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Ali Mirsepassi

Gallatin Research Excellence Professor
am128@nyu.edu
(212) 992-7753
408 - 1 Wash Pl

Office Hours
Tuesday 2:00 TO 4:00 (BY APPT)
Wednesday 1:30 TO 4:30

B.A., Political Science, University of Tehran, 1974
M.A., International Relations, American University, 1980
Ph.D., Sociology, American University, 1985

Ali Mirsepassi is Albert Gallatin Research Excellence Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University.  He is Director, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and also director of Iranian Studies Initiative at NYU. Mirsepassi was a 2007-2009 Carnegie Scholar and is the co-editor, with Arshin Adib-Moghadam, of The Global Middle East, a book series published by the Cambridge University Press.   He is the author of Iran's Quiet Revolution: The Downfall of the Pahlavi State (October 2019, Cambridge University Press); Iran's Troubled Modernity: Debating Ahmad Fardid's Legacy (Cambridge University Press, 2018); Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Thought of Ahmad Fardid (Cambridge University Press, 2017), co-author, with Tadd Fernee, of Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism (Cambridge University Press, 2014); is the author of Political Islam, Iran and Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 2011); Democracy in Modern Iran (New York University Press, 2010); Intellectual Discourses and Politics of Modernization: Negotiating Modernity in Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2000); and Truth or Democracy (published in Iran); and he is the co-editor of Localizing Knowledge in a Globalizing World (Syracuse University Press, 2002).

Books

2021

The Discovery of Iran

Ali Mirsepassi's The Discovery of Iran, a re-examination of the history of Iranian nationalism through the life and work of Taghi Arani, was published by Stanford University Press in 2021.

2021

Global 1979: Geographies and Histories of the Iranian Revolution

Ali Mirsepassi and Arang Keshavarzian co-wrote the multidisciplinary book Global 1979: Geographies and Histories of the Iranian Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2021).

2019

Iran's Quiet Revolution

Ali Mirsepassi's Iran's Quiet Revolution: The Downfall of the Pahlavi State (The Global Middle East) was published by Cambridge University Press.

2018

Iran’s Troubled Modernity

Ali Mirsepassi's Iran’s Troubled Modernity: Debating Ahmad Fardid’s Legacy was published by Cambridge University Press.

2018

Iran's Troubled Modernity

Ali Mirsepassi's Iran's Troubled Modernity: Debating Ahmad Fardid's Legacy was published by Cambridge University Presss.

2016

Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought

Ali Mirsepassi's Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Thought of Ahmad Fardid was published by Cambridge University Press.

2015

Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism

Ali Mirsepassi's Islam, Democracy, and Cosmopolitanism: At Home and in the World was published by Cambridge University Press.

2011

Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment

Ali Mirsepassi's Political Islam, Iran, and the Enlightenment: Philosophies of Hope and Despair was published by Cambridge University Press.

2010

Democracy in Modern Iran

Ali Mirsepassi's Democracy in Modern Iran: Islam, Culture, and Political Change was published by New York University Press.

Teaching and Research Interests

contemporary social theory; sociology of religion; Islam and modernity; Middle Eastern societies and cultures; postcolonial studies; knowledge  citizenship  and geography; critical globalization 

Recent News

Professor Ali Mirsepassi's Iran's Troubled Modernity, was released by Cambridge University Press in December 2018. His Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Thought of Ahmad Fardid was released by Cambridge University Press in 2017.  

Mirsepassi has joined the Board of Trustees of Hampshire College.

Mirsepassi’s 2015 filmThe Fabulous Life and Thought of Ahmad Fardid, which he co-created with Hamed Yousefi, was screened at NYU (October 2015), Yale (November 2015), and Princeton (April 2016).

Ali Mirsepassi