Previous work

My doctoral research, conducted at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, under the supervision of Homa Katouzian, focused on the emergence of Iranian nationalism in the period 1860-1940. I have a special interest in the reception of European ideologies in Iran, in particular ideas of race and nation. As a spin-off to this work, I investigated the development of the Aryan discourse in Iran, and the strategies it serves in the country’s identity politics.

Building on my findings, I would like now to develop certain aspects of my work on the reception of racial theories in Iran. This is a very understudied area that could potentially shed light on the construction of modern identity in Iran and the racialisation of historiography. From a theoretical perspective, it would also allow to apply the growing corpus of race and ethnicity theory and the history of sciences to Iranian studies.

Among my plans for the future is an intellectual history of Islamophobia in western Europe in the period 1730-2010. I hope to argue that Islamophobia is not a reaction to contemporary events as often assumed, but instead a complex doctrine with a highly developed ideological apparatus and a long pedigree in European thought.

Teaching

I tutored in the Politics of the Middle East at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford. I also served as a Faculty Tutor at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford.

Beyond the academic pale

In 2002-2005, I served as Regional Manager, Middle East & North Africa at the World Economic Forum. In 2008-2009, I joined Interpeace as a Special Advisor to the Director-General. Since 2005 I have been consulting on a freelance basis and extensively commenting in the international media, including the Guardian, the New York Times, and the BBC.

Awards

My work has been acknowledged by a number of awards. I have held a ‘young scholar’ fellowship at the Swiss National Science Foundation, and won the inaugural Azizeh Sheibani Prize.