Uncovering the cultural and musical legacy of Polish refugees in Iran • City, University of London

Professor Laudan Nooshin awarded Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust to conduct study on the musical and cultural lives of Polish refugees in Iran during World War 2 and beyond.

By Eve Lacroix (Senior Communications Officer), Published Friday, 12^th January 2024

Professor of Music Laudan Nooshin has been awarded a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust to conduct research on the lasting cultural legacy of Polish refugees in Iran.

The highly prestigious award is aimed researchers in the humanities and social sciences and supports them over two to three years to complete a piece of original research.

For this fellowship, Laudan will examine the musical and cultural lives of the estimated 300,000 Polish refugees who were released from Soviet labour camps and arrived in Iran in the spring and summer of 1942.

A black and white picture of five people dressed up smartly on a stafe, with musicians sitting on seat behind them. the firts person is a man wearing a hat and playing a cello. The second person is a man wearing a flatcap playing a flute. The third is a woman in a dress holding a percussive instryment. the fourth person is wearing a striped top and hat. the final person is playing a guitar. — A polish band in Iran, November 1942. (Image credits to Imperial War Museum).

“I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity to work on this important but neglected topic,” Laudan said. “I’m very grateful for the support of my wonderful colleagues in Music, and for the incredible help of the research team in putting the application together. These awards are never the work of just one person!”

Relatively little research has been conducted on the topic of Polish refugees in Iran during World War II and there has been no systematic study of Polish musical and cultural life in Iran at this time.

While many of these refugees joined the newly formed Anders Army, others remained in Iran where a Polish community emerged with its own schools, cultural institutions, radio stations, newspapers and cafes.

“The project is time critical because many of those who have memories of that time are now in their 80s and 90s,” she added. “One of the aims of the project is to collect some of these memories before they are lost forever.”

A black and white picture of a group of children in front of tents in Iran. — Refugee camp on the outskirts of Tehran, 1942 (Credits: Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC)

Discussing her research, she said:

I hope that the project will be a major contribution to this under-researched area and more broadly will contribute to discussions around cultural entanglement and hybridity.
In the context of current debates around forced displacement within political, media and academic spheres, it is important to remember and learn about earlier and different refugee trajectories, including the movement of people from Europe to the Middle East.
Here was a group of destitute Europeans who were given refuge in – and welcomed by – people in the Middle East, an interesting inverse of the migrant stories we tend to hear about, and actually not that long ago in the large span of human history.
There is also a personal connection to City. Professor Ludwik Finkelstein, the father of City’s President, was a child refugee in Iran.

A black and white picture of children and young teens in Tehran standing on different steps outside a building. The boys are wearing blazer jackets and the girls are wearing winter coats. — Polish refugee children in Tehran in 1943, including Professor Ludwik Finkelstein (father of City's President) aged 14. (Photo courtesy of the Finkelstein family).

Professor Miguel Mera, formerly the Vice-President for Research at City, said:

I am absolutely delighted that Professor Laudan Nooshin has been recognised by the Leverhulme Trust in this prestigious and extremely competitive award.
It builds on Laudan’s groundbreaking research on Iranian music and offers exciting new directions which lie at the intersections of ethnomusicology, sound studies and refugee studies.

Laudan’s research areas include urban sound studies, film music and popular music, with a particular focus on Iran and the Middle East more widely.

She first became interested in studying Polish refugees in Iran when she was researching the historical sounds of Tehran for a project also funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

In the current academic year, Laudan is seconded to the theatre consultancy company Charcoalblue working on a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council on inclusive design practices in relation to sound in public space.

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