Authors

Esfandyar is the Founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a think tank focused on advancing economic diplomacy, economic development, and economic justice in the Middle East and Central Asia, and particularly Iran. His scholarship on Iran’s political economy, public health, and social history has been published in peer-review journals and in the Encyclopedia Iranica. He is a graduate of Columbia University.

Narges is an Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University SAIS. Her first book, Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic (Stanford University Press 2019) was awarded the 2020 Margaret Mead Award (AAA & SFAA); 2020 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title (ALA); & the 2021 Silver Medal in Independent Publisher Book awards for Current Events (Foreign Affairs). She co-led the Iran Under Sanctions Project and is a co-author of How Sanctions Work (Stanford University Press 2024). Narges holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology with a certificate in Culture and Media from NYU.

Orkideh is a physician, medical anthropologist, bilingual author and poet in Persian and English, and the author of Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran (2016, Stanford University Press). She is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at SOAS University of London and is the founder of the Beyond Trauma Initiative. Behrouzan received her Ph.D in History and Anthropology of Science and Technology from MIT.

Shahrokh is a research professor at the Global Research Institute at the College of William and Mary, and a senior independent consultant to international and regional development institutions, including the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Investment Bank. Fardoust has a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kevan is a historical sociologist and an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the UCLA. He is the author of A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran (2017, University of California Press). Harris is the lead researcher for the Iran Social Survey, a multi-wave nationally-representative survey of economic and social relations in Iran. Harris has a Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University.

Hadi is a Visiting Fellow at the SAIS Rethinking Iran initiative. He has published extensively on topics related to Iran, including its political economy, development, the welfare state, poverty, and inequality. His work has been featured in The Guardian and Foreign Affairs. Hadi holds a Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University.

Kaveh is an environmental scientist, educator, and activist working on complex human-natural systems. He has previously served as the Deputy Head of Iran’s Department of Environment, Vice President of the UN Environment Assembly Bureau, and Chief of Iran’s Department of Environment’s International Affairs and Conventions Center. Madani has a Ph.D in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the UC Davis.

Arzoo is a Professor in the Department of Law, Societies, and Justice and Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Washington. A legal anthropologist, Osanloo was previously an immigration and asylum attorney. She has authored Forgiveness Work: Mercy, Law, and Victims’ Rights in Iran (Princeton University Press, 2020) and The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran (Princeton University Press, 2009). She has a Ph.D in Anthropology from Stanford University.

Djavad is a Professor of Economics at Virginia Tech and the Kuwait Foundation Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum in Cairo. He has co-authored two books, Models of the Oil Market and After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World. He has a Ph.D in Economics from Harvard University.

Hadi is a Professor at the Departments of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance and a Board member of the Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran & Turkey. He has a Ph.D in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

Tara is a researcher in the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch where she investigates human rights abuses in Iran and Kuwait. Previously she was the Deputy Director of the Human Rights in Iran Unit at the City University New York. Tara graduated from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran and holds M.A. and LL.M degrees in International Law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Nazanin is an Assistant Professor of Gender Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science where she co-directs the MSc Programme in Gender, Development, and Globalization. She has author Women in Place: The Politics of Gender Segregation in Iran (UC Press, 2020) which was awarded the Latifeh Yarshater Book Award from the Association for Iranian Studies. She has a Ph.D in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Hosna is an Assistant Professor at Denison University, specializes in cultural anthropology, with a focus on political and economic anthropology, the anthropology of knowledge, and translation. She is finalizing her debut book, Translating Imaginaries: The Infrastructure and Politics of Publishing the Human Sciences in Iran, based on her dissertation, which received The Mehrdad Mashayekhi Dissertation Award. Hosna holds a Ph.D in Anthropology from Yale.

Alexander is an independent consultant who has worked in the international drug policy field. He was a Co-Founder and the Managing Editor of the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development. Soderholm is a Ph.D Candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science where his research relates to drugs, livelihoods and development in Iran.

Leili is a faculty member at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. She is an anthropologist with an interest in the globalization of the contemporary art market, and the marketization of Iranian and Middle Eastern art in particular. With funding from the Wenner Gren Foundation, she has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Tehran, Dubai, London and New York. She has a Ph.D in Sociocultural Anthropology with a Certificate in Culture and Media from NYU.

Ali co-led the Iran Under Sanctions Project and is a visiting fellow at Johns Hopkins University's SAIS Foreign Policy Institute. He serves as the Iran Project Director at Crisis Group, renowned for bridging gaps in Iran-P5+1 negotiations. Ali was a senior political affairs officer at the UN and Iran Project Director at the Federation of American Scientists. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, and co-authored How Sanctions Work (Stanford University Press 2024).

Sara is the founder and president of SVB Energy International, a strategic energy consulting firm with offices in Washington DC and Dubai. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Energy Security at The Institute of World Politics. Vakhshouri has two decades of experience of working in the energy industry with extensive experience in global energy market studies, energy security, and geopolitical risk. Vakhshouri has a Ph.D in Energy Security and Middle Eastern Studies.