Main content start

Zahedi Family Fellowship

Ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi seated in his home

The Zahedi Family Fellowship is a twelve-week residential fellowship focusing on the Zahedi Archive (which includes both diplomatic correspondence and collected photos) at Stanford University’s Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies.

During the fellowship period, the Zahedi Fellow is expected to pursue their independent research in residency and to hold a lecture, seminar or workshop on their research, organized by the Iranian Studies Program. The Zahedi fellow will have access to Stanford University Libraries and the Hoover Institution Library and Archives as well as a community of scholars at Stanford.

The archive includes several hundred boxes of diplomatic correspondence, government documents, personal letters, and never-before-seen photos, donated by Ardeshir Zahedi—the former Foreign Minister under Mohammad Reza Shah and Iran’s ambassador to the U.S. from 1971-1979. The archive also includes the papers of his father, Fazlollah Zahedi, a general who held the post of prime minister in the 1950s.

Details

The fellowship funds international travel, health insurance, and visa support, and a $15,000 stipend for living expenses. In addition to library access, the fellow will have use of a shared work space at the Hoover Archives where the Zahedi Collection is housed.

Read through the archive's finding aid to determine if material in the collection is relevant to your research topic. 

Eligibility 

  • Fluency in Persian is required. Terminal degree or equivalent experience is required.
  • The fellowship is open to scholars and artists working on the modern history of Iran, particularly the period of 1941 to 1979. Preference will be given to scholars who have worked on aspects of modern Iranian foreign policy, history, and culture.

The application cycle is now open for the spring of 2025. Deadline to apply: January 3, 2025. 

How to Apply

A complete application consists of the following materials:

  1. Zahedi Fellowship application form
  2. A letter of application/research proposal 
  3. A Curriculum Vitae
  4. A writing sample (book chapter or article length, in English or Persian)
  5. A short proposal for a public lecture/workshop to be held at Stanford (can be related to research proposal)
  6. Two (2) letters of recommendation

Important: All materials listed above (with the exception of the letters of recommendation) should be submitted as attachments to the online application form. Please note: all material submitted must be in English to be considered. The writing sample is the only item that can be in Persian/Farsi or English. 

Letters of recommendation should be sent as signed PDF documents to: iranianstudies [at] stanford.edu (iranianstudies[at]stanford[dot]edu)

Questions?

Email us @ iranianstudies [at] stanford.edu (subject: Zahedi%20Fellowship%20Inquiry) (Iranian Studies)