As stated in the Constitution the Scandinavian Society for Iranian Studies will organize conferences on Iranian Studies every third year. The triennial conferences aim to provide an institutional framework for professional and research development and give participants opportunities for immersion in fields of specialization as well as forays into different disciplines.
A Triennial General Meeting (TGM) open to all members is held in connection with every triennial conference. Members are encouraged to attend the TGMs as it provides them with the opportunity to learn about developments within the Society, to ask the President, the other members of the Executive Committee and the Committee Chairmans questions about the Society’s activities and to put forward ideas about its future.
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The 1st Triennial Conference of the Scandinavian Society for Iranian Studies was held the 30 March 2012 at the University of Oslo. The Conference was an ideal opportunity to advance Iranian Studies in Scandinavia, to facilitate scholarly exchange amongst its membership, and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas concerning diverse aspects of Iranian civilization. By all indications the conference was very well received and successful in attracting a truly Scandinavian knowledge community. It made the diversity of the scientific field and of its current themes and topics more known to students and scholars from different disciplines. As such it marked a new beginning for Iranian Studies in Scandinavia.
The conference was attended by 13 participants, with 12 papers presented. There were three sets of sessions. The first special session concerned Language & Literature. The other two sessions covered the topics: Iranian Religions & Archaeology, and Modern History & Politics. The keynote speeches were delivered by Bo Utas of Uppsala University, on the subject ‘Language and Literature: Early Persian Interactions’, and by Fakhreddin Azimi of the University of Connecticut, on the subject ‘The Historiography of Politics in Modern Iran’.
The Conference took place in Auditorium II, Georg Sverdrup House, at the University of Oslo. The Georg Sverdrup House was named after the first director of the University of Oslo Library – Georg Sverdrup – and was opened in 1999. At the same time the Humanities and Social Sciences Library moved in to the building. It is the largest academic library in Norway.
The Conference was sponsored by Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture and Fritt Ord Foundation.
Scandinavian Society for Iranian Studies 