Behrooz Chamanara earned his doctoral degree in 2014 with a thesis titled “The Kurdish Shahnama and its Religious and Literary Implications” from the Iranian Studies Institute at the University of Goettingen, Germany. In 2015, he founded the International Institute for the Study of Kurdish Societies (IISKS) in Goettingen, where he continues to serve as the director. A year later, Chamanara became a faculty member in the Department of Kurdish Language and Literature at the University of Kurdistan, Iran. Notably, he has directed the Kurdistan Studies Institute (KSI) at the University of Kurdistan.

Specializing in Kurdish language and literature, Dr. Chamanara has authored significant monographs such as “The Kurdish Shahnama (Rostam and Sohrab)” (2016) and “Towards a Standard Kurdish Orthography” (2022). His recent articles, including “Kurdish Lexicography” in the Oxford Handbook of Kurdish Linguistics (with M. Chyet and Z. Naghshbandi) and “Self-Identification and Language Designation in Literary Gurani” (2023), showcase his commitment to scholarly pursuits. Chamanara faced academic displacement after the Jina movement in 2023, Iran, and currently resides in exile in Germany.

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