Professor Laudan Nooshin awarded Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust to conduct study on the musical and cultural lives of Polish refugees in Iran during World War 2 and beyond.
By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published
Professor of Music Laudan Nooshin has been awarded a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust to conduct research on the lasting cultural legacy of Polish refugees in Iran.
The highly prestigious award is aimed researchers in the humanities and social sciences and supports them over two to three years to complete a piece of original research.
For this fellowship, Laudan will examine the musical and cultural lives of the estimated 300,000 Polish refugees who were released from Soviet labour camps and arrived in Iran in the spring and summer of 1942.
“I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity to work on this important but neglected topic,” Laudan said. “I’m very grateful for the support of my wonderful colleagues in Music, and for the incredible help of the research team in putting the application together. These awards are never the work of just one person!”
Relatively little research has been conducted on the topic of Polish refugees in Iran during World War II and there has been no systematic study of Polish musical and cultural life in Iran at this time.
While many of these refugees joined the newly formed Anders Army, others remained in Iran where a Polish community emerged with its own schools, cultural institutions, radio stations, newspapers and cafes.
“The project is time critical because many of those who have memories of that time are now in their 80s and 90s,” she added. “One of the aims of the project is to collect some of these memories before they are lost forever.”
Discussing her research, she said:
Professor Miguel Mera, formerly the Vice-President for Research at City, said:
Laudan’s research areas include urban sound studies, film music and popular music, with a particular focus on Iran and the Middle East more widely.
She first became interested in studying Polish refugees in Iran when she was researching the historical sounds of Tehran for a project also funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
In the current academic year, Laudan is seconded to the theatre consultancy company Charcoalblue working on a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council on inclusive design practices in relation to sound in public space.