About the Faculty

In 1934, when the ‘Act of the Establishment of University of Tehran’ was ratified by the then National Consultative Parliament, six faculties were envisaged for the formation of the University and this idea was reiterated in the Law. One of those six faculties was the Faculty of Literature. 

Additionally, when the Teacher Training College was established in 1928, its literary part included two fields of “Philosophy and Literature” and “History and Geography”. Therefore, teaching Persian Literature in formal form dates back to about 80 years ago.

On October 1937, a Ph.D. program in Persian Literature was offered in the Faculty. In 1953, the journal of the Faculty was published and on November of the same year, a course titled Persian Language and Culture was offered to foreign students for the first time. On November 1956, the responsibility of printing the Dehkhoda Encyclopedia - the most well-known and prestigious Persian encyclopedia first written by Mr. Dehkhoda, the Iranian writer and poet of 20th century - was shifted from the Parliament to Tehran University, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, and thus, the Institute of Dehkhoda Encyclopedia was founded.

It is worth mentioning that since its establishment, many changes and improvements have taken place in the Faculty, such as the detachment of Foreign Languages, Social Sciences, Psychology and Geography from the body of the Faculty of Literature, and the formation of independent faculties. It was such that in 1971, the Faculty of Foreign Languages; in 1988, the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences; and in 2001, the Faculty of Geography became independent faculties.

At present, more than 1,700 students are studying at B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degree programs. The Faculty of Literature and Humanities has 69 faculty members consisting of nine Professors, 22 Associate Professors and 38 Assistant Professors.