North American Zarathushti Congress – Newsletter NAZC TwetyTen – June 2010

NAZC TWENTYTEN – JUNE 2010
 
            Countdown Continues – 209 days left for the Congress – and 28 days left for “early bird” rate!!
 
Introducing our Program Speakers?
The benchmark of a successful congress is the quality of its program, the variety of offerings, the number of attendees and the spectacular entertainment. Our Program Committee has judiciously selected speakers keeping in mind the variety of offerings in the field of religion, culture, history and preservation of old manuscripts, and issues relating to youth.
 
Dr. Niaz Kasravi  – Keynote Speaker – serves as the Director of Community Relations for the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA). She received her Ph. D. in Criminology, Law & Society from the University of California, Irvine. In her academic career, she focused on sociology of law and issues of law and inequality. Through a National Science Foundation grant, she traveled to Iran to work with Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient of 2003, on women’s role in the reform movement.
Dr. Jamsheed Choksy – Jungalwala Lecture Series – is professor of Central Eurasian studies, professor of history, adjunct professor of religious studies and an affiliated faculty member of India Studies and of Medieval Studies at Indiana University. He also has served as chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and as director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at IU. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve a six-year term as a member of the US National Council on the Humanities.
 
Dr. Pallan Ichaporia – Preservation of Ancient Manuscripts – has BA in Avesta/Pahlavi from Bombay University, and attended Columbia University for Post Graduate Study in Iranian Languages under James Russell. He has been elected Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society of Gt. Britain and Ireland. His publications include, “The Gathas of Asho Zarathushtra” Co-authored with Helmut Humbach” The Heritage of Zarathushtra”, and Zamyad Yasht-Text, Translation and Glossary”. His forthcoming books are “Concise Modern History of the Parsis” and “The Concordance of the Gathas” to be published in Germany.  Dr. Ichaporia obtained doctorate in Business Administration from Oklahoma.
 
Dr. Rashna Writer  – Historian – received her Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics.  She served as a Research Assistant at Manchester University, and has been a Lecturer in Pre-Islamic Iran at Birkbeck College, London University, and at Richmond College, London. Dr. Writer has presented several talks and lectures on Zoroastrianism and the history of Pre-Islamic Islam at numerous conferences. She is the author of:  Contemporary Zoroastrians: An Unstructured Nation, University of America Press, and the co-author of The Memoirs of Keikhsrow Shahrokh, Edwin Mellen Press. 
 
Dr. Shernaz Cama – Preservation of Z culture (UNESCO PARZOR Project) – did her BA (Hons.) from Madras University and her MA, MPhil and PhD from the University of Delhi. During the course of her PhD researches on Blake and Zoroastrianism, she worked at the British Museum and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London under the guidance of Prof. Mary Boyce and Dr. Kathleen Raine. She has been teaching at Delhi University since 1983 and is currently Head, Department of English at Lady Shri Ram College. She is Honorary Director of the PARZOR Project on the Preservation and Promotion of Parsi Zoroastrian Culture and Heritage funded by UNESCO.
 
Niloufer Ichaporia-King –  Z food (Anthropologist and celebrated culinary expert) – is the author of My Bombay Kitchen, the first book on Parsi food written by a Parsi published in the United States. In addition to being a cookbook author, King is also an anthropologist and details in her writing the history, rituals and beliefs of the Parsi community as seen in the food cooked and eaten by one Bombay family.
 
Dr. Nerina Rustomji – How to be a family historian (Educator and Author) – specializes in the intellectual and cultural formation of Islamic societies and the Middle East. Since joining St. John’s University in 2006, she has offered both undergraduate and graduate courses in medieval Islamic, modern Middle East, and Iranian history. Nerina is the author of The Garden and the Fire: Heaven and Hell in Islamic Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.)
 
Dan Sheffield – is a Graduate student at Harvard, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. His Thesis Title: In the Path of the Prophet: Sacred Narratives of Zarathushtra in Medieval and Early Modern Zoroastrianism
 
Nina Godiwalla – Addressing youth issues – has an MBA from Wharton and has spent almost a decade working for Fortune 100 corporations including Morgan Stanley and Johnson & Johnson.  Her book Suits: A Woman on Wall Street will be published by the end of the year.
 
Cyrus Mistry – Towers of Success, a session by the Youth – is the Enterprise Product Manager at Google responsible for enterprise search.  He has more than a decade of enterprise software experience with roles in software development, consulting, program management, product management, marketing, and business development. Mistry has four degrees from Johns Hopkins with master’s work in natural language processing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
 
Eric Engineer and Afreed Mistry – YLEP (Youth Leadership Enhancement Program). Eric graduated from Rice University in Houston, TX and did his MBA from Harvard. He is presently working as Senior Associate at Sevin Rosen Funds. Afreed is a Senior Technical Systems Analyst at Royal Bank of Canada. There is the NextGenNow Panel Discussion to pique the interest of the youth.
 
And how can we forget the children’s program?  Their sessions will be concurrent with the adult sessions so that the parents can be free to attend the adult sessions. Vehishta Kaikobad is a qualified Montessori Teacher and with the assistance of other teachers will take the children on a virtual tour of the Silk Road – a multi-age session discovering cross-cultural concepts through (historically accurate) stories, drama, pictorial presentations and crafts from Persia, China, India, Rome, Indonesia, Mongolia.   
 
What do all of these need? … Funds!!! 
Sarosh Collector, Treasurer, NAZC 2010, would like to point out salient facts of the budget
 
Ø       NAZC 2010 is a three day event
Ø       It has the lowest registration cost per day in comparison to previous congresses
Ø       The Opening Day luncheon, the Awards Luncheon, the Opening Night Gala Dinner with entertainment, and New Year’s Eve dinner are included as part of the Congress registration.
Ø       Of the registration price, $200 is set aside for coffee breaks, two lunches, and two gala dinners. The balance is not enough to fund occupancy costs at the hotel, rooms, and Audio Visual Equipment that will be used for the sessions.
 
Please contribute generously.  Contact Jimmy Kumana at jkumana@aol.com or Sarosh Collector at scollector@cdadvisorsinc.com
 
So What Are You Waiting For?
Register now at EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION rate, which ends June 30. We need to hear from you. Visit our website at http://www.zah.org/nazc-10/default.htm – complete the registration form and mail it with your check, or earn travel miles and register with your credit card. Have a nice family vacation. Come on down south from your northern snowy winter and enjoy the cool (not cold) pleasant winter days that Houston offers. You can take a cruise from Galveston – 5 day cruise on January 3 to Progresso and Cozumel, Mexico or a 7 day cruise from January 2 to Bahamas. And don’t forget your passport. Check with cruises.com to get a good rate.
 
Stay connected!!!  Next month…read about the Booths/Exhibits and Entertainment.

Courtesy : Arnavaz Sethna