Prods Oktor Skjaervo
Prods Oktor Skjærvø is Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, where he succeeded Richard Frye as Aga Khan Professor of Iranian Studies.
Born in Steinkjer, Norway, Skjærvø is a hyperpolyglot, familiar with historical and living languages including Old Norse, Norwegian, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Latin, Larestani, Kumzari, Bashkardi, Pashto, Yidgha, Yaghnobi, Munji, Old Khotanese, Avestan, Old Persian, Pahlavi, Manichean Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Khotanese, New Persian, Ossetic, Kurdish, Tokharian, Vedic, and Classical Sanskrit.
Education
In 1963 Skjærvø enrolled at the University of Oslo where he studied French, Latin, and Sanskrit, with a semester in 1965 at the Sorbonne in Paris. He earned his B.A. in 1970. In 1974 he completed his M.A. with the thesis, Undersøkelser til verbalsystemet i gammelpersisk og vastly middeliransk, on which he subsequently based his “Remarks on the Old Persian Verbal System.” He then completed his Ph.D. in 1981 from the University of Oslo with the dissertation, The Paikuli Inscription, Restoration and Interpretation. Pt.1: Restored Text and Translation. Pt2: Introduction and Commentary.Chairs and Committees
Skjærvø served in several academic positions at Harvard including:- Chair, Committee for Inner Asian and Altaic Studies, 1993–2000
- Chair, Department of Sanskrit, 1995–1996
- Chair, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilisations, 2002–2006 and 2009
- Guest lecturer, Eötvös Loránd Tudomány University, Budapest, 1997
- Guest lecturer, Université de la Sorbonne, Paris
- Guest lecturer, Università di Studi di Roma, La Sapienza
- Visiting professor, Collège de France, Paris, May–June 2000