Persian Program

Persian Program

Program Founding Director and Advisor: Mitra Ara, mitraara@sfsu.edu

Founded in 2007, the Persian Studies Program at San Francisco State University is an academic resource for understanding, studying, and appreciating Persian cultural heritage belonging to a diverse ethnic collection of Afghanis, Armenians, Assyrians, Azeris, Baluchis, Gilakis, Kurds, Lors, Persians, Tajiks, Turks, and many others. This program allows students to explore Persian language, literature, arts, history, and culture in all its manifestations. It exposes students to a broadly defined vision that spans and includes the diverse geographic and linguistic landscape of both historic and modern Persianate societies.

Visit the current University Bulletin for complete course descriptions and class schedule.

Related Resources

Minor in Persian Studies

The Persian Minor program, consists of 15 units, offers a diverse range of multidisciplinary lower and upper division undergraduate courses in culture, history, politics, philosophy, religion, literature, language, film, and media.

Persian Studies Center

The Persian Studies Center, located in Room 413 of the Humanities Building, is the reading room, tutorial center, office of student organizations, as well as the cultural center for students of Persian Studies and Middle East Studies. The center is open to all.

Student Organization

The Persian Program is home to the student organization I-House: Education in Action!, whose headquarters are located in the Persian Studies Center in Room 413 of the Humanities Building.

External Resources (Persian)

Resources available for our students include the Foreign Language Laboratory, Graduate Reading Room, Chinese Reading Room and Toshiko Mishima Memorial Tea Room, and Persian Studies Center. The department also offers serveral links to helpful websites relating to your program of study.

Area Studies Minors

You may also be interested in multidisciplinary minors in European Studies, Middle East and Islamic Studies, Pacific Asian Studies, or Persian Studies.