Soroosh Shahriari, studying in the new Religion and Public Life Master’s program at Carleton University, has recently been awarded the David and Rebecca Zelikovitz Scholarship for 2011-2012. The award is given annually to a deserving graduate student who is studying Jewish culture.
Shahriari, a native of Iran, completed his undergraduate degree in English Translation at the Shahid Bohanar University of Kerman. He then moved to Canada in 2007 to begin his Master’s degree in Comparative Literature at the University of Western Ontario. After completing his first Master’s degree in 2010, he moved to Ottawa to begin his study of Religion at Carleton University.
“Initially, I was thinking of pursuing my research in Islamic
Studies,” Shahriari said. “But when I took Dr. Butler’s Holocaust course in my first year at Carleton, I made up my mind to focus on Judaism and Jewish Studies.”
The reason for this change in focus, he stated, was because of the “unfortunate misrepresentations, misunderstandings and consequently, misbehaviour, between Jews and Muslims in the world.”
A presenter at Jewish Spaces, Jewish Places, an Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference in Jewish Studies held by the Zelikovitz Centre on February 9, Shahriari delivered a paper entitled, “Iranian Jewish Oral History Project in the U.S.: Healing a Collective Memory or Creating a History?”
The paper is based on his MA research project on the Iranian Jewish Community in the U.S. that he will be completing this summer under the supervision of Dr. Deidre Butler.