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iranianstudies.bsky.social
Institute for Iranian Studies
@iranianstudies.bsky.social
180 followers 170 following 41 posts
Official account for the Institute for Iranian Studies (Iranistik) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Website: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/
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iranianstudies.bsky.social
Our Caucasus research group is organising an October meetup! If you're based around Vienna and working on Caucasus studies of some kind, we'd love to see you there :)
Vienna Autumn Caucasiology Meetup We’re having another meetup! After our successful picnic event in summer, we’re going to have a late October gathering in the 8th district, and we look forward to seeing you there. The meetup is again organised by the Caucasus research group at the Institute for Iranian Studies of the Academy of Sciences: with these meetings we aim to improve networking and communication among researchers in Vienna who are approaching the Caucasus region from a wide range of different fields and angles. This is a casual meetup, do turn up at any point during the times below and we’ll be very happy to see you. When: Saturday, October 25, 2025: 17:30-20:30pm Where: Café Merkur, in the 8th district. Open to: All academics at any level working on or from the broadly defined Caucasus region (including the North Caucasus, South Caucasus, and Subcaucasus). Interested friends in adjacent non-academic work and academic fields who’d like to come along are also all very welcome! Contact: james.baillie@oeaw.ac.at – there is no obligation to ‘register’ or similar but it’d be good to have an advance idea of numbers, and we’re happy to answer any queries.
October 9, 2025 at 11:40 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
New faces at the IFI for the new academic year!

Ilona Chmilevskia joins us as a pre-doctoral researcher working with Shamil Shikhaliev to study the transformation of Islamic juridical systems in the eastern Caucasus under the Russian Empire. Welcome to Ilona!
A young woman looking at the camera. She is white, with mouse-blonde hair, and her head is tilted towards the viewer with her right hand touching her chin: there is a bright window behind her.
September 23, 2025 at 12:05 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Our Bruno De Nicola, Stefan Kamola, and Sara Mirahmadi joined the panel "Continuity and Transformation in Persianate Mongol Intellectual History" with Carina Dreyer, and Robert Steele presented his book, "Pahlavi Iran’s Relations with Africa: Cultural and Political Connections in the Cold War"!
Dr. Robert Steele's presentation at the conference: He is standing just right of the centre of the picture, with a powerpoint visible immediately to the left showing some late 20th century Iranian covers or book images. Several other researchers can be partially seen in the foreground in the audience. Three researchers at the conference panel on Mongol Intellectual History: from left to right, Stefan Kamola, Bruno De Nicola, and Carina Dreyer, who is speaking and gesturing with her hands.
September 1, 2025 at 10:40 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Our contributions included sessions on Histories and Historiographies of C16-18 Central Asia led by Florian Schwarz, on Central Asian National Identities with our deputy director Ariane Sadjed, and with Jeanine Dagyeli on Capitalism in Turkestan: Foreign Investments and Local Entanglements:
Professor Florian Schwarz leads a panel at the conference. He is sitting in the centre of the picture behind a desk, with a powerpoint projected on the the wall behind him: three other researchers are sitting around the desk, one man and one woman to the left and a woman on the right. Jeanine Dagyeli sits behind a desk with a powerpoint on "The Durrschmidt Enterprise in the Emerging Capitalism of Central Asia" visible behind her.
September 1, 2025 at 10:39 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
In August we were at the biannual Conference of the Association of Persianate Studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan!

Thanks to the hosts and organisers: these vital spaces show the importance of having many and diverse disciplines and scholars building better research on the Persianate world together!
Members of the IFI at the Biannual Conference of the Association of Persianate Studies ASPS, Tashkent Uzbekistan. A group of five men and three women stand in a line, with a hotel wall and foliage behind them.
September 1, 2025 at 10:35 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Lots of great work on the wider Iranian world at last week's International Medieval Congress (@imc-leeds.bsky.social).

From the IFI, we had Stefan Kamola on astrology & legitimacy in Mongol contexts, and @jubalbarca.bsky.social on masculinities in the medieval Caucasus. An exciting week all round!
A man with short curly hair in glasses, a dark blazer, and a white shirt looks rightward from behind a desk while speaking. A red poster for the International Medieval Congress is behind him. A man with mousy hair, a green-brown waistcoat, and a white shirt looks down at a desk gesturing with his left hand while speaking. A red poster for the International Medieval Congress is behind him on the right.
July 14, 2025 at 6:56 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Friends in Vienna, our Caucasus researchers are holding an interdisciplinary, cross-institution picnic for Caucasus and Caucasus-adjacent studies this coming weekend.

If you'd like to join, please do, and do forward this to anyone else based in the city doing research of any kind on the region!
We’re having a meetup! There are lots of people doing Caucasus studies across the different Vienna academic institutions and beyond, and it would be good if we were able to network more, so as the Caucasus Studies group of the Academy’s Institute for Iranian Studies we’re organising a first summer picnic to help foster connections and see what else we can build together. We look forward to seeing you there! When: Saturday, June 21, 2025: 15:00pm Where: Meet at Donaustadtbrucke U2 station at 15:00. If you’re likely to come later and don’t already know people who are going, please email in advance and we’ll give you a contact number to call on the day to find us in the nearby area. Open to: All academics at any level working on or from the broadly defined Caucasus region (including the North Caucasus, South Caucasus, and Subcaucasus). Interested friends in adjacent non-academic work and fields who’d like to come along are also all very welcome! What to bring: Bring your own food & drink or something to share, and a picnic rug if you have one – we’ll bring along some cups, plates, and other basics. Contact: james.baillie@oeaw.ac.at – there is no obligation to ‘register’ or similar but it would help to get an idea of numbers so contact in advance is welcome.
June 17, 2025 at 11:24 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
For the IFI Dr. Bruno de Nicola, principal investigator of the @nomaland.bsky.social project, has been the primary research lead working with with the Chinggis Khan National Museum, and gave a public lecture there today.

We look forward to sharing more news as our collaboration develops!
Bruno de Nicola, Alexander van der Bellen, Chuluun Sampildondov and Heinz Fassmann.
May 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
We're excited to announce a Memorandum of Understanding signed for us by ÖAW president Fassmann with the Director of the Chinggis Khaan National Museum of Mongolia!

Joint historical document expertise will build new research insights on Mongolia's critical role in central Asian history & culture.
President Khürelsükh of Mongolia and President van der Bellen of Austria seated behind a desk, with OEAW president Fassmann and Museum Director Sampildondov holding signed agreements in the foreground.
May 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
New project at the IFI! Dr. @jacopobrn.bsky.social's "A Tale of Pots and People" will use a data-driven approach to the ceramic finds of the Bukhara Oasis in Uzbekistan in order to look at everyday life and interactions with major events from the C3rd to C8th CE:

www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/forschun...
A black and white line-drawn logo - a bisected circle with "A TALE OF POTS AND PEOPLE" written top to bottom through the right half, and a sketch of half a pot on the left.
April 29, 2025 at 12:49 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Now available on our website is a write-up and summaries of "A Transdisciplinary Approach to Mughal Studies", a symposium and exhibition held in honour of Prof. Ebba Koch for her 80th birthday.

You can find all the talks and a summary of the event here:
www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/ifidi...
Humayun’s Tomb, conservation during 2007-2013. It is a large red-stone building with a central white dome and several smaller surrounding domes, on a wide raised plinth. There are trees around it in the background, and upward pointing archways around the building.
April 24, 2025 at 1:40 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Another researcher currently visiting the IFI for a six-month research stay is Ghasem Gharib, a lecturer in history at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. He is part of our NoMansLand project, and his current work is focusing on a Sufi Saint, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani.

Welcome to Ghasem!
A man with dark, relatively short hair and slightly tinted glasses looks at the camera. He is wearing a red striped jumper and shirt with a dark cord jacket. There are trees in the background.
April 14, 2025 at 9:59 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Another new member! Dr. Tinatin Khomeriki joins the Circulating Knowledge in the Caucasus project. She will study knowledge production, dissemination, and exchange amid Georgia's political tensions: her interests include urban anthropology, (in)security, (mis)trust and suspicion.

Welcome, Tina!
A greyscale headshot photograph of a woman looking right from the picture and smiling slightly. She is holding one hand behind her head, lifting up her hair, which is worn loose.
April 9, 2025 at 10:59 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
We have new researchers at the IFI and we're excited to introduce them!

First, social anthropologist Ila Sikharulidze is joining us within the project “Circulating Knowledge in the Caucasus” - he will analyze how knowledge disseminates among Georgian Azerbaijanis in Kvemo Kartli. Welcome, Ila!
A young man in a dotted shirt with medium-white skin, dark brown eyes, short hair and beard, and dark eyebrows.
April 8, 2025 at 10:11 AM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
نوروز پیروز

Наврӯз пирӯз

The Institute of Iranian Studies wishes you a very happy Nowruz!
A haft sin table with a patterned cloth. Celebratory elements on it include sabzeh (wheat shoots) on the right, and a set of interlocking bowls with samanu (wheat-germ pudding), senjed (olive), seeb (apple), seer (garlic), sumac, and sikkeh (coins) are in the middle. A vase with vinegar and a pot of hyacinths are also present.
March 20, 2025 at 12:55 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
A new FWF project: "Inscribing Authority", led by Dr. Viola Allegranzi, is starting at the IFI! The project will systematically catalogue C10th-C13th Central Asian Islamic epigraphy, and study the textual and visual rulership strategies it reflects.

More details here:
www.oeaw.ac.at/en/ifi/resea...
A carved detail from a medieval Islamic central Asian monument.
February 20, 2025 at 2:56 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Our library, plus that of the ÖAI, can be used at a newly-opened reading lounge in the Postsparkasse Small Cashier's Hall (Dominikanerbastei 16, 1010 Vienna). You can book with us to use the lounge: www.oeaw.ac.at/ifi/kontakt.

Opening hours:
Mon, Weds, Thurs 10am-4pm
Tues 10am-7pm
Fri 10am-1pm
A room in the Postsparkasse building, in Vienna. An Austrian academy of Sciences board stands in the middle: the room was once a cashier's office, and what were once service windows can be seen around the edge, in the style characteristic of Otto Wagner, the architect.
January 27, 2025 at 4:47 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Another new ERC project is Dr. Laura Grestenberger's EVOCAT - the evolution of morphosyntactic categorization.

This team will look at how categorisers that characterise a grammatical function (like the -y in 'salty') develop, giving new insight into how grammar changes and language groups emerge!
A tree of language development showing a variety of branches and certain characteristic linguistic features.
January 16, 2025 at 12:04 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
New year, new projects! Dr. Ariane Sadjed's new ERC project PersCom will look at the Jewish communities of the Persianate world from the 19th century to the present. The project aims to look at everyday interactions, connections and coexistence between communities.

Project website: persianjews.org
Gombaz Synagogue, Samarkand, 2023. The room has a central reading table on a raised dais and chairs around the edge. The upper sections have pointed arches and a blue star-patterned circular roof.
January 10, 2025 at 12:34 PM
iranianstudies.bsky.social
Hello and welcome to our new profile on Bluesky! We're the Institute for Iranian Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences - a key centre internationally for understanding the languages, cultures and history of the wider Iranian-influenced world, from the Caucasus through to central Asia.
Several old books, two of them open, with Persian script visible on the pages.
January 8, 2025 at 9:30 AM