The Foundation for Iranian Studies is pleased to announce that the Committee on Selection of the Best Dissertation of the Year on a Topic of Iranian Studies of the Foundation for Iranian Studies has chosen Francesca Leoni’s dissertation “The Revenge of Ahriman: Images of Divs in the Shahnama, ca. 1300-1600,” submitted to the Faculty of Art and Archeology, Princeton University, as the recipient of the Foundation's annual Ph.D. dissertation award for the academic year 2008-2009.

In making its decision, the Committee, following the criteria established by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, noted that Francesca Leoni has made an "exceptional contribution to the field of Iranian Studies” by, among other achievements, “stating clearly the study’s problematic… constructing an adequate and efficient theoretical framework…developing and using successfully a rigorous methodology to bring together a significant array of primary and secondary sources, including several hitherto unknown or unpublished sources, in several languages drawn from several cultures to support an innovative approach to the study of Iranian iconography… relating illustrative art analysis in new imaginative ways to relevant socio-cultural, historical, psychological, and spiritual contexts… identifying nuanced deviations from the text in the illustrations of heroes and divs in over three centuries of Shahnameh manuscript production and explicating how the deviations illuminate and bring into focus specific ethical motives affecting patterns of transition from the aesthetics of beauty and ugliness to the values of good and evil… delineating a productive path to the study of how the didactic role the Shahnameh illustrators played as disseminators of values may help later historians to ground meaning in time and space… excellent organization of the work.”

The committee also cited Reza Pourjavady’s dissertation “A Shi`i Theologian and Philosopher of Early Safavid Iran: Najm al-Din Hajji Mahmud al-Nayrizi and His Writings” submitted to the Department of History and Cultural Studies of Free University of Berlin, and Roxane Farmanfarmaian’s dissertation “Passionate Constructions: Democracy and Islam in Anglo-American Relations with Iran, 1979-1989” submitted to the Board of Graduate Studies of the University of Cambridge, with honorable mention for high scholarship, originality, clarity, and significant contribution to Iranian Studies.

Notice of the awards will appear in the Foundation’s interactive web, MESA and ISIS newsletters and journals, in Iran Nameh, and in various Persian language and other academic publications.