SHERVIN MALEKZADEH
Colgate University
Department of Political Science
smalekzadeh@colgate.edu
EDUCATION
Georgetown University
Ph.D. in Government, 2011
Dissertation: “Schooled to Obey, Learning to Protest: The Ambiguous Outcomes of Postrevolutionary Schooling in the Islamic Republic of Iran”
Committee: Farideh Farhi, Charles King, Marc Morjé Howard, Daniel Brumberg
Georgetown University
M.A. in Government (with distinction), 2006
Stanford University
A.B. in International Relations, 1996
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Colgate University
Visiting Assistant Professor and Researcher,
Departments of Political Science and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Fall 2019 – Present
Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Fall 2019 – Present
Introduction to Comparative Politics
Revolutions
Iran, Islam, and the Last Great Revolution
Williams College
Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall 2017 – Spring 2019
Iran, Islam, and the Last Great Revolution
Introduction to Comparative Politics: Nationalism, Ideology, and State Power
Revolutions
University of Pennsylvania
Visiting Scholar, Middle East Center, Fall 2016 – Spring 2017
Swarthmore College
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Fall 2012 – Spring 2016
Iran, Islam, and the Last Great Revolution
The Politics of Schooling in Latin America and the Middle East
Revolutions
Introduction to Comparative Politics
Cold War Cinema
Honors Seminar: Power, Identity, and Culture
George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs
Visiting Assistant Professor, Institute for Middle East Studies, Fall 2014 – Spring 2016
Graduate Course in Religion and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran
RESEARCH POSITIONS
United States Institute of Peace
Member, Task Force on Iranian Politics, May 2011 – Present
Oral History Project, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra
Research Assistant, Pernambuco, Brazil, October 2005 – December 2005
AWARDS, RECOGNITIONS, AND FELLOWSHIPS
NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Semifinalist
National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation, 2016 & 2017
Junior Scholars Book Development Fellowship
Project on Middle East Political Science, George Washington University, 2015
“Swat Professors that Will Change Your Life: The Top 20 Professors”
The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore College, 2014
Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship (IDRF)
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2008-2009
Spencer Dissertation Fellowship for Research Related to Education
Spencer Foundation, 2008-2009
Young Scholars Award
Cosmos Club, Washington Consortium of Schools, 2008
Best Teaching Assistant of the 2005-06 Academic Year Award
Georgetown University, 2006
PUBLICATIONS
Book Manuscripts Under Review
A Nation Before God: The Pursuit of Paradise in the Schools of Postrevolutionary Iran, 1979-2009, Stanford University Press.
Fire Beneath the Ash: Dispatches from the Green Movement and the Struggle for Democracy in Iran, 2009-2019,
Stanford University Press.
Academic Publications
“Forlorn Arabs and Flying Americans: National Identity in the Early Childhood Curriculum of Postrevolutionary Iran, 1979-2009,” Special Issue, Persianate Pasts; National Presents: Persian Literary and Cultural Production in the Twentieth Century, Iranian Studies 55, 741-764.
"Research in Iran in the Time of Trump," in Marc Lynch, editor, POMEPS Studies 24: New Challenges to Public and Policy Engagement, March 2017.
“Paranoia and Perspective, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Loving Research in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 96, No. 4 (2016).
“Education as Public Good or Private Resource: Accommodation and Demobilization in Iran’s University System,” in Daniel Brumberg and Farideh Farhi, eds., Power and Change in Iran: Politics of Contention and Conciliation, Indiana Series in Middle East Studies: Indiana University Press, 2016.
“Children without Childhood, Adults without Adulthood: Changings Conceptions of the Iranian Child in Postrevolutionary Iranians Textbooks (1979-2008),” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 32, No. 2 (2012).
Op-Eds and Analyses
"Remastering the Past for the Present in Iran," The American Prospect, January 4, 2023.
“Op-Ed: What Could Come Next for Iran after the Islamic Republic?” Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2022.
"Reflections on the State of Democracy in Iran after the 2021 Elections: An Elegy for the Voting Non-Voter," Jadaliyya, August 2, 2021.
“How the First Generation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Became Its Most Important Source of Reform,” Responsible Statecraft, March 31, 2020.
"Why This Time the Protests in Iran are Different," Responsible Statecraft, January 17, 2020.
"The Stories They Carried With Them," Lobelog, July 2, 2019.
"Iran's University Admisssions: Barrier to Corruption," Lobelog, May 23, 2019.
"What It Means to Be Iranian in America: Forgetting the Revolution," Foreign Affairs, May 3, 2019.
"The 1979 Revolution: Unfinished Business in Iran," Lobelog, February 11, 2019.
"The Country You Save May Be Your Own: What Elections in Iran Can Teach Us About Voting in the United States," Foreign Affairs, November 21, 2018.
"I Am The Anonymous Iranian The NYT Published in 2009. The Trump Op-Ed Writer Is No Hero," The Huffington Post, September 9, 2018.
"Trump, Iran, and the Mother of All Tales," Lobelog, July 26, 2018.
"It's Raining Iranian Men, Hallelujah," Lobelog, July 5, 2018.
"The Forlorn Arab as Foil in the Curriculum of Postrevolutionary Iran," July 2, 2018.
"What Trump Doesn’t Get About Ideology in Iran. It’s About Nationalism, not Theocracy," The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), June 25, 2018.
“Boys Go To Baghdad, Real Men Go To Tehran,” Lobelog, June 15, 2018.
"Fire and Folly: What Trump's Violation of the Nuclear Deal Means for Iran," Lobelog, May 21, 2018.
"Iran's Revolution Turns 39," Muftah, February 11, 2018.
"Why is Iran Arresting Its Protesting Youths?" The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), January 10, 2018.
"On-going Protests in Iran Are an Extension of the Islamic Republic's Founding Ethos," Muftah, December 31, 2017.
"Notes on a Revolution, Cuba: A Photo Essay," Huffington Post, July 16, 2017.
"Learning to Lose in Iran," Lobelog, May 23, 2017,
"Why Do Iranians Bother Voting?" The Atlantic.com, May 17, 2017.
"As Iranians Head to the Polls, a Look at Hashemi Rafsanjani & How He Helped Build Democracy in Iran," Muftah, May 15, 2017.
"The Virtues of Voting in Iran: Everything I Needed to Know About Islamic Democracy I Learned by the Third Grade," Huffington Post, May 3, 2017.
"How the Zoroastrian Holiday of Now Ruz Affirms Iranian Identity in Islamic Iran," Huffington Post, March 24, 2017.
"How Trump Made Iran Great Again," Huffington Post, February 6, 2017.
“How Elections are Secularizing Iranian Politics,” The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), May 19, 2016.
“How Iranians’ Use of an App is Changing Politics and Civil Society,” The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), April 26, 2016.
“How Iran’s Elections Marginalized Radicals and Consolidated a New Political Center,” The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), February 29, 2016.
"Trump: The American Ahmadinejad?" Lobelog, February 22, 2016.
“What Iran’s Textbooks Can Teach Us About Sectarianism and Ancient Hatreds,” The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), January 25, 2016.
“Jason Rezaian: Iranian, American,” The Atlantic.com, January 20, 2016.
“The New Business of Education in Iran,” The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), August 19, 2015.
“Iranians Must Take Responsibility for their Role in the 1953 Coup,” The Guardian, August 19, 2015.
“Where Iran’s Hard-Liners Diverge from the Moderates,” The Washington Post (for The Monkey Cage), April 8, 2015.
“The Politics of Participation in Iran,” Lobelog, June 20, 2014.
“Análise: Como África do Sul, Teerã é Prova do Inesperado na Diplomacia,” Folha de São Paulo, January 24, 2014.
"What the Possibility of an Iran-U.S. Thaw is Like for an Iranian-American," The Atlantic.com, October 1, 2013.
“Why the Democratic Spring Lies Closer to Iran than to Egypt,” Al Jazeera, August 16, 2013.
"The Foucault Made Me Do It," PBS Frontline, May 2, 2012.
"What 'The Jeffersons' Taught About Being an American," The Atlantic.com, August 7, 2012.
"Forget About 1979: How Egypt 2011 Is (And Is Not) Like Iran 2009," Muftah Magazine, February 24, 2011.
"Tehran Dispatch: Basijis for Mousavi," [published under the pseudonym “Shane M.”], Salon, August 19, 2009.
“Op-Ed: A Different Iranian Revolution” [published under the pseudonym “Shane M.”], The New York Times, June 19, 2009.
Selected Journalism
“Yes, Iran has Reformist Candidates and Engaged Citizens,” The Atlantic.com, June 12, 2013.
“Everything I Need to Know About Democracy I Learned in 3rd Grade (in Iran),” PBS Frontline, February 23, 2012.
“Iran’s Secret Obsession: Getting Lost in Tehran,” Time, February 4, 2010.
“‘Death to America’: How the Islamic Republic Taught its Children to Protest,” Time, November 4, 2009.
“Back to School in Iran: How to Deal with a Bad Summer,” Time, September 7, 2009.
"A Reporter's Diary: Making a Tricky Exit from Iran," Time, August 3, 2009.
“Watching The Lord of the Rings in Tehran" [Anonymous], Time, June 25, 2009.
“Tehran Dispatch: The Crackdown” [Anonymous], Salon, June 22, 2009.
“Dispatch from Tehran: Blood and Defiance in Azadi Square” [Anonymous], Salon, June 16, 2009.
INVITED LECTURES AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“The Revolution Will Be a Remix: Continuity and Change in Post Post-Revolutionary Iran,” Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies, Claremont McKenna College, November 14, 2022.
“The Arab Child as a Cautionary Tale of Failed Nationalism in the Primary School Curriculum of Postrevolutionary Iran, 1979-2009,” 13th Biennial Iranian Studies Conference, Salamanca, August 31, 2022.
“The Country You Save May Be Your Own: What Elections in Iran Can Teach Us about Democracy in the U.S.,” Colgate University, December 1, 2020.
“The Arab Child as a Cautionary Tale of Failed Nationalism in the Primary School Curriculum of Postrevolutionary Iran, 1979-2009,”
13th Biennial Iranian Studies Conference,” Salamanca, August 2020 (postponed until 2021).
“Flying Americans and Forlorn Arabs: The Role of Religious Nationalism in Postrevolutionary Textbooks in Iran, 1979-2009,” 14th Annual Northeast Middle East Politics Working Group, Smith College, April 4, 2020.
“Iran’s Revolution Turns 40: Consequences of Islamic Republican Governance,” roundtable discussion, Middle Eastern Scholars Association Annual Meeting, November 2019.
“Arab Resistance, Iranian Exceptionalism,” presented at the 14th Conference of the Italian Society for Middle Eastern Studies (SeSaMO), Turin, February 2019.
“The Figure of the Forlorn Arab as Nationalist Foil in the Curriculum of Postrevolutionary Iran,” presented at the Middle Eastern Scholars Association Annual Meeting, November 17, 2018.
"When Protests are the Other Side of Voting: Participation and Politics by Other Means in Postrevolutionary Iran," presented at Pomona College, January 24, 2018.
"Country before Community: How Post-1979 Iran Uses the Ummat al-Islamiyah to Consolidate the Iranian Nation," presented at the "Reading the '1979' Moment" Workshop, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, June 15, 2017.
“When the Meritocracy Becomes a Trap: Opportunity and the Politics of Control in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Girton College, University of Cambridge, February 20, 2017.
“Prevention is Better Than a Cure: The Politics of Participation in Postrevolutionary Iran,” presented at University College Maastricht, November 30, 2016.
“Participation Makes Me a Modern Girl: The Politics of Presence at the Ballot Box and in the Classroom in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” presented at the University of Oklahoma Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies, October 12, 2016.
“Education as Public Good or Private Resource in Postrevolutionary Iran,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 2016.
“Keeping the Kids in School, Keeping the Quiescence: How Iran’s University System Fosters Accommodation between State and Society by Demobilizing Both,” Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 18, 2015.
“Rouhani’s Iran,” George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs, Washington, DC, September 11, 2014.
“Iran, Rouhani, and the Art of Signaling: The Politics of Meaning as the Public Sphere Adjusts,” University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication, December 4, 2013.
“Rouhani: Challenges at Home, Challenges Abroad,” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC, July 22, 2013.
“Real Politics of Iran: Views from Within,” United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, July 15, 2013.
“Education in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Schooling the Bitarbiyat Islamic Citizen,” Princeton University, Program in Near Eastern Studies, May 11, 2013.
“Paying for Pure Children, Getting Rebellion from Within: Private Islamic Schooling and the Politics of Religious Protest in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, November 2011.
“It Ain’t Easy Being Green…In Iran,” University of California, Irvine, March 3, 2011.
"Friday Morning Cartoons: The Subversive Potential of Children's Textbooks and Television Programming in the Islamic Republic of Iran (1979-1999)," presented at the Middle Eastern Scholars Association Annual Meeting, November 2010.
“Reading Baba Ab Dad in Tehran,” presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 2010.
“Ambiguous Spaces: The Politics of Schooling and Identity Formation in Postrevolutionary Iran,” presented at the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 2009.
“Classrooms and the Politics of Schooling and Identity Formation in Postrevolutionary Iran,” presented at the Interpretive and Relational Research Methodologies Graduate Student Workshop, sponsored by the International Studies Association-Northeast, November 2007.
“Post-Revolutionary Poor: How Campesinos in Mexico and the Dispossessed in Iran Negotiate Their Own Identities,” presented at the Latin America Scholars Association Annual Meeting, September 2007.
“The Local as Site of the Other: The Role of Teachers in Negotiating Intersubjective Meaning,” presented at the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 2006.
“Agents of Change: The Role of Teachers and Schools in Creating Hegemony and Consolidating Identity in Postrevolutionary Mexico and Iran,” presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 2005.
INTERVIEWS
"Anti-Government Protests Spreading Across Iran," CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes, September 22, 2022.
"The Iran Election: A Debrief," NIAC Panel on the 2021 Presidential Election in Iran, June 21, 2021.
"Iran Under Pressure: Tehran Vows Retaliation After Ahvaz Attack," France 24 The Debate, September 24, 2018.
"Iran Protests: More than an Economic Revolt?" France 24 The Debate, January 2, 2018.
"Shervin Malekzadeh on Parallels Between Elementary, University Education in US, Iran," NPR, KGOU Oklahoma City, October 12, 2016.
"Shervin Malekzadeh Gives Knowledge to the People!" Let's Talk Iran (And Stuff) NIAC Podcast with Reza Marashi, June 8, 2016.
"Perspectives on Democracy and Diplomatic Relations: Iran and the United States," War News Radio, March 24, 2016.
"How to Read a Revolution: An Interview with Iranian Specialist Shervin Malekzadeh," Hippo Reads, May 2014.
"Q&A: How Shervin Malekzadeh’s World Travels Brought Him to Swarthmore," The Phoenix, October 2, 2012.
"Part II: Iran's Controversial Textbooks," The Iran Primer, United States Institute of Peace, August 9, 2011.
"Part I: Iran's Education Overhaul," The Iran Primer, United States Institute of Peace, August 8, 2011.
"Protestor: Tehran Turning into Two Cities," NPR, All Things Considered, June 18, 2009.
LANGUAGES
Farsi (Native)
Spanish (Fluent)
Portuguese (Advanced)
