The UCLA department of linguistics is establishing a fellowship in Persian linguistics with a $1 million donation from a Iranian culture institute, the university announced Monday.
The Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute is funding the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Postdoctoral Fellowship, according to a university press release. The fellow will conduct research on Iranian linguistics and will be offered a paid teaching position for two years with an optional one-year extension. Applications for the fellowship are due at the end of December.
The fellowship is named after Elahé Mir-Djalali, the founder of the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute and an expert in language education and Persian studies. She was a faculty member at Georgetown University and UC Berkeley and earned her doctoral degree in linguistics from Sorbonne University in Paris.
The Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has previously donated to UCLA, funding the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Fellowship for Excellence in Persian Studies in 2002. The Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute has awarded several million dollars to universities across the country to fund Persian academic programs.
The grant is part of the UCLA Centennial Campaign, which aims to raise $4.2 billion by UCLA’s 100th anniversary in December 2019.