Vahe Petrossian Collection

The papers of Vahe Petrossian comprise research materials he collected contemporaneous and subsequent to the 1979 Iranian Revolution in preparation of a book-length analysis of that event; in addition the collection includes research papers and publications collected in the course of his professional career as a journalist reporting on Iran and the wider Middle East, in particular the oil and gas industries. The collection includes extensive series of news clippings, interviews, thematic research files, audio and audiovisual tapes, photographs, maps, (little) correspondence, a few artefacts, and also research notes, conference papers, and draft chapters. There are an additional 7.5 metres of printed publications and grey literature which will be accessible via the library catalogue in due course. News clippings are arranged in chronological and subject series, dating from the 1970s to 2018, and include material collected in support of Petrossian's work at MEED and Upstream. The languages of the material are chiefly English and Persian. Some personal records are included and a few papers originally collected by the journalist Liz Thurgood, Petrossian's partner.

Vahe Petrossian was born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1939. He received a western education, attending school in France and then university in the United States of America. He entered journalism as a life-long career in Iran in the mid-1960s, his work including daily news broadcasts, narrating documentary and advertisement films, editing the English language Tehran Journal (until 1973), and contributions to the B.B.C., the Financial Times. A position as an Iran specialist at MEED (Middle East Economic Digest) led to his moving to London in May 1978. He joined Upstream in the late 1990s. While his long professional career was spent analysing the politics and economies of Iran and the wider Middle East he also spent many years compiling extensive research materials and drafting a history of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, a work which regretfully remained unfinished at his death in 2018.

Unsorted and unnumbered.

The collection has not yet been sorted or catalogued; the printed collection also remains uncatalogued. For this reason, it is not normally possible to consult the collection.

Open for consultation.

Presented by Liz Thurgood, February-December 2019. Accession number: Misc.2018/19:72, 103, Mic.2019/20:10, 46.

Box list, and publications list

Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Sub-Librarian, Special Collections (e-mail PG.Library@durham.ac.uk) and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. The Library will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The contents of the collection have not yet been fully appraised.

David Brooks Papers

Ann Lambton Papers