Center Director Receives Senior Mentorship Award at Iranian Studies Conference

On August 12, 2024 the Center's director, Dr. Persis Karim, received the Association for Iranian Studies (AIS) Senior Mentorship Award. Among the thirteen letters supporting this nomination were those written by colleagues, graduate students, and junior scholars Dr. Karim has mentored, supported, and assisted in their own academic journeys. In a letter by Dr. Camron Amin, professor of History at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, he writes, "In just one generation, Dr. Karim has both helped to pioneer the field of Iranian Diaspora Studies and to build it as a multi-generational academic fellowship. When I began my intellectual journey towards Iranian Diaspora Studies, I did not just depend on Dr. Karim's scholarship on the literature of Iranian Americans, but also on her encouragement and guidance." Other letters pointed to her generosity toward graduate students, including those who have not attended San Francisco State. Dr. Manijeh Moradian, Assistant Professor, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College writes, "In her role as director of the first and only Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies, she has carried out groundbreaking work to complicate our understanding of the Iranian diaspora and to create a new level of legitimacy and visibility for Iranian diasporic scholars and artists. She has mentored undergraduate interns and graduate students working on their Master's theses, all while continuing to mentor the network of junior scholars she has gathered around a collective mission to establish a new field of study." We congratulate Dr. Karim and receiving this award and the many ways she has utilized her role at the Center to support and expand this important field!