Alireza Khounani is Awarded the Smithsonian Institution’s Predoctoral Fellowship

ISAW doctoral student Alireza Khounani is the recipient of the prestigious Smithsonian Institution’s Predoctoral Fellowship for the academic year 2022-2023, along with the NYU GSAS Dean's Dissertation Fellowship and an Honorary Fellowship at the NYU Center for the Humanities. 

His project at the Smithsonian consists of a comprehensive analysis of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian coinage held in the National Museum of American History’s National Numismatic Collection (NNC). This project will also include a comparison between the metal components of the silver and bronze coins from the NNC and ancient Persian metal vessels held in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in the National Museum of Asian Art, as well as an in-depth analysis of the photographs and drawing of coins in the Ernst Herzfeld Papers held in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in the National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Alireza’s research at the Smithsonian will contribute to the completion of his doctoral dissertation, The Magnitude of Small Change: The Role of Low-value Currencies in the Internal Economy of West Asian Empires (Achaemenid, Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian Periods, 550 BCE-651 CE).

The Honorary Fellowship at the NYU Center for the Humanities will allow him to participate in weekly lunchtime seminars and other Center events to discuss his research, engage with scholars in other disciplines, and to further the Center’s goals of fostering humanistic research and community at NYU.