The present proposal is a thoroughly revised resubmission of a proposal that we submitted in the scope of the 2018 call. We have taken the constructive comments of the DAAD based on the reviewers’ decision seriously and have done our best to improve this proposal accordingly. In particular, the academic goals have been defined in broader terms in order to be able to integrate a wider range of students and scholars. Furthermore, we have tried to highlight the mutual character of the cultural dialogue, in which participants learn and experience relevant aspects of both German and Iranian contemporary societies. Cultural dialogue between persons of different linguistic, ethnic, and cultural background often happens in a multilingual setting. The different regions of Iran and its megacity and melting pot Tehran are a highly insightful laboratory for the study of multilingualism and language comparison. This project focuses on the comparison of different grammars and the respective speech registers to which constructions belong, which is a suitable umbrella theme for fostering international academic exchange between the Iranian capital Tehran (University of Tehran), Iranian Kurdistan (University of Kurdistan), and Germany (University of Cologne). By European standards, Iran has a high degree of linguistic diversity. Therefore, the Iranian Sprachraum is an interesting starting point and “laboratory” for comparative studies of grammar and language. On a more general level, the academic and cultural activities of this project will bring to fore that multilingualism is not a deviation from the perceived norm of monolingualism and cultural homogeneity but a visible expression of diversity. This seems especially viable with regard to the current geopolitical situation to preserve opportunities for civic dialogue. The project intends to raise awareness of the cultural diversity within the Islamic world, both with regard to the countries of origin, mainly in Iran, and among the migrated diaspora in Germany.
