Iranian American Voices of Silicon Valley

Persian Studies at San Jose State University is happy to announce the public launch of the "Iranian American Voices of Silicon Valley" project (see link above),  a digital storytelling project initiated and directed by Persian Studies co-director, Dr. Persis Karim. This project was the result of a grant from Cal Humanities and the Community Stories project which aims to support innovative projects that highlight California's diverse ethnic, racial and immigrant populations.  With the assistance of Clint Gilbert of the Center for Digital Storytelling. "Iranian American Voices of Silicon Valley" involved extensive interviews with members of the Iranian American community and their willingness to share their stories, photos and memories. This project, a pilot for which we hope to secure additional funding, gives voice to the diverse and fascinating experiences of members of the Iranian-American community in Silicon Valley. It features stories by first-generation immigrants, exiles, and those second-generation immigrants and American-born children whose experiences represent the hyphenated American experience.

We hope you enjoy listening and viewing the ten stories about the pioneering and important work and lives of these ten Iranian-Americans: Zohre Elahian, Nahal Iravani-Sani,  Mo Gorjestani, Azin Izadifar, Shirindokht Nourmanesh, Michael Nejad, Hashem Kardevani, Lily Sarafan, and Sarah Aghazadeh, online and that you will share Iranian American Voices of Silicon Valley with others. These stories and the people who share their narratives are part of the fabric and color of Silicon Valley and their contributions are part of the uniqueness of California and this region.

Please click on the Iranian American Voices of Silicon Valley (on the Persian Studies menu above) to view the ten stories.

We welcome your contributions to continuing this project and building an archive of stories about the journeys, successes, and experiences of Iranian Americans in Silicon Valley. To donate to this project and Persian Studies, contact Dr. Persis Karim (persis.karim@sjsu.edu) and Dr. Shahin Gerami (shahin.gerami@sjsu.edu).

In addition to reminding you to take a look at wonderful artwork by Mehri Yazdani in the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library (2nd floor Di Napoli Gallery), we wanted to let you know that this fall, we'll be offering two sections of Persian language/culture. These courses, made possible with a grant from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute grant, will enable both matriculated and non-matriculated student (register through Open University), to receive 3 units for beginning and intermediate Persian. Naciem Nikkhah, our wonderful Persian language instructor will be teaching Persian 1A and Persian 25A (intermediate language and culture). You can find out more about these wonderful classes from the posters below. Please email Naciem Nikkhah in order to register! The cost to Open University students is $150 for three units. SJSU students can register and can qualify for a $500 scholarship (you must apply by July 1st). 

For more information, contact, naciem.nikkhah@sjsu.edu or call 408 924-4476. SJSU students may exceed the 16-unit cap if they elect to take this foreign language. 

See Flyers below

Dear Friends of Persian Studies at SJSU:

Thank you for making our year so successful!  We've had a tremendous turnout at every event this semester, and we were honored to have so many talented writers, artists, and filmmakers at our first-ever "Cultures of the Iranian Diaspora" Conference at San Jose State University nearly one month ago (see gallery photos). This week, we'll host our last event of the semester before the summer break with an artist reception to honor acclaimed painter, Mehri Yazdani, and open her exhibit, "The Elements" at the DiNapoli Gallery on the second floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Please join us for an evening of enchanting conversation and beautiful paintings by Iranian-American artist, Mehri Yazdani, whose work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world. The exhibit is already hanging up, and will stay in the library gallery until May 29th. The opening reception is this Thursday, May 8th at 6 pm. Join us for food, friendship and beauty and to meet Ms. Mehri Yazdani in person! Free and open to the public. Parking at the corner of 4th and San Fernando, across from the library!

Last weekend, April 11-12, San Jose State University Persian Studies, with the support of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute hosted the first-ever "Cultures of the Iranian Diaspora" Conference.  The conference was a tremendous success and involved visual artists, writers, filmmakers, videographers, and academics who are at the forefront of producing and understanding the rich cultural production of Iranian Americans and Iranians of the Diaspora. With other 75 participants on each day of the conference, we engaged in rich and textured conversation, made connections, and heard from both first-generation and second-generation artists. The conference was exactly what I hoped it would be--a time for conversation, sharing our work with each other, and ultimately, inspiring one another. The variety of artists, many from California, but also from elsewhere in the United States had much in common, and also were able to participate in a cross-disciplinary exchange in ways that many conferences don't facilitate. In addition to the conference panels held on both Friday andSaturday, we hosted, "Inja o Oonja: Stories of Iranian American Life" a play written and adapted by Professor Matthew Spangler from three short stories by Jasmin Darznik, Mehdi Tavana Okasi, and Persis Karim. The audience loved these performances by a mixed cast of Iranian and non-Iranian actors (some professional, some acting for the first time), and the plays generated a rich discussion aftewards in the Q & A session. Saturday's panels were equally riveting and interesting with many artists and writers participating in a discussion about aesthetics, history, and the role of art in shaping Iranian identity. The film-screening and discussion with Iranian American directors, Babak Sarrafan (a professor at SJSU) and Mohammad Gorjestani, who screened "Doosteh Hameshegy" and "Refuge" was a testament to the equally beautiful representations of Iran and Iranian Americans in film. The conference was a great success with many participants reporting to me that, "this was by far one of the best conferences" they had attended. We thank all the participants and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library and the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute for making this wonderful and unforgettable conference a reality.

To see photos from the conference, please go to our gallery.

For two more upcoming events, please see the flyers below.

We hope to see you at both of these important events!

With warm regards, Persis Karim, Director, Persian Studies at SJSU

 February 27, 2014 Pat Lopes Harris, SJSU Today

Rich Culture, History and Heritage

SJSU’s Persian Studies Program was established in March 2011 with funding from a grant from PARSA Community Foundation and received a generous three-year grant from the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute to continue the work of educating the SJSU community about the rich culture, history and heritage of the Persianate world.

Since 2011, Persian Studies at SJSU has offered courses in beginning Persian through the World Languages department and has hosted numerous lectures with scholars, film-screenings, musical events and book readings. The Norouz concert on March 9 is a wonderful opportunity to share a meaningful holiday with classical and folk music of Iran.

"Many people in the larger Silicon Valley community look forward to this event and the idea that SJSU has created a tradition each year,” said Persis Karim, director of Persian Studies.

This semester, Persian Studies hosts lectures on “Jews of Iran,” and an upcoming lecture on April 2 with SJSU’s Dr. Katherine Richardson from the Department of Geography, who will share her research on “Iranian American Technology Leaders in Silicon Valley.”

 Iranian Diaspora Conference

The first-ever “Cultures of the Iranian Diaspora Conference,” made possible with the support of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute, will take place April 11-12, 2014, at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. The conference will feature panels by visual artists, writers and filmmakers, as well as the play, “Inja o Oonja: Stories from Iranian American Life,” adapted by SJSU Theater Arts Professor Matthew Spangler from three short stories by Iranian American writers. The play will take place on Friday, April 11, at the Le Petit Trianon Theater (72 N. Fifth St., San Jose).

The conference will also feature a film screening and discussion of two films by Professor of Theatre Arts Babak Sarrafan and San Jose native Mo Gorjestani on Saturday, April 12, in the Student Union Barrett Ballroom. Information and registration for this conference and these two evening events can be found at Brown Paper Tickets.

Additional information is available on the Persian Studies Program website and Facebook page.

San Jose State — Silicon Valley’s largest institution of higher learning with 30,000 students and 3,850 employees — is part of the California State University system. SJSU’s 154-acre downtown campus anchors the nation’s 10th largest city.

This article was originally published on SJSU Today. Click here to view it.

Nikkah grew up in Sari, a city in Mazandaran Province in the north of Iran after her parents returned to Iran in 1986 during the height of the Iran-Iraq War. Although her father's family was from this region, it was because of the bombings of the cities that her parents decided to move to the north. There, instead of attending a regular high school, she attended a special school dedicated to the arts. After graduating from Bessat Art School, she was selected by the school to design a supply store for art students at the school. This led to another job for Nikkhah when someone asked her to design a building for a private high school in Sari. She drew the initial plan, but never got to see the physical execution of her design. She left Iran to come to the US to study at the university, and not surprisingly, returned to her other home in San Jose, where she began taking classes at De Anza, and later transferred to the San Francisco Art Institute where she completed a BFA in photography. Shortly after completing her BFA, she interned at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and helped to organize the first-ever photography exhibition of Iranians to the United States. She went to Iran to help select the work that would later adorn at the San Francisco City Hall. 

After graduating in 2008, Nikkhah started working at Heald College advising students in academic planning. In 2011, she started a master's program at SOAS-University of London, in art history with an emphasis on Iran. Her passion for art and art history is part of her general appreciation for the culture of Iran, and one of the most important things she enjoys sharing with her students. Although she has been teaching at San Jose State  University only since the fall semester, we are fortunate to have such a passionate and enthusiastic language teacher. She believes that the best way to learn a language is to be exposed to and appreciate the culture from which that language springs. One of her hopes for her SJSU Persian language students is that they one day get to see Iran for themselves so that they can appreciate the splendor and beauty of a very old culture that carries that beauty in so many ways--including in the daily expressions that people speak.