Nafiseh Ansari

Nafiseh Ansari is a doctoral researcher in the Department of History, Religions and Philosophies at SOAS University of London. Her current research focuses on the Middle Persian text Draxt ī Āsūrīg, a Zoroastrian poem. 

Through a critical edition, supported by linguistic, philological, and iconographic analysis, her work explores how literature and material culture work together to convey cosmological and cultural meaning in the Iranian world.  She holds an MA in Iranian Studies from SOAS University of London, where she studied Middle Persian language and Zoroastrian studies under the supervision of Professor Almut Hintze. Nafiseh also holds a BA and MA in the Conservation and Restoration of Historic Objects from the Art University of Isfahan. Both her undergraduate and postgraduate theses focused on the bronze artefacts of Lorestān, with a particular emphasis on high-tin bronze objects from ancient Iran. She specialises in the conservation of bronze objects, pottery, and painted surfaces, and has worked as a member of the object conservation team on several archaeological excavations across Iran.

• Zoroastrian religious texts and cosmology 
• Historical linguistics and philology 
• The philosophy of history and cultural memory 
• Intersections of text, art, and archaeology in Iranian studies