The UBC Persian Club has published the Pejvak Journal, a peer-reviewed undergraduate journal showcasing five peer-reviewed manuscripts.
According to the foreword by journal Editor-in-Chief Sarvenaz Oloomi, the journal covers content ranging from the analysis of well-known Persian poets and breakthrough female poetess Jahan Malek. It also features work that touches on how gendered and self-identity is represented visually in modern cinema.
Students across all faculties collaborated to bring the journal to life. Dr. Hessam Dehghani, director of the Persian program, explained how the journal was born through a collaboration with heritage students, second- and third-generation Iranian students who wanted to discover more about their culture and heritage through working on the journal.
“They wanted to say something, they had the training … and [that] is obvious in the work in the journal,” said Dehghani.
In class, Dehghani reminded students “writing for a journal is something different,” as it goes beyond revisions of a class paper.
The journal began as an idea written on a whiteboard in 2020 by Razman Goudarzi, then-president of Persian club.
The initial goal was to publish five to seven essays, and after rigorous feedback, five texts were chosen. Each manuscript was peer-reviewed by five designated editors, who evaluated submissions based on language, originality, significance and contribution to the field.
All initial submissions came from class term-papers in Dehghani and Assistant Professor of modern Persian literature and culture Dr. Mostafa Abedinifard’s classes.
In the three years the journal took to complete, the Iranian community went through horrific events and impacts, most notably the PS752 Flight and the “women, life, freedom” movement.
Nazgol Tavakolizadeh, one of the two journal directors, said this project would often “put on hold to tend to the immediate needs of the community.”
These events, along with the yearly changing executive team, caused delays in the journal creation process.
Over this time, Tavakolizadeh said how the journal's vision “changed as the community changed.” It initially focused on the Iranian-Canadian identity and was going to be called Afrā. But, as the community went through tragedies, they honed in on their own identities and became more heritage and culture focused.
Pejvak means echo, reflecting the “metaphorical echo and reverberation of the process of academic replication and sharing of acquired knowledge,” said Oloomi.
Tavakolizadeh described how one of the best things was “the previous execs feeling like their work was fruitful.”
For the club, a second journal is a possibility. Tavakolizadeh said the journal was “a nudge that you don’t necessarily need to be in grad school to be published.”
After three years, Tavakolizadeh said despite authors and their friends having graduated, they have come back to the Persian club to read, support and share the journal.
“The response has been way more than I was expecting,” said Tavakolizadeh