Shirin Saeidi has been appointed Director of the King Fahd Middle East Studies Center at U of A’s Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Saeidi joined A University in 2018 as an Assistant Professor of Political Science with a co-appointment in Middle East Studies. She is the first female leader of the Middle East Studies program since the center was established in the early 1990s.

Kathryn Sloan, interim president of Fulbright University, said: “She brings her directorial role to life through over a decade of extensive fieldwork in Iran and her experience focusing on gender, activism, civil rights, Islamism and the role of women in authoritarian countries. It brings a wealth of experience.”

Saidi’s teaching and research has a particular focus on international relations, comparative politics, qualitative methodology, theory, deviation, conflict and nation-building, citizenship and nationalism, Islamism, women’s studies, sexuality and gender studies, and the Middle East. It also focuses on religion.

her book, Women and the Islamic Republic: How Gendered Citizenship Is Conditioning the Iranian State, will be published by Cambridge University Press in January 2022, and Saeidi has also published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and book reviews.

“My work draws on archival and ethnographic methods, and I have also conducted interviews with non-elite, former and current prisoners, military and state officials, and guerrilla fighters,” he said, fluent in Persian. Said Saeidi. “My commitment to research brought me to Iran, and my geographical area of ​​interest is free.”

Saeidi works with students in the Middle East Studies Program and oversees “ambitious graduate students interested in rethinking everything from nation-state containers to the abolition of prison-industrial complexes and even hierarchical international systems.” He also said he was looking forward to doing so.

Saeidi was also recently appointed to the U of A President’s Women’s Committee, serves as a dormitory faculty member, and participates in the Adopt a Professor Program.

In addition, she serves as associate editor of Citizenship Research Journala reviewer of several scholarly journals and monographs, and was previously a Technical Advisor to the United Nations Women’s Programme.

Saeidi holds a BA in Government and Politics and a PhD from the University of Maryland. She holds a BA in Political Science and International Studies from Cambridge University. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Global Collaborative Research and the University of Duisburg, Germany.

Read more about Saeidi’s research and fieldwork here short talk from the hill podcast.

About the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies: The King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies is the academic and research arm of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas, dedicated to the study of the contemporary Middle East and geocultural regions where Islamic civilizations thrived and continued. shape world history. The interdisciplinary and interdepartmental Center for Area Studies provides diverse cultural, intellectual, and educational opportunities to the campus community and fosters interdisciplinary Middle Eastern studies research and teaching. The Center offers undergraduate majors and minors in Middle Eastern Studies and supports postgraduate research in related departments.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas’ flagship institution, U of A offers an internationally competitive education with over 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, U of A contributes his $2.2 billion to the Arkansas economy through teaching new knowledge and skills, developing entrepreneurship and employment, discovering through research and creativity, and providing training in specialized fields. contributed more than The Carnegie Foundation classifies U of A as one of the few US universities with the highest level of research activity. US News & World Report Ranks U of A among the nation’s top public universities. See how the U of A is working to build a better world in Arkansas Research News.