A Season in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Recollections of Work and Life in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan, by Haideh Salehi- Esfahani

Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 11:30-2:30
at The Mountaineers, Warren G. Magnuson Park
UWFA Lecture Series Lunch

After providing a brief background about herself Haideh will then talk about the path that led her to the Fulbright teaching fellowship for Samarkand, Uzbekistan. She will “paint” us a picture about her living arrangements and the people with whom she spent the most time.

She will also introduce several themes that run through the stories in the book and explore a couple of them more deeply and one by a reading a selected excerpt. This then is followed by her sharing some photos of her trip and addressing questions from the audience.

Haideh Salehi- Esfahani grew up in Neyshabur, a regional city in north-east Iran during the 1960s and early 70s. She completed her undergraduate education at the London School of Economics in 1979 and her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985. She has taught at the University of Utah (1985-1990) and the University of Washington (1990-2021).

During the 1990s, she spent her summers backpacking through India, China, Pakistan, and Nepal. She has also regularly traveled to Iran since the late1980s. In 1996, she received a Fulbright fellowship to teach at Samarkand State University in Samarkand, Uzbekistan during their spring semester.

Since her retirement in 2020, she has written a number of non-fiction stories, among them a series about life and events in her hometown of Neyshabur. One of her stories, The Woman in 14B has been published in the Wilderness House Literary Review.

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