Community School Oral History Project

Professor Shannon is the Principal Investigator of the Community School Oral History Project (CSOHP), which he launched in 2022 in collaboration with the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS).
American Presbyterians opened the school in 1935, and it remained open for forty-five years before being nationalized by the Iranian government in 1980. During its existence, Community School was a coeducational English-language school, located in downtown Tehran and open to students of all nationalities and religions.
The interviews and additional primary source material are available via the Presbyterian Historical Society’s Pearl Digital Archive in the Tehran Community School Collection.

Please click on the links below to read / listen to the interviews, and to learn more about Community School, the oral history project, and related histories.
Tehran Community School Collection at PHS-Pearl
PHS Live webinar, April 27, 2022
PHS press release, May 2, 2022
The Iran Mission on Film, May 16, 2023
The Tehran Community School collection is also accessible via the Digital Public Library of America.
For more information on Community School, see chapter 4 in Mission Manifest.