Globalism, Islam, and Democracy in Iran

Professor Janet Afary will look at the impact of globalization on Islamic discourses of Iran and the region, from Pan-Islamism of the late nineteenth century to today’s debates on Reformist Islam.
Janet Afary has a Ph.D. in Modern Middle East History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she received the Horace H. Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award. Her dissertation also received the annual award for Best Dissertation of the Year from the Foundation for Iranian Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History and Women’s Studies (Joint Appointment), and an affiliate Associate Professor of Political Science, at Purdue University. In 2006 Professor Afary was appointed University Faculty Scholar. This five year appointment is made by Purdue’s President.

Professor Afary’s latest book is Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Her previous publications include The Iranian Constitutional Revolution: Grassroots Democracy, Social Democracy, and the Origins of Feminism (Columbia University Press, 1996), which was also translated and published in Iran (Bisotoun, 2000); and (with Kevin B. Anderson) Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism (University of Chicago Press, 2005). This book received the Latifeh Yarshater Award for Best Book in Iranian Women’s Studies and was a first runner-up for the book award from the Association for Humanist Sociology. Professor Afary has also received year-long fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS). She has served as president of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS-MESA, 2004-2006); the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS-MESA, 2004-2005), and the Coordinating Council for Women in History of the American Historical Association (CCWH-AHA, 2001-2003).