A conference titled «Contemporary Iranian Studies in Russia and Abroad» took place at KFU on May 15th – 16th.
Director of Institute of Internatonal Relations, History and Oriental Studies Ramil Khayrutdinov addressed the participants with a welcome speech. He touched upon today’s state of Oriental studies at KFU and cultural ties between Iran and Tatarstan.
Vice-Rector Linar Latypov (who concurrently holds the post of the head of the Department of Oriental Languages and Cultures) told that hardly any of the contemporary Oriental studies can avoid mentioning Iran because of its significance for today’s global politics.
First Secretary of the Embassy of Iran in Russia Hamid Zanganeh read out Ambassador Mehdi Sanaei’s address to the participants. Iranian Consul in Kazan Rasul Bagernejad Shayan also addressed the gathering.
Firuza Melville, Head of Shahnama Centre at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, who herself is the alumnus of Saint-Petersburg University famous for its Oriental school, said: “Kazan is the centre of Russian and post-Soviet Iranian studies. It is an honor to me to represent our college here”. She elaborated on the activities of Shahnama Centre and Oriental studies in the UK and expressed her hope to establish cooperation between Shahnama Centre and Iranian Studies Centre of KFU.
Also delivering their reports were Dean of the Faculty of Crimean Tatar and Oriental Philology of Crimean Federal University Ayder Memetov, Head of the Sector of Iranian Languages of the Institute of Linguistics of RAS Yelena Molchanova, Senior Research Associate of the Centre of Middle East Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of RAS Vladimir Sazhin.
The plenary session was followed by breakout sessions devoted to Farsi language manuscripts, history of Muslim studies, comparative studies of the languages of Muslim ethnic groups, Iran and its place in modern global politics, Persian language and literature.