Farkhondeh Shayesteh

Farkhondeh Shayesteh is Persian Program Coordinator at Yale. She holds a PhD in Persian Studies and Master’s Degrees in Middle Eastern Studies and Applied Linguistics. Her research interests include Persian literature, literary translation, and Iranian cinema. Of particular interest to her are the significance of Persian language, literature, and cinema in the formation, reinforcement, and exploration of identity. Her recent projects feature the application of Western theories and concepts to the analysis of Persian literature. 

Prior to joining the Yale faculty, she taught courses in Iranian cinema, Persian literature, and all levels of Persian language at University of Chicago, Ohio State University, University of Texas at Austin, and also the University of Maryland where she developed the Persian curriculum for the Center for Persian Studies and served as its inaugural lecturer.

She draws on her training in applied linguistics and second language acquisition, in addition to her research on Persian literature, to inform her approaches to pedagogy, and she is an ACTFL certified OPI tester and rater.  At Yale, she has created and teaches courses including Classical Persian Literature, Modern Persian Fiction, Persian Culture and Media, and Cinema of Iran: Past and Present.

She is the founder of Persian Circle at Yale, an academic association created to facilitate discussion and enhance collaboration among those interested in the Persianate World, with topics including, but not limited to, society and politics, religion and religious issues, science and medicine, philosophy, history and culture, and languages and literatures.