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Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina YUHAN SOHRAB-DINSHAW VEVAINA LECTURER DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES TELEPHONE: +1-650-723-2168 STANFORD UNIVERSITY FAX: +1-650-725-1476 BUILDING 70, 450 SERRA MALL EMAIL: [email protected] STANFORD, CA 94305, U.S.A. AREAS OF SCHOLARLY AND TEACHING INTEREST Critical approaches to the study of Zoroastrianism; Zoroastrian textual traditions and practices, including late antique and contemporary hermeneutics; modern Zoroastrian history and thought; the insider/outsider problem in the study of religion; religion in diaspora. POSITIONS AND AFFILIATIONS • LECTURER, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University, 2011-2013 • NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES FELLOW, National Council for the Humanities, 2010 • RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 2010 • LECTURER ON OLD IRANIAN, NELC, Harvard University, Fall 2008, Fall 2009 • RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, Department of History, University of California at Irvine, Spring-Summer 2009 • LECTURER ON NEAR EASTERN LANGUAGES AND CIVILIZATIONS, Harvard University, 2007-2008 • CORE FELLOW, Harvard College Undergraduate Core Curriculum, Harvard University, 2007-2008 EDUCATION • PH.D., Harvard University, Iranian and Persian Studies, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, June 2007 DISSERTATION: Studies in Zoroastrian Exegesis and Hermeneutics with a Critical Edition of the Sūdgar Nask of Dēnkard Book 9 (High Distinction) • M.A., Harvard University, Iranian and Persian Studies, NELC, June 2003 • B.A., Tufts University, International Relations (East Asian Area Studies), November 1998 • Foreign Student, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Peoples Republic of China, Spring 1997 • Foreign Student, Capitol Normal University, Beijing, Peoples Republic of China, Fall 1996 TEACHING EXPERIENCE (HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND STANFORD UNIVERSITY) SEMINARS (LECTURER – STANFORD UNIVERSITY) • Religious Studies 229/329 and Classics General 159/259: Winged Bulls and Sun Disks: Religion and Politics in the Persian Empire, Spring 2011 • RelSt. 209/309: Priests, Prophets, and Kings: Religion and Society in Late Antique Iran, Fall 2011 • RelSt. 209A/309A: Sugar in the Milk: Modern Zoroastrianism as Race, Religion, and Ethnicity, Winter 2012 INTRODUCTORY COURSES (LECTURER – STANFORD UNIVERSITY) • RelSt. 20: Beyond Good and Evil: A Thematic Introduction to the Zoroastrian Religion, Winter 2011 • RelSt. 109: Emperor, Explorer, and God: Alexander the Great in the Global Imagination, Fall 2011 • RelSt. 20A: The Sun Also Shines on the Wicked: The Problem of Evil in Religious Thought, Spring 2012 INDEPENDENT STUDIES – (INSTRUCTOR – STANFORD UNIVERSITY) • RelSt. 389: Individual Work for Graduate Students (in Jewish Studies and in Early Christianity), Spring 2011 • RelSt. 388: Research in Modern Religious Thought, Ethics, and Philosophy, Spring 2011 1 • RelSt. 389: Individual Work for Graduate Students (in Islamic Studies), Summer 2011 SEMINARS AND INTRODUCTORY COURSES (LECTURER – HARVARD UNIVERSITY) • IrCiv.104: Beyond Good and Evil: A Thematic Introduction to Zoroastrianism, Fall 2008 • IrCiv.105: ‘Crow Eaters’ and ‘Fire Worshippers’: Encountering Contemporary Zoroastrians, Spring 2008 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE COURSES (INSTRUCTOR – HARVARD UNIVERSITY) • Iranian A: Old Persian Language and Literature, 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 • Iranian Ca: Introduction to Middle Persian Language and Literature, 2002-2003 • Iranian Cb: Intermediate Middle Persian Language and Literature, 2003-2004 • Iranian 206r: Advanced Middle Persian Language and Literature, 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 • Iranian 100: Intermediate Middle Persian Language and Literature, Fall 2008 • Iranian 130: Advanced Middle Persian: Pahlavi, Fall 2009 CORE COURSES (TEACHING FELLOW – HARVARD UNIVERSITY) • Moral Reasoning 54: ‘If There is No God, All is Permitted’: Theism and Moral Reasoning, Spring 2008, Head Teaching Fellow, Fall 2009 • Literature and Arts 21: The Images of Alexander the Great, Department of the Classics and History of Art and Architecture, Fall 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007 PUBLICATIONS BOOKS • Dēnkard Book 9. The Sūdgar Nask. Text, Translation, and Commentary. IRANICA Series (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, in preparation). • Co-editor with Michael Stausberg, The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Zoroastrianism (Oxford: Wiley- Blackwell, in preparation). ARTICLES • “Resurrecting the Resurrection: Eschatology and Exegesis in Late Antique Zoroastrianism,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 19 ([2005] 2009), pp. 219-227. • “Relentless Allusion: Intertextuality and the Reading of Zoroastrian Interpretive Literature,” in The Bavli in Sasanian Iran. Proceedings of The Talmud in Its Iranian Context, UCLA, May 6-7, 2007, eds. Carol Bakhos and Rahim Shayegan (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2010), pp. 208-234. • “‘Enumerating the Dēn’: Textual Taxonomies, Cosmological Deixis, and Numerological Speculations in Zoroastrianism,” History of Religions 50:2 (Nov. 2010), pp. 111-143. • “Hubris and Himmelfahrt: The Narrative Logic of Kay Us’ Ascent to Heaven in Pahlavi Literature,” in Ancient and Middle Iranian Studies. Proceedings of the 6th Conference of Iranian Studies, held in Vienna, 18-22 September 2007, eds. M. Macuch, D. Weber and D. Durkin-Meisterernst, IRANICA 19 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010), pp. 231-243. • “Miscegenation, ‘Mixture,’ and ‘Mixed Iron’: The Hermeneutics, Historiography, and Cultural Poesis of the ‘Four Ages’ in Zoroastrianism,” in Revelation, Literature and Community in Late Antiquity, eds. Philippa Townsend and Moulie Vidas (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, in press), 237-269. • “Scripture Versus Contemporary (Interpretive) Needs: Mapping the Contours of Zoroastrian Hermeneutics,” in Shoshanat Yaakov: Ancient Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Professor Yaakov Elman, eds. Steven Fine and Samuel Secunda (Leiden: Brill, in press). • “‘The Ground Well Trodden But the Shah Not Found…’: Orality and Textuality in the ‘Book of Kings’ and the Zoroastrian Mythoepic Tradition,” in Orality and Textuality in the Iranian World, eds. Julia Rubanovich and Shaul Shaked (Leiden: Brill, in press). 2 • “Words and Worlds and Those in Between...: Questions of Philology, Historiography, and Disciplinarity in the Study of Zoroastrianism” (in preparation). • “‘Surely the Prophet Intended...’: Authority and Legitimation in the Study of Zoroastrianism” (in preparation). • “Pahlavi and Periodization: The Use and Value of the Term ‘Late Antiquity’ for Zoroastrian Middle Persian Literature,” (in preparation). • “Theologies and Hermeneutics,” in The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Zoroastrianism (Oxford: Wiley- Blackwell, in preparation). • with Michael Stausberg, “Inside(er) and Outside(er) Perspectives,” in The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Zoroastrianism (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, in preparation). ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES • “Sūdgar nask and Warštmānsr nask,” in Encyclopædia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sudgar-nask-and-warstmansr-nask • “Avesta,” in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, eds. R. Bagnall et al (Oxford: Blackwell, in press). • “Zurvan,” in The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, eds. R. Bagnall et al (Oxford: Blackwell, in press). REVIEW ARTICLES • Jenny Rose: The Image of Zoroaster: The Persian Mage Through European Eyes (New York, 2000), in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, vol. 13/1 (2003): 118-122. • John R. Hinnells: The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration (Oxford, 2005), in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, vol. 17/3 (2007): 344-349. • Contributed to Prods Oktor Skjærvø’s review of Bruce Lincoln: Religion, Empire, and Torture: The Case of Achaemenian Persia, with a Post-Script on Abu Ghraib (Chicago, 2007) in The American Historical Review 113 (June 2008): 946-947. • John R. Hinnells and Alan Williams (eds.): Parsis in India and the Diaspora (London, 2007), in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, vol. 20/1 (January 2010), 100-106. • Ramiyar P. Karanjia: The Bāj-dharnā (Drōn Yasht). A Zoroastrian Ritual for Consecration and Commemoration. History, Performance, Text and Translation (Mumbai, 2010), in Parsiana (in press). LECTURES, TALKS, AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS • “Zoroastrian 201,” Zoroastrian Association of Northern California, San Jose, CA, May 15, 2011. • Respondent at “Sensual Faiths: Religion and the Senses,” Graduate Student Conference, Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, May 14, 2011. • “Miscegenation, ‘Mixture,’ and ‘Mixed Iron’: The Hermeneutics, Historiography, and Cultural Poesis of the ‘Four Ages’ in Zoroastrianism,” Faculty Colloquium, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University, May 5, 2010. • “‘O Ahura, We Desire Your Fire to be Strong through Asha’: Language, Literature and Learning from the Gathas,” K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai, India, Sep. 3, 2010. • “The Zoroastrian Community’s Response to Islam: Text, Debates and Interaction,” 8th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies, Santa Monica, May 30, 2010. • “The ‘Book of Kings’ and the Zoroastrian Mythoepic Tradition in Early Islamic Iran,” The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas, Austin, April 6, 2010. • “Contested Theologies: The Internet and the Study of Zoroastrianism,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Montréal, Canada, Nov. 8, 2009. • “Questions of Transmission and Agency in the Pahlavi Commentaries on the Old Avesta,” at “Poets, priests, scribes and (e-)librarians. The transmission of holy wisdom in Zoroastrianism,” Universidad de Salamanca,
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