The Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center is pleased to announce the 2024-25 incoming postdoctoral research associate and associate research scholars. Following a competitive search, it extended offers to three scholars of Iran to join its competitive and vibrant postdoctoral research program.
Joining us, as early as this summer, are Sareh Afshar, Q-mars Haeri, and Zep Kalb. Two of the scholars’ – Afshar and Haeri – research interests focus on the production of theater and other art forms that are crucial to the study of Iran; their research serves as a lens through which to study important anthropological, historical and political meanings and social expression in Iran. The third fellow, Zep Kalb, studies the politics of labor protests in Iran, and his work follows in the footsteps of former postdoctoral research associate, Peyman Jafari, who is now an assistant professor of history and international relations at William & Mary.
The breadth of research interests that past, current, and incoming scholars bring to the Center’s postdoctoral program speaks to the attraction of the Center’s interdisciplinary nature.
Following is snapshot of the three incoming scholars’ research areas:
- Sareh Afshar’s research falls at the intersection of performance and politics and how they are contextualized within modern day Iran. She explores artistic and digital footprints as social movements for change. Afshar’s book project examines the thematic presence of death in the artistic productions and quotidian and ritual practices of Iran’s war generation, born at the height of the Revolutionary period (1978-79) and the war in Iraq that followed (1980-88). Exploring photography, film, fiction, literature and art, Afshar will be able to build important connections with the Humanities Council, as well as with the Lewis Center for the Arts.
- Q-mars Haeri is a theatre historian and practitioner, whose research interest is on cultural production in Iran. With a focus on Lalehzar, one of the most important theatre districts in Tehran, Haeri hopes to write a social history of the early decades of the 20th century that questions how we categorize cultural products either with dignity or as sublime, or as degenerate or vulgar, and to what extent these categorizations are influenced by notions of class, religion and the urban/rural divide, rather than by aesthetic values alone. Haeri hopes to organize reading events and dramatic performances, as well as create an interactive, digital map depicting sites of Lalehzar theatres and performances. Haeri’s interest is comprehensive and interdisciplinary, building upon the already political, historical and anthropological projects currently underway at the Center. Access to Princeton University Library’s special collections will be of particular importance to his examination of Lalehzari written plays.
- Zep Kalb’s research falls at the intersection of political and historical sociology. He will receive his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kalb explores social movements, politics and economic development in Iran and the Middle East from a comparative-historical perspective. He is particularly focused on labor protests and politics in Iran: how workers, broadly defined, have and exert power in authoritarian regimes. Using datasets on labor protests, Kalb explores sociological contributions to the “role’ of revolutions using Iran as an extreme, but crucial case study in debunking social theories. Kalb is involved with the Iran Social Survey, one of the most comprehensive surveys currently conducted inside the country, and a project that is supported by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center.
The postdoctoral program at the Center continues to be very strong, attracting highly competitive candidates from around the world who represent a diversity of research interests. Graduates of the Center’s postdoctoral research program typically find solid academic placements following their time with the Sharmin & Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies.