Legacies of Ancient Persia

Dr. Alexiana Fry, a guest researcher at the University of Copenhagen, and Dr. Esther Brownsmith, an assistant professor of Hebrew Bible at the University of Dayton are interviewed by Charlotte Howley – a PhD candidate in UCLA’s Program of Iranian Studies. They discuss trauma theory/trauma hermeneutics, fan fiction theory as a lens for ancient rewriting, “feminist killjoys” and “affect aliens,” and propaganda and multiculturalism in Persian and modern contexts. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Fry: https://www.alexianafry.com

Learn more about Dr. Brownsmith: https://udayton.edu/directory/artssciences/religiousstudies/brownsmith-esther.php

Follow Dr. Fry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradfry/

Check out Dr. Fry’s publications on Academia: https://sun.academia.edu/AlexianaFry/Books

Find Dr. Fry’s new book on Esther and Trauma: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Esther-Keeps-Score-Trauma-Politics/dp/0334066867

Follow Dr. Brownsmith on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estherbrownsmith

Check out Dr. Brownsmith’s publications on Academia: https://udayton.academia.edu/EstherBrownsmith

Find Dr. Brownsmith’s latest book on gendered violence: https://www.routledge.com/Gendered-Violence-in-Biblical-Narrative-The-Devouring-Metaphor/Brownsmith/p/book/9781032192987

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. James Howard-Johnston, an Emeritus Fellow at Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford, joins Lexie to discuss his research on the Byzantine army, interests in Sasanian Iran through teaching and conferences on Roman–Persian relations, his interests in Sasanian silver coins, minting, and iconography, and he outlines the chronology and sources for Rome–Sasanian conflict. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Howard-Johnston: https://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/people/emeritus-fellows/james-howard-johnston

Check out his 2022 lecture at the Pourdavoud Institute: https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/media/videos/official-sources-and-the-reconstruction-of-history-the-case-of-the-last-great-war-of-antiquity/

Find his latest book Byzantium in a Changing World: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/byzantium-in-a-changing-world-9780198897873?cc=gb&lang=en&

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Matheus Treuk Medeiros de Araujo, an Associate Professor of Ancient Archaeology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, is interviewed by Charlotte Howley – a 4th year PhD student in UCLA’s Program of Iranian Studies. They discuss scholarly “eunuch phobia,” gender bias, and resistance to translating terms without explicit mention of castration as well as dehumanizing modern language; using diverse evidence and methods like critical fabulation, centering violence and trauma in eunuch “creation”; same-sex love in Persian contexts versus Greek/Roman anxieties; and the “uncanny” in imperial art. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Check out his publications on Academia: https://sportsinbrazil.academia.edu/MatheusTreuk

Send him an email: [email protected]

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Nikolaus Overtoom, a professor of Ancient History at Washington State University, returns to the podcast to discuss his new book, "The Parthians at War: Combat Logistics, Reputation, and the First War with Rome," which examines Parthian militarism beyond tactics to include logistics, reputation, and interpreting Parthians through Greek and Roman sources while seeking their agency; a two-week teaching module on Parthians for world history instructors, including interactions with Rome and Han China; and offers a revisionist framing of the first Rome–Parthia war as a longer series of conflicts. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Overtoom: https://history.wsu.edu/nikolaus-overtoom/

Check out his publications on Academia: https://wsu.academia.edu/NikolausOvertoom

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Deirdre Klokow, an assistant professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin, joins Lexie to discuss Seleucid coin iconography, who used coins alongside fiscal crisis and devaluation, the limits of evidence for women’s economic activity, her research on Laodike, and her forthcoming book, The Seleucids and Their Land. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Bluesky or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Klokow: https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/classics/faculty/dk32338

Check out her publications on Academia: https://utexas.academia.edu/DeirdreKlokow

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Jennifer Finn, an ancient historian and chair of the Department of Classics at Loyola University, joins Lexie to discuss her research focus on Alexander the Great's military strategies and the cultural exchanges between Greeks and Persians, exploring the complexities of learning ancient languages like Akkadian and Sumerian and reflections on the challenges of studying Persian history through limited source material, and insights into the representation of Persian history in media, emphasizing the need for a more nuanced and balanced portrayal. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Bluesky or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Finn: https://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/facultydirectory/profiles/finn.shtml

Check out her publications on Academia: https://luc.academia.edu/JenniferFinn

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Konrad Schmid, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism at the University of Zurich, joins Lexie to discuss the historical and cultural context of the Hebrew Bible, its formation, the polytheistic to monotheistic transition, and its interactions with ancient Near Eastern empires including Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, and the impact of Persian governance and tolerance on Hebrew thought and texts. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Bluesky or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Schmid: https://www.theologie.uzh.ch/en/faecher/old_testament/hebrewbible_and_ancientjudaism/team/schmid.html

Check out his publications on Academia: https://uzh.academia.edu/KonradSchmid

Watch the video of his Achaemenid Workshop 3 talk: https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/media/videos/reactions-to-the-achaemenid-empire-in-the-contemporaneous-literature-of-the-hebrew-bible/

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Simone Oppen, a professor of Classical & Near Eastern Religions and Cultures at the University of Minnesota, joins Lexie to discuss how her high school Italian course blossomed into a passion for ancient Greece, Latin, and Greek, her current work on Persian respect for Greek sacred spaces during Xerxes’ reign, exploring how this respect is depicted in ancient Greek texts and supported by comparative archaeological evidence, and various aspects of ancient history, including Persia's handling of conquered religious sites. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Bluesky or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Oppen: https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/soppen

Check out her publications on Academia: https://spanalumni.academia.edu/SimoneOppen

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Olga Davidson, a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations at Boston University, joins Lexie to discuss her serendipitous steps towards specializing in Persian epic literature, particularly the Shahnameh, and its comparative significance alongside Greek classics, discusses the rich cross-cultural connections that shape her research, the importance of the Shahnameh, and provides an update on her ongoing projects, her views on the current state of Persian studies in academia and the potential for greater inclusion in high school curricula. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Bluesky or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Find all of her books here: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/authors/9158-davidson-olga-m

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.

Dr. Catherine Bonesho, an Assistant Professor of Early Judaism at UCLA, joins Lexie to discuss her interest in the field of ancient Judaism and in ancient Jewish communities during the Second Temple period (spanning from the Persian to the Roman Empire), her focus primarily on interpretations of various empires' influences on Jewish communities and the study of Aramaic dialects, her role in co-organizing UCLA’s Bible conference and her presentation related to the Book of Esther and Purim and the influence of ancient Iran on these traditions. We hope you enjoy this episode, and if you like what you hear, please give our show a 5-star rating, and review us on Apple or Spotify. Don't forget to follow the Pourdavoud Institute on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Bluesky or visit our website www.pourdavoud.ucla.edu!

Learn more about Dr. Bonesho: https://nelc.ucla.edu/person/catherine-bonesho/

Check out her publications on Academia: https://ucla.academia.edu/CatherineBonesho

Recorded & edited by Lexie Henning, original music by Brent Arehart, and artwork by Hadley Leasman.