In
this episode, we meet Dr. Shahyar Daneshgar, a senior lecturer in IU’s
Department of Central Eurasian Studies. Shahyar is a native Azerbaijani from Tehran,
Iran who is the founder of teaching Azerbaijani
at IU’s Summer Language Workshop, harkening back to 1985. Also an
interesting tidbit about Shahyar, he is a gifted singer and the maestro
of The Silk Road Ensemble, a critically acclaimed musical ensemble that
specializes in playing music from Central Asia.