Professor Saloumeh Gholami is British Academy Global Professor in the field of Zoroastrian Studies at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. In this role, she leads the project “Persisting Through Change: A Study of Oral Literature and Cultural Interaction in the Zoroastrian Community.”
She earned her PhD in Iranian Studies from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in Germany, with a thesis on “Selected Features of Bactrian Grammar.” Her academic journey continued with a Habilitation in Comparative Linguistics from Goethe University of Frankfurt in Germany in 2022.
From 2020 to 2024, she was Professor of Minority Languages in the Middle East at the University of Frankfurt. She was also Principal Investigator and a member of the directorate for the research cluster Minority Studies: Language and Identity, funded by the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts in Germany.
She received the 2023 Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford.
Over the years, she has gained international recognition for her contributions to safeguarding endangered languages and linguistic diversity, particularly within minority communities. Her innovative research integrates philological methods with fieldwork, revealing not only the linguistic but also the social and historical interactions between these communities and the majority culture in Iran.
Professor Gholami welcomes both MPhil and PhD candidates interested in Zoroastrian studies, Iranian languages, endangered language documentation, language and identity.
Professor Gholami is a scholar in the field of minority languages in the Middle East, with a special focus on Iran. She is a leading authority on language documentation and preservation and revitalization of endangered languages and cultures. Her research has focused on both written and oral heritage of minority communities such as Jews, Ahl-e Haqq, and particularly the Zoroastrians.
Her research delves deeply into how the linguistic structures intersect with issues of identity and social interaction. Her work extends to perceptual dialectology, exploring how language is perceived and classified by speakers, and the crucial role language plays in shaping cultural and social identity.
Current Projects:
• Persisting Through Change: A Study of Oral Literature and Cultural Interaction in the Zoroastrian Community. Funded by British Academy (2024 – 2028)
• The written Evidence of Zoroastrian Dari funded by Soudavar Memorial Foundation (2023 – 2026)
Selected Past Projects:
• Minority Studies: Language and Identity, funded by Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts (2020 – 2024)
https://sprache-identitaet.uni-frankfurt.de/en/home-en/
• Preservation and digitization of Zoroastrian historical documents and Avestan manuscripts, Funded by Endangered Archives Programme, British Library (2017 – 2018)
https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1014
• The colophons of the Iranian Avestan manuscripts; Funded by German Research Foundation (2015 – 2018)
https://gepris-extern.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/239666954
• Editing Avestan Network, Funded by German Research Foundation (2015 – 2017)
https://gepris-extern.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/238802432
• Documenting a religious minority, the Dari dialect of Kerman. Funded by Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, SOAS, University of London, (2013 – 2015).
https://www.elararchive.org/dk0299/#:~:text=The%20collection%20contains%20not%20only,and%20other%20aspects%20of%20culture.
Books:
• Gholami, S. (2024). The Afterlife of Avestan manuscripts: Colophons and marginal notes. Wiesbaden: Reichert.
• Karim, Shuan and Gholami, S. (2024): Gurānī in its Historical and Linguistic Setting, Problems and Prescriptions (Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, forthcoming). In Series Trends in Linguistics. Documentation [TiLDOC].
• Gholami, S. (2020). Endangered Iranian Languages: Language Contact and Language Islands in Iran, Commemorating Ehsan Yarshater. Iranian Studies, 53:3–4. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Gholami, S. (2018). Endangered Iranian Languages. Wiesbaden: Reichert.
• Gholami, S. (2016). Dance in Iran: Past and Present. Wiesbaden: Reichert.
• Gholami, S. (2014). The Avestan Manuscript 4040 (Ave1001), Videvdād Iranian Sāde of the Private Collection of Kourosh Niknam. Avestan Digital Archive Series 76.
• Gholami, S. (2014). Selected features of Bactrian grammar. Göttinger Orientforschungen. III. Reihe: Iranica. Neue Folge. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Articles:
• Gholami, S. (2024). “The Zoroastrian Manuscripts of the Rostam Jāmāsb’s Family and a New Dating of Videvdād 4100.” In: DABIR, 10(1), 116-131. https://doi.org/10.1163/29497833-20230001
• Gholami, S. (2023). “Colophons of Judeo-Iranian Manuscripts: A Delicate Balance of Jewish and Non-Jewish Traditions.” The Jewish Languages Bookshelf. Retrieved July 30, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/ur4n
• Gholami, S. (2023). “Unpacking the Complexity of Gurān Identity: An interdisciplinary Analysis of Historical and Cultural Sources.” In: Brill Journal of Religious Minorities under Muslim Rule, Vol. 1, pp. 67–112, DOI: 10.1163/27732142-bja00003
• Gholami, S. (2022). “On the terminology designating the Zoroastrians of Iran and their language.” In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Volume 85 Issue 1, Online available DOI:10.1017/S0041977X22000313
• Gholami, S. (2022). “Classification of the Zazaki language based on the perspectives of perceptual dialectology and comparative linguistics” [in Persian]. In: Iranian Journal of Comparative Linguistic Research. Year 11, Nr. 22. DOI: 10.22084/RJHLL.2021.24754.2169
• Gholami, S. (2021). “Judeo-Hamadani, the languages of Jews in Hamadan.” In: Iranian Studies, 54:5-6, 769-805, DOI: 10.1080/00210862.2020.1848420
