@UBC Asian Studies
The Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia presents The Alireza Ahmadian Lecture in Iranian and Persianate Studies.
This presentation: "Intermixture in Persian Epics: The Case of Kush, the Elephant-Eared" was delivered in-person at UBC's C.K. Choi Building & via Zoom on December 1, 2023, featuring guest speakers Alexandra Hoffmann (PhD, Assistant Professor of Classical Persian Literature and Culture, University of British Columbia) and Cameron Cross (PhD, Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor).
Event details: [ Ссылка ]
Irānshāh b. Abi Khayr’s Kushnāmeh (written ca. 1108-1111 CE) features an unusual protagonist for a Persian epic poem. With his elephant-ears, tusks, and boar-snout, Kush looks very different from most of the people who populate the epic world, while his aggressive, sexually deviant, and blasphemous behavior set him apart from other epic heroes. As the text rationalizes Kush’s difference through his mixed lineage, this talk uses the example of Kush to explore how Persian epics deal with the intermixture of Iranians with peoples of different stock – the racial, monstrous, or demonic Other.
About the Alireza Ahmadian Lectures in Iranian and Persianate Studies: Alireza Ahmadian (1981 – 2019) was an enthusiastic researcher, a consummate socio-political analyst, and an opinion leader on foreign policy who nurtured the virtues of diplomatic dialogue and liberal democracy. Alireza was a proud and devoted UBC alumnus, supporter of UBC’s Department of Asian Studies, and beloved member of Canadian-Iranian Community. The department renamed this lecture series in his honour in 2019. Alireza’s friends in the community have provided funding to support this series, and this generous gift will see these important academic and community engagement events supported through to the end of the 2025/2026 academic year. To access the full list of events, visit [ Ссылка ]
