Narguess Farzad is the Senior Fellow in Persian and a member of the Academic Board at SOAS, University of London. She is the Academic Director of the Persian Language Foundation and currently serves on the advisory, academic or governing councils of: the Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS; the Djam Scholarship Committee; the Iran Heritage Foundation; and the Iran Society. Her publications include works on the teaching of Persian grammar; the Poetry of Sacred Defence; and translations of poems by Farzaneh Khojandi, in collaboration with the award winning English poet Jo Shapcott. Narguess is a regular contributor to the art and culture programmes of BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, and the World Service.