  Her research interests are the Indo-Iranian group of languages and their position in the wider Indo-European family, with a special concentration on Iranian languages (Old, Middle and Modern). At UCLA she is the holder of the Chancellor's Fellowship (2003-present), and a member of the Philological Society and the American Oriental Society

Charles Kurzman is Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  His primary research interests focus on the interaction between democratic and revolutionary Islamic movements.  His research on the Iranian revolution of 1979 was published in the American Sociological Review and other leading academic journals, as well as in the book The Unthinkable Revolution in Iran (2004). His work on liberal and modernist Islamic movements has included the editing of anthologies on Liberal Islam(1998); Modernist Islam, 1840-1940 (2002). He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Democracy Denied, 1905-1915, which examines the role of modern-educated intellectuals in democratic revolutions in the decade before First World War in Russia, Iran, the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Mexico, and China. In addition, he is currently launching a project on barriers to mobilisation faced by radical Islamist movements in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries.

Mara A Leichtman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Muslim Studies at Michigan State University.  Her doctoral dissertation from Brown University (2006) was entitled 'A Tale of Two Shi'isms: Lebanese Migrants and Senegalese Converts in Dakar'. She also earned an MA in Socio-Cultural Anthropology (Brown University, 2001), an MA in International Relations and African Studies (Johns Hopkins University, 1999), and a BA in Middle Eastern and North African Studies (University of Michigan, 1996). Dr Leichtman has been conducting research on global Shiite Islamic movements and their localisation in Senegal since 2000, comparing the Lebanese community of Senegal with a new group of Senegalese who are converting from Sunni to Shiite Islam as a result of the Iranian Revolution. She has worked on an interdisciplinary research project on Islamic institutions in the greater Detroit area, and her new research project will focus on transnational Shiite institutions in London.  Dr Leichtman's publications include 'The Legacy of Transnational Lives: Beyond the First Generation of Lebanese in Senegal' in Ethnic and Racial Studies (2005); 'Defying Sufism? Senegalese Converts to Shi'ite Islam' in ISIM Review (2006). She is currently co-editing a book preliminarily entitled Islam in Senegal: New Perspectives.

Leonard Lewisohn is the author of Beyond Faith and Infidelity: The Sufi Poetry and Teachings of Mahmud Shabistari (1995), and The Wisdom of Sufism (2001). He is the editor of The Heritage of Sufism (1999), vol. 1: The Legacy of Mediaeval Persian Sufism, vol. 2:Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi, vol. 3: Late Classical Persianate Sufism: the Safavid and Mughal Periodwith David Morgan - covering a millennium of Islamic history. He is also co-editor with C. Shackle of The Art of Spiritual Flight: Farid al-Din Attar and the Persian Sufi Tradition (2006). His articles have appeared in the Encyclopaedia of IslamThe Encyclopaedia of PhilosophyThe Encyclopaedia of ReligionEncyclopaedia Iranica, Iran Nameh, Iranian Studies, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, British Association for the Study of Religion Bulletin, African Affairs, and Temenos. For six years Research Associate in Esotericism in Islam at the Department of Academic Research and Publications of the Institute of Ismaili Studies (1999-2005), he is currently Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow in Classical Persian and Sufi Literature at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, at the University of Exeter in England.

Paul Losensky received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. He is currently an associate professor at Indiana University with a joint appointment in the departments of Central Eurasian Studies and Comparative Literature. He specialises in Persian literature with an emphasis on the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His published works include: Welcoming Fighani: Imitation and Poetic Individuality in the Safavid-Mughal Ghazal (1998); 'The Palace of Praise and the Melons of Time: Descriptive Patterns in 'Abdi Shirazi's Garden of Eden' in Eurasian Studies (2003); 'Linguistic and Rhetorical Aspects of the Signature Verse (takhallus) in the Persian Ghazal' in Edebiyat (1997); and 'The Equal of Heaven's Vault: The Design, Ceremony, and Poetry of the Hasanabad Bridge' in Writers and Rulers: Perspectives on Their Relationship from Abbasid to Safavid Times (2004). His translation of Attar's Tazkerat al-owliya is scheduled to appear in 2007.

Mark Luce is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. His dissertation topic is entitled 'The Process of Frontier: Khurasan from the 8th through the 11th Centuries'. He has lived and worked extensively in the Middle East: Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen as well as in Albania and Thailand. His main interests are medieval intellectual and cultural history, specifically Khurasan and Central Asia. He has published articles for theEncyclopaedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, on women's education and women's political participation in Afghanistan, and for the Encyclopaedia of Sex and Love (medieval), as well as several other articles on Persian literature and the Arabs in the East (forthcoming). His additional interests are modern Afghanistan, medieval agriculture and folk medicine. He is currently living in Sanaa, Yemen.

Pavel B Lurje was born in 1976 in Leningrad. He graduated from St Petersburg State University, Faculty of Oriental and African Studies with specialisation in history of Iran and Afghanistan (1998). His doctoral dissertation titled 'Historical and Linguistic Analysis of Sogdian Toponymy' was successfully defended in the St Petersburg University in 2004. In 2001 he was Junior Research Fellow of the St Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2004 he has been Visiting Researcher at the Institut fuer Iranistik der Oesterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, where he is working on a fascicle of Sogdian personal names for the series Iranisches Personennamenbuch. His main research interests focus on Iranian linguistics (Middle and New Iranian languages, etymology, onomastics), Sogdian philology, history, archaeology, religions, historical geography of Central Asia. His main publications include: 'The Element kaθ/kand in the Place-names of Transoxiana' in Studia Iranica (2003); 'Description of the Overland Way to China in Hudud al-Alam: Dates of the Underlying Itinerary' in Eurasian Studies (Collected Papers from the International Conference on Ancient Inner Eurasia and Chinese Culture) (forthcoming).

Francisco Veres Machado studied architecture in Lisbon. He began his career in the film industry as an actor and then moved into producing, editing and directing. He teaches at Universidade Moderna de Lisboa where he founded the first private film school in Portugal - IAT (Institute of Audiovisual Technology). He has a Master's Degree in Critical Media and Cultural Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he is currently doing his PhD. He was also President of Ulisses International Film and Television Festival for Children – the only festival of its genre in Portugal, and is one of the founding members of ECTC European Children Television Centre, Based in Athens in Greece.

Ali Madanipour isProfessor of Urban Design at the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, University of Newcastle, England, where he is also a member of the Global Urban Research Unit and the Institute for Policy and Practice. He has studied (MArch Tehran, PhD Newcastle), practised, researched, and taught architecture, urban design and planning, winning design and research awards, and working with academic and municipal partners from around the world. His research on design, development and management of cities has been funded by the European Commission, United Nations, the United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council, and Commission for Architecture and Built Environment, among others. He has delivered invited lectures in fifteen countries and his work has been translated into German, Japanese, Mandarin, and Persian. His books include Managing Cities: The New Urban Context (1995); Design of Urban Space (1996, Persian translation 2000); Social Exclusion in European Cities (1998, 2003); The Governance of Place (2001); Tehran: The Making of a Metropolis (1998, Persian translation 2002); Urban Governance, Institutional Capacity and Social Milieux (2002); Public and Private Spaces of the City (2003); andDesigning the City of Reason: Foundations and Frameworks of Modern Urbanism(forthcoming).

Hirotake Maeda graduated from the Faculty of Letters of University of Tokyo and received his BA in 1995. In 1998 he received his MA from the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology of the same university. After studying in Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies in Tbilisi for two years, he became a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (2001- 2004). He has since been a lecturer at the Slavic Research Centre of Hokkaido University in Sapporo.

His research focuses on the political lives of Georgian, Armenian and Circassian converts, i.e., gholams in Safavid Persia. He is furthermore working on topics related to cultural exchanges between the Iranian and Caucasian peoples. His publications include 'Innovation of the Political System under the Safavid Dynasty: The Historical Role of the Gholams' (in Japanese) in Shigaku-Zasshi (1998); 'On the Ethno-Social Background of the Four GholamFamilies from Georgia in Safavid Iran' in Studia Iranica (2003); 'Shah 'Abbas I's Policy Towards the Caucasus: The Rise of a Foreign Elite' (in Japanese) in Shigaku-Zasshi (2004).

Behrooz Mahmoodi-Bakhtiari was born in Tehran in 1974. He was graduated with a BA in English from Allameh Tabataba'i University, and got his MA and PhD in Linguistics (2004) from the same institution. He is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Persian at the University of Tehran, Faculty of Fine Arts, as well as a part-time researcher at the Department of Iranology and Linguistics, Centre for the Great Islamic Encyclopaedia, Tehran. His main areas of research are Iranian dialectology, and teaching Persian as a second language. He has published several books and well over 30 articles in different reviewed journals and encyclopaedias, such as Encyclopaedia IranicaEncyclopaedia of Linguistics, andEncyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics, along with his papers in The Great Islamic Encyclopaedia. His publications include: Tense in Persian: Its Nature and Use (2002); Kinship Terminology in the New West Iranian Languages (forthcoming); Studies on the Typology of the Iranian Languages ed. (forthcoming); 'Sequence of Tenses in Persian' in L.Guertsenberg ed. Proceedings of the Celebration of the 110th Anniversary of Professor Viktor M. Zhimunsky(2001); 'Planning the Persian Language in the  Samanid Period' in Iran and the Caucasus(2003); 'Notes on the Tense Systems in Baluchi and Standard Persian' in C. Jahani and A. Korn eds. The Baloch and Their Neighbours: Ethnic and Linguistic Contact in Balochistan in Historical and Modern Times (2003); with Hassan Rezai-Baghbidi 'Plural Marking in New West Iranian Languages: A Historical and Typological Approach' in Studies on Persianate Societies(2005).

Elham Malekzadeh received her MA in History from Islamic Azad University in 1997 and is currently studying for a PhD at al-Zahra University, while simultaneously teaching History at Islamic Azad University. Her research interests deal with women's endowments and philanthropic work from the Qajar period to the present era. She also works on the socio-political condition of women during the Ilkhanid period. She was the recipient of the 'Best Researcher Award' in 2004/2005. Her publications include: Asnad-e daneshjuyan-e Irani dar Orupa 1313-1307, with Dr Navai (2003); Tarikh-e ravabet-e Iran va Veniz, with Dr Navai (2005); Ruznameh-ye khaterat-e Naser al Din Shah, with Dr Navai (2005); Sargozasht-e Saffarian (2003); Omur-e khayriyyeh dar Doureh-ye Qajar (2006).

Mohammad Maljoo was born in Tehran on August 1972, and was educated at the Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, from where he received his PhD degree in Economics in 2005. He is a member of editorial board of Goft-o-Gu and Ketab-e Mah-e Olum-e Ejtema'i .  He currently teaches as a lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, Allameh Tabataba'i University in Tehran. His fields of specialisation and interest include history of economics in Iran, political economy, economic sociology, and development economics. He has translated several books by Albert O. Hirschman into Persian, including The Passions and the Interests(2000), The Rhetoric of Reaction (2003), Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (2003), and Shifting Involvements (2006). He has furthermore published more than forty journal articles in Persian and several in English on various subjects such as history of Iranian economic thought, sociology of economics, Iranian economy, economic methodology, political economy, and politics. His publications have appeared in Goft-o-GuFarhang-e Towse'eh,AftabKetab-e Mah-e Olum-e Ejtema'iKetab-e FarzanRefah-e Ejtema'iMajles va Pazhuhesh, etc.

Derek J Mancini-Lander is a doctoral student in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. He holds an MA in Medieval Studies from the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and a BA in English from Kenyon College. His main field of interest is cultural history in the early modern Persianate world. His current research focuses on the transmission of knowledge between fathers and sons in the Safavid realm.

Manijeh Mannani holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta. She has earned her BA (First Class Honours) and MA (First Class Honors) degrees in English from Shahid Beheshti University and the University of Tehran, respectively. She is currently teaching at Grant MacEwan College and the University of Alberta. Dr Mannani specialises in the poetry of Rumi and the English metaphysical poet John Donne. Among her research interests is the examination and critique of the renditions of Classical Persian poetry into English from the neo-colonial perspective.  The following are among her articles that have been published in refereed journals and encyclopaedias: 'Defamiliarization and the Poetry of e.e. cummings', in The Alberta New Music and Arts Review (1999-2002); 'Forugh Farrokhzad's Poetry and the Reader's Experience', in Crossing Boundaries—An Interdisciplinary Journal (2001); 'The Sacred and the Erotic Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi and John Donne: A Comparison', in Canadian Review of Comparative Literature (2000); 'May Swenson' in Jeffrey Gray ed.  The Greenwood Encyclopaedia of American Poetry (2006); 'Ahdaf Soueif: In the Eye of the Sun' and 'Jose Saramago: Blindness' in S. Peacock ed.Beacham's Encyclopaedia of Popular Fiction (2001).

Mohammad Hossein Manzoorolajdad was born in 1961 and is professor of the history of Islam at Tarbiat-e Modarres University. He earned his BA in history from Mashhad University in 1984 and his BA in History from The University of Tehran in 1993, and received his PhD in history from Tarbiat-e Modarres University in 2002. His main areas of research include the history of early Islam, Shiites during the Saljuqs, and the Shiite clerical institution. His most recent publications include the following:\ 'The Political Power of Imamiyyah in the Saljuq Era' in Journal of the History of Islam (2004); 'Shiite Naqibs in the Saljuq Era' in P. Soltani and M. Karimi Zanjani eds  A Collection of Essay in Commemoration of Dr Ali Mazinani(2004); 'Politics and Clothing, Selected Records on the Unification of Clothing (1928-1939)' inIranian National Archives (2001); 'The Basasiri Revolt and Its Consequences for the Shiites of Baghdad', in Journal of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities (2001); Religious Authority in the Arena of Society and Politics (2000).

Afshin Marashi is an Assistant Professor of History at California State University, Sacramento. He completed his PhD in History at UCLA in 2003. His dissertation received honourable mention from the Foundation for Iranian Studies in the 2003 Best Dissertation of the Year competition. His research interests include modern Iranian cultural and intellectual history as well as the comparative study of state-building and nationalism. His forthcoming book, Nationalizing Iran: Culture, Power, and the State, 1870-1940, will be published by the University of Washington Press as part of their Studies in Modernity and National Identity series. His published articles include: 'Performing the Nation: The Official State Visit of Reza Shah to Kemalist Turkey, June to July 1934', in S. Cronin ed. The Making of Modern Iran: State and Society under Reza Shah, 1921-1941 (2003); and 'The Nation's Poet: Ferdausi and the Iranian National Imagination' in T. Atabaki ed., Historiography and Political Culture in Twentieth Century Iran (forthcoming). He has also published numerous reviews in Iranian Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, the Journal of Iranian Research and Analysis, and Critique.

Roxanne D Marcotte, BA (UQAM), Grad Cert (Edu) (University of Queensland), MA and PhD (Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University), is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of Queensland (Australia) in Arabic and Islamic Studies. She was FCAR Postdoctoral Fellow (IFEAD, Damascus; IFRI and The University of Tehran) (2000-2002), P. Kraus Visiting Fellow, Yale University (2004), ISAM Centre for Islamic Studies Visiting Fellow, Istanbul (2005), CAMES Affiliate, American University in Beirut and affiliated Researcher at CEMAM, Universite Saint Joseph, Beirut (2006). Her research interests include Arabic and Persian philosophy, contemporary Islamic thought, and gender in Islam. Her publications include 'Preliminary Notes on the Life and Work of Abu al-Abbas al-Lawkari (d. after 503/1109)' in Anaquel de estudios arabes (forthcoming); 'L'aperception de soi chez Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi et l'heritage avicennien' in Laval Theologique et Philosophique(forthcoming); 'Resurrection (ma'ad) in the Persian Hayat al-Nufus of Isma'il Muhammad Ibn Rizi (fl. ca. 679 / 1280): The Avicennan Background' in Interpreting Avicenna: Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islam (2004); 'La conversion tardive d'un philosophe: Abu al- Barakat al-Baghdadi sur 'L'Intellect et sa quidditι' (al-'Aql wa mahiyyatu-hu)' in Documenti e studi sulla tradizione filosofica medievale (2004); 'The Relation between Freedom and Religion: An Iranian Discussion' in Australian Religion Studies Review (2005); 'Identity, Power, and the Islamist Discourse on Women: An Exploration of Islamism and Gender Issues in Egypt' inIslam in World Politics (2005); 'How Far Have Reforms Gone in Islam' in Women's Studies International Forum (2003).

Mina Marefat is an architectural historian, urban designer, and registered architect with a PhD from MIT and Master's degrees in architecture and urban design from Harvard as well as The University of Tehran. Among her honours are grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Social Science Research Council.  She has also served as Rockefeller Scholar at the Library of Congress.  She directs the Cities Program (www.citiesprojects.org) to advance public awareness of architecture, sustainability, and cultural understanding through such programmes as the recent Tehran and Bam conferences held at the Library of Congress, and the upcoming Baghdad conference in Boston. Her practice as principal at Design Research has focused on the revitalisation and rehabilitation of cities including Washington, Newark, Tehran, Isfahan, and Bam; in each case integrating redevelopment with cultural heritage preservation. Prior to that she was a research associate at the National Gallery of Art and senior architectural historian at the Smithsonian Institution; and as Director of architectural education at the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Switzerland, she developed a blueprint for improving architectural education in the Muslim world. Dr Marefat teaches at Johns Hopkins University and Catholic University where she initiated an extended research project and publication on the reconstruction of Bam after its devastating earthquake. She has taught at MIT, Wesleyan, and Technical University in Vienna, Austria, and has lectured and published extensively on twentieth-century architecture, pioneers of the modern movement, the city of Washington, and the architecture of the Qajar and Pahlavi era in Iran. Her original research focuses on cultural encounters between East and West with an upcoming book on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright in Baghdad. 

Richard C Martin is Professor of Islamic Studies and History of Religions and former Chair of the Department of Religion at Emory University. He earned the PhD in Near Eastern Studies at New York University in 1975 and is the author of numerous books and articles on Islam, including Islamic Studies: A History of Religions Approach (1996) and Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mutazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol with M. Woodward and D. Atmaja (1997). He is editor-in-chief of The Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim World (2004).  Journal editorial board service includes the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Dr Martin is currently vice president of the American Research Center in Egypt and a member of the Board of Governors and Executive Committee. His current research includes Mu`tazili studies, the poetics of religious disputation and conflict, religion and violence, and comparative religions. He has lectured on Islamic topics in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America.  In 2005-06 he was a Senior Fellow at Emory University's Center for Humanistic Inquiry, where he is working on a book on Islam and secularism.

Vanessa Martin is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has written three books, Islam and Modernism: The Iranian Revolution of 1906 (1989); Creating an Islamic State (2000); The Qajar Pact: Bargaining, Protest and the State in Qajar Iran (2005). She has also edited two volumes, Women Religion and Culture in Iran (2001); and Anglo Iranian Relations since 1800 (2005). She is the Series Editor and Chair of the Publication Committee of the British Institute of Persian Studies, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Fatemeh Masjedi is studying for her MA in Politics and Government at the Illinois State University, Normal, where she received a Women Studies Graduate Certificate in 2006 and an MA in History (2005). She did her undergraduate work at The University of Tehran (BA 1995). Her publications include Tarikh-e alam araye Abbasi, with M.I. Rezvani eds (1998); 'Gender and Historiography of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905(I)' in Women's Studies Newsletter (1999); Eid-e Omar: An Annual Celebration among Women in Qom' inBadJens (2000).

Hafiz Abid Masood is lecturer at the Department of English, International Islamic University, Islamabad. He is currently working on his MPhil dissertation titled 'Images of Persia in Seventeenth Century English Drama with special reference to The Travels of Three English Brothers, The Sophy and Mirza: A Tragedy' from Government College University, Lahore. His reserach interests are focused on the images of Islam and Muslims in literature and film. He has recently published a bibliography on Islam in medieval and early modern English literature in Islamic Studies, a journal published by Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad.

Reza Masoudi-Nejad is an architect and urban morphologist who holds an MSc in architecture, design based, from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran in 1996. He also holds an MSc of Built Environment, Advanced Architectural Studies (AAS), research based, from the Bartlett School of Built Environment, University College London in 2003. He is currently doing his PhD research at DPU, Bartlett, under the supervision of Michael Safier. His research is mainly about the interaction between urban society and spaces, and particularly about spatial changes of social life and the religious ritual during the modern transformation of Iranian cities. His publications include 'Reasoning Art; or the Need for an Analytic Theory of Architecture', in Abadi (2005).

Kamran Matin received his BA in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia, UK, in 2002 and his MSc in Social Research Methods (International Relations) from the University of Sussex, UK,  in 2003.  He is now a DPhil candidate in International Relations at the University of Sussex. His doctoral thesis is entitled 'The Mystic Revolution: An International Historical Sociology of the Iranian Revolution'. He is an associate tutor for Contemporary International Theories course at the University of Sussex. His research interests include historical sociology, international theory, theories of revolution, state formation and development, Islamic and Iranian politics. His recent publications include 'Uneven and Combined Development and Revolution of Backwardness: The Iranian Constitutional Revolution 1906-1911' in B. Dunn and H. Radice eds., 100 Years of Permanent Revolution: Results and Prospects (2006); 'Ein US-gefuehrter Regimewechsel liegt nicht im Interesse der iranischen Bevoelkerung' in the online journal Friedenspolitischer Ratschlag(2006); 'Synergism of the Neo-Cons' in the online journal Counterpunch (2006).

Afshin Matin-Asgari is an associate professor in the Department of History, California State University, Los Angeles. He completed his PhD in Middle East History at UCLA in 1993. His publications include Iranian Student Opposition to the Shah (2000) and numerous book reviews and articles in journals such as Iranian Studies and Critique.

Rudolph Matthee is Professor of Middle Eastern History at the University of Delaware.  He received his BA and MA in Arabic and Persian Language and Literature from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. He studied in Iran (1976-77) and in Egypt (1981-83) and holds a PhD in Islamic Studies from UCLA (1991).  He taught at the University of Denver, 1991-93, and since 1993 he has been at the University of Delaware.  Dr Matthee is the author of The Politics of Trade in Safavid Iran: Silk for Silver, 1600-1730 (1999) (recipient of prize for Best Non-Persian Language Book on Iranian History, 1999, awarded by the Iranian Ministry of Culture; honourable mention for Best Book on the Middle East Published in Britain, 1999) and the The Pursuit of Pleasure: Drugs and Stimulants in Iranian History, 1500-1900 (2005).  He is the co-editor with B. Baron of Iran and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Nikki R Keddie (2000); and co-editor with Nikki Keddie of Iran and the Surrounding World: Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics (2002). He has produced some 35 articles on Safavid and Qajar Iran dealing with issues of political, socio-economic and material history. He was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2002-03) and the President of the Association of Persian-Speaking Societies (2003-2005). Dr Matthee is the Book Review Editor of Iranian Studies.

Matin Mehryar studied Medicine at Tabriz University and obtained his MD degree from this university in 1996. During his medical education, he paid special attention to psychology and psychiatry and wrote his medical thesis in this field entitled 'Evaluation of Relation Between Stress and Blood Cancer in Males and Females in the 30-50 Age Group'. He is currently a practising physician in Tehran, where he also teaches 'Population & Family Planning' at the Science and Research Centre of Islamic Azad University. Dr Mehryar has also pursued his interest in psychology, social psychology and sociology and continued his studies principally in these fields with emphasis on social behaviour, social health, personality psychology, interpersonal and intergroup relationships and personality development. During these studies he published various articles in Iranian magazines and newspapers, such as: 'The Effects of Social Infrastructure on Bulimia Nervosa', 'Modernity and Male – Female Behavioural Changes', 'Aggressive Personalities in Metropolises'; 'Psychology and Psychiatry in Michel Foucault's View'; 'The Widespread Depression of the Iranian Society'; 'Confronting Tradition and Modernity; the Case of Iranian Society and it's Psychological Consequences'.

Charles Melville is a Reader in Persian History at the University of Cambridge. He received his BA in Arabic and Persian from Cambridge University (1972), his MA in Islamic History from SOAS (1973) and his PhD from Cambridge University (1978) with a thesis on the historical seismicity of Iran, 600-1800. He has travelled extensively in Iran, 1974-78 researching on historical earthquakes; he is co-author with N. N. Ambraseys of A History of Persian Earthquakes (1982, 2005) and with N. N. Ambraseys and R. D. Adams, The Seismicity of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea (1988, 2005). He was joint editor of the Cambridge History of Iran, vol. VII. His research interests include: history of Iran in the Mongol to Safavid periods, Persian historiography, and illustrated manuscripts. He is also Director of the AHRC Cambridge Shahname Project.

Jaclyn Michael is a recent graduate of Harvard University (ALB 2005). She recently returned from a six-month research trip to Hyderabad, India, where she spent time with and explored the Shiite women's community and their rituals during the commemorative time of Muharram. Her current research interests include Shiite ritual and azadari, Indo-Islamic studies, Indo-Iranian studies, and women's relationships with divine religious figures. In the future, she plans to pursue doctoral studies in the areas of Shiism, Islamic ritual, and women's studies. 

Marcus Michaelsen is a PhD candidate at the department of Media Studies at the Universitat Erfurt. He received his MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Universite de Provence, Aix-en-Provence (2003) with a thesis on the use of the Internet by the Shiite clergy in Qom. From 2004 to 2006 he has been research fellow at the IFRI (Tehran) investigating the role of the Internet in Iran. His research interests include: Media in the Middle East, democratisation processes and Iranian politics. He is the author of 'Howze en ligne: La vitrine virtuelle des clercs de Qom' in Reseaux (2006) and 'Sermons in Cyberspace: Religious Authorities and the Internet in the Islamic Republic of Iran' in Westminster Papers of Communication and Culture(forthcoming).

Robert S Miller is a recognised expert on political, economic and military issues relating to the Middle East, and speaks at conferences and forums in the United States and abroad. Recently Mr Miller has been engaged in trying to create the basis for a democratic government in Iraq. He and associates created ZOR Foundation, Inc., in 1995, promoting international peace and understanding through research, education, and training in the peaceful resolution of international conflict. In the last decade, ZOR Foundation has published significant research exposing the chemical weapons injuries among Iraqi and American populations present in Iraq. Mr Miller was born in New York in 1941. From 1946 to 1966 he received his education in Istanbul, Beirut, Cairo, Rome, and Baghdad. He received his Bachelors degree in Baghdad in 1964 from Iraq's sitting President, who complimented him for being the only American ever to graduate from an Iraqi University. Mr Miller served for eleven years with the United States Air Force in Southeast Asia, Germany, and Iran, before joining General Dynamics in 1977 as its Middle East Director of Operations, and based in Athens, Greece. In 1984 he joined an offshore international Financial Group in Nicosia, Cyprus, as its Director of Group Operations, working Middle East banking, trade, and oil issues. Over the years he has met most of the political, military, and commercial leaders of Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf States, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. Returning to the United States in late 1990, after a cumulative forty years in the international arena, Mr Miller became a senior Middle East analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington DC, until 1994. In 1997 he was elected as a city Commissioner in Central Florida and is currently serving in his third term of four years.

Nima Mina received an MA in General Linguistics from the University of Marburg, a Doctorat-es-Lettres and DESS in music from the Universite de Montreal. He is a faculty member at the Near and Middle East Department at SOAS and has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Utah, Michigan, Ohio State and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris. He is currently working on his Habilitation thesis in the field of Diaspora Studies at the University of Berne in Switzerland. His publications include works on multilingual European writers of Iranian descent, translation studies, European orientalism with special reference to Austria and Switzerland, post-revolution Iranian diaspora literature and memoir writing.

Hassan Mirabedini studied Persian literature and the humanities. He teaches literature and literary criticism at the University of Zanjan. He has published extensively on the history and development of modern Persian fiction. Mirabedini is a frequent contributor to theEncyclopaedia of Literature, the Encyclopaedia of Persian Languages and Literature, andEncyclopaedia Iranica, as well as, the renowned journals such as BukahraGoft-o-Gu, andNegah-e Now. He has delivered lectures in many national and international literary seminars, and has served as jury on selection committees of numerous literary awards. He is the author of several books on various aspects of modern Persian fiction, and trends in modern Persian prose literature, including: Bio-bibliography of Persian Novelists (1990) and most recently, A Hundred Years of Fiction Writing in Persia (four volumes, 2003).

Alireza Miralinaghi is a Music Researcher and Historian, as well as being a santur player and an expert on radif.  His many responsibilities and positions include: Supervisor of the Department of Music and Art History in the World of Islam and Shiite Encyclopaedia and Director of the 'Professional Music Knowledge' programme of Radio Farhang in Iran. In addition to his two books Musiqinameh-ye Vaziri (1999) and 150 Years of Iranian Music: A Chronology (1994-2004), he has published in more then 70 articles in Persian encyclopaedias, periodical and monthly musical magazines, including: 'Berksheli Mehdi', 'Badizadeh Javad', 'Banan Gholamhosein', 'Bigjehkhani Gholamhosein' all in Islamic Encyclopaedia (1999-2005); 'Khandaniha-ye Honari dar Iran: Farahani' in the Journal of the Islamic and Culture and Art Research Center (2006).

Amir Mirfakhraie [BA (Simon Fraser University, SFU), MA (SFU), PhD (ABD, University of British Columbia, UBC)] teaches Introduction to Society, Sociology of Education, Racialisation & Ethnic Relations in Canada and Sociology of Development and Underdevelopment as a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Kwantlen University College. He also teaches Educational Anthropology at the Faculty of Education, UBC. He is finishing his PhD at the Department of Educational Studies at UBC. His research interests include anti-racism education, transnationalism, Iranian ethnic studies, Canadian 'race' and ethnic relations, multiculturalism and curriculum studies.  His current research involves the analysis of Iranian elementary and guidance school textbooks. He has presented several papers on the immigration of Iranians to Canada and British Columbia, anti-racist approaches to teaching about ethnic and racial diversity in Canada, and the construction of national identity, family, 'race', ethnicity, gender, and family in Iranian school textbooks at a number of conferences.  He is a member of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada (CIESC). At Kwantlen, he is involved in the development and implementation of the BA Minor/Major in Sociology.

Orkhan Mir-Kasimov is a PhD student in Religious Studies (Islamology) at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses. His dissertation, entitled 'Etude de textes hurufi anciens', is a study of the unpublished manuscripts of the Hurufi movement, especially of Javidannameh, the major work of Fadlallah Astarabadi, founder of the trend (Iran, 14th century). Mr Mir-Kasimov holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) 1999 and a Diploma of EPHE 1998. His research interests include the Hurufi movement: history, texts and doctrine; Science of letters in Islam, its origins, its connections with the other occult sciences (arithmology, alchemy, divining techniques); Esoteric and gnostic trends in Islam; 'Extremist' (ghulat) Shiite movements and syncretic doctrines in Islam. His publications include: 'Deux textes hurufi: Javidan-name de Fadlallah Astarabadi et l'un de ses commentaires, Mahram-name de Seyyid Ishaq' in Studia Iranica (forthcoming).

Behnaz Mirzai-Asl graduated from Shahid Beheshti University with a BA in Iranian and Islamic History in 1990, from York University in Canada with an MA in African History in 1994 and obtained her PhD in 2004 from the same university. The title of her dissertation was 'Slavery, the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and the Emancipation of Slaves in Iran, 1828- 1928'She taught history in the Department of History at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and in 2006 became an Assistant Professor at Brock University, Canada. She is currently co-editing a book Islam, Slavery and Diaspora. She is also the author of several published and forthcoming articles including 'African Presence in Iran: Identity and its Reconstruction' in O. Petre-Grenouilleau ed. Traites et Esclavages: Vieux Problemes, Nouvelles Perspectives? (2002); 'The 1848 abolitionist Farman: A Step Towards Ending the Slave Trade in Iran' in G. Cambell ed.  Abolition and Its Aftermath in the Indian Ocean Africa and Asia (2005);'The Slave Trade and the African Diaspora in Iran' in A. Sheriff ed. Monsoon and Migration: Unleashing Dhow Synergies (2005); ' Le commerce des esclaves africains dans l'Iran du dix-neuvième siècle', in S. de Silva Jayasuriya and J.-P. Angenot eds The African Diaspora in Asia I: Historical Facts (forthcoming); 'Spirit Possession and Afro-Iranian Diaspora,' in S. de Silva Jayasuriya and J.-P. Angenot eds The African Diaspora in Asia II: The Contemporary Afro-Asian Communities (forthcoming).

Colin P Mitchell received his PhD in Medieval Persian History from the University of Toronto in 2002.  His dissertation was on diplomacy in Safavid Iran and was given an honourable mention by the Foundation for Iranian Studies in 2003. He has been awarded both a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship (held at Cornell University in 2002-03) and a Social Sciences and Research Humanities Council postdoctoral fellowship (held at Dalhousie University in 2003-04).  He is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. He has published studies on various aspects of Safavid and Mughal history, including Sir Thomas Roe and the Mughal Empire (2000), 'To Preserve and Protect: Husain Va'iz Kashifi and Perso-Islamic Chancellery Culture' in Iranian Studies (2003); 'Sister Shi`a States? Iran and the Deccan in the Sixteenth Century' in Deccan Studies (2004); various entries for Encyclopaedia IranicaEncyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.), and Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopaedia. He is currently researching and writing a book on rhetoric and chancellery culture in 16th-century Safavid Iran.

Mansoor Moaddel received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison ans studies culture, ideology, political conflict, revolution and social change. His work currently focuses on the causes and consequences of values and attitudes of the Middle Eastern and Islamic publics. Supported by several grants from the National Science Foundation, and other academic foundations, he has carried out values surveys in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. He has also carried out youth surveys in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His previous research project analysed the determinants of ideological production in the Islamic world. He teaches sociology of religion, ideology, revolution, Islam and the Middle East. He also teaches statistics and research methods. His latest publications are Islamic Modernism, Nationalism, and Fundamentalism: Episode and Discourse (2005); Values and Perceptions of the Islamic Publics: Findings from Values Surveys (2006); 'The Saudi Public Speaks: Religion, Gender, and Politics' in International Journal of Middle East Studies (2006).

Fatemeh Etemad Moghadam received her DPhil Economics from the University of Oxford (1973-79). She also holds an MA in Economics (Columbia University 1968) and a BA in Economics (Barnard College 1967). She is currentlyProfessor of Economics at Hofstra University. She was a Member of Council, The Association for Iranian Studies, (1990-1992); a Member of Board, Middle East Economic Association (1992-1994), an Executive Secretary January (1994-1996), President (1996-December 1999) and Honorary Board Member (since 1999). Her publications include From Land Reform to The Revolution: The Political Economy of Agricultural Development in Iran (1960-1979) (1996); 'An Historical Interpretation of the Iranian Revolution' in Cambridge Journal of Economics (1988); 'Commoditization and Regulation of Sexuality and Female Labor Participation in Islam: Implications on Iran (1960-1990)' in M. Afkhami and E. Friedel eds. In The Eye of The Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran (1994); 'Women, Gender and Agricultural Labor: Iran' in Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (forthcoming, 2006); 'Women, Gender and Informal Sector: Iran' in Encyclopaedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (forthcoming, 2006); 'Iran's New Islamic Home Economics: an Exploratory Attempt to conceptualise Women's Work in the Islamic Republic' in Research in the Middle East Economics ( 2001); 'Women and the Labor in the Islamic Republic of Iran' in L. Beck and G. Nashat eds. Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic (2004).

Saeed Moghimi was born in 1970 in Kermanshah. He is a Lecturer and PhD candidate at Islamic Azad Islamic University - Tehran. He received his BA (1995) MA (1999) from Azad Islamic University - Karaj. His MA dissertation is titled 'The Political Thought of Modarres'. He has taught various courses such as Social and Political Development in Iran and Islamic Revolution of Iran. His publications include: 'People and Political Elites' in Aftab Magazine(2003); 'Democracy, Challenges and Responses' in Aftab Magazine (2003); 'Ulama and Modernity in the Age of Constitutionalism. Case Study Modarres' in Political Science Quarterly(2004).

Mehdi Mohabbati is Assistant Professor at Zanjan University. He received his BA (1988) and his MA (1992) in Persian Literature from Ferdowsi University in Mashhad and his PhD from the University of Tehran in 1996. His dissertation was entitled 'Mystical Symbols in Persian Literature'. His professional career started as a Lecturer at Ferdowsi University (1988-1990), followed by positions as Associate Professor at the University of Tehran and the Islamic Azad University from 1994 to 2000, and also Vice President of the Islamic Azad University from 1996 to 1998. From 2001 to 2004 he was Director of the Languages and Literature Department of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. Dr Mohabbati's publications include (all in Persian): The Windows of Life (1996); Rationalism in Persian Literature (1999); Mystical Symbols in Persian Poetry (1999); New Rhetoric in Persian Literature (2000); New Popular Persian (2000); To Be Human from Iqbal's Point of View (2001); Symbols of Mystical Poetry(tr.) (2003); al-Loma fi tasawwof (tr.) (2003) and The Blue Verses (2004).


Mehdi Mohaghegh completed his schooling in Tehran, and later received the Certificate of Higher Studies in Theology (Ijtihad) in Qum. He obtained his PhD in both Ilahiyyat and Persian Literature from the University of Tehran, where he started teaching in 1960. He has been visiting professor at SOAS (1961-1963), McGill-IIS/Montreal (1965-1968), and ISTAC/Kuala Lumpur (1991-1996). He is a member of the Egyptian and Syrian Academies of Arabic Language, as well as the Royal Academy of Al al-Bayt in Jordan. At present Dr Mohaghegh is the Executive Director of the Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries in Tehran, Permanent Member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature and Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies Tehran-McGill Universities. He is author of a large number of works on various subjects in Persian, Arabic and English, for which he has won many awards.

Farshad Mohammadi is a composer and player of the santur.  He began studying the santurfrom an early age. His teachers of Persian music were Parviz Meshkatian and Pashang Kamkar. His innovative approach towards playing the santur is based on his perception of values inherent in Persian classical music. He is currently a research fellow at the faculty of music at SOAS. His research focuses on the different genres of santur playing in the 20th century. He is part of the Musical Performance Committee of the University of London and a member of the ethnomusicology and musicology association in Holland. His publications include: 'The Music of Sufi Tarighat (groups) of Iran, Syria and Turkey' in Ethnomusicology Journal (2005-6); 'Music and Trance' in WDR Music Magazine (2005).

Moojan Momen was born in Iran but raised and educated in England, attending the University of Cambridge. He is an independent Scholar and has a special interest in the study of the Baha'i Faith and Shiite Islam, both from the viewpoint of their history and their doctrines. In recent years, his interests have extended to the study of the phenomenon of religion. His principal publications in this field include: Introduction to Shi`i Islam (1985); The Babi and Baha'i Faiths 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts (1982); and The Phenomenon of Religion (1999). He has contributed articles to Encyclopaedia Iranica andEncyclopaedia of the Modern Islamic World as well as papers to academic journals such asInternational Journal of Middle East StudiesPast and PresentIran, Iranian Studies andReligion. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.

Bahman Moradian obtained a BA in Cultures and Languages of Ancient Iran from the Institute for Science and Cultural Studies in Tehran, and then continued his studies in Paris. At present he is a PhD student at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, and his dissertation is entitled 'Translation and Analysis of the Avestan and Pahlavi text 'Ab Zohr' Yasna 63-69'. This research focuses on translating and analysing the Avestan text and its Pahlavi version. His publications include a review of 'Ainsi vont les enfants de Zarathoustra' in Amordad (2004);Sédré Poushi (2000).

Tomoko Morikawa graduated from Kyoto University in 1994 and completed the Master's programme, Kyoto University, with the degree of a Master of Arts in Historical Studies in 1996. Dr Morikawa studied at The University of Tehran (1997-2000) on a scholarship awarded by the Japanese Ministry of Education and received a PhD degree from Kyoto University in 2005. She was a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2003-2006) and since 2006 has been  Associate Professor of the Graduate School of Letters (Division of History and Area Studies), Hokkaido University. Dr Morikawa's research interests focus on culture and history of Shiite Iran and some selected publications are: 'The Mausoleum City of Mashhad-e Moqaddas under Safavid Rule' (in Japanese) in Shirin (1997); 'Bibliographical Notes on Safarnameh Materials of the Qajar Period' (in Japanese) in Bulletin of the Society for Western and Southern Asiatic Studies (2000); Shiite Pilgrimage of the Nineteenth-Century Iran (in Japanese) (forthcoming).

Kazuo Morimoto received his DLitt from the University of Tokyo in 2004 and his MA from the same university in 1995.  Since 2004 Dr Morimoto has been Associate Professor at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, and before that he was Associate Professor at the Faculty of Letters, Hokkaido University from (2001 -2004); and Research Associate at Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo (1996-2001). His research interests focus on the comparative study on sadat/ashraf in different Muslim societies; historiographical study on the genealogical literature of sadat/ashraf; and history of Shiism. His publications include 'Toward the Formation of Sayyido/Sharifology: Questioning Accepted Fact' in  Journal of Sophia Asian Studies (2004); 'A Preliminary Study on the Diffusion of the Niqaba al-Talibiyyin' in H. Kuroki ed. The Influence of Human Mobility in Muslim Societies (2003); 'The Formation and Development of the Science of Talibid Genealogies in the 10th and 11th Century Middle East' in Oriente Moderno (1999); 'Sheklgiri-ye elm-e ansab-e Al ibn Abi Talib dar qorun-e chaharom va panjom-e hejri' in Majalleh-ye daneshkadeh-ye adabiyat va olum-e ensani-ye danishgah-e Mashhad (1996).

A H Morton completed his undergraduate degree in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. From 1979 until retirement he was Lecturer in Persian at SOAS. His main interests are Persian literature and the history of Iran in the Islamic period. Publications include the translation of Michele Membre, Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia (second edition 1999) and a critical edition of Zahir al-Din Nishapuri's Saljuqnama (2004).

Norma Claire Moruzzi is Associate Professor of Political Science and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received a PhD in Political Science from The Johns Hopkins University in 1990. Her research interests focus on the intersections of gender, religion, and national identity, particularly for Jewish and Muslim women. Her bookSpeaking through the Mask: Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Social Identity (2000) won the 2002 Gradiva Award, and she has published articles on Iranian cinema, politicised veiling in France and Algeria, contemporary feminist approaches to female circumcision, and 19th century intersections of religious revivalism and imperial policy. Her current project is a book analysing transformations in Iranian women's lives since the 1979 Revolution, tentatively titled Tied up in Tehran: Women, Social Change, and the Politics of Daily Life. Since 1998 she has been regularly conducting fieldwork in Iran, as well as participating in and conducting workshops and contributing to local journals. She has developed close working relationships with a network of individuals, including established senior academics, editors, and planners, as well as a relatively new generation of recent PhDs, students, and independent researchers.

Amy Motlagh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.  She holds the MFA degree in Creative Writing from New York University and a BA in English literature from Pomona College.  Her research interests include modern Persian literature and history; the literature of the Iranian diaspora; intersections in the modern Arab and Iranian literary traditions; and how questions of genre, gender and identity are negotiated in literary communities at home and in diaspora, Her dissertation focuses on the development of feminine voice and subjectivity in modern Persian prose narratives.  She has presented papers at the annual MESA convention in 2004, the 2004 AIS convention, and a special conference convened at Yale University in 2005 in cooperation with the CUNY Middle East and Middle Eastern-American Center entitled 'Middle Eastern Diasporas'.  Her poems have appeared in several journals and were published as a chapbook entitled The Litany of Farewells (1997); her work has also appeared recently in an anthology of writing by Iranian women in diaspora entitled Let Me Tell You Where I've Been.  An article entitled 'Interpreters of Culture:  Iterations of Authority in the Literature of the Iranian-American Diaspora' is forthcoming. 

Mohammad Karim Mottaghi studied conservation and restoration of historical artifacts at Pardis College in Isfahan, where he completed his BA and MA degrees culminating in a dissertation entitled  'Use, Conservation and Restoration of Stone in the Architecture of Safavid Buildings in Isfahan'. He worked extensively on restorations of the Masjed-e Shah of Isfahan and other buildings. He also worked on a study of 'Brick Motifs on the Safavid Buildings in Julfa-Isfahan', focusing particularly on the reconstruction of the building of Khajeh Petros Velijanian. He presently is Senior Expert in the section of building restorations at the Miras-e Farhangi of Isfahan. He has also worked on the Reconstruction of tiles in Masjed-e Hakim, the Masjed-e Shah, the Masjed-e Sheikh Lotfallah, the Ali Qapu as well as the Talar-i Ashraf and supervised the architectural restoration of  numerous buildings in Golpaygan and Natanz. He teaches at the Somayyeh Technical College of Najafabad and Gaz-e Borkhar of Isfahan, where he specialises in courses covering the conservation of stone in Central and Western Asia: Persepolis and Bistun of Iran, in cooperation with ICCROM-RCCCR-ICHO as well as regional training courses on conservation practices for the safeguarding of archaeological remains in Haft Tappeh of Shush-Choghazanbil, under the auspices of ICHO-UNESCO-Japan funds. His publications include 'Qeshm Island's Potentials', 'Acquaintance with Vegetation of Geshm' and 'Mortars - Stone- Cultural Heritage' inGostaresh (2003-5); 'The Menar-e Jonban' in Abadgaran Magazin (1996). Several articles on Isfahan are forthcoming in TavoosIranian Art Quarterly: on the buildings of Julfa, Isfahan's Bridges, Yerevand-a water-colourist, the Churches and Synagogues of Isfahan, as well as paintings in the Chehel Sotun. He has further published research on cultural history, including a study of Turkmen Women's ornaments and traditional needle work, documenting  traditional arts of Gonbad-e Qabus and Bandar-e Torkaman in Golestan province as well as a study of Jewish women's ornaments in the province of Isfahan.

Ali Mousavi took his BA in Art History, and his MA in Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Lyons. He was the first Guitty Azarpay Fellow, and obtained his doctorate in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2005. He has excavated in France, Turkey, and Iran, and contributed to the registration of important historical monuments such as Pasargadae and Takht-e Soleiman, to the World Heritage List of UNESCO. He is currently leading the restoration and research project of the enigmatic monument of the Zendan-e Soleiman at Pasargadae, which involves experts from Iran, Italy, and Germany. Among his projects in progress are two books, one on Gerster's air photographs of the historical sites in Iran, and the other on recent archaeological activities in Iran. His interests range from the archaeology of second millennium B.C. in Iran to Achaemenid architecture and archaeology as well as late medieval art and archaeology in Iran and Europe. He worked as a Fellow of the Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art, in Washington D.C., and as a guest scholar/consultant at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. He is now a Research Associate at the University of California, Berkeley, and Assistant Curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His publications include: 'Why Darius Built Persepolis' in Archaeology Odyssey (2005); 'Comments on the Early Iron Age Iran' Iranica Antiqua, (2005); 'Ernst Herzfeld, politics and antiquities legislation in Iran: 1900-1950' in A. C. Gunter and S. Hauser eds Ernst Herzfeld and the Development of Near Eastern Studies (2005); 'Persepolis in Retrospect: Histories of Discovery and Archaeological Exploration at the Ruins of Ancient Parseh' in Ars Orientalis, (2002); 'La region de Teheran a l'aube de l'age du Fer: reflexions et commentaires sur les nécropoles du IIe millenaire av J-C' in Iranica Antiqua (2001); 'La ville de Parsa. Quelques observations sur la topographie et le systeme defensif de Persepolis' in Iranica Antiqua, (1997); 'Early Archaeological Adventures and Methodological Problems in Iranian Archaeology: The Evidence from Susa' in Iranica Antiqua, (1996).

Ali Mozaffari is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts of the University of Western Australia. He is conducting his research in the fields of architecture and theory of heritage with a strong focus on Iran. He studied architecture at the University of Tehran's Faculty of Fine Arts between 1986 and 1995, when he obtained his Masters degree. Ali Mozaffari has been involved in teaching and studying architecture in Iranian and Australian universities in different capacities since 1998. In his professional capacity as a design architect, Ali Mozaffari has collaborated with architectural firms in Iran and Australia. His architectural designs and artistic endeavours have been recognised in awards, international publications, and exhibitions. Ali Mozaffari's research interests focus on the architecture of museums, museology, and theory of heritage in non-Western countries and traditional cultures. His publications include: 'The National Museum of Australia, a Site of Mimesis' in M. Ostwald and S. Fleming eds. Antipodean Museums: Museum, Gallery and Cultural Architecture in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, and the Associated Pacific Region (Working Title)(2006); 'A Riddle of National Identity Unravelling the National Museum of Australia (NMA)' in H. Edquist and H. Frichot eds.  Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) 21st Annual Conference (2004); 'Architecture as a Fragment of Progress: The Case of the Glassware and Ceramic Museum' in G. Hartoonian ed.SAHANZ 20th Annual Conference (2003).

Eden Naby is a cultural historian concentrated on the area from Iraq to Central Asia. Since completing her PhD at Columbia University in 1975, she has published extensively on Assyrians, as well as the Tajiks, Afghans, Turkmens, Uighurs and Kurds. Her first bookAfghanistan: Mullah, Marx and Mujahid, with R. H. Magnus (reprinted 2002) is a seminal source on modern Afghanistan and particularly useful for its analysis of that country's ethnic and religious minorities. Dr Naby is a native Aramaic speaker from Iran. Her recent articles include 'A Memorial to an Assyrian Refugee, 1922' in C. Amin et al. eds The Modern Middle East: A Sourcebook for History (2005); two articles in S. Mehendale and T. Atabegi edsCentral and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora (2005); 'The Afghan Diaspora: Reflections on an Imagined Country', 'The Assyrian Diaspora: Cultural Survival in the Absence of State Structure' and 'Assyrian Nationalism in Iraq: Survival under Religious and Ethnic Threat' in W. Burszta, T. Kamusella, S. Wojciechowski eds. Nationalisms Across The Globe (2005); 'From Lingua Franca to Endangered Language: The Legal Aspects of the Preservation of Aramaic in Iraq' in J.A. Argenter and R. McKenna Brown eds. On the Margins of Nations: Endangered Languages and Language Rights (2004) as well as editorials in The New York Times and the webblog Informed Comment. She has also mounted three exhibits at Harvard University(1998,1999) and Boston Public Library (2005).

Shahnaz R Nadjmabadi is a Social Anthropologist and has been a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Institut fuer Historische Ethnologie at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitaet in Frankfurt/Main (Germany) since 2002. Her research is focused on the interrelationships between the populations living in the Iranian coastal areas and their neighbours in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. She has been a Lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Heidelberg since 1986, as well as teaching at the Free University Berlin and at the University of Maryland/Heidelberg. In 1973 she received a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Heidelberg, with a thesis on kinship systems among the nomadic populations of Luristan. After teaching at the University of Zurich from 1974 to 1977, she worked at UNESCO in Paris from 1977 to 1986, where she was supervising activities related to human settlement and environment. She was also a member of the working group le Monde Iranien Contemporain of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris). She has published a number of articles on questions of identity, locality and the history of settlement in the province of Hormozgan (Persian Gulf). Her recent publications include 'From Alien to Own and Back: Field Experiences in Iran' inIranian Studies (2005); 'Arabisiert oder Iranisiert? Siedlungsgeschichte in der Iranischen Provinz Hormozgan am Persischen Golf' in Welt des Islam (2004).

Reza Najafi received his BA in German Language Translation from Islamic Azad University. He has edited and translated several books and is the author of many publications including:An Introduction to the Contemporary Novel in the West (1999); Hermann Hesse and 'Kleine Freude' (2000); Friedrich Nietzsche and his Aphorisms (2001) and From Kafka to Grass: A Research on Fiction Writing in Twentieth Century Germany (2006). He has also edited and translated several books, and written more than 250 articles and essays book reviews and critical pieces in different papers and periodicals such as Hamshahri, Iran, Neshat, Sorush, Mehr, Zanan-e Farda and othersHe was the recipient of the Best Journalist in the Field of Book award (2002), and has been jury member in many festivals and other events.

Aliakbar Nasiri received his BA and MA from Imam Sadiq University and his PhD in the Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology of the University of Tehran. He is currently assistant professor in the department of philosophy and theology in Sistan and Baluchistan University, where he was the head of the Department from 2003 to 2005. His research interests focus on Islamic philosophy, theology, Islamic mysticism, divine attributes, etc. His publications include: 'Attributes of God as Discussed in the Works of Sardolmotaalehin and Ghaai Saeid Ghommi' in Journal of Literature and Humanities of The University of Tehran ; 'Intentional Death in the Tafkik School' in Journal of Humanities of Sistan and Baluchistan University.

Nader Nasiri-Moghaddam finished his PhD in Oriental Languages and Civilisations at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris) in 2002, after studying History in Iran (Universities of Yazd and Tehran). His doctoral thesis received the Best Dissertation of the Year Award from the Foundation for Iranian Studies and was published as L'Archeologie Francaise en Perse et les Antiquites Nationales (1884-1914) (2004). He then became a post-doctoral research fellow at the Portuguese Ministry of Education and the 'Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia' (FCT) in Lisbon (2003-05). From September 2006 he will be Assistant Professor at Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg (France). His research deals with the relationship between Iran and Portugal in the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries through Persian documents kept in the Portuguese National Archives (Torre do Tombo). Author of books and articles concerning Safavid and Qajar periods, Dr Nasiri-Moghaddam is presently post-doctoral Researcher of CNRS, Monde Iranien et Indien in France and is currently preparing a publication about The Constitutional Revolution in Tabriz as Reflected in French Consular Reports (1906-1909). This study is financially supported by the Institut fuer Iranistik in Vienna (Austria). He has furthermore published the following editions and compilations: Mohammad-Taher Bastami's Fotuhat-e Fereydunieh (conquest of the North-East of Iran in the beginning of the seventeenth century by Fereydun Khan during the reign of Shah Abbas Safavid,1587-1629) with S. Mir-Mohammad Sadeq (2001); Mohammad-Ali Khan Ghafur'sRuznameh-ye safar-e Kharazm (1994); Mohammad-Ebrahim ibn Zeyn al-Abedin Nasiri'sDastur-e shahriaran  (1994); Gozideh-ye asnad-e darya-ye Khazar va manateq-e shomali-ye Iran dar jang-e jahani-ye avval (1995), Gozideh-ye asnad-e siasi-e Iran va Afghanestan. Mas'aleh-ye Harat dar ahd-e Mohammad Shah Qajar (1995).

Irina Natchkebia was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. In the years 1972-1977 she studied at the Department of Human Geography of Tbilisi State University. In 1976-1977 she was an MA student at the Department of Human Geography, University of Lodz, Poland. From 1983 to present she has been researcher at the Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies of Georgian Academy of Sciences. From 1996 to the present she has collaborated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Mondes iranien et indienne UMR 7528 in Paris. In the years 1991-2000 she was Professor at The Institute of Africa and Asia and at the Faculty of the Oriental Studies of Tbilisi State University. Her research interests focus on history and geography, as well as social and economic life of Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Caucasus at the late eighteenth and the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Her publications include Amédée Jaubert, Travel in Armenia and Persia in 1805-1806. Translation from French into Georgian (1997); Studies in the History of Franco-Iranian Diplomatic Relations (First Decade of the XIX Century) (in Georgian with French summary) (2002).

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born visual artist and filmmaker living in New York City.  She has exhibited widely in major European and American cities.  Among her most recent solo exhibitions are the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2006), The Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany (2005), Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Leon, Spain (2005), Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan (2005). She is the winner of numerous awards, including the Lillian Gish Prize (2006), the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art Peace Award (2004), and the Golden Lion Award, the First International Prize at the 48th Venice Biennial (1999). Most recently Shirin Neshat has been involved in making her first feature length film, titled Women without Men, based on a novel by an Iranian woman writer, Shahrnush Parsipur. The film is scheduled to be released in 2007.

Mohammad Nezam-Mafi received his MA in English and Creative Writing from Brown University (1989) and his PhD in English Literature from Boston University (1999).  He is currently teaching Expository Writing and Creative Nonfiction at Becker College. He has presented papers at The Modern Language Association, The Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies, and The Middle East Studies Association of North America.

Farhad Nomani, born in Tehran in 1944, received his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Illinois-Urbana, in 1972. He was a member of the Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran in 1972-1983, and has been Professor of Economics at the American University of Paris since 1984. His latest book on Class and Labor in Iran: Did the Revolution Matter? (2006), is co-authored with Sohrab Behdad, and he has co-edited Islam and Everyday Life: Public Policy Dilemmas (forthcoming, 2006). His other books are Islamic Economic Systems, co-authored with A. Rahnema (1995); The Secular Miracle: Religion, Politics and Economic Policy in Iran, co-authored with A. Rahnema (1990). His articles have been published in International Journal of Middle East Studies, Iranian Studies, Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, Mondes en developpement.

Yaseen Noorani received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago in 1997 and is now Assistant Professor in Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona. He was previously Lecturer in Arabic Literature at the University of Edinburgh.  He has published articles in The International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Journal of Arabic LiteratureIran, and others. His research interests centre on the logic and representation of moral norms, and their relationship to regimes of social order and forms of resistance, in Arabic and Persian literature. He is currently completing a book manuscript entitled Culture and Hegemony in the Colonial Middle East. Together with Dr John Chalcraft of the London School of Economics, he has edited a forthcoming volume entitledCounterhegemony in the Colony and Postcolony. His published papers include 'The Rhetoric of Security' in Centennial Revue (2005); 'Heterotopia and the Wine Poem in Early Islamic Culture' in International Journal of Middle East Studies (2004); 'Islamic Modernity and the Desiring Self:  Muhammad Iqbal's Poetics of Narcissism' in Iran (2000).

Laudan Nooshin is a Senior Lecturer in the Music Department at City University, UK, where she has taught since 2004. She was previously Head of Music in the Department of Performing Arts, Brunel University. She gained her BA in Music from the University of Leeds in 1984 and her MMus in Ethnomusicology from Goldsmiths' College (University of London) in 1986, where she also taught between 1987 and 1991. Her PhD thesis (Goldsmiths' College, 1996) was a study of creative performance in Iranian classical music. Current research interests include contemporary developments in Iranian traditional and popular musics; gender issues, with particular reference to the work of contemporary women musicians in Iran; neo/post-colonialism, Orientalism and the politics of cultural representation; globalisation; music and power; and music and cultural identity. Recent publications include: 'Improvisation as Other: Creativity, Knowledge and Power. The Case of Iranian Classical Music' in Journal of the Royal Musical Association (2003); 'Circumnavigation with a Difference? Music, Globalisation and the Disney Experience: “It's a Small, Small World”' in British Journal of Ethnomusicology (2004); 'Subversion and Countersubversion: Power, Control and Meaning in the New Iranian Pop Music' in A. J. Randall ed. Music, Power and Politics (2005); 'Underground, Overground: Rock Music and Youth Discourses in Iran' inIranian Studies (2005).  She is the author of  Iranian Classical Music: The Discourses and Practice of Creativity (forthcoming) and editor of Music and the Play of Power in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia (forthcoming).

Morteza Nouraei received his BA from Isfahan University in 1987, his MA from Shahid Beheshti University in 1990, and his PhD from the University of Manchester in 2000. His PhD thesis was entitled 'Mashshad Between 1890 and 1914: A Socio-historical Study'. He is currently Assistant Professor and member of the Scientific Board of the History department at Isfahan University. His research interests are the modern and contemporary history of Iran as well as the local and oral history of Isfahan, Mashhad and Bushehr. His publications (mostly in Persian) include 'The Evolution of Tribal Legitimacy in Iran (thirteenth century)' inThe Journal of the Faculty of Letters and Humanity of Isfahan University (1994); 'Political Thought of Sheikh Mohammad Khiyabani' in Journal of Foreign Policy (1995); Historical Sociology of the Region of Bashagard (1997); 'Future History and Documents' in Tarikh-e Mo'aser-e Iran (2003); 'An Introduction to the Philosophy of the Oral History and its Function in Historiography' in Ganjineh-ye Asnad (2003); 'Rokn al-Molk Endowments (vaqf) in Isfahan' in Ganjineh-ye Asnad (2004); 'Robbery on the Routes of Isfahan 1900-1925' in The Journal of the Faculty of Letters and Humanity of Isfahan University (2004); 'Ordinary People and British Culture' in V. Martin ed. Anglo-Iranian Relations Since 1800 (2005); 'The Role of Karguzar in Foreign Relations' in  Journal of Royal Asiatic Society (2005); The Role of Local Officers in Anglo-Iranian Relations (2006).

Mohammad Reza Nourbaksh is an independent scholar whose main research interests revolve around the adoption of medieval technologies in early modern Iran.  He earned his Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic in 1972 and his Master's degree in Economics from the New School University in New York City (1976). Mr Nourbaksh is a computer consultant and executive at ISmart, LLC, an Information Technology company located in Maryland (USA). His publications include 'Sa'ate mekaniki dar Iran' in Ayandeh (1987).

Jalil Nozari is an independent scholar. He holds an MA in English Literature and lives and works in southern Iran. His fields of interest are translation and comparative literature. He has written and presented papers on Sadeq Hedayat's The Blind Owl, and the Story ofBelavhar va Buzasf (Barlaam and Josaphat). He has translated a number of literary texts from English into Persian that have been published in various local periodicals such as Asr-e Panjshanbeh. His translation of The Story of the King's Son and the Ascetic has been published with the title 'Ketab-e Shahzadeh va Zahed' in A'ineh-ye Miras (2005)

Leo Jungeun Oh received an MSc by Research with thesis entitles 'East Asian Influence on Ilkhanid Royal Manuscripts' in the Department of History of Art, University of Edinburgh (2004). She also received an MA in Art History with thesis on 'Mughal Miniature Painting' in the Department of Archaeology and Art History, College of Humanities, Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea (2001), and a BA in Art Science with thesis on 'Silk Road: Dunhuang Mural Painting' at Department of Art Science (Kunstwissenschaft), College of Fine Art, Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea (1996). Her research interests focus on Buddhist influence (Far East Asian) on Islamic art, the representation of religious figures in Islam, Iranian Shiite art. Her publications include the Korean translation of Persian Painting by Sheila R. Canby (forthcoming); 'An Aspect of the Influence of Buddhist Art on Ilkhanid Royal Manuscripts' in Annals of Korean Association of Islamic Studies (2006); 'Islamicised Pseudo-Buddhist Iconography in Ilkhanid Royal Manuscripts' in Persica (2004-5); 'The East Asian Characteristics of Ilkhanid Royal Manuscripts' in Persica (2003);  'The Origin and Development of the Depiction of Islamic Saints in Mughal Miniature Painting' Annals of Korean Association of Islamic Studies (2002).

Sima Orsini is an Instructor in Persian at the University of Oxford and a Researcher Member of Wolfson College Common Room. She received her PhD in Persian Studies from Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris III (2003). She is also a Researcher Member of Equipe d'accueil 2720 Transmission et Mutations des Savoirs Antiques, EPHE-Sorbonne. Her research interests are in medieval Middle Eastern history of medicine. She is the author of  'Aziz-e Nasafi penseur mystique iranien (7eme/13eme siècle)' in Luqman (1996); 'Note bibliographique sur 'Aziz-e Nasafi' in Studia Iranica (1997); 'Nasafi 'Aziz, XIIIe siècle' inDictionnaire Critique de l'Esoterisme (1998); 'La lettre de Nasir Tusi a Malik al-Nasir' in Nasir al-Din Tusi, Philosophe et Savant du XIII eme siècle (2000); 'Aziz Nasafi, Un penseur éminent dans l'Iran du XIII ème siècle, L'œuvre et l'enseignement: Métaphysique de la Semence(2003); 'La description de l'arbre de Waq-waq selon les Adeptes de la théorie de la Métempsycose rapportée par 'Aziz Nasafi'  in L'Arbre anthropogène du Waqwaq. Les femmes-fruits et autres zoophytes (2006); 'De l'évolution du sperme (notfe), selon Aziz Nasafi (12eme- 13eme siecle)' in Mélanges crases et tempéraments: la chimie du vivant dans la médecine et biologie anciennes (2006).

Shahin Pahnadayan teaches History at Islamic Azad University - Karaj. He obtained his BA in History from Islamic Azad University - Shahr-e-Rey in 1996. In 1999, he received an MA from Shahid Beheshti University and his thesis was entitled 'A Study of the Nizari Movement in Iran from Ala al-Din Mohammad III to the Collapse of Alamut'. He received his PhD from Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Campus in 2006.The title of his thesis is 'The Decline of the Fatimids in Egypt (Causes and Reasons)'. He taught at different universities such as the Islamic Azad University - Mahallat and the Ferdowsi Training Centre and Kharazmi Teacher Training Centre. His publications include An Overview of Ya 'qubi's  al-Boldan (2004); The Rise of the Fatimids (2004); Qaramateh as the First Claimant of the Qaramti Dynasty (2004); Imam Ali's Five Year Governance(2005).

Nacim Pak-Shiraz is a doctoral candidate in the Film and Media Programme at SOAS. Her research focuses on religion and spirituality in Iranian Cinema. She has published an article on Muslim cinema Historical Atlas of Islam, with A. Nanji in M. Ruthven's (2004) and presented papers in various conferences in the UK and the USA. Her paper on 'Women and Boundaries in Iranian Cinema' will be published shortly in R. Tapper and L .Mulvey edsBeyond the Veil, Behind the Lens: Women in Iranian Cinema (forthcoming). She has also conducted an anthropological study documenting the lives of Iranian asylum seekers in Van, Turkey. Completed as part of her MA in the Anthropology of Media at SOAS in 2002, the resulting film The Dream of Flight has been shown to numerous audiences and was screened at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in July 2003.

Trita Parsi was born in Iran and grew up in Sweden. He earned a Master's degree in International Relations at Uppsala University, a second Master's degree in Economics at Stockholm School of Economics, and a PhD in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University SAIS. Dr Parsi has followed Middle East politics for more than a decade, both through work in the field, and through extensive experience on Capitol Hill and the United Nations. He has served as an advisor to Congressman Bob Ney (R-OH18) on Middle East issues and is a co-founder and current President of the National Iranian American Council, a non-partisan, non-profit organisation promoting Iranian-American participation in American civic life. He is a frequent commentator on US-Iranian relations and Middle Eastern affairs, and has appeared on BBC World News, PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer, CNN (Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room), CNN International, al-Jazeera, C-Span, NPR, amongst others. Dr Parsi has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN in New York where he served in the Security Council handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan and Western Sahara, and the General Assembly's Third Committee addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq. His articles on Middle East affairs have been published in the Financial TimesJane's Intelligence Review, the Globalist, the Jerusalem PostThe ForwardBitter Lemons and the Daily Star. Trita Parsi is the author of Treacherous Triangle: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (forthcoming).

Juergen Paul received his PhD from Hamburg University in 1989. His thesis was published asDie politische und soziale Bedeutung der Naqsbandiyya in Mittelasien (1991). He was a research fellow at the Orient Institut Istanbul (1990-1) and a post-doctoral researcher at Hamburg University. From 1995 to present he has been Professor for Islamic Studies at Martin-Luther-Universitaet Halle-Wittenberg. His research interests focus on the medieval and early modern history of Central Asia and Iran, local history and history of Sufi brotherhoods. His major publications include: Herrscher, Gemeinwesen, Vermittler: Ostiran und Transoxanien in vormongolischer Zeit (1996); The State and the Military:The Samanid Case(1994); 'Perspectives nomades. Etat et structures militaires', in Annales. Histoire, sciences sociales (2004).

Irina K Pavlova is a senior researcher at the Institute of the Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of  Sciences, St Petersburg branch. She received her PhD from the Faculty of the Oriental Studies of the State University in Leningrad in 1979. Her main area of research is related to property ownership in Iran at the end of the nineteenth century.  She has published in excess of forty scientific works (including three monographs) and participated in more than ten international conferences. Her publications include A Chronicle From the Safavid Period, the Persian Manuscripts of Muhammad Masum 'Xylasat as-siyar' (1993); Introduction and commentary to S. Bronevskiy's Historical Accounts of Relationships between Russia, Persia, Georgia and other Mountain Regions From the Reign of Ivan Vasiliyvich up to our Era (1996); 'Transport Possibilities in Iran as it Relates to Russian Political Interests in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries' in Proceedings of the XX Scientific Conference on Eurasia (2000); 'The Railways of Iran: Russia's Economic and Political Interests' in Proceedings of the XXI Scientific Conference of St Petersburg State University(2002); 'The History of the Private Russian Enterprise in Iran in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries' in Oriental Studies (2005); 'Early Cinematography in Iran and the First Film About Russia' in Proceedings of the international Conference of the Faculty of the Oriental Studies of St Petersburg State University (2006).

Leila Pazargadi is currently a graduate student at UCLA in the Comparative Literature.  She concentrates on issues of hybridity, immigration, exile and diaspora, especially as they pertain to the social positioning of women. She engages in texts, written in English, Persian and French to extend her research to identity politics in the United States, Britain, France and the Middle East. In 2004, she graduated with Honours and cum laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles where she received her BA in English and Comparative Literary Studies. In the spring of 2003 she participated in a study abroad programme at the CIEE: Contemporary Studies Program in Paris, France.  In Paris, she became exposed to the writings of contemporary Iranian, North-African and Middle Eastern immigrants, who negotiate the complexities of a European and Muslim bi-cultural identity. In the summer of 2003, she participated in a Richter Foundation Undergraduate Research Grant, studying the budding genre of Iranian women's exile memoirs.

Evaleila Pesaran is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS. Her research interests include ideology, social movements, and the political economy of Iran. She received her BA in Persian Studies from the University of Oxford and her MSc in Development Studies from SOAS.

Fatemeh Pira is a member of the academic staff at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies in Tehran (IHCS), and PhD student in Iranian studies at the Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg in Germany. She studied history (BA and MA) at The University of Tehran. During her undergraduate years she participated in research projects in Nashr-e Tarikh-e Iran (Iran Historical Publishing House). After her graduation (BA) she joined the Islamic Encyclopaedia Foundation to organise the Conference 'Bazaar in the World of the Islamic Culture' held in Tabriz in October 1993. In the same year she was offered a job as a research assistant by the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies (IHCS). She worked on various projects including the 'Data Base for Iranian Contemporary History'. At the same time she was studying history for an MA in Iranian history at The University of Tehran from which she graduated in 1998. Her MA thesis has been published in Persian under the titleRavabet-e siasi-eqtesadi-ye Iran va Alman beyn-e do jang-e jahani (2000).

Soad Pira received her BA in Sociology from Islamic Azad University in Tehran in 1994. She started working in Nashr-e Tarikh-e Iran in 1990 and got trained as editor of manuscripts and documents mostly ofthe Qajar period. She has published numerous articles and edited and translated several books (all in Persian), including: John Company's Last War, by Barbara English, translated with Mansoureh Ettehadieh (2004), Cities andTrade: Consul Abbott on the Economy and Society of Iran 1847-1866, translated with Mansoureh Ettehadieh (2006); Safar Nameh-ye Kerman va Baluchestan by Firuz Mirza Farman Farma, with Mansoureh Ettehadieh (2001); The Collected Documents, Correspondence and Memories of Firuz Mirza (Nosrat al-Dawleh), with Mansoureh Ettehadieh (1999); 'Matbu'at-e tanz dar Iran: 1324-1320' in Iran Encyclopaedia (2006); 'Matbu'at-e  karikatur  dar Iran: 1324-1320' in Iran Encyclopaedia(2006); 'Gozaresh-e matbu'at-e Iran': 1330-57' in Iran Encyclopaedia (2006); 'Fergeh-ye Domokrat-e Azarbaijan' in Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (2006), 'Mossadeq' in Turkish Encyclopaedia of Islam (2006); 'Naser al-Din Shah' in Islam of Turkish Encyclopaedia of Islam(2006).

Jaleh Pirnazar holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (1980) in the field of Near Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies. The title of her dissertation is 'Political Organisations and Parties in Iran (1890-1953)'. She received her BA (1970) and MA (1973) from the same university. Her research interests include Iranian history and literature, ethnic and religious minorities in Iran. Dr. Pirnazar is a Senior Lecturer in the Near Eastern Studies Department at Berkeley and has taught in this department since 1980 as a lecturer. She teaches Modern Persian Language and Literature as well as Iranian Cinema. Her publications include 'A voice Of Exile' in The Literary Review: Iranian Diaspora Literature Since 1980 (1996); 'Anusim of Mashhad' in H. Sarshar ed. Esther's Children: a Portrait of Iranian Jews (2003); 'The Jadid al-Islams of Mashhad' in Iran Nameh (2001); 'A Portrait of Iranian Jewish Intellectuals in the 20th Century: A Review of the Weekly Isra'el' in The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews(2000); 'Iranian Jews, National Identity and Journalism 1915-1979' in The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews (2000); 'World War II and the Jewish Community in Iran' in The History of Contemporary Iranian Jews (1996); 'The Image of the Iranian Jew in the Writings of Three Modern Iranian Writers', in Iran Nameh (1995).

Nahid Pirnazar is a Lecturer in Iranian Studies at UCLA, teaching the History of Iranian Jews and Judeo-Persian Literature. In June 2004 she received her PhD from UCLA,\ in Iranian Studies with an emphasis on Judeo-Persian literature. She has received two MA degrees, in 1975 in English as a Second Language from The University of Tehran, and in 1999 in Iranian Studies from UCLA. She has taught as a graduate student at UCLA, and as a lecturer at Santa Monica College, for the past ten years, in the areas of Persian language and literature as well as Judeo-Persian and Iranian Jewish History. She is the founder and president of The House of Judeo-Persian Manuscripts, a non-profit academic research centre whose goal is the transliteration and the study of Judeo-Persian literature as a part of Iranian literary tradition. Her publications include 'Iranian Jews and their National Identity' in Rahavard (2005); 'The Interaction of Iranian and Judaic Concepts: Farreh and Providence,' in Iranshenasi' (2003); and 'Judeo-Persian, The Heritage of Iranian Jews' in Iranshenasi (2002). 

Kamrouz Pirouz has been on the faculty of department of Economics and Finance at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey since 1980. His field of specialty is Monetary Economics and Economic Development. His research interest is Iran and the Middle East. In the decades of 1990s he organised five annual conferences at Montclair State University on topics related to Iran and the Middle East inviting for each conference four internationally known invited speakers.  He has edited and published the proceedings of each of these conferences. Among his recent published works are: 'The Impact of Interest Rates on Tax Incentive Policy and Inducement of Foreign Investment', co-authored with Sang-Hoon Kim and Harold Flint, in Global Business & Financial Review (2005); 'Iran's Oil Nationalisation: Mussadegh at the United Nations & his Negotiations with George McGhee', in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (2001); 'Evaluation of the Iranian Economy, 1980-1999', in Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies (2001).

Anja Pistor-Hatam received an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from Freiburg University in 1988. A year later, in 1989, she began to work at the same university as a lecturer while doing research for a dissertation project at the same time. After having obtained a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies, DrPistor-Hatam spent a year as a freelance collaborator with the Centre for Turkey Studies at the University of Essen. From 1993 until 1996, she worked as a lecturer and collaborator at Heidelberg University. From 1996 until 1998, she obtained a scholarship from the German Research Council to finish the Habilitation thesis, and qualified in 1999 as a professor and was appointed on a temporary position as a professor for Middle Eastern Studies at Kiel University, and received tenure at that university in 2003. Her major research interests are the history and intellectual history of the Middle East, mainly Iran and the Ottoman Empire (including the Arab provinces) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Her publications include Iran und die Reformbewegung im Osmanischen Reich. Persische Staatsmaenner, Reisende und Oppositionelle unter dem Einfluß der Tanzimat (1992); with Ch. Herzog and R. Motika eds. Presse und Oeffentlichkeit im Nahen Osten, Heidelberg (1995);Nachrichtenblatt, Informationsboerse und Diskussionsforum: Akhtar-e Estanbol (1876–1896): Anstoesse zur fruehen persischen Moderne (1999); ed. Amtsblatt, vilayet gazetesi und unabhaengiges Journal: Die Anfaenge der Presse im Nahen Osten (2001); with St. Conermann Die Mamluken. Studien zu ihrer Kultur und Geschichte. Zum Gedenken an Ulrich Haarmann (2003); 'Sheikh 'Ubaidullah's Revolt and the Kurdish Invasion of Iran – Attempts at a New Assessment' in The Journal of Kurdish Studies  (2001–2002); 'Fuerbitte und Gedenken: Stationen schiitischer Wallfahrt im Irak' in A. Messner and K. Hirschler eds.Heilige Orte in Asien und Afrika, Schenefeld (2006); 'Ein fruchttragender Same in der Salzwueste: Zum Todestag des Djamal od-Din Asadabadi (1838/39–1987)' in Die Welt des Islams (forthcoming); 'Merchants, Pilgrims, and Refugees: Iranian Shiites in the Ottoman Empire' in S. Lachenicht, ed. Religious Refugees in Europe, Asia and the Americas – 6th to 21st Centuries  (forthcoming).

Walter Posch received his PhD in Iranian History from Bamberg University, Germany with a thesis on Alqas Mirza and an MPhil in Turkish Studies, University of Vienna. He is a former lecturer on Islamic fundamentalism and extremism and regional expert for Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan at the National Defence Academy (LVAK) of the Austrian Army in Vienna. He is Charge de Recherches at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris. He is tasked with political analysis of the Middle East, in peculiar Iran and Iraq, as well as Islamism and its relations with the European Union. His publications include: 'Dialogue With Iran: The EU Way Out of the Impasse' in EU-ISS, Newsletter (2006); Iranian Challenges(editor) 2006; 'A CSCE-like Process for the Gulf Region? Neither Integration nor Isolation: Punctual Cooperation' in Hessische Stiftung für Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (2006); 'The EU and Iran: Creating and Losing Confidence' in GCC-EU Research Bulletin (2005); 'Ein Revolutionaerer Imam' in W. Feichtinger and S. Wentker eds Islam, Islamismus und islamischer Extremismus, Eine Einführung (2005); 'Islamist Neo-Cons Take Power in Iran' inOccasional Paper (Ljubljana Institute for Security Studies) (2005); 'Iran and the Shia of Iraq' in Krakowskie Studia iędzynarodowe/Krakow International Studies (2005).

Nasrollah Pourjavady was born in Tehran and received his early education there. He went to the United States in 1963 to study Western philosophy, and having obtained his BA in 1967, returned to Iran and earned his MA and PhD degrees from the University of Tehran. Subsequently he taught philosophy and mysticism at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, and then at the University of Tehran, where he still teaches as a full professor. He has also taught as a visiting professor at Colgate University (2002) and at the Gregorian University in Rome (2005). Over the last thirty years, Dr Pourjavady has written some 20 books as well as over a hundred essays and articles in the fields of Islamic mysticism, philosophy, and Persian literature. These include: a critical edition of Ahmad Ghazzali'sSawanih (1980) and its English translation (1986); Ru'yat-e mah dar asman (La vision de Dieu en theologie et mystique musulmane) (1996); Eshraq va erfan (2001) and Do mojadded(2002), which is a study of two key figures in the development of Islamic thought, Abu Hamid Ghazzali and Fakhruddin Razi. He was also the general editor of a monumental three-volume book on Iranian art and culture, The Splendour of Iran (2001). He has edited and introduced the works of several lesser known classical Iranian mystics and Persian poets, such as Abu'l-Hasan Busti, Abu Mansur Esfahani, Mobarakshah Marvirudi, Yar-Ali Tabrizi, and Awhad al-Din Razi. As the founding-director of Iran University Press, the largest academic publishing house in Iran, he supervised the publication of some 1,200 academic books and 11 periodicals in Persian, English, French, and German for 24 years, until the spring of 2004. He personally edited two of these journals, Nashr-e Danesh and Ma'aref. He is a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, which awarded him the Academy's Persian Literature Award in 2004. He received an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award in 2005, and will spend the year 2006 as a research scholar at the Free University of Berlin.

Parvaneh Pourshariati is an assistant professor of Islamic and Iranian history and culture in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the Ohio State University, Columbus.  Dr Pourshariati received her PhD in history from Columbia University and her BA in Sociology from New York University.  Her interests include the social history of the medieval Middle East and Iran in the late antique period; popular culture and literature of Iran, especially the phenomenon of ayyari 'or chivalrous' brotherhoods in the late medieval and early modern period;  as well as Mithraism/Mihr worship in its Roman and Iranian articulations.  She is also interested in local historiographical production of Iran.  Her publications include: 'Local Histories of Khurasan and the Pattern of Arab Settlement' inStudia Iranica (1998); 'Local Historiography in Medieval Iran and the Tarikh Bayhaq' in Iranian Studies (2000); 'Khurasan and the Crisis of Legitimacy: A Comparative Historiographical Approach' in L. Potter, R. Simon and N. Yavari eds Views From The Edge: Essays in Honor of Richard W. Bulliet (2004); 'Recently Discovered Seals of Wistaxm, Uncle of Khusrow II?' in Studia Iranica (2006).

Sholeh Quinn received her PhD from the University of Chicago in the Department ofNear Eastern Languages and Civilizations. After a one-year visiting assistant professorship at the University of Hilo, Hawaii, she went to Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, where she is currently an associate professor in the Department of History. Her research interests are primarily in Safavid Iran. Her publications focus mostly on Safavid historiography, especially the chronicle tradition during the reign of Shah Abbas. She is currently working on expanding this research to include other Persianate traditions of historical writing, including the chronicle traditions of Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire. She is also working on a book-length biography of Shah Abbas. Some other publications of hers include Historical Writing During the Reign of Shah 'Abbas (2000); a co-edited a volume entitled History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods (2006). Other recent publications include: 'Coronation Narratives in Safavid Chronicles' in History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East: Studies in Honor of John E. Woods (2006); 'Historiography-Safavid' in Encyclopaedia Iranica (2004); 'The Timurid Historiographical Legacy: A Comparative Study of Persianate Historical Writing' in A. J. Newman ed. Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East: Studies on Iran in the Safavid Period (2003).

Zahra Rabbani received her BA in Theology from the University of Tehran, her MA in Islamic Culture and Civilisation from the University of Tehran with a thesis on 'Shiism in Iran during the  Mongol  Era' and her PhD in Islamic History from al-Zahra University with a thesis on 'The Role of Elites and the Prevalence of Persian Culture in Anatolia during the Saljuq Era'.  Her publications include: 'Aspects of Persian Culture in Pre-Islamic Anatolia' in Journal of Humanities (2003); 'Persian Literature in Asia Minor' in Hasti (2004); 'Sabians in the Quran' inHistory of Islam vol. 2 (2001).

Orly R Rahimiyan is a PhD student in the Middle Eastern Department at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. She is a Teaching Assistant at Ben-Gurion University and a Research Fellow at The Ben Zvi Institute, researching the Jewish communities of the Middle East. Her research interests are the history of the Iranian Jewry in the 19th and 20th century as well as Iranian history. Her doctoral dissertation is titled 'The Images of the Jews in 20th-century Iran'. She received her BA and MA summa cum laude from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her MA dissertation at the Hebrew University (2003) was titled 'The Jewish Leadership in Tehran in the 19th and 20th Centuries'. She published her article 'The Organization of the Jewish Community in Iran in the 19th and 20th Centuries' in H. Saadoun ed. The Community Book, Iran (2005, Hebrew).   She is also a Fulbright Scholar.

Sanaz Raji was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, of Iranian parents.  She studied at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, graduating with honours with a BA in History and Political Science. She continued her education at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs where she researched the role of women's NGOs and civil society development in Iran. At the University of Pittsburgh, she was granted the Ruth Crawford Mitchell Memorial Award to study in Iran, and conducted her fieldwork at the University of Tehran under the supervision of Dr Hadi Semmati. Currently, Ms Raji is a PhD candidate at SOAS, exploring social/cultural issues among second-generation Iranians in the diaspora and transnational diasporic media networks used by second-generation Iranians.

Ulla Remmer received an Erasmus scholarship at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland (1994). In 1998 she received her Master's degree in Indo-European Studies at the University of Vienna. In 1999 she became an assistant at the Institute of Linguistic studies, University of Vienna. In 2002-5 she was research assistant at the project 'Female names in Indo-European' at the University of Zurich. In 2005 she completed her doctoral thesis entitled 'Female Names in the Oldest Indian and Iranian Texts'. In 2006 she became research assistant at the project 'Family grammar of the Rigveda' (University of Zurich). Her research interests focus on Indo-European nominal morphology and onomastics; Indo-Iranian, Celtic. Her publications include 'Das indogermanische Suffix -mon- im Altirischen' in Die Sprache(2002/03, 2004); 'Sound Documents from the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. General Editor Dietrich Schuller. The Complete Historical Collections 1899 – 1950' in G. Lechleitner and U. Remmer eds The Collections of Rudolf Trebitsch. Celtic Recordings - Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Isle of Man and Scotland (1907-09) (2003); 'Indoiranische Namenbildung: Kamadyu-, Kambyses und Co' in Iranistische und indogermanistische Beitraege in memoriam Jochem Schindler (1944-1994) (2006); 'Frauennamen im Rigveda und im Avesta' in Studien zur Onomastik des aeltesten Indischen und Iranischen (forthcoming); 'Gamonyms, Internal Derivation, and the Greek Suffix -', inProceedings of the Conference on Greek and Latin from an Indo-European Perspective(2006).

Maryam Rezaee is a PhD student in politics at the University of York, UK. Her research focuses on the status of women in tertiary education in Iran, their lived experiences and the impact of education on their lives, particularly among women of minority religious groups. Ms Rezaee's research interests focus on Islam, women and development and gender relations in Muslim countries mainly in Iran.  She has worked on the  effects of the 'Islamic Revolution' of Iran on women's lives, the way women have responded to the revolution, and the series of questions and debates regarding gender generated by this major political and social change. She has also presented several papers on debates regarding gender segregation in schools and society in today's Iran at various conferences.

Khodadad Rezakhani is currently a second-year PhD student at the UCLA, working on the Late Antique economic history of West Asia, concentrating mostly on the role of the north Syrian cities in the cross-border trade of the Sasanians and the Byzantines. Apart from this, his interests are generally the history of West Asia in the Late Antique/Early Medieval times, as well as Iranian philology. In addition to being a student, he is also an instructor of history at the Santa Monica College, California. In the past two years his publications have included: 'The Prussians' in Brepolis Supplement - Lexikon des Mittelalters (2006); 'Jazeera' in A Short Encyclopaedia of Islam (forthcoming); 'Tirdad and Ardawan: A New Look at the Genealogy of the Early Arsacids in Farhang, Special Philology Issue (2005); a review of 'Jozef Wolski: L'Empire des Arsacides' in Nameye Iran-e Bastan (2004).

Kianoosh Rezania was born in 1972 in Tehran. In 1997 he received an MSc in Computer Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. After discovering his interests in Ancient Iranian studies, he started his Master's programme in Ancient Iranian Languages and Cultures in 1999 at the University of Tehran, and graduated in 2003. Since 2004 he has been a PhD student at the Georg-August-University, Göttingen and a member of the Research Training Group 'Goetterbilder-Gottesbilder-Weltbilder Polytheismus und Monotheismus in der Welt der Antike'. His research about Zurvan and Time in Zoroastrianismis supported by the German Academic Exchange Service. His research interests focus on psyche in Iranian and Indian religions, and the role of Spenta Mainiiu in Zoroastrianism.

Gilles Riaux holds a BA in Politics from Sciences Po Bordeaux (2003) and an MA in Geopolitics from the Universite de Paris VIII  (2005). His publications include 'La radicalisation des nationalistes Azιris en Iran' in CEMOTI (2003).

Thomas M Ricks completed his PhD at Indiana University in Middle East History and Persian Studies in 1975.  Dr Ricks has taught for ten years at Macalester College, at Georgetown University, and at Bir Zeit University, before teaching and directing Arab and Islamic Studies and International Studies at Villanova University (1985-2002). Recently, he received an appointment at the University of Pennsylvania (2002-2005). His teaching and research interests are on the social and cultural histories of Iran, the Persian Gulf and Palestine, and his publications include the co-authored monograph, Oral History of the Intifada (in Arabic) (1995); edited works on Critical Perspective on Modern Persian Literature (1984); andContemporary IranSociety and Literature (1974); and the co-authored Middle East: Past and Present (third edition) (forthcoming). He is presently completing monographs on Voices from the Schoolyard: Memories of Palestine, School Days, and Mission Education1898 to 1948,and on Trade and Politics in Southern Iran and the Persian Gulf, 1700-1850. Finally, he has begun to research the oral and social history of American Mission Schools in Iran: Fifty Years of Presbyterian Education in Alborz and Sage Colleges in Tehran, Iran, AD 1890-1948/AH 1316-1368.

Markus Ritter holds a PhD and an MA. His dissertation, which he completed at the University of Bamberg, Germany, focuses on Islamic art history and archaeology. His higher education took place at Bamberg, Cairo and Tehran. He works as Islamic art historian at the Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna and has taught in Germany at the universities of Frankfurt/Main and Bamberg. His research interests include architecture, painting and objects with some bias towards the Eastern Islamic world and Iran. He works inter alia on 8th century early Islamic architectural decoration in Umayyad Greater Syria, on Late Medieval Mamluk architecture in Egypt, on wall painting in Iran from the 17th century onwards, and on early Qajar architecture in Iran. His publications include the recent monograph on Moscheen und Madrasabauten in Iran 1785-1848: Architektur zwischen Rueckgriff und Neuerung (2005).

Jenny Rose has worked with the Zoroastrian community since the early 1980s, when she wrote a course outline on 'The Zoroastrian Tradition' as part of the Inner London Education Authority's Religious Education Agreed Syllabus. She holds a PhD in Iranian Studies from Columbia University, New York. Her doctoral dissertation was published as The Image of Zoroaster: The Persian Mage through European Eyes (2000).  Dr Rose currently teaches courses in Zoroastrian Studies at Claremont Graduate University's School of Religion. Her other publications are The Image of Zoroaster: The Persian Mage Through European Eyes(2000); 'The Impact of Zoroastrianism (a) on World Religions (b) on Western Thought' inCalliope Magazine (2005); 'Sasanian Splendour: The Appurtenances of Royalty' in S. Gordon ed. Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of Investiture (2001); 'Three Queens, Two Wives and a Goddess: The Role and Image of Women in Sasanian Iran' in G. Hambly ed. Women in the Medieval Dar Al-Islam: Power, Patronage and Piety (1998); and 'Childbirth in the Zoroastrian Tradition', 'Divorce in the modern Zoroastrian Community', 'Investiture in Sasanian Times','Zoroaster as Perceived by Zoroastrians in pre-modern and modern times' all published in Encyclopaedia Iranica.
 

Jasamin Rostam-Kolayi is an assistant professor in the Department of History, California State University, San Marcos. She will be a Balzan-Keddie Fellow in the Department of History, UCLA for 2006-07. She received a PhD in Middle East History from UCLA in 2000. Her publications include numerous book reviews published in IJMES, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of Women's History, Iranian Studies) and 'Expanding Agendas for the "New" Iranian Woman: Family Law, Work, and Unveiling' in S. Cronin ed. The Making of Modern Iran : State and Society Under Riza Shah, 1921-1941 (2003); 'Foreign Education, the Women's Press, and the Discourse of Scientific Domesticity in Early-Twentieth Century Iran' in N. Kekkie and R. Matthee eds Iran and the Surrounding World : Interactions in Culture and Cultural Politics (2002).  She is currently working on a book focusing on gender and education in early twentieth-century Iran.

Julia Rubanovich is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Asian and African Studies  of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She received her MA (1996) and PhD (2005) degrees summa cum laudein classical Persian literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her dissertation is titled: 'Beyond the Literary Canon: Medieval Persian Alexander-Romances in Prose' (in Hebrew). Dr Rubanovich was a post-doctoral Rothschild Fellow at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto (2004-2005) and a Lady Davis Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2005-2006). She has been teaching courses in Persian language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem since 1994.  Her publications include 'The Reconstruction of a Storytelling Event in Medieval Persian Prose Romance: The Case of the Iskandarnama', in Edebiyat (1998); 'Literary Canon and Patterns of Evaluation in Persian Prose on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion' in Studia Iranica (2003); 'Aspects of Medieval Intertextuality: Verse Insertions in Persian Prose Dastans' in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (2006); 'Poetic Interpolations in the Firuzshah-namah of Bighami and the Reception of Epic Poems at the End of the Ninth/Fifteenth Century' in Zendeh Rood(2006) (in Persian).

Ze'ev Rubin is Professor of Ancient History at the Tel-Aviv University (Israel), Visiting Professorial Associate at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS, and Permanent Common Room member at Wolfson College, Oxford. He started his academic career as a historian of the Roman Empire, and his interest in Late Antiquity led him first to the study of the relations between the later Roman Empire and the Sasanian empire, and then to the study of Sasanian history and historiography. His publications relevant to the subject of his presentation at the Sixth Biennial conference are: 'The Reforms of Khusro Anushirwan' in A. Cameron ed. The Byzantine and the Early Islamic Near East, III, States, Resources and Armies (1995); 'The Sasanid Monarchy' in The Cambridge Ancient History 2nd ed. (2000); 'Res Gestae Divi Saporis. Greek and Middle Iranian in a Document of Sasanian anti-Roman Propaganda' in J. N. Adams and S. Swain eds Bilingualism in Ancient Society, Language Contact and Written Word (2002); 'Nobility, Monarchy and Legitimation under the Later Sasanians' in J. Haldon & L.I. Conrad eds The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East VI, Elites Old and New in the Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East (2004); 'Ibn al-Moqaffa and the Account of Sasanian History in the Arabic Codex Sprenger 30' in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (2005).

Rachael M Rudolph is a PhD candidate and Instructor for Comparative Politics and Politics of Terrorism at West Virginia University. She is currently working on her dissertation titled 'Terrorism, Islamic Extremism and Regimes'.  In addition to working on the dissertation, she is co-authoring a book with Anisseh Van England, titled From Violence to Politics which will be released in November 2007. Areas of research include the Middle East, Northern Africa and Central Asia.

Christine van Ruymbeke is currently Soudavar Lecturer in Persian at the University of Cambridge and has formerly been teaching at the Brussels Free University (Belgium). She received her PhD from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (1997) with the thesis 'Research into the scientific knowledge within classical Persian poetry. A study of trees and fruit in the Khamsa of Nezami Ganjavi'. Her research interest lies in classical Persian literature and she has published several articles on the scientific knowledge in the works of Nezami of Ganja. Her forthcoming book is entitled Science and Poetry in Medieval Persia: The Botany of Nizami's Khamsa. She is currently involved in an analysis of the fifteenth century Herat rewriting of the Kalila wa Dimna cycles of animal fables.

Fatemeh Sadeghi was born in Qom in 1970 and was educated at the Faculty of Humanities of Tarbiat-e Modarres University, where she received her PhD degree in politics in 2004. She is a lecturer on political thought and women's studies at Islamic Azad University - Karaj, a member of editorial board of Goft-o-Gu and cooperated for more than three years with the political department of the International Centre for Dialogue among Civilisations. She recently published a book in Persian, called Gender, Nationalism, and Modernisation in the First Pahlavi Iran (2006) and translated Fred Dallmyr's Alternative visions and Agnes Heller's A Theory of Modernity into Persian, the latter is forthcoming. She is the author of some papers in Persian as well as English journals on gender and women's studies, women's movements in Iran and the Middle East, gender in Islamic political and social thoughts, western and Islamic political thought. Her publications have appeared in Goft-o-GuGozaresh-e Goftogu(Report on Dialogue, the Journal of the Centre for Dialogue of  Civilisations), Nameh-ye FalsafehKetab-e Mah-e Olum-e Ejtema'iKetab-e Mah-e HonarFaslnameh-ye Olum-e Siyasi-ye Daneshgah-e Azad-e Karaj

Shirin Badihian Sadeghi was born in Shiraz and moved to the United States at the age of two. She has a BA in Communication Studies and a BS in Psychology from the University of Iowa, an MA in International Journalism from the City University of London, and is currently finishing her PhD in Near and Middle East Studies at SOAS. Her research interests are in international communication, cultural communication and gender in media, but for now her main focus is on her dissertation which is about the role of the Internet in democratising the social and political values of Iranians. For the last nine years, in addition to her studies, she has been a working journalist, mostly as a producer for the BBC World Service's English and American services, as well as some collaboration with the Persian service. At the American service she was the London producer for 'The World' a co-production between the BBC and Boston's WBUR public radio. Shirin Sadeghi is also a contributor to KQED San Francisco's Perspectives programme, opining on such topics as immigration, US foreign policy, and civil liberties. She is also a singer, most recently performing with the London-based Iranian fusion group, Simorgh.

Shiva Sadeghi received her PhD in education (with an emphasis on multicultural and bilingual education) from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec) in 2005, and has taught courses in teacher education and graduate studies in education at McGill University and the University of Ottawa. Dr Sadeghi's current research project, funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, explores the interrelationship between literacy practices of second generation Iranian immigrants and the processes of their social, cultural and linguistic integration into the mainstream host culture.  Her teaching and research background include psychology of learning, multiculturalism and citizenship education, comparative international education and critical literacy.

Velizar Sadovski was born in 1972 in Kyustendil, Bulgaria. He holds a Master of Philosophy in General and Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, includig Indo-Iranian Comparative Grammar, from the University of Vienna (1996) and a PhD in Indo-European Languages from the same university (2001). He was Research Fellow at the Commission for Iranian Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1998-2002); Researcher at the Institute for Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (since 2002); Co-editor of the Lexicon of Iranian Personal Names (since 2004). He is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Bologna, Italy (since 2005); co-editor of the Publication Series Veroeffentlichungen zur Iranistik (since 2005) and Iranische Onomastik (since 2006) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Socrates Professor at La Sapienza University of Rome (2006). His Research interests focus on Avestan and old Persian philology, Indo-Iranian comparative linguistics, Indo-European studies, especially word formation, comparative syntax, stylistics, and rhetoric; language of Indo-Iranian poetry. His publications include 'Untersuchungen zu den exozentrischen Nominalkomposita (bahuvrihi- und Ableitungskomposita)'in Rigveda und Avesta (forthcoming); 'Stilistisches zur iranischen Dichtersprache' in G.J. Pinault and D. Petit eds Langue poétique indo-européenne (2006); 'Dvandva, bahuvrihi and tatpurusha' in T. Meissner and J. Clackson eds Nominal Composition in Indo-European (2002);  'Komposita mit praedikativischem bzw. partitivischem Attributionsverhaeltnis der Glieder im Iranischen und Indischen' in J. Clackson and B.A. Olsen eds Indo-European Word Formation (2003); 'Bahuvrihis und Rektionskomposita im Rigveda und Avesta: Thematisches Hinterglied' in St. Wild and H. Schild eds Norm und Abweichung  (2001).

Ahmad Sadri was born in Tehran and obtained his BA and MA degrees from the University of Tehran and his PhD from the New School for Social Research in New York City.  He is professor and chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Lake Forest College.  He is the author of Max Weber's Sociology of Intellectuals (1992, 1994.) This book was chosen as academic book of the year by Choice, the official journal of the American Library Association.  It is now translated into Korean and Persian.  Dr Sadri has authored two books in Persian: Reviving the Concept of Civilisations (2001), and An Apocalypse Soon(forthcoming).  He has translated from Arabic Saddam City (2004) and co-translated from Persian, Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam (2002).  He is an active participant in the intellectual reform movement in Iran and has written for the Persian newspaper Sharq.  He was a columnist for the English Language Daily Star of Lebanon during 2004-2005.  Dr Sadri has written about one hundred articles in areas of his expertise, sociologies of intellectuals, religion and politics of the Middle East.

Houman Sadri holds a PhD from the University of Virginia and has held a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University.  He is an associate professor of International Relations at the University of Central Florida.  His publications include Revolutionary States: Leaders and Foreign Relations (1997); Intercultural Communication for Our Global Community(forthcoming). Currently, he is finishing a text titled The Caspian Region in the 21st Century. Dr Sadri is the author of numerous articles and book chapters dealing with different aspects of international relations.  His research focuses geographically on the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea states, where he frequently visits. Dr Sadri serves as the Associate Editor of theJournal of Iranian Research and Analysis (JIRA) and MESA Bulletin.

Mahmoud Sadri is a professor of Sociology at the Federation of North Texas Area Universities that includes Texas Woman's University, University of North Texas, and A&M University, Commerce.  His major interests include sociology of religion, sociology of culture, and theoretical sociology. More specifically, he is interested and involved in interfaith dialogue and Islamic reform.  His latest books and articles include 'Premonitions of Interfaith Dialogue' in Interreligious Insight (2006); 'Hojjatieh' and 'Halabi' in Encyclopedia Iranica(2003,2004); ed. with M. Mobasher Migration Dynamics: A Theoretical and Substantive Reader (2003); 'Sacral Defense of Secularism' in Intellectual Trends in 20th Century Iran(2003); 'Good News About Modernity'in The Living Legacy of Marx, Durkheim, & Weber, vol. 2I (2000); ed. and translated with A. Sadri Reason, Freedom, and Democracy In Islam: The Essential Writings of  Abdolkarim Soroush (2000). In addition, Dr Sadri regularly contributes to popular journals and newspapers in his native country, Iran, and gives interviews to radio and television stations such as the BBC, Radio France, Voice of America, and Radio Australia. He regularly writes op. ed  pieces for Daily Star, the largest circulation newspaper in Beirut, Lebanon, and occasional pieces for Guardian, UK. 

Mohammad Reza Saeidabadi received his PhD in International Relations from the Centre for Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies of the Australian National University in 1998. His major areas of research and teaching are Iranian-British relations, Iran-EU relations and Iran's foreign policy. Dr Saeidabadi currently serves as assistant professor on international relations at the British Studies Department of the Institute for North American and European Studies and the University of Tehran.He has published many journal and feature articles in English and Persian and presented many papers in international conferences, including: 'Progress and Regress in EU-Iran Relations since 1989' in Security Dialogue (1998); 'Islam and Foreign Policy in the Contemporary Secular World: The Case of Post-Revolutionary Iran' in Pacifica Review (1996); 'British & Iran-Iraq War' in National Security Institute for Research and Studies on War (2000); 'Cultural Clash' in Strategic Studies Quarterly, Research Institute of Strategic Studies (1999).

Hoorieh Saeidi was born in 1958 in Tehran and obtained her BA and MA in History from the University of Tehran. She is a member of the Science Board of the National Library and the specialist in charge of the National Library's documents. She is also a document researcher at the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies and the vice president of the board of directors for the Institute of Women History Researchers. Currently she is working on decrees from the Qajar era. Many of these have already been indexed and transcribed and there are about 300 decrees that are ready to be edited and published. Additionally, she has compiled a collection of handwritten correspondence between Naser al-Din Shah and Mirza Yusef Mostowfi  al-Mamalek, including national orders, recommendations and requests that were exchanged between them. Her work on this collection is almost finished and the next stage of the project will be to compile and publish them. Her publications include 'The Role of Najaf's Spiritual Leaders in the Constitutional Movement (from Among Telegraphs)', inKeyhan-e Farhangi (1992); 'Shokufeh Newspaper, the First Women's Newspaper in Iran' inIranian Contemporary History Quarterly (1999).

Kamran Safamanesh is an architect, urban designer and historian whose main research interest is history and theory related to the formation of the built environment. He studied at the University of Tehran and at the University of California, Los Angeles and Berkeley, and holds Master's degrees in architecture and urban design from both. He has taught at Iranian colleges and universities since 1983 and has lectured at academic institutions nationally and internationally. He founded the Urban Research Institute in Tehran, which has conducted architectural, social and urban formation research in Iran since 1980. The centre now holds an extensive archive on the city of Tehran and its historical buildings, and also more generally on Qajar architecture and contemporary buildings in Iran. He is the principal partner of Safamanesh and Associates architects and urban planners, which has been responsible for many projects including new cultural and educational buildings, urban revitalisation and the rehabilitation of city centre and their historical streets and complexes. The renovation of gardens and buildings are among some of the projects in which he has been involved during the last decades. He is currently completing a detailed study of 'The History of Tehran and another on Principles for Evaluation of Historical Building and Complexes'.  Previous publications include The Story of Two Gardens (1990) andConfiguration and Evolution of Tehran's Arteries and Roads (1989), as well as many articles in specialist architectural journals and historical publications.

Fereydoun Safizadeh is a lecturer in socio-cultural anthropology at Boston University. He received his BA (1972) from the Social Relations Department, and his PhD (1986) in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.  He has taught anthropology at the UCLA, San Francisco State University, Amherst College, and Boston College.  His areas of interest include kinship and family structure, peasant economy and politics, identity, ethnicity and nationalism, as well as visual anthropology and ethnographic film.  His publications include 'On Dilemmas of Identity in the Post-Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan' in Caucasian Regional Studies (1998); and 'Peasant Protest and Resistance in Rural Iranian Azerbaijan' in F. Kazemi and J. Waterbury eds Peasants and Politics in the Modern Middle East (1990).He has been doing research on the dynamics of social, economic, political, and cultural relationships among landowning, commercial, bureaucratic and clerical families in late 19th and 20th century Tabriz, Iran as well as on the politics of Turkic identity and ethnicity in Iranian Azerbaijan.  He has co-produced the documentary The Shahsavan Nomads of Iran (1985) which traces the seasonal migration of the Shahsavan pastoral nomads in northwest Iran.

Haideh Sahim is currently teaching Persian at New York University. Prior to this, she was Executive Director of the Association for Iranian Studies from 2002 to 2005. Earlier she was on the staff of the Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University, where she participated in the Encyclopaedia Iranica project from 1989 to 1998. She is also a freelance translator and interpreter for major media and publishing companies. Ms Sahim received an MPhil from New York University in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, with emphasis on Iranian history and art history, an MA in Iranian Linguistics and Ancient Culture and a BA in English Literature from The University of Tehran. She has carried out research on Iranian dialects and the Jews of Iran and has published widely on these subjects. Major publications include 'Jews of Iran in the Qajar Period: Persecution and Perseverance' in  R. Gleave ed.Religion and Society in Qajar Iran  (2005);  'Jewish Languages Enter the Modern Era: Languages and Literatures of Jews of Iran and Afghanistan' and 'Iran and Afghanistan' in  R.S. Simon et al, eds The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times (2003);  'Clothing and Makeup' and 'Languages and Dialects of the Jews of Iran and Afghanistan' in  H. Sarshar, ed. Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews  (2002);  'Khaterat-e Yahudian-e Iran' in Iran Nameh  (1997); 'The Dialect of the Jews of Hamedan' in Irano-Judaica III(1994).

Gholamreza Salami was born in 1965 in Tehran. He graduated in Political Science from Islamic Azad University. Salami was a full time Researcher and currently he is contributor and author at the Iran National Archive. His research interests deal with modern Iranian history, especially on women's issues, socio-cultural institutions in the Qajar and Pahlavi eras and political transformation.  His published books include Selected Documents on Parliamentary Elections During the Reign of Reza Shah (2005); The Eastern Women Movement with A Najmabadi (2005); Abd al-Hosein Mirza Farman Farma, His Time, With an Account of His Political and Social Achievements with M. Ettehadieh and E. Shams (2004);Documents on the  Iranian Press, 1941-1953 with M. Rusta'i (1995 and 1998); A Collection of Letters, Writings and Memoires of Sediqeh Dowlatabadi (forthcoming); Collection of Persian documents on A. H. Farman Farma (forthcoming). He has also published around fifteen articles about modern Iranian history as well as several critical reviews.

Hadi Salehi-Esfahani is a Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also worked for the World Bank as a visiting staff economist and a consultant. He received a BS in engineering from The University of Tehran in 1977 and a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984.  He is a Research Fellow and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Economic Research Forum. His theoretical and empirical research focuses on the political economy of development, particularly the issues concerning economic policy in the Middle East. His publications include: 'Explaining Trade Policy in the Middle East and North Africa' with Lyn Squire, in The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance (forthcoming); 'Alternative Public Service Delivery Mechanisms in Iran' in The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance (2005); 'Institutions, Infrastructure, and Economic Growth' with Maria Teresa Ramirez, in Journal of Development Economics(2003).

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani is Professor of Economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and been Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is a Research Fellow and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Economic Research Forum. His research focuses on population economics and microeconomics of growth in the Middle East. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1977.  Some of his recent publications include 'Microeconomics of growth in MENA: the role of households' in J. Nugent and M. H. Pesaran, Explaining Growth in Middle East and North Africa, (forthcoming); 'Human resources in Iran: potentials and challenges' in Iranian Studies (2005); 'Microeconomics Determinants of Growth Around the World' with Sergei Guriev, in G. McMahon and L. Squire eds Explaining Growth: A Global Research Project (2003).

Reza Salehnejad received his MSc and PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently a research fellow at the HAND Foundation working on a book on economic growth and development, and holds a research position at National Research Institute for Science Policy (Iran). Dr Salehnejad has also taught economics the City University in London and the University of Cambridge. He has completed a book in economic theory titled Rationality, Bounded Rationality and Microfoundations (forthcoming).

Abbas William Samii is the senior Iran analyst and Regional Analysis Coordinator for Southwest Asia and the Middle Eastat Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a Congressionally-funded international broadcaster. In addition to preparing the analytical weekly RFE/RL Iran Report about events in and pertaining to Iran, he has written extensively for other publications, such as The Middle East JournalMiddle East Policy, and International Herald Tribune, and he has contributed chapters to several books. Dr Samii has testified before the full Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the full House International Relations Committee, and he also has appeared on BBC News, CNN, C-Span's 'Washington Journal,' CTV, and Fox News. He earned his PhD at the University of Cambridge, was later a Fulbright Scholar, and most recently, a fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Reza Sarhangi is a mathematician, mathematics educator, and the Graduate Program Director for Mathematics Education at Towson University, Maryland. He is the director and the proceedings editor of the international conference of Bridges: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science (http://www.sckans.edu/~bridges). The international conference of Bridges was created in 1998 and is conducted annually. It has provided a model of how seemingly unrelated and even antipodal disciplines, such as mathematics and art, can be crossed. Reza Sarhangi worked as mathematics teacher, graphic artist, drama teacher, play writer and director, and scene designer before going to the United States in 1986. He received a MS in Mathematics and a PhD in Applied Mathematics under the supervision of the late Professor H. Wang in the controllability and stabilisability of distributed parameter systems (hyperbolic systems) from Wichita State University in Kansas. In addition to a wide range of articles in Mathematics and ArtApplied Mathematics, and Mathematics Education, he has written a textbook in geometry, Elements of Geometry for Teachers, and edited/co-edited eight proceedings books.  The proceedings books are available at the online store MathArt.Com (http://mathartfun.com/).

Ahmad Naser Sarmast received his PhD in Music in 2005 from Monash University, Australia. His MA degree in musicology was earned from Moscow State Conservatory of Music, Russia. Dr Sarmast is currently Honorary Research Fellow in the Monash Asia Institute and School of Music - Conservatorium at Monash University. He is working on a joint project with the Monash Asia Institute, the Monash Science Centre and the School of Music - Conservatorium to establish a centre in Kabul for the revival of music in Afghanistan. He has previously taught theory and history of Western music, and also plays trumpet and piano. His research interests focus on the history of Central Asian music. His publications include Ustad Mohommad Salim Sarmast: A 20th Century Composer and the First Symphonic Score of Afghanistan (2000).

Jaleh Sarshar was born in 1950. She received her BA in 1971 from the College of Social Services in Tehran and after completing one year at the University of West Virginia, she continued her education in Social Services Management and received her MA from the College of Social Services in 1978 in Tehran. From 1968, she began her employment as a social worker at the Correctional Centre for Juvenile Delinquency in Tehran. In 1978 she went on to work at the National Social Services Organisation as an executive consultant for handicap prevention and then transferred to the Tehran Province division as consulting centers' manager. She retired in 1998, but continued her activities at Petropars Company and Iran Power Plant Projects Management Company as Executive in charge of welfare and culture and work and family relations manager and public relations manager, respectively. Currently she is employed as executive in charge of fostering at the Omid Mehr Foundation and social counsellor at Iran Petrochemical Company. In addition to her employment she has remained active by planning and organising 7 film festivals over a period of 7 years for the handicapped with the aim of demonstrating their abilities to the society by holding discussions after each viewing, planning and organising educational seminars, teaching at the Social Welfare Rehabilitation Sciences University and Rudehen University. She has edited several books about immunology and medicine and written several books about social work (case work, group work and social work).

Mark Sedgwick (PhD Bergen 1999, BA/MA Oxford 1981/86) is Asociate Professor of Modern Middle East History at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. His research focuses on junctions for the transfer of religions and traditions in the late pre-modern and modern periods. It is mostly on modern Islamic and Western religious history, but he has also done work on terrorism and Arab political history. His books include Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century (2004), Saints and Sons: The Making and Remaking of the Rashidi Ahmadi Sufi Order, 1799-2000 (2005), andIslam and Muslims: A Guide to Diverse Experience in a Modern World (2006).

Anousha Sedighi is the first full time Persian faculty member at Portland State University in twenty years. She holds a PhD and a Master's degree in Persian Linguistics from the University of Ottawa, and a Bachelor's degree in Persian-English translation from Islamic Azad University in Tehran. In 2004 she was the recipient of the award for the Best Student Paper Contest at the Canadian Linguistic Association Conference (CLA) . She has delivered papers on Persian linguistics at several International conferences including and has written articles on Persian Syntax. Her areas of research interest are Persian Language (Syntax and Morphology), Literature, and Culture.

Kavous Seyed-Emami is Assistant Professor of Political Sociology at Imam Sadiq University in Tehran. He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Oregon, Eugene. He has previously worked in an interdisciplinary programme in development studies leading to a MA degree in International Relations from Ohio University, Athens, Ohio. His current research interests include political participation, politics of identity, and political communications.  He has carried out research projects on political participation, politics and mass media and written articles on such topics as ethnic groups and ethnonationalism, political sociology, sociology of religion, and research methods, and has translated books on propaganda, social change, politics of identity, and mass media research. He is currently working on a book entitled Political Science Research Methods. Prior to his current position at the Political Science Department of Imam Sadiq University, he worked as a Social Science Director at the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO and as an instructor of sociology at Ahvaz University in Iran. He has also been affiliated with Bazaar Negar Market Research Consultants and Pooya Negar Management and Market Development Consultants in Tehran as coordinator of research projects and academic consultant. His publications include: Eslam dar Orupa: Siyasatha-ye din va ommat (2001); 'Kargardanan-e Bush cheguneh miandishand?' in Danesh-e Siyasi (2005); Sanjesh-e ashkal va sotuh-e mosharekat-e siyasi-ye javanan(2005); with Farhad Atai Nahve-ye estefade-ye daneshjuyan az resanehha bara-ye daryaft-e akhbar-e siyasi (2005); 'Khoshunat va hoviyatsazi' in M. Safiri ed. Kalbodshekafi-ye khoshunat (2000); 'Yekparchegi-ye melli va roshd-e hoviyatha-ye qowmi' in Faslnameh-yeMotale'at-e Rahbordi (1998); 'Melligerai-ye qowmi: dar jostoju-ye dark-e bishtar' inFaslname-ye Motale'at-e Khavar-e Miyaneh (1997); 'Farhang va yekparchegi-ye javame'-e melli' (1995).

Farah Shadchehr is currently a PhD candidate at the Department of History at the Ohio State University. Since 1997 she has been teaching Persian language at the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures of the same university.  Her research interest (topic of dissertation) is about Abd al-Rahman-e Jami, the fifteenth-century Sufi/poet, known as the last great classical poet of the Persian language. She received her Master's degree from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Ohio State University in 2000. The title of her Master's thesis was 'Muhammad Taqi Bahar: A Poet or a Politician. A Critical Study of His Life and Poetry'. Currently she is working on 'Pahlavan Mahmud: A Poet or Pahlavan / Wrestling Champion' in Miras-e Maktub (forthcoming).

Soli Shahvar holds a BA and an MA from Tel-Aviv University and a PhD from SOAS. He is currently a Lecturer at the University of Haifa, a Research fellow at the Meir and Miriam Ezri Center for Iran and Gulf Studies, Haifa and a research fellow at the Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Jerusalem. Dr Shahvar's research interests are about the advent of modern technology into the Middle East, Iran and the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century, religious minorities in Iran, Iran-Israel relations, foreign policy making in the Islamic Republic. Dr Shahvar has already published several articles on the above topics, and is currently working on few other research projects. The following are part of his recent publications (all forthcoming): 'Iron Poles, Wooden Poles: The Electric Telegraph and the Ottoman-Iranian Boundary Conflict, 1863-1865' in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies; 'Borrowing Words: Iran's Process of Modernization and the Advent of English Words into Farsi' in J. Rosenhouse and R. Kowner eds Globally Speaking: English Vocabulary in World Languages; 'Technology, Diplomacy and European Economic Initiative in the mid-Nineteenth Century Ottoman Middle East: The Indo-European Telegraph Line and the Conflicting Anglo-Ottoman Interests'in M. Winter and M. Sheffer eds Studies on Turkey: The Ottoman Past and the Republican Present.

Elhum Shakerifar was educated in France and completed her undergraduate degree in Persian and Islamic Studies at Oxford in 2004. She is currently a postgraduate student in Visual Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. So far her research has mostly dealt with the status and rights of social marginalities -- ranging from gender issues in Islamic cultures (particularly temporary marriage) to portrayals of mental and physical disability in contemporary societies. She is currently making a film about the social and legal realities faced by transsexuals from Middle Eastern backgrounds. She has long been active in various charitable organisations working essentially in projects of photography and filmmaking. Her next project is focused on China where she plans to spend  five months working on a film about modern exile.

Esmail Shams received his PhD in History from Tarbiat-e Modarres University, Tehran in 2005. His doctoral thesis was about the Kurds in Western Iran and entitled 'Nationality,Ethnicity and Religion From the Constitutional Revolution to 1921'. He also received his BA and MA in History from the University ofTehran (1996 and 1999 respectively). Since 2005 he has been an assistant professor in History at The University of Tehran. Previously he worked as researcher for Nashr-e Tarikh-e Iran (1997) and as journalist for Khordad and Fathnewspapers (1998-1999). His publications include Abdol Hosein Mirza Farman Farma with Dr M. Ettehadieh (2004); Abdollah-e-Zobair (2003); Geography and History (2002).

Raya Shani is a Visiting Associate Professor of Islamic Art, University of California, Berkeley; a lecturer in Islamic Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a lecturer in the Bezal'el Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. Some of my recent publications are: A Monumental Manifestation of the Shiite Faith in Late Twelfth-Century Iran: The Case of the Gunbad-i 'Alawiyan, Hamadan (1996); 'The Iconography of the Dome of the Rock' inJerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (1999); 'On the Umayyad Dating of the Double Gate in Jerusalem' in Muqarnas (2001); 'Paradise Glimpsed by the Muslim Believer at Prayer' in R. Hillenbrand ed. Iconography in Islamic Art (2004); 'The Solomonic Theme in the Decorative and Epigraphical Programmes of the Dome of the Rock' in P. L. Baker and B. Brend edsSifting Sands, Reading Signs: Studies in Honour of Professor Geza Fehervari (2006); 'The Lion Image in Safavid Miraj Paintings' in Survey of Persian Art and Architecture (2006).

Sunil Sharma is Senior Lecturer in Persian at Boston University. He received his PhD from the University of Chicago with a specialisation in Persian Language and Literature. Previously he was the Persian Bibliographer at Harvard University's Widener Library and Junior Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.  He is the author of: Persian Poetry at the Indian Frontier: Masud Sad Salman of Lahore (2000), of which a Persian translation is in press in Tehran, andAmir Khusraw: The Poet of Sultans and Sufis (2005). Dr Sharma has also published a number of scholarly articles and literary translations.

Rahim Shayegan is the Musa Sabi Assistant Professor of Iranian at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. Before receiving his PhD in 2000 from Harvard University, he studied at the Universite de la Sorbonne, where he obtained his MA, and at the Universities of Goettingen and Cologne, where he received his BA. He was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, before joining the faculty UCLA. Some representative publications are The Arsacid, Babylonian, and Hellenistic Antecedents of Early Sasanian Political Ideology (forthcoming); 'Philostratus's Heroikos and the Ideation of Late Severan Policy toward Arsacid and Sasanian Iran' in J.K. Berenson Maclean and E.B. Aitken edsPhilostratus's Heroikos: Religion and Cultural Identity in the Third Century CE (2004); 'Approaches to the Study of Sasanian History' in S. Adhami ed. Paitim'na: Essays in Iranian, Indo-European, and Indian Studies in Honor of Hanns-Peter Schmidt (2003); 'The Evolution of the Concept of xwad'y '”God” in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae(1998); 'Hazrbed' in  Encyclopaedia Iranica (2003); 'Hormizd I' in Encyclopædia Iranica(2004).

Khatereh Sheibani is a PhD Candidate at the University of Alberta, Canada. She holds a BA in English literature from Shiraz University and an MA in General Linguistics from University of Tehran. Her thesis project is on the poetics of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema. She has taught language, literature, and film courses at the University of Alberta since 2001. Her research interests are Middle Eastern and Iranian cinemas, Persian poetry and novel (with specific focus on magical realist novels). Her publications include 'Abbas Kiarostami and Modern Persian Poetry', in Journal of Iranian Studies (2006); 'Moslem Self Trespassing the Hodud' with Nasrin Rahimieh and Manijeh Mannani in E. Waugh ed. Self and Selfhood (2006); 'Canada, v. Iranian Community in Canada' in Encyclopaedia Iranica (2003).

Guilan Siassi received a BA in Comparative Literature and French (double major) from the University of California, Berkeley and an MPhil in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from the University of Cambridge.  She is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the UCLA, where she works in modern French, Persian, and English literatures with an emphasis in psychoanalytic and social theory.  Her dissertation, tentatively entitled 'Nostalgia, Nomadism, and the Transnational Negotiation of Identity in Francophone and Persophone Literatures' will examine literary responses to dominant discourses of identity in Iran and the Maghreb. Comparing semi-autobiographical narratives of displacement and exile produced by 20th-century French/ Francophone and Iranian/Iranian-diaspora writers, she is interested in their 'double-edged' critique of both foreign and domestic hegemonies: the regimes of power specifically enshrined by Orientalist, imperialist, nationalist, or Islamist epistemologies as well as those more generally buttressed by patriarchal or androcentric ideologies.  She has presented and published papers on a variety of topics related to postcolonial and poststructuralist theory, translation studies, women and Islam, as well as on the poetics of autobiography, memory, and exile.

Sussan Siavoshi received her PhD in Political Science from Ohio State University. Her area of specialty is comparative politics. She has been teaching at Trinity University since 1986, where she is currently the chair of the Department of Political Science. Her research interest is politics of modern Iran. She has published Liberal Nationalism in Iran: The Failure of a Movement (1990) and is the author of several articles in scholarly journals such asInternational Journal of Middle East Studies and Iranian Studies, as well as chapters in edited volumes. Her most recent article (in press) is titled 'Ayatollah Khomeini and the Contemporary Debate on Freedom'.

Mohammad Asif Naim Siddiqi is a Professor in the Department of Persian Aligarh Muslim University. He received his MA from AMU Aligarh in 1974 and his PhD from JNU New Delhi in 1980.  He has worked as lecturer in the Graduate Department of Persian, University of Kashmir (from 1979 to 1987). He also worked as Reader In the Postgraduate Department of Persian, University of Kashmir Srinagar (J&K) India (from1987 to 1997). Some of his recent publications are: 'Dida Nazuk Kun ke Fahmi Harfe Tahdare Mara' in Ghalib Nameh (2000); 'The Peacock Throne' in Patna Journal (2000).

Evan Siegel received his PhD in Mathematics from the CUNY Graduate Center in 2000, his MS in Mathematics from New York University, and his BS in Mathematics from MIT. He is currently an Associate Professor of Mathematics at New Jersey City University. Dr Siegel's research interests in Iranian Studies and related issues comprise the Iranian constitutional revolution; and early modern Azerbaijani/Caucasian Muslim intellectual life. He does research in sources in Persian, French, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, German, and Georgian. His publications include 'The Use of Classical Iranian Literature in Azerbaijani Satire: The Case of Molla Nasr od-Din' in H. Unbehaun ed. The Middle Eastern Press as a Forum for Literature(2004); 'Azerbaijani Poets Duel over Iranian Constitutionalism' in M. Ursinus, R. Motika, and C. Herzog eds Presse und Oeffentlichkeit im Nahen Osten (2000); 'The Politics of Shahid-e Javidan' in W. Ende and R. Brunner eds, The Twelver Shia in Modern Times: Religious Culture and Political History (2000); 'A Woman's Letters to Molla Nasr od-Din (Tbilisi)' in C. Herzog et al. ed. Presse und Oeffentlichkeit im Nahen Osten (1995); 'Chand aaqale az Molla Nasr al-Din' in Nimeh-ye Digar (1993); ed. and translation of A. Kasravi's Tarikh-e mashruteh-ye Iran, vol. 1 (2006).

Marta Simidchieva teaches Islamic culture and civilisation at the Division of Humanities, York University, Toronto and at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto at Mississauga. She holds a PhD in Iranian Studies from the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (1989), and a BA in English Literature from the University of Tehran, Iran (1976). She has worked as an Assistant Editor at the Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University; as an Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria; and as a translator and editor from Persian and English at Narodna Kultura Publishing House in Sofia. Her research focuses on Persian cultural history: issues of continuity and change; East-West cultural interrelations; problems of reception, representation, and interpretation. She is currently working on a series of studies on the Persian cultural legacy in the works of Sadeq Hedayat. Her recent publications include 'Kingship and Legitimacy in Nizam al-Mulk's Siyasat-nama, 5th/11th c.',  in B. Gruendler and L. Marlow eds Writers and Rulers: Perspectives from Abbasid to Safavid Times (2004); 'Rituals of Renewal: Sadeq Hedayat's The Blind Owl and the Wine Myths of Manuchehri' inOriente Moderno (2003).

Marek Smurzynski holds an MA in Theory of Literature from the University of Lodz, and MA in Iranian Studies from the University of  Warsaw, and a PhD in Iranian Studies from the University of Tehran. Since 1999 he has been a lecturer of Persian language and literature at the Institute of Oriental Philology of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland.  His interests can be grouped within three main fields of research: the text and its cultural authority, the generative power of narrative and lyrical modes of the mythico-mystical discourse in verbalising the other kinds of discourses and modelling the perception of the world and the text and Iranian postmodern literature. His publications include 'The Anthropological Aspect of Manuscripts' Multiplicity in Persian' in Iran. Questions et Connaissances (2002);'The Parataxis of Persian Narration and the Problems of the Segmentation of a Translated Text' in Oriental Languages in Translation (2002); 'Paradigms of Movement in Ali Shariati' in Hemispheres, Studies on Cultures and Societies (1989); 'The Description of Spatial Relations in the Aql-e Sorkh of Shahab al-Din Yahya Sohravardi as Mystical Mind Training' in R. Haag-Higuchi and C. Szyska eds  Erzaehlter Raum in Literaturen der islamischen Welt/ Narrated Space in the Literature of the Islamic World (2001).

Abolala Soudavar completed his university education at the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris (1963-67), Stanford University (1967-68) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Pratiques, Paris (1980-81). As a businessman he was involved in Iran from 1969 to 1982, when he moved to the USA and established Mirak Inc. He was Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University Tehran from 1970 to 1977. He is/was a member of the Visiting Committee for Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York (since 1983), of the Board of Trustees - Accession Committee - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1978 to 1994), Visiting Committee - Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago (1995-7), Visiting Committee - Arthur M Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (since 1995). His publications include Art of the Persian Courts (1992); The Aura of Kings: Legitimacy and Devine Sanction in Iranian Kingship (2003); 'The Saga of Abu-Sa'id Bahador Khan, the Abu-Sa'idname' in J. Raby and T. Fitzherbert eds At the Court of the Il-Khan's, 1290-1340 (1996); 'The Shahname and Zafarname of Mostowfi' in Iranshenasi (1996); 'Two Points of Mongol History' in Iranshenasi (1996); 'Between the Safavids and the Mughals; Art and Artists in Transition' in Iran (1999); 'The Concepts of Al-aqdamo asahh and Yaqin-e sabeq, and the Problem of Semi-fakes' in Studia Iranica (1999); 'Forgeries' in Encyclopaedia Iranica (2001); 'The Age of Muhammadi' in Muqarnas (2000); 'The Han-Lin Academy and the Persian Royal Library' in J. Pfeiffer ed. Festschrift Volume for Professor John Woods (forthcoming); 'Achaemenid Bureaucratic Practices and Safavid Falsification of History' in SIE 2003 Proceedings (forthcoming); 'The Significance of Av cithra, OPers. cica, MPers cihr, and NPers.cehr, for the Iranian Cosmogony of Light' in Iranica Antiqua (2006); 'The Mongol Legacy of Persian Farmans' in L. Komaroff ed. Beyond the Legacy of Genghis Khan (forthcoming).

Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian received her Diploma from the Interpreters' School of Geneva University. She is an independent scholar and writer. Ms Soudavar Farmanfarmaian is a member of the board of the Soudavar Memorial Foundation and has published in numerous fields of study. Her publications include Towse'e-ye eqtesadi va masa'el zistmohiti(1973); Sabeqiya (posthumous reprint of the books of her late husband, Abdolali Farmanfarmaian, with an introduction and a complete biography of the author) (forthcoming); an essay on the century-long evolution of Iranian society towards the Constitutional revolution of 1906, as followed through the lives of several generations of the same family - with special emphasis on Haj Kazem Malek-ot-tojjar, the father of the founder of the Malek Library (forthcoming); 'James Baillie Fraser in Mashad or The Pilgrimage of a Nineteenth-century Scotsman to the Shrine of the Imam Reza' in Iran (1997); 'Haft Qalam Arayesh: Cosmetics in the Iranian World' in Iranian Studies (2000). She is a regular contributor of articles to the US-based Internet site Iranian.com. Though written in a journalistic vein, the emphasis in these articles is on the history of Iran in relation to its neighbours and the influence of Persian culture.

Kathryn Spellman received her MSc and PhD in Politics and Sociology from Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research interests include transnational migration movements, religion and gender in contemporary societies, and Iranian and Libya studies. Her book Religion and Nation: Iranian Local and Transnational Networks in Britain (2005) has recently been reprinted in paperback form. She currently lectures at Huron International University and Syracuse University, London campus. She is a Research Associate at the London Middle East Institute at SOAS and on the Editorial Board of the Middle East in London magazine. She is also a consultant for the opera Ghaddafy commissioned by the English National Opera.

Annabelle Sreberny is the first Professor of Global Media and Communication in the new Centre for Media and Film Studies at SOAS, University of London. She lived in Iran during the revolutionary period, teaching at Melli and Damavand and working at Iran Communications and Development Institute where she edited Communications and Development Review. She has researched issues around media and democracy in Iran for many years, trying to both establish media as a significant focus for Middle East scholars and to internationalize media studies. Her seminal work, Small Media, Big Revolution, appears on Amazon's best-seller list of books on the Iranian Revolution. She has written on the Iranian diaspora in London, analysed Iran's information policy for UNESCO and continues to focus on the shifting definitions of politics and the emergence of new voices in the Iranian media and blogosphere. Recent edited books include Covering Political Violence (2006), and International News in the Twenty-First Century (2004). On Iran, see 'The Women's Press in Iran: Engendering the Public Sphere', with G Khiabany, in N Sakr ed Women and Media in the Middle East (2004); 'Connectivity and Collectivity: Diaspora and Mediated Identities', in T Tufte and G Stald edsGlobal Encounters (2002).

Maria Subtelny is Professor of Persian and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilisations at the University of Toronto. She received her PhD from Harvard University's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Her research and teaching are concerned with medieval Islamic cultural history, classical Persian literature, and Perso-Islamic mysticism. She also has an interest in comparative Jewish and Islamic mysticism.  Recent and forthcoming publications include 'Le monde est un jardin: Aspects de I'histoire culturelle de l'Iran médiéval' in Yarshater Lectures (2003); 'The Tale of the Four Sages Who Entered the Pardes: A Talmudic Enigma from a Persian Perspective' in Jewish Studies Quarterly (2004); 'Le motif du Trone et les rapports entre mystique islamique et mystique juive' in M. A. Amir-Moezzi, C. Jambet, and P. Lory eds Henry Corbin: Philosophies et sagesses des religions du Livre (2005); 'Visionary Rose: Metaphorical Application of Horticultural Practice in Persian Culture' in M. Conan ed. Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations and Cultural Changes (2006); Timurids in Transition: Agricultural Development, Pious Endowment, and Shrine Management during the Reign of Sultan-Husain Bayqara(2006).

Keyvan Tabari is an international lawyer practising in San Francisco. He holds a PhD in Public Law and Government from Columbia University, an MA in International Relations from Columbia University, a JD from Washington University (where he was an editor of theWashington University Law Quarterly), and a BA from Duke University. He has served as a judge pro tem at the California Superior Court, and as a judge of the Philip Jessup International Law Moot Court. He has taught at Colby College, the University of Colorado, and the University of Tehran. Mr Tabari is a member of the Board of Directors of Roots of Peace, and is on the International Advisory Council of Toda Institute. His recent publications include 'Globalization, American Business, and the Implication for Legal Education' in Journal of the Institute For Global Legal Studies (2001); 'The Rule of Law and the Politics of Reform in Post-Revolutionary Iran' in International Sociology (2003).

Majid Tafreshi studied History at the University of Tehran and Royal Holloway, London. He has done independent research work for different projects at the British National Archives (formerly Public Record Office/ PRO) and was formerly a Researcher at the Iran National Archive, Encyclopaedia of Islamic World (Tehran) and the Institute of Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies. His current research interests are: Persian and Shiite history and politics since the nineteenth century, religion and society in the Pahlavi era, religious leadership in Shiite Islam, religious seminaries, oral history of British diplomats in Iran. His publications include 'Musa Sadr and Iran' with H. E. Chehabi in H.E. Chehabi ed. Distant Relations (2006);Bibliography of Afghanistan, Books in English (2002); Shenasnameh: zendegi, khaterat, asnad va ash'ar-e Sheikh Ahmad Bahar, with Jalil Bahar (1998); Do sal ravabet-e mahramaneh-ye Ahmad Shah va sefarat-e showravi dar Tehran (1992); Khaterat-e dowran-e separi shodeh, khaterat va asnad-e Yusuf Eftekhari, with Kaveh Bayat (1991); Gozareshha-ye mahramaneh-ye shahrbani, 1945- 1949 (2 volumes), with Mahmud Taher-Ahmadi (1990);Chehel sal dar sahneh-ye qaza'i, siyasi va diplomasi-ye Iran va jahan, khaterat-e Dr  Jalal Abdoh (2 volumes) (1989); Moqaddamat-e mashrutiyat, yaddashtha-ye Hashem Mohit-Mafi,with Javad Janfada (1984).

Kian Tajbakhsh is a social scientist and urban planner. He received his MSc from University College, London in 1984, and a PhD from Columbia University in 1993.  From 1994 to 2001, Dr Tajbakhsh taught Urban Policy and Politics at the New School for Social Research in New York City.  He has worked as a consultant in the areas of local government reform, urban planning and social policy, and has taught at  universities in the United States and in Iran. He has worked with several organisations including Iran's Municipalities Organisation, the Social Security Organisation, and international organisations such as the World Bank. His academic research examines the evolving nature of Iranian state institutions and the policy making process. He is the author of two books and over twenty academic papers. In 2006 he completed a three year study of the local government sector in Iran.

Saeed R Talajooy received his BA and MA degrees in English Literature from the  University of Tehran (1991-1998). The title of his Master's dissertation was 'Tragedy, Ibsen, O'Neill: A Study in Influence'.  He then began teaching English literature at the University of Tehran (1999-2001) and later at Allameh Tabataba'i University (2001-2003). He is currently in the last year of his PhD studies at the University of Leeds working on a dissertation entitled 'Mythologising the Transition: A Comparative Study of Bahram Beyza'i and Wole Soyinka'. He also works part time as the administrator of Leeds University Centre for African Studies (LUCAS) and teaches the seminars for a course entitled Approaches to Performance. From 1996 to 2003 he worked as a freelance critic, translator and interpreter with various journals, publishing more than twenty articles and reviews on drama and critical theory. These include: 'The Hairy Ape: The Struggle Between the Individualand Society' in Namayesh(1998); 'Dandoon Tala:A Musical World of Pastiche' in Sorush (1999); 'Heidegger: Interpretation as the Philosophy of Being' in The ResearchJournal of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Tehran(2000); and a series of entries 'Literature', 'Metaphor', 'Origins of Aesthetics','Classicism', 'Romanticism', 'Modernism'in the Persian translation ofEncyclopedia of Aesthetics (2003).

Ali Mohammad Tarafdari Manshadi is the Director of New Historical Studies, the Professional Journal on Historical Studies of the Middle East. He obtained his BA in History from the University of Tehran in 1996; and an MA in History of Ancient Iran from Islamic Azad University -- Tehran in 2000. He is currently a PhD candidate in History of Iran (Islamic Era) at Islamic Azad University - Tehran. He was a secretary of the History Department at the International Centre for Dialogue Among Civilisations  2001-2003; a researcher member of Cultural Heritage News Agency (in Iranian Cultural Heritage Organisation ) and has been a writer of academic articles for this Institute, since 2002. His research interests focus on the history of Iran. His publications include Persian translations of books and various articles in Iranian journals such as 'On the Problem of Cataclysm of Dependency on Sources in Historical Studies' in Barrasiha-ye novin-e tarikhi (2005).

Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi is Professor of History and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto and the Chair of the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Toronto-Mississauga. Since 2002 he has served as the editor of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and has served on the editorial board ofIranian Studies. His areas of specialisation encompass Middle Eastern history, modernity, nationalism, gender studies, orientalism, and occidentalism. He is the author of Refashioning Iran: Orientalism, Occidentalism and Nationalist Historiography (2001) and Tajaddod-e bumi(2003). He has authored numerous articles, including 'The Homeless Texts of Persianate Modernity' in Iran- Between Tradition and Modernity (2004); 'Eroticizing Europe, in Society and Culture in Qajar Iran' (2002); 'Women of the West Imagined' in Identity Politics and Women (1994); 'From Patriotism to Matriotism: A Tropological Study of Iranian Nationalism, 1870-1909' in International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (2002); 'Inventing Modernity, Borrowing Modernity' in Iran Nameh (2003). Born and raised in the 'navel of Tehran', Professor Tavakoli is the recipient of two Outstanding Teacher Awards from Illinois State University (1996 and 2001); a Research Initiative Award (1992) and Visiting Fellowships at St Antony's College, University of Oxford (1998), the Center for Historical Studies Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, 1992-93) and Harvard University (1991-92). He has initiated numerous conferences and workshops on topical issues pertaining to the Middle East, and has encouraged the active involvement of student associations in the organisation of scholarly events and community outreach programs. He holds a BA in Political Science and an MA in History from the University of Iowa, and a PhD in History from the University of Chicago.

Nahid Tavassoli completed her secondary education in the United States and holds a BA in English Literature and language; receiving the MA and PhD in Ancient Iranian Culture and Languages from University of Tehran. She has published extensively on the topics of literature, women's rights, and literary criticism in eminent journals such as Adineh, Iran-e Farda, NAFeH, Nameh, and Hasti. Tavassoli is the author of, most recently, a collection of short stories Dushizeh Agni (Miss Agni) (1999) and Chera khab-e zan chap ast? (2005). She has been an advocate of women's rights for many years, having presented her findings in many national and in some foreign organisations such as 'League des femmes iraniennes pour la democratie a Paris' in 2003. She has served in several professional organisations and societies, including The Iranian Women Journalists Association, and Iranian Women's Party. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of NAFeH, a monthly review of literature, culture and art.

Zahra Tizro is currently completing a doctoral thesis in Women's Studies at the University of York and focuses on domestic violence against women in Iran. She has a BA in Clinical Psychology from the University of Tehran, and an MA in Educational Psychology from al-Zahra University. Meanwhile, she received her MPhil with a dissertation entitled 'Emotional Behaviour of Iranian Adolescents: A Psychometric and Cross-cultural Study' from the Department of Psychology, University of York, UK. Having conducted interdisciplinary research in the Psychology, Politics, and Sociology departments of York University, she has developed an interdisciplinary perspective towards research. She is a member of the Muslim Women Network (MWN) which is part of the Women's National Commission (WNC) and advocates for changes in public policy.

Deborah Tor obtained her PhD at Harvard University under the direction of Roy Mottahedeh and Michael Cook. Additionally, she received numismatic training from Michael Bates at the American Numismatic Society. After completing her doctorate in 2002 she held post-doctoral fellowships, first at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and then at the Kreitman Society of Fellows at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel; at both of those universities she also taught. Since 2005 she has been a faculty member of the Department of Middle Eastern History at Bar-Ilan University. Dr Tor specialises in the history of the pre-Mongol eastern Islamic caliphate, particularly the period of the autonomous Persianate dynasties. Her research interests include paramilitary groups and non-state warfare; volunteer warfare for the faith (tatawwu'), particularly its influence on the formation of Sunnism and other major Islamic institutions; chivalry (futuwwa/javanmardi); and the Saljuq dynasty. She is currently working on an interpretive history of the Saljuq Dynasty, as well as a biography of the Sultan Sanjar. Her most recent publications include: 'Privatized Jihad and Public Order in the Pre-Saljuq Period' in Iranian Studies (2005); Violent Order: The Ayyar Phenomenon, Holy Warfare, and Chivalry in the Medieval Eastern Islamic World(forthcoming 2006).

Soheila Torabi-Farsani earned her BA in History from the University of Tehran in 1988 and her MA in History from Ferdowsi University in Mashad in 1991. She completed her PhD at Shahid Beheshti University in 2000, with a doctoral thesis entitled'Merchants and Constitutionalism: From the Constitutional Movement to the Pahlavi Era'. She has been teaching at the History Department of the Islamic Azad University -- Najafabad since 1992. Her research interests are economic history of Iran at the time of the Constitutional Revolution, historical sociology, social history of Iran, and women studies. She is currently conducting a research project by the title Women and Modernisation: From the Naseri to the Pahlavi Era. Her publications include: On Political Sociology of Iran (Persian translation of a collection of essays by Ervand Abrahamian) (1997); On Girls Schools from the Mashruteh to the Pahlavi Era (1999); Tojjar, Mashrutiyat and the Modern State (2005) and seventeen articles mostly on Iranian merchants and their approach to constitutionalism in a variety of Iranian scholarly magazines.

Mahdi Tourage finished a BA in Sociology and a Bachelor of Social Work at York University, and his MA and PhD (2005) at the University of Toronto.  He is Assistant Professor at Colgate University, New York.  He has taught courses on Islamic religious traditions, Persian language, and orientalism-occidentalism at the University of Toronto, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations Department.  He is also the book review editor of the American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences.  His areas of specialty are Islamic mysticism (Sufism) and religious thought, classical Persian literature, and gender and sexuality.  His publications include 'The Hermeneutics of Eroticism in the Poetry of Rumi' in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (2005); 'Phallocentric Esotericism in a Tale from Jalal al-Din Rumi's Masnavi-ye Ma'navi' in   Iranian Studies (2006).

Soraya Tremayne, is a social anthropologist and holds a PhD from the Sorbonne, Paris. She is the Director of the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group and a Research Associate at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford. She was the Director of the International Gender Studies, Department for International Development Studies, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford. Her current research focuses on the anthropology of reproduction and its related changes during the past four decades. She is the General Series Editor of a book series on Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality. Her publications include: Managing Reproductive Life: Cross-cultural Themes in Fertility and Sexuality (ed.) (2001); Women as Sacred Custodians of the Earth? Women, Spirituality and the Environment (2001); 'And Never the Twain Shall Meet: The Reproductive Health Policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran' in M. Unnithan  ed. Reproductive Change, Agency and the State: Cultural Transformations in Childbearing (2004); 'Face and Change in Modern Iran', inJournal of the Anthropology of the Middle East (2006); 'Modernity and Early Marriage in Iran: A View from Within' in Journal of the Middle East Women's Studies (2006); You Are no Longer 'Born of Man': Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Iran (forthcoming); 'Not all Muslims are Luddites' in Anthropology Today (2006).

Farzin Vahdat is a sociologist interested in notions of modernity and their applications to Iran, Islam and the Middle East. He received both his MA (1993) and his PhD (1998) from Brandeis University in Massachusetts. He is the author of God and Juggernaut: Iran's Intellectual Encounter with Modernity (2002) and his articles have appeared in journals such as International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) and Critique.  He has taught at Tufts University, Harvard University, and Yale University.

Masoumeh Velayati received her PhD in Development Studies at the Department of Politics, University of York. She focused on the relationship between migration, gender, and development in Tabriz.  She studied migrants' involvement in the formal and informal sectors of the economy; their survival strategies; and most importantly the international political economy that immensely affects the process of internal, particularly rural-urban, migration. Currently she is a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Geography, University of Leeds and carries out part time teaching and tutoring in Development, Human Geography, and Politics. Her research interests aremigration (internal and international; economic and political); development; gender (and their cross-cutting areas); Islam and feminism; and the Middle East. Her publications include Migration and Development: Rual-Urban Migration of Azari Women in Iran, the Case Study of Tabriz, (2006); 'The Impact of Religious Ideologies of Islamic State in Enabling Migrant Women to Have Greater Mobility in Terms of Education and Employment', in Journal of Development Studies (forthcoming).

Evangelos Venetis received his MA in Medieval History from the University of Ioannina and has just completed his PhD in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, the University of Edinburgh (2006). His thesis deals with the Iskandarnama (Book of Alexander) Persian prose romance. He has written several articles on various aspects of pre-modern Persian literature and history and especially in the field of Greco-Iranian studies. In 2002 he was awarded the second prize of the Annual Research of the Year Award (Tehran) for his MA thesis on the Zoroastrian clergy and the recipient of the Houtan Foundation dissertation grant. Evangelos Venetis is currently a student member of the council of the Association for Iranian Studies (2004-2006) and also the founder and moderator of the Iranian studies e-List (2001).

Anne-Sophie Vivier-Muresan is a post-doctoral fellow at the UMR Mondes Iranien et Indien, CNRS, Paris. She received her PhD in Anthropology in 2004 from the Ecole des des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her dissertation was titled 'Comment peut-on etre Afzadi? Individu et societe dans un village persan'.  Also she received her DULCO (Unilingual Diploma in Oriental Languages and Civilisations) in Literal Arabic (2001) from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO, Paris), a DULCO in Persian (2000) and a DULCO in Pashto (1999) from the INALCO. Her research interests focus on the evolution of Iranian rural society, gender relations, Armenian community, religious beliefs and practices (Shiism, Christianity, Zoroastristrianism). Her publications include 'La République islamique et les transformations des campagnes iraniennes: continuités et ruptures' with Jean-Pierre Digard, in Les Cahiers de l'Orient (2005); 'Quand Le Caire se revele copte: traits et enjeux des pratiques de sociabilite coptes dans Le Caire contemporain' in Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée (2005); 'Transformations de la pensee religieuse dans un village chiite de l'Iran contemporain' in Etudes rurales (2004); 'Cohesion et solidarites d'une communaute villageoise iranienne' in Luqman (2003) ; Afzad. Ethnologie d'un village d'Iran  (forthcoming); 'Les rites d'ashura dans un village de l'Iran contemporain'in Anthropology in the Middle East (forthcoming).

Madeleine Voegeli was born 1964 in Basel, Switzerland. She received an MA in Islamic Studies and English Literature and Linguistics at the University of Basel (1994). She was academic assistant at the Institute for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Berne, Switzerland, and as such responsible of Persian language teaching (1997-2004). She then pursued post-graduate studies in Higher Education at the University of Berne (certified teacher 2005) and collaborated in projects of the Universities of Tuebingen, Germany (1995-1996, Medieval Islamic silver coinage in Central Asia) and Bamberg/Bochum, Germany (2004/2005, Persian intensive language training for beginners). She is presently working on a doctoral thesis on the critical reception of the writings of Simin Daneshvar. Her research interests focus on Persian prose fiction, literary criticism, popular narration, and reading behaviour.  Publications include 'Mansubat Safa l-Lais: ein volkstuemliches, aegyptisch-arabisches Zagal aus dem 17. Jahrhundert' Asiatische Studien (1996).

Heidi Walcher studied history at the University of Tuebingen and Yale University, where in 2000 she received a PhD for the dissertation 'In the Shadow of the King, Isfahan under Qajar Rule, 1874-1907'. She is presently Lecturer on the History of the Middle East at SOAS. She has worked extensively on the political and social history of nineteenth-century Isfahan. Her research further focused on paradigms of traditionalism and modernity, the Constitutional Revolution, the Jews of Isfahan, the Church Missionary Society in Iran, black slave trade during the Qajar period as well as aspects of urban, diplomatic and imperial history. As research associate for the Historical Documentation project of Opel/General Motors in the United States and Germany, examining the latter's role, development and possible cooperation with the Nazi regime, she has also worked on non-Middle Eastern history. In her teaching at SOAS, covering Iran and the wider Middle East, she has explored themes of Islamic history, Shiism as well as the pre-modern Middle East, including Ottoman, Mughal, and Mamluk history, urbanism as well as gender history. Her publications include 'Between Paradise and Political Capital: The Semeiotics of Safavid Isfahan' in Transformations of Middle Eastern Natural Environments (1998);'Face of the Seven Spheres: Urban Morphology and Architecture of Isfahan in the Nineteenth Century' in Iranian Studies (2000-2001); 'Isfahan - Qajar period' in Encyclopaedia Iranica (forthcoming); her book on late nineteenth century Isfahan is forthcoming in 2006.

Yidan Wang holds a PhD in Persian Literature from the University of Tehran and is associate professor and director of the Persian Section and the Institute of Iranian Culture Studies at Peking University.  Her major field of research covers the cultural exchanges between China and Iran during the Ilkhanid period, especially Rashid al-Din Fazl Allah's works on China. Her main publications include: Tarikh-e Chin az Jami' al-Tawarikh by Rashid al-Din Fazl Allahed. (2000), Mowlavi's Masnavi-e Ma'navi (co-trans. in Chinese, 2002), 'Moshk-i Khotan', inAyandeh (1993); 'The Exportation of China's Musk to Persia via Khotan' in Journal ofPeking University (1993); 'Khadamat-e Khaja Rashid al-Din dar gostaresh–e Chin-shenasi' inProceedings of the First National Congress on Iranologheld on June 17-20, 2002 in Tehran(2004); 'Rashid al-Din's Contribution to the Studies of Chinese Culture' in Collection of Papers on Iranian Studies in China (2003); 'A Comment on Showhar-e Ahukhanom' in Oriental Studies (2003); 'Persian Texts Relating to the History of the Mongols from the Il-khan Dynasty in Iran' in The Mongolian Studies in the New Century: Review and Prospect (2005).

Christoph Werner is Junior Professor in Islamic and Iranian Studies at Freiburg University, Germany. He received an MA (1994) and a PhD (1999) in Iranian Studies from the University of Bamberg where he also taught as assistant professor from 1997-2002. In addition to several research stays in Iran, one with a grant from the Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran, he held a research fellowship at the University of Kyoto in 2001-2002. His research interests focus on the social and economic history of the Iranian world with special emphasis on the Qajar period, the comparative analysis of waqf endowments and topics related to Persian diplomatics, historiography and applied Shiite law. A major ongoing project is devoted to building up a 'Digital Archive of Persian Documents'. His publications include An Iranian Town in Transition (2000); 'The Amazon, the Sources of the Nile and Tabriz' inIranian Studies (2000); 'Formal Aspects of Qajar Deeds of Sale' in Persian Documents(2003); 'Ein Vaqf fuer meine Tochter' in Der Islam (2003).

Yuriko Yamanaka is assistant professor at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan (1998-present). She has also been an Assistant at the Institute of Oriental Culture, Tokyo University (1993-1997). Dr Yamanaka's research interests lie in the field of classical Arabic and Persian Literature. The methodological approach employed is that of comparative literature, with emphasis on the transmission process of pre-Islamic traditions and on interrelations with other mediaeval Islamic and European literatures. Her current subject of research is Alexander the Great's image in the medieval Islamic world. Other topics of interest include The Thousand and One Nights, Mirabilia literature, and Japan-Iran relations. Her publications includeThe Arabian Nights and Orientalism: Perspectives from the East and West (2006); 'Alexander in the Thousand and One Nights and the Ghazali Connection' in The Arabian Nights and Orientalism: Perspectives from the East and West (2006); 'History and Kingship through the Looking Glass: A Comparative Study of Specula/Jian in Oriental and Occidental Literatures' in Crossings and Passages in Genre and Culture (2003); 'The Eskandarname of Manuchehr Khan Hakim: A Nineteenth Century Persian Popular Romance on Alexander' in Iran: Questions et Connaissances Actes du IVe Congres Europeen des Etudes Iraniennes organise par la Societas Iranologica Europaea (2002); 'Ambiguite de l'image d'Alexandre chez Firdawsi: les traces des traditions sassanides dans le Livre des Rois' in Alexandre le Grand dans les litteratures occidentales et proche-orientales (1999); 'From Evil Destroyer to Islamic Hero: The Transformation of Alexander the Great's Image in Iran' inAnnals of Japan Association for Middle East Studies (1993).

Houra Yavari is Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University. She holds a BA in English Literature and an MA in Psychology from the University of Tehran, and an MEd from the Bank Street College of Education, New York (1990). She has published extensively on topics in psychoanalysis and Persian literature, includingPsychoanalysis and Literature: Two Texts, Two Selves, Two Worlds (1995); 'Modern Persian Fiction: History and Development' in Encyclopaedia Iranica (1997) and Living in the Mirror: A Literary Perspective (2005).

Mohammad Karim Yousef-Jamali has been an associate professor at the Islamic Azad University -- Najafabad for twenty years. Also he is Head of the Department of History and Dean of Faculty of higher education of the same University. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1981 and has PhD in Safavid history. His main publications are: Formation of the Safavid Dynasty in Persia (in Persian); The Life and Personality of Shah Esma'il I (in Persian (2006); The Transformation of Iran in the Safavid Period from Sheikh Safi until Shah Abbas the Great (forthcoming).

Najma Yousefi was born in 1967 and is a PhD student in Science and Technology Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He earned his BA in Philosophy from Shahid Beheshti University in 1990 and his MA in Economics from Columbia University in 1996. His research interests include policymaking in IT industry and science in medieval Iran. Yousefi's most recent publication include 'Privacy: Erosion or Evolution?' in W. Aspray ed.Chasing Moore's Law, Information Technology Policy in the United States (2004).

Ameneh Youssefzadeh studied musicology and ethnomusicology in France and obtained her PhD from the Universite de Paris X – Nanterre in 1997 with a dissertation on the repertoire of the Khorasani bards. She is a 'Chercheur associee - Monde Iranien et Indien – CNRS' as well as a member of the French Society of Ethnomusicology. Her interests include the musical repertoire of the various ethnic groups of Khorasan (Turks, Kurmanji Kurds and Persian), the state of affairs of music in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the socio-cultural role of music and gender studies. She is the author of Les Bardes du Khorassan Iranien: Le Bakhshi et Son Repertoire. Ouvrage Accompagne d'un CD de 64 Minutes et Illustre de Photographies (2002). Her articles include 'Iran's Regional Musical Traditions in the Twentieth Century: A Historical Overview' in Iranian Studies (2005); 'Musique en Terre d'Islam (Moyen-Orient et Asie centrale)' in Revue L'Homme (2004); 'Musique et Pouvoir dans une Theocratie Musulmane' in La règle du jeu (2004); 'Singing in a Theocracy: Female Musicians in Iran' in Shoot the Singer! Music Censorship Today (2004); 'Haft Khosrovani' inEncyclopaedia Iranica (2002); 'Musiqi dar Iran-e pas az Enqelab' in Iran Nameh (2001); 'The Situation of Music in Iran since the Revolution: The Role of Official Organisations' in British Journal of Ethnomusicology (2000); 'Negahi be vaz'-e musiqi dar dowreh-ye Qajar' in Iran Nameh (1999). She has also produced the following CDs: Recit de Zohre et Taher, Rowshan Golafruz (2004); Iran, Bardes du Khorassan. Chants et luth dotar (1998); Tradition des Bardes du Khorassan, Iran, Haj-Qorban Soleymani et Ali-Reza Soleymani (1998); Haj-Qorban Soleymani - Music of the Bards from Khorasan, Iran (1995). She has also  collaborated as musical adviser and narrator for the documentary film Kamancheh, by Bahman Kiarostami (2005).

Mostafa Zamani-Nia is an independent writer, poet, editor, critic and publisher. He has worked at Siyamak Books (Manager), the Institute of Cultural Studies (publishing manager), the Great Encyclopaedia of Islam (editor) and Ravaq Publications (editor). His publications include Iran! Iran! (1982); A Spring Morning (1984); Tears and Winds (1989); The Marriage Proposal (1989); Zaman was in Love with the Moon (1992); Time was more Lonely than the Moon (1994); Zaman Writes for the Moon (1998); The autumn of the Acacias (1982); Step by Step with the French (1984); The Migration of Ismai'l (1985); Ask the Moon to Come, Book one: Where is the Way to the Galaxy? Book two: Where is Venus in the Sky? (1989); Which Land is the Happiest? (1992, banned); The Farvardin Plateau (1999).

Zohre Zarshenas is Professor at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Head of the Faculty of Linguistics and Head of the Department of Ancient and Middle Iranian Languages and Culture. Born in Tehran in 1957, she studied Ancient and Middle Iranian Languages and Culture at the University of Tehran and received her MA degree in 1973, and a doctorate in 1985. She is teaching Avestan, Sogdian, Manichaean Middle Persian, Manichaean Parthian and Iranology at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, the Iranology Foundation and Islamic Azad University. She is a member of editorial board ofFarhang (Quarterly Journal of the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies) and editor-in-chief of Farhang; a member of editorial board of Journal of Iranian Studies (Bulletin of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman). Her publications include Six Sogdian Texts (2001); Some Studies in Eastern Middle Iranian Languages (2001);Language and Literature in Ancient Iran (2003); Oral Literature in Ancient Iran (2005);Sogdian Fragments of Leningrad with L. Asgari (forthcoming).

Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in anthropology at the University of Queensland, Australia from 1997 to 2001.  He is currently a PhD candidate in Media Studies at SOAS.  His thesis is entitled 'The Politics of Cinema under the Islamic Republic'and is expected to be completed in August 2006.  He has been teaching in anthropology, as well as media and film studies at SOAS and elsewhere.  His most recently held post was Visiting Lecturer at Roehampton University.  His research interests include postcolonial cinema, Third World Cinema, audience studies, and diasporic media. Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad's publications include 'International Conspiracy or Intellectual Dialogue? Perceptions of Art Cinema in Iran' in Middle East in London (2004); 'Women in Kiarostami's Cinema' in R. Tapper and L. Mulvey eds Beyond the Veil, Behind the Lens: Women in Iranian Cinema (forthcoming).

Michael Zirinsky is Professor of History at Boise State University. Educated in the public schools of New York, in the Presbyterian mission-run Community School of Tehran, at Oberlin College (BA, Government, 1964), at the American University (MA, International Relations), Washington, DC and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD, Modern History), since 1973 he has taught history at Boise State University, Boise, Idaho. Since the 1978-79 Revolution his research has focused on Western relations with Iran during the twentieth century, particularly the role of American missionaries, the American government and the British government in the emergence of modern Iran. His publications include 'Blood, Power, and Hypocrisy: The Murder of Robert Imbrie and American Relations with Pahlavi Iran, 1924' in International Journal of Middle East Studies (1986); 'Imperial Power and Dictatorship: Britain and the Rise of Reza Shah, 1921-1926' in International Journal of Middle East Studies(1992); 'A Panacea for the Ills of theCountry: American Presbyterian Education in Inter-War Iran' in Iranian Studies (1993); 'Render unto Caesar the Things Which Are Caesar's: American Presbyterian Educators and Reza Shah' in Iranian Studies (1993); 'American Presbyterian Missionaries at Urmia during the Great War' in Proceedings of the International Roundtable on Persia and the Great War (2002); 'A Presbyterian Vocation to Reform Gender Relations in Iran: The Career of Annie Stocking Boyce' in Women, Religion and Culture in Iran (2002); 'Reza Shah's 1927-28 Abrogation of Capitulations' in S. Cronin, ed. The Making of Modern Iran (2003).