Book Award

Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Book Award 

About

Nominations for the 2026 book award will open in the spring of 2026.

Established in 2014, The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies supports teaching and research on all aspects of Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University. We encourage a comprehensively interdisciplinary approach to advancing the understanding of the region, with special attention to its role and significance in the contemporary world. Our scholars and students explore a broad range of topics that address history, politics, economy, religion, literature, art and culture with a primary focus on the modern states that border the Persian Gulf. Promoting an inclusive approach, the Center supports innovative research projects, facilitates the production and dissemination of public knowledge about the region, and makes possible connections and conversations between scholarly communities.

In line with its mission, the Center has inaugurated a book award to be given every two years for the best scholarly monograph on topics in history, society, politics, economics, and cultures related to modern Iran and the Persian Gulf, broadly defined. The award will be granted by a committee of scholars of Iranian studies, appointed by the director of the center. 

CRITERIA AND NOMINATION GUIDELINES:

Nominations are accepted for scholarly monographs published in English not earlier than two years before the submission deadline. Books translated into English are also eligible if the translation is published not earlier than two years prior to the submission deadline. 

Edited volumes and new editions of previously published books will not be considered for the award. 

Nominations are accepted from authors or publishers. In either case, a single-page nomination letter with the subject line “Book Award Nomination,” must be sent as PDF to [email protected]. The letter must include the monograph’s complete bibliographical information and a concise summary of the book’s contribution to the field of Iranian and/or Persian Gulf Studies.

4 copies of the book must be sent to:

BOOK AWARD
c/o Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani
Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies
Princeton University
2-S-2 Green Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

The winner will receive $1000 and will either be invited to Princeton for a public presentation and a conversation with other scholars on the significance of the book. If the event is held on campus, it will be followed with a formal reception. 

Past Winners

2024: Pamela Karimi, Alternative Iran: Contemporary Art and Critical Spatial Practice

The 2024 Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Book Award was presented by Associate Research Scholar Maral Sahebjame at the 2024 Biennial Meeting of the Association of Iranian Studies in Mexico City.

Cover image for Alternative Iran.

Engaging hundreds of curators, artists, gallerists, and viewers, Alternative Iran offers readers a vibrant tour of an underground scene of informal, unofficial, countercultural, oppositional, defiant, and activist art, where in the face of government limitations, artists take up unconventional means to perform an alternative art, and an alternative Iran. An Iran where spatial, political, and economic challenges and restrictions aid in the production of unique qualities of Iran’s art scenes.

This book demonstrates that the relationship between the progressive art community and the conservative state is one of tentative coalition rather than uncompromising resistance. Alternative Iran is a seminal piece that advances the field of Iranian Studies, art history, and beyond.