The Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) is an organization for their researchers and scholars interested in the culture and civilization of the Persian-speaking societies and related areas to the Iranian civilization.
The Association’s biennial conference has been held in India, Pakistan, Georgia and Armenia since its inauguration in Tajikistan in 2002. Eight regional branches give the ASPS an international presence.
As a report on the ASPS website, noted Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi will be praised this year by ASPS. The ceremony has been arranged by Ahmad Karimi Hakkak, a professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the organizing committee of the conference.
Dowlatabadi, born in 1940, has been the most prominent novelist in Iran since the 1980s. He, which forced to work from childhood and is a self-educated person, spent part of his younger adult years as a stage actor in Tehran.
‘The Colonel’, ‘Kalidar’, ‘Desert Strata’, ‘The Trip’, ‘The Legend of Baba Sobhan’, ‘Missing Slouch’ are among his credits.
‘The Colonel’ has not been published in Iran so far; however it is available in German, English and Italian languages. The work has been nominated for several literary prizes including the Man Booker Prize.
Over 250 scholars from different countries are participating in the ongoing conference (September 2013) in which topics such as Iranian National Traditions, Safavids: His- tory and Diplomacy, Themes in Persian Myth and History, Ancient Contacts Between Iran and the Balkans, and Social and Political Cur- rents of Modern Iranian History are being discussed.
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