Pouya Alimagham is a historian of the modern Middle East at MIT, and has also taught at Boston University and UC Berkeley. He is also a Faculty Affiliate at Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. He specializes on Iran, Iraq, and the Levant, focusing on such themes as revolutionary and guerrilla movements, imperialism, Orientalism, Political Islam and post-Islamism, women and gender, and the intersections therein.
His dissertation, titled: Contesting the Iranian Revolution: The Green Uprising, was the 2016 winner of the Association for Iranian Studies’ Mehrdad Mashayekhi Dissertation Award, which is presented biannually. In the study, he argued that the Green Uprising in 2009 was a culmination of a decades-long history that constituted a post-Islamist paradigm shift in Iran. He harnessed wider regional history as well as Iran’s own revolutionary past in order to underscore his thesis. The manuscript was published in expanded form with Cambridge University Press in 2020. His other articles and book chapters (some in progress) cover the Arab Spring, Iranian protest music, women in Middle East revolutions, sectarianism, and the psycho-history of post-9/11 discourse.
He teaches “The Modern Middle East,” a survey course, “Islam, the Middle East, and the West,” which covers the early Islamic period until the present, focusing on the life of Muhammad and Quranic exegesis, and unpacking thematic issues, such as Orientalism, colonialism and nationalism, political Islam, whether such a bipolarity of “Islam and the West” is useful, Islamophobia, and the “Clash of Civilizations.” He co-teaches with two other faculty members “How to Stage a Revolution,” his unit of which covers the historical and theoretical underpinnings of the Iranian Revolution and the Green Uprising. In the fall of 2018, he also instituted and taught for the first time, “Modern Iran: A Century of Revolution.” In the spring of 2019, MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) awarded him the Levitan Teaching Award, an award that was the result of a student-initiated process. He has also taught part-time at Boston University in the fall of 2020.
His interviews can be found on Al Jazeera, BBC, and France 24, and his quotes can be read at The Independent, Al Jazeera, Asia Times, and Newsweek. He regularly publishes opinion pieces in liberal, centrist, and conservative media.
Education: Ph.D. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor M.A. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor M.A. Harvard University B.A. University of California, Berkeley
Hi,
I just discovered your page and went through some of the things you have posted. I must say they are very interesting and well written. Also, your background information is fascinating. I’m just proud of Iranians like you.
best wishes,
Shabnam Nasserifar
shabnamn@yorku.ca
As-salaamu ‘alaikum, Ipouya!
Very glad to have stumbled on your site. The alternative or otherwise, broader, shamefully overlooked yet incredibly more deserving of consideration viewpoint is much needed in today’s mainstream society and always appreciated. Keep up the great work.
In’sha’Allah, I’m going to link you at my blogspot.
-AV
Pouya!
Your writing is just great! I read most of your latest posts and I was absolutely captivated by each and every one of them. I don’t particularly like politics, but your writing style is so interesting that I couldn’t stop reading. I love the humor you incorporate into your posts.
Hope you got the interviews you wanted in Lebanon.
Come back soon!
Best wishes,
Rawan.
I admire you having so much to say to all the haters and ignorants out there… Absolutely love your writing. I believe you will do something really great one day!!
Keep up the good work.
about the backgammon part … i am a witness or in another way a victim .. gd luck bro ,.. i am keepin up with irans news from you .. keep it up to date as soon as possible .. its afeef for AUB .. i won you in backgammon .. once i guess
Pouya, I am very proud of you. Your writing style, your rationales, your productivity and educational and social credentials are outstanding. I know your Dad. I told him not to worry about the future of Iran. It is in the good hands of smart youth of Iran, Men like you. I rest my point. Keep up the good work. Make sure to get your PhD soon. You are going places.
I am proud of Iranians like you
Dear Ipouya,
I am a Malaysian citizan and I love everything Iran. From the empire, to its monarchy, to its rulers, to its culture, to its arts and the very nature of its identity. It would be lovely to communicate and converse with someone like you. It would be a great chance to exchange knowledge and information. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Mem Noon,
KhodhaHafez
Kasthuri =)
Dear IPouya,
I am visiting your blog from last one year , you have great skills in writing , I hope you become more successful then ever before , my best wishes with you 🙂
Regards:
Safdar