Rohan Kaya

I am a DPhil student at St John's College, Oxford. My thesis explores the relationship between the Armenian and Arabo-Persian poetic traditions in the medieval period with a focus on shared conceptual vocabulary and philosophical themes. I aim to discover areas of convergence between the two traditions, with reference to the use of poetry as a form of philosophical and religious pedagogy. I am particularly interested in the School of Narek, which flourished around the Lake Van area in the 10th and 11th centuries, and the extent to which the literature of that school was in conversation with other literary traditions in that period. I also aim to consider how late-antique Neoplatonic and Syriac literary works may have acted as potential 'bridging points' between Armenian and Arabo-Persian writers in following centuries. My research is kindly funded by the OOC-DTP scholarship and St John's College.

Previously I completed a BA in Philosophy and Modern Languages at St. Catherine's College, Oxford (2022), with a focus on both comparative literature and sociolinguistics. I also completed an MSt in Classical Armenian at Pembroke College, Oxford (2025) as a recipient of the AGBU London Trust scholarship, with a focus on Armenian poetry and the literature of the School of Narek. Outside of university I have completed courses in Iranian Linguistics, Middle Persian, Classical Persian, Classical Arabic, and Kurdish.