Position:

Junior Research Fellow in Oriental Studies

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / St John's College

Email:

zuzanna.olszewska@sjc.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

My doctoral research focused on the poetry of Afghan refugees in Iran as a social phenomenon, linking poetic output to the individual biographies of poets and to their wider social context of a marginal existence in today's Iran. Based on this, I have become increasingly interested in the intellectual history of Iran and Afghanistan, the continuities and ruptures between classical and modern Persian poetry as modes of discourse, the social role of the poet-intellectual and the ongoing importance of poetry as a frame for much intellectual discourse among contemporary Persian speakers. My forthcoming projects include translations of Afghan Persian-language poetry and fiction which are almost entirely unknown in the West, the publication of my DPhil dissertation, and language, literary production and identity in the Persian-speaking Afghan diaspora throughout the world.

Courses Taught:

• Option in Social Anthropology of the Middle East for the MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies, to be offered in Michaelmas 2011.
• Tutorials in the Persian Literature of Iran and Afghanistan.
• Supervision of theses involving qualitative research in the Middle East.

Recent Publications:

• Fariba Adelkhah and Zuzanna Olszewska, "The Iranian Afghans," Iranian Studies, vol. 40 no. 2, April 2007, pp. 137-165.
• Zuzanna Olszewska "A Desolate Voice': Poetry and Identity among Young Afghan Refugees in Iran," Iranian Studies, vol. 40 no. 2, April 2007, pp. 203-224.

Further Info:

Further information may be found on my college webpage:
http://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/395-1127/Dr-Zuzanna-Olszewska.html