Mahnaz Sharifian

Mahnaz Sharifian
Name	Mahnaz Sharifian
Occupation	Academic, Researcher, Author
Nationality	Iranian-Australian
Alma mater	University of Tehran; Macquarie University
Known for	Conceptual metaphor theory in cross-cultural pragmatics; discourse analysis; intercultural communication

Mahnaz Sharifian

Mahnaz Sharifian was an Iranian-Australian scholar renowned for work at the intersection of linguistics, cultural studies, and cognitive semantics. She contributed to cross-cultural pragmatics, conceptual metaphor theory, and intercultural communication through institutional roles, collaborative projects, and influential monographs. Her scholarship connected traditions in Iranian studies, translation studies, and applied linguistics within global networks of universities, journals, and research institutes.

Early life and education

Sharifian was born in Iran and completed early schooling before undertaking higher education at the University of Tehran. During formative years she engaged with Persian literary traditions, the works of Ferdowsi, Hafez, and the intellectual milieu associated with Tehran University. She later migrated to Australia and pursued doctoral research at Macquarie University, where supervisors and colleagues included scholars from the fields represented by George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, and cognitive semantics networks connected to the University of California, Berkeley and University of Edinburgh. Her doctorate examined cognitive and cultural underpinnings of metaphor in Persian and other languages, drawing on methodologies associated with corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and comparative studies in the tradition of Noam Chomsky and Michael Halliday.

Academic career and research

Sharifian held academic appointments that linked Australian institutions such as Macquarie University with international partners including University of Tehran, University of Sydney, and research centers in Tehran and Melbourne. Her research program focused on applying conceptual metaphor theory to cross-cultural pragmatics and intercultural communication, engaging with the intellectual lineage of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Raymond Gibbs, and cross-cultural scholars affiliated with Australian National University and the University of Queensland. She developed frameworks for understanding how culturally grounded metaphors shape cognition, drawing upon empirical data collected through corpora, elicitation protocols, and ethnographic observation in communities linked to Persian literature, Islamic studies, and diasporic networks across New South Wales and Victoria.

Her collaborations extended to interdisciplinary teams including specialists from anthropology groups at University of Oxford and University College London, psycholinguists from Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, and translation theorists connected to Monash University and the University of Melbourne. She supervised funded projects that interfaced with institutions such as the Australian Research Council and international publishers like Cambridge University Press and Routledge. Sharifian's empirical approach often incorporated comparative analyses of Persian, English, and regional languages spoken in Iran, connecting linguistic patterns to historical texts such as those by Saadi Shirazi and modern Iranian intellectuals involved in the literary circles of Ali Shariati and Forough Farrokhzad.

Major publications and contributions

Sharifian authored and edited monographs and edited volumes that became central references in applied cognitive semantics and intercultural pragmatics. Her books synthesized work by scholars from the cognitive linguistics community, including citations and conceptual bridges to George Lakoff and Eve V. Clark, while engaging translators and historians associated with Simin Daneshvar and publishers like John Benjamins Publishing Company. She contributed chapters to handbooks alongside authors affiliated with Oxford University Press and presented keynote addresses at conferences organized by International Association for Applied Linguistics and the Association for Computational Linguistics.

Her contributions included methodological advances in the use of corpus resources such as the Corpus of Contemporary American English and region-specific corpora for Persian, as well as theoretical elaborations on cultural conceptualizations and metaphors in public discourse, media, and political rhetoric in contexts involving figures like Mohammad Khatami and events such as the Iranian Revolution as subjects of sociolinguistic analysis. She also advanced dialogue between translation studies and cognitive semantics, influencing scholars at SOAS University of London and the University of Toronto.

Awards and honors

Sharifian received recognition from academic bodies and research councils, including fellowships and grants from the Australian Research Council and institutional awards from Macquarie University. Her edited volumes and monographs were shortlisted for awards by publishers and interdisciplinary associations such as the International Association for Translation and Intercultural Studies and national cultural councils in Australia and Iran. She was invited to visiting scholar positions at centers like the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and hosted seminars at Harvard University and Stanford University as part of collaborative initiatives in cognitive and cultural studies.

Teaching and mentorship

In teaching roles at universities including Macquarie University, Sharifian taught courses linking cognitive semantics, pragmatics, and intercultural communication to students from departments associated with linguistics, translation studies, and Middle Eastern studies. She supervised postgraduate research that led graduates to positions at institutions such as University of British Columbia, University of Auckland, and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Her mentorship network included collaborations with early-career researchers affiliated with journals like Applied Linguistics and Journal of Pragmatics, and she participated in doctoral consortia organized by the European Sociolinguistics Association and the American Association for Applied Linguistics.

Category:Linguists Category:Iranian expatriates in Australia