Dissertation Award

The best PhD dissertation on a theme of Iranian Studies is chosen based on several criteria, including imagination, novelty of approach, clarity in stating the problematic, theoretical foundation, methodological rigor, efficient and intelligent use of primary source material, and quality of fieldwork, among others.

The Foundation may also recognize up to two runner-up dissertations with honorable mention and subject to budgetary considerations and the decision of an advisory board of readers, may also help towards the publication of outstanding dissertations.

Each year the award is granted to a dissertation approved during that academic year and announced in October/November of the year for which it is granted.

Dissertations must be nominated by the author's advisor and be accompanied by the Dissertation Committee's letter of acceptance. Two copies, one preferably digitized, must be submitted by August 15 to:

Notice of the awards appears in the MESA and ISIS mail lists and journals, in Iran Nameh, and in various Persian language and other academic publications. It will also be posted on the FIS website.

The award for 2011 was conferred on Roham Alvandi on November 30, 2011 with the following announcement.

Foundation for Iranian Studies

Announcement of the Recipient of Award

For

The Best Ph.D. Dissertation on a Topic of Iranian Studies, 2011

November 30, 2011
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 Roham Alvandi’s dissertation “Nixon, Kissinger and the Shah: US-Iran Relations and the Cold War, 1969-1976” submitted to the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford as the recipient of the Foundation's annual Ph.D. dissertation award for the academic year 2010-2011.
In making its decision, the Committee, following the criteria established by the Foundation’s Board of Directors, noted that Roham Alvandi 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to bring together a significant array of primary and secondary sources, including several hitherto unknown or unpublished sources, to support an innovative approach to the study of the evolving relationships between Iran and the United States during the Cold War… shedding new light on the political and geostrategic context that provided the framework for close cooperation between the Shah and President Nixon, including the Shah’s agency in the initiation and evolution of the Nixon Doctrine … challenging the scholarship that sees the dynamics of international relations mainly through Western/big power prisms by using specific and well documented events to explicate convincingly the multi-dimensionality and reciprocity that pervade the interactions of regional and global powers … identifying openings to further refinement of the study of Cold War politics and delineating a productive path for applying to the study of the 21^st century global international politics lessons derived from the US-Iran relations in the pre-revolutionary Iran… excellent organization of the work.”

The Committee also cited Clement Therme's dissertation “Les relations entre Téhéran et Moscou depuis 1979: perspectives iraniennes” submitted to the University of Geneva and l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales and Orkideh Behrouzan’s dissertation "Prozak Diaries: Post-Rupture Subjectivities and Psychiatric Futures" submitted to the Program in Science, Technology and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with honorable mention for superior scholarship, originality, clarity, and significant contribution to Iranian Studies.

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