Azizeh Sheibani Essay Prize Winners 2025

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Azizeh Sheibani Essay Prize in Iranian and Persian-speaking World Studies for 2025. Congratulations to these students on their outstanding work, and our thanks for all of the excellent submissions received this year!

Artemis Ffytche (Magdalen) – Undergraduate Award

Essay Title: ‘”I too, although a woman”: a comparative study of the female lyric persona in the works of Jahan Malek Khatun and Sappho’

Ryan Nazari (St Antony's) – Joint Graduate Award

Essay Title: ‘Hannibal Alkhas and Assyrian Nationalism: Revisiting Local Cultural History in Modern Iran’

Thomas Laskowski (Magdalen) – Joint Graduate Award

Essay Title: ‘Defining the “Local” in Three Persian Local Histories’