Abbas SIAVASH ABKENAR

Position
PhD Student
Dottorato
STUDI SULL'ASIA E SULL'AFRICA
36° Ciclo - Immatricolati nel 2020
Area tematica
JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AND THE DISCOURSE OF TAJADDOD: A STUDY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SCHOOLS IN QAJAR IRAN AND THE INTERACTIONS OF COMMUNAL SPACES AND PUBLIC SPHERE BEFORE THE REZA KHANI NATIONALIZATION
Supervisore
Pello' Stefano
E-mail
abbas.siavashabkenar@unive.it
956598@stud.unive.it
Website
www.unive.it/people/abbas.siavashabkenar (personal record)
Office
Department of Asian and North African Studies
Website: https://www.unive.it/dep.dsaam
Where: Palazzo Vendramin

Research Project
Abbas Siavash Abkenar is a doctoral (Ph.D.) candidate at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) and the Department for the Studies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa (DSAAM) at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. His research, with a particular focus on ethnoreligious minorities, explores transregional interconnections and exchange networks across borderland contexts, highlighting asymmetrical modernities and the role of intermediary and itinerant agents. His Ph.D. project, in double degree (DD) partnership with the Leiden University School of Middle Eastern Studies (SMES), is part of the DSAAM's Ph.D. program, funded by Ca' Foscari University of Venice and MIUR (The Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research).

 

Ph.D. Inquiry
His research investigates the role of Armenians, from the borderlands to the center of Iranian power, in order to examine their entanglements with Iranian historiography from a transhistorical perspective. Combining network analysis with the study of interregional mobility, it explores paradigms of contact and exchange between the Iranian-Armenian center and periphery, tracing how these interactions have shaped cultural, political, and identity narratives. The study further highlights the role of intermediary figures, middleman agents, and diasporic connections in the making of asymmetrical modernities and in redefining the relationship between communal space and the public sphere.

Supervisors: Stefano Pello'
Supervisor in Cotutelle: Tsolin Nalbantian
Promotors: Gabrielle van den Berg, Aldo Ferrari

 

Study Areas
Siavash is broadly interested in concepts of social-spatial theory and methods of complex systems analyses associated with cultural studies to understand modernities in conversion along the Afroeurasian transition zone. His research includes mainly Iran and Europe, expanding further to the Middle East and the Caucasus. He is particularly interested in the transition of ideas, mobility of people/objects and knowledge exchange in the Modern Era; with his experiments centered around the role of microstructures, mediators, and networks in literary and historical investigations.

 

Bio
Siavash received his BA in Italian language and literature from the University of Tehran and continued his studies with master's degrees in European history and literature from the University of Bologna and the University of Strasbourg. He then followed with another professional master's in religious studies at the Foundation for Religious Sciences John XXIII (FSCIRE) and the Giuseppe Alberigo European School for Advanced Religious Studies, focusing on the historiography and doctrines of the Abrahamic religions.