News
International success for LOEWE: Professor Dr Saloumeh Gholami, linguist at LOEWE Minority Studies, receives a Global Professorship from Cambridge University
![Linguist Saloumeh Gholami is a member of the board of directors of the LOEWE research cluster "Minority Studies: Language and Identity" at Goethe University Frankfurt](/images/3by2/400/pm_04_global-professorship_.jpg "Linguist Saloumeh Gholami is a member of the board of directors of the LOEWE research cluster "Minority Studies: Language and Identity" at Goethe University Frankfurt")
The British Academy's Global Professorships are intended to strengthen the UK's research activities by further expanding collaboration with renowned academics. Dr Saloumeh Gholami, professor and linguist of the LOEWE Cluster "Minority Studies: Language and Identity", has been awarded a Global Professorship at the renowned University of Cambridge in March 2024.
The professorship offers internationally recognised researchers from the humanities and social sciences the opportunity to pursue high-risk research questions at a British institution. The British Academy selects potential candidates who can then be nominated by a British university. Gholami was nominated as one of eight professorships by Cambridge University in 2023 and thus receives the Global Professorship, which is endowed with around one million euros. From September 2024, she will have the opportunity to continue working on her research project "Persisting Through Change: A Study of Oral Literature and Cultural Interaction in the Zoroastrian Community".
Professor Saloumeh Gholami's research project, based at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES) at the University of Cambridge, represents an important interface between traditional humanities and modern, data-driven research approaches. Through close collaboration with two Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IRCs), it draws on both the focus of the Cambridge Centre for Data-Driven Discovery and innovative, technology-supported research methodologies. This interplay enables novel research and documentation of linguistic phenomena and cultural practices.
Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world with approximately 150,000 members in Iran, India, Pakistan, Australia, Canada, the USA and the UK. The aim of Prof. Saloumeh Gholami's work is to analyse the oral literature and tradition in Zoroastrianism as well as the influence of the Islamic majority culture.
Since 2020, Gholami has been a board member of the LOEWE Cluster "Minority Studies: Language and Identity", which is led by Goethe University Frankfurt.