SOAS – April newsletter is here!

April 2025
The Zoroastrian World is a monthly newsletter that shares key news, events, opportunities and publications from across the study of Zoroastrianism.

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From the Institute
Funerals, Faith and Finance
in the Parsi Zoroastrian Diaspora

A new project led by Institute’s Resarch Associate
Dr Leilah Vevaina
                       © University of Hong Kong, 2025.
We are thrilled to welcome the Institute’s new honorary appointees. Dr Leilah Veivaina will work from March 2025 to March 2026 investigating threads in Parsi diasporic history and here she provides an introduction to her research:

Zoroastrianism, while still a lived religion today, sees its practitioners as small in number, and increasingly scattered around the globe. Indian Zoroastrians, Parsis, are known in India for their wide spread philanthropy as well as the endurance of the traditional Zoroastrian mortuary practice of dokhmenashini, wherein the corpse is placed in large towers to be eaten by vultures and other carrion birds. The towers and the mortuary infrastructure are supported through communal giving and the instrument of the charitable trust.

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Kutar Memorial Lecture

The Kutar Memorial Lecture Series- Sogdian fire-worship: Between Zoroastrianism and Buddhism | SOAS will invite Professor Pavel Lurje to deliver the key address on the 1st of May at 6 PM in room KLT of SOAS. The lecture will be followed by a reception, and all are welcome, however, registration is essential. Follow the hyperlink to register your interest.

Kamran Djam Lecture series

The Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS has kindly partnered with the Institute to deliver the next installment of the Kamran Djam Lectures 2025 | The Wisdom of Iran: From the Gāthās of Zarathushtra to the Masnavī of Rūmī. This event will take place on 6.30 pm on the 7th & 8th of May 2025, in BGLT of SOAS. Please register using the hyperlink.

Artist-in-Residence Fellowship 

The exhibition Cosmos, Memory, Scale: The 2025 SOAS Artist-in-Residence Fellowship of the Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies | SOAS will take place from 17 July to 21 September 2025 in the SOAS Gallery. The Fellowship aims to support the creation of research-driven artwork that engages with Zoroastrianism. Karl Singporewala will exhibit a lifetime retrospective, along with brand new installations.

Visual Journey
“The Flickering Flame, standing tall, pouring out a glow of myriad colours, inspired me to create a painting. Typical in most Parsi homes, the Divo is lit in a transparent glass, in a designated prayer corner.” Thank you to Zarin Amrolia for sharing her work. You can find her Instagram account here.
News

Institute’s Co-Chair and Executive Director, Dr Mariano Errichiello, was recently interviewed by podcaster Aman Verma about Zoroastrianism in India and the Parsi community. Listen to it here.

Events

The next Iran Society lecture will take place today, 23rd April, delivered by the recipient of grant awardee. Alexander Engeskaug is also the PhD student of Co-chair of the Institute Professor Hintze, and his topic of this lecture is the Economy of Zoroastrian Fire Temples in Sasanian Iran. To register, use this link.

Prof. Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina welcomes Prof. Almut Hintze, Institute’s Co-Chair, to join FEZANA Conversations on 26 April at 9:00 Pacific / 12:00 Eastern time / 17:00 BST. Zoom meeting ID: 863 7776 2243 Passcode: FEZANA.

The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies hosts the lecture Travellers’ Accounts on the Destiny of the Soul by Dr. Céline Redard. It will take place Friday, 9 May, 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Here is the Zoom Registration Link.

“Mysticism, Comparative Religion, and Christian Relations with Other Faiths Seminar Series” will continue in person and online until 15 May. This series was launched to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of R.C. Zaehner, a scholar of Zoroastrianism. Sign up here.

The International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East will take place 2-7 June 2025 in Lyon. To learn more, follow this link.

The Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies organises the conference on Global Iranian Diaspora Studies on May 29-30 2026, Toronto. Send Title, 250-300 Abstract, 100-word Bio and contact details to gidc.eomi@utoronto.ca by 30 September. Be sure to include ‘Conference on Global Iranian Diaspora Studies 2026’ in the subject.

Publications

The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection by Salman Aliyari Babolghani

This volume presents part of the author’s research on the Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions recovered in the ruins of the Achaemenid palaces in Susa. It offers a new study of several fragmentary inscriptions in Old Persian, Achaemenid Elamite and Achaemenid Babylonian. Read more here.

Opportunities
The British Institute of Persian Studies invites applications for Travel Grants, and for Research and Research Assistant Grants. The deadline for submitting applications is Friday 6th May 2025, 5PM GMT. For more  information and to download the application form, visit our Grants page.
About Us
The SOAS Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies was launched in June 2018 thanks to the generous donation from a Parsi benefactor, Mr Shapoor Pallonji Mistry, in the name of his father, Mr Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry.

The SSPIZS Annual Report for the academic year 2023-24 is available to view on our website. It covers all of the activities fof the Institute, including events, research and teaching. Find out more.

Visit our website to find out more about the Institute.

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