The Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS) was founded in 1999 as a subsidiary research body of the Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Durham University

Durham University

The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

. Its central aim is to facilitate and encourage debate, research and the growth of Iranian Studies

Iranian Studies

Iranian studies , is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the study of history, literature, art and culture of the Iranian people. It is a part of the wider field of Oriental studies....

 in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. This will be achieved through three principal routes:

• By encouraging links and exchanges between academics and institutions in the UK and Iran
• By hosting seminars, workshops and conferences to bring together the latest research and to highlight and communicate to a wider audience, the richness and variety of Iranian studies
• By facilitating the publication of high quality studies, principally through the medium of the Durham Middle East Papers series.

The Centre is managed by a Board. The day-to-day running of the Centre is the responsibility of an Executive Committee consisting of Professor Anoush Ehteshami (a.ehteshami@durham.ac.uk) and Dr. C. Turner (c.p.turner@durham.ac.uk).

Controversy

In 2010 it was noted that the Centre had commenced an official relationship with the Iranian government, using a 'memorandum of understanding' to collaborate on exchange of faculty members and experts, joint research projects, activities and experiences, conferences, scientific meetings, educational workshops and joint book projects.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/iranian.studies/