Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies
The Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies (CPIS) was created in 2008 to coordinate and enhance the activities of scholars at the University of Exeter, within history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, politics, classics, and other fields relating to Persian and Iranian academia. The Centre is based in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, within the College of Social Sciences and International Studies.
Persian and Iranian Studies
Undergraduate
Our four-year BA in Arabic and Persian was established at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in October 2007. The second year of this programme is taken abroad, with six months spent in an Arab country and six months at Shiraz University in Iran (subject to Foreign Office guidance). Students gain increased fluency in Persian as well as a cultural appreciation of the region from this experience.
Undergraduate and Masters Level
Besides instruction in the Persian language, we also offer other Persian studies modules including:
- Introduction to Persian History and Culture
- Classical Persian Poetry in Translation
- Readings in Classical Persian Prose and Poetry
- Iranian History from 1500 to the Present
- Islam and Persianate Culture in South Asia
These optional modules are available within a number of BA and MA programmes.
Postgraduate Research
To students pursuing study towards an MPhil or PhD, we offer supervision in the following areas:
- Contemporary Iranian politics and international relations
- Iranian history, particularly since 1700, but also earlier periods
- Intellectual history of Safavid and Qajar Iran
- Religion in Iran, from the Seljuk period to the present
- Iranian Shi'ite political and legal thought
- Shi'ite ritual and religion
- Sufism in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and India
- Classical Persian literature
- Modern Persian literature
- The Persian novel
- Civil Society in Iran
- Ethnicity, nationalism and identity
