Research

• Blackwell Companion to the Sasanian Empire
  College of Letters and Science: Humanities
  This project is designed as an exhaustive introduction to the multifaceted Sasanian world. It simultaneously contextualizes Sasanian cultural practices in the continuity of Iranian traditions and exposes the extent of Sasanian interactions with empires and cultures of late antiquity.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Rahim Shayegan
  (Updated: Apr 28 2023)

• Anatolian Lab
  College of Letters and Science: Social Sciences
  The Anatolian Lab aims to produce a record of long-term cultural changes in a region at a major crossroads between highlands and lowlands along the Syro-Anatolian frontier. Work is currently being done at Domuztepe.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Elizabeth Carter
  (Updated: Apr 28 2023)

• A History of the Sasanian Empire
  College of Letters and Science: Humanities
  The project of a History of the Sasanian Empire, a multi-volume undertaking contracted with Cambridge University Press, shall greatly benefit from the wealth of programmatic offerings on the Sasanian empire hosted by the Pourdavoud Center.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Rahim Shayegan
  (Updated: Apr 28 2023)

• Averroës Lecture Series on Jewish Communities in Muslim Lands
  International Institute
  The Averroës Lecture Series focuses on Jewish communities living in Muslim lands prior to the 20th century. The program offers quarterly lectures by experts from around the world, publishes an occasional paper series, and culminates in a major conference featuring young scholars engaged in research on the topic.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Ali Behdad
  (Updated: May 17 2023)

• Humanitarian Borderlands: Medicine and Terror at Turkey’s Syrian Border
  College of Letters and Science: Social Sciences
  This book project focuses on humanitarian prosthetics and emergency field medicine along and across Turkish-Kurdish-Syrian border. The work explores how new forms of medical care and ethics emerge in a zone of political violence through a contest over the meanings of health, humanitarianism, and terrorism.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Salih Can Açiksöz
  (Updated: May 17 2023)

• Lost Villages of the Upper Euphrates: A Digital Archive
  UCLA Library
  The Modern Endangered Archives Program of UCLA funds the digitization of 2,400 slides created between 1970 and 1990 in the Upper Euphrates region of southeast Türkiye. The slides form a unique ethnographic record of traditional ways of life in villages flooded during construction of the Keban and Karakaya hydroelectric dams.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Rachel Deblinger
  (Updated: Jul 19 2024)

• Ethnomusicology Doctoral Program at Istanbul Technical University
  UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

  Lecturer of Ethnomusicology Robert F. Reigle created the first ethnomusicology doctoral program in Turkey, at Istanbul Technical University.

  
  

  Project website

  (Updated: Mar 13 2025)

Education/Training

• Averroës Lecture Series on Jewish Communities in Muslim Lands
  International Institute
  The Averroës Lecture Series focuses on Jewish communities living in Muslim lands prior to the 20th century. The program offers quarterly lectures by experts from around the world, publishes an occasional paper series, and culminates in a major conference featuring young scholars engaged in research on the topic.
  Project Contact:

  Project website

  Ali Behdad

• Music of Turkey Ensemble
  UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music
  The Music of Turkey Ensemble performs vocal and instrumental repertoire from art, music, fasil, folk, and other genres found in Turkey and its periphery. Students learn various aspects of the theoretical concepts makam and usul. Every year, the ensemble takes part in the UCLA Spring Festival of World Music.
  Project Contact:

  Project website

  Münir Beken

• Ethnomusicology Doctoral Program at Istanbul Technical University
  UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

  Lecturer of Ethnomusicology Robert F. Reigle created the first ethnomusicology doctoral program in Turkey, at Istanbul Technical University.

  
  

  Project website

College of Letters and Science: Humanities

• Blackwell Companion to the Sasanian Empire
  Research|
  This project is designed as an exhaustive introduction to the multifaceted Sasanian world. It simultaneously contextualizes Sasanian cultural practices in the continuity of Iranian traditions and exposes the extent of Sasanian interactions with empires and cultures of late antiquity.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Rahim Shayegan
  (Updated: Apr 28 2023)

• A History of the Sasanian Empire
  Research|
  The project of a History of the Sasanian Empire, a multi-volume undertaking contracted with Cambridge University Press, shall greatly benefit from the wealth of programmatic offerings on the Sasanian empire hosted by the Pourdavoud Center.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Rahim Shayegan
  (Updated: Apr 28 2023)

International Institute

• Averroës Lecture Series on Jewish Communities in Muslim Lands
  Research, Education
  The Averroës Lecture Series focuses on Jewish communities living in Muslim lands prior to the 20th century. The program offers quarterly lectures by experts from around the world, publishes an occasional paper series, and culminates in a major conference featuring young scholars engaged in research on the topic.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Ali Behdad
  (Updated: May 17 2023)

College of Letters and Science: Social Sciences

• Anatolian Lab
  Research
  The Anatolian Lab aims to produce a record of long-term cultural changes in a region at a major crossroads between highlands and lowlands along the Syro-Anatolian frontier. Work is currently being done at Domuztepe.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Elizabeth Carter
  (Updated: Apr 28 2023)

• Humanitarian Borderlands: Medicine and Terror at Turkey’s Syrian Border
  Research
  This book project focuses on humanitarian prosthetics and emergency field medicine along and across Turkish-Kurdish-Syrian border. The work explores how new forms of medical care and ethics emerge in a zone of political violence through a contest over the meanings of health, humanitarianism, and terrorism.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Salih Can Açiksöz
  (Updated: May 17 2023)

UCLA Library

• Lost Villages of the Upper Euphrates: A Digital Archive
  Research|
  The Modern Endangered Archives Program of UCLA funds the digitization of 2,400 slides created between 1970 and 1990 in the Upper Euphrates region of southeast Türkiye. The slides form a unique ethnographic record of traditional ways of life in villages flooded during construction of the Keban and Karakaya hydroelectric dams.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Rachel Deblinger
  (Updated: Jul 19 2024)

UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

• Music of Turkey Ensemble
  Education
  The Music of Turkey Ensemble performs vocal and instrumental repertoire from art, music, fasil, folk, and other genres found in Turkey and its periphery. Students learn various aspects of the theoretical concepts makam and usul. Every year, the ensemble takes part in the UCLA Spring Festival of World Music.
  Project Contact:

  Project website			Münir Beken
  (Updated: Jul 20 2023)

• Ethnomusicology Doctoral Program at Istanbul Technical University
  Research, Education

  Lecturer of Ethnomusicology Robert F. Reigle created the first ethnomusicology doctoral program in Turkey, at Istanbul Technical University.

  
  

  Project website

  (Updated: Mar 13 2025)