About RCPS

RCPS was established in fall 2004 as a unit within the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC) at UM as the first full-fledged academic center focused on the Persian-speaking cultures in Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (as well as the Persian-speaking diaspora communities around the globe).

Strategic Goals

• Inaugurate a World-class Academic Program in Persian language and literature, most broadly defined and inclusive of the Iranian world's millennia-old heritage as well as its modern and contemporary linguistic and literary traditions.
• Foster Growth of Teaching and Scholarship in all aspects of contemporary (Iran, Afghanistan, Persian-speaking Central Asia, and the emerging Persian-speaking diasporas and ethnic minorities the world over) and classical (Ancient Persia, Medieval Central Asia and Anatolia, pre-modern Caucasus, pre-colonial India) cultures and civilizations within the Iranian world, and in all Persian-speaking societies.
• Enhance Mutual Understanding between Americans of all ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds and those of Iranian and Persian-speaking parentage with the larger U.S. society by interpreting Persian and Iranian cultures and civilizations now and into the foreseeable future.