Janet Afary is an author, feminist activist and researcher of history, religious studies and women studies. She is a professor and the Mellichamp Chair in Global Religion and Modernity at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

(UCSB).

Career

She received her M.A. degree from

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...

. In 1991, she received her PhD in History and Near East studies from the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Afary is married to Kevin B. Anderson, a fellow professor at UCSB. Her research fields includes politics of contemporary Iran and gender, sexuality in modern Middle East,

constitutionalism Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law". Political organizations are constitutional ...

, civil liberties, the public sphere in the Middle East, cinema and popular culture of the Middle East,

global feminism Global feminism is a feminist theory closely aligned with post-colonial theory and postcolonial feminism. It concerns itself primarily with the forward movement of women's rights on a global scale. Using different historical lenses from the lega ...

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and femin ...

, modern Transcaucasia & Central Asia: art and folklore. She is known for her writings and research on the

Iranian Constitutional Revolution The Persian Constitutional Revolution ( fa, مشروطیت, Mashrūtiyyat, or ''Enghelāb-e Mashrūteh''), also known as the Constitutional Revolution of Iran, took place between 1905 and 1911. The revolution led to the establishment of a par ...

. Her articles have appeared in ''The Nation'', ''the Guardian'', and numerous scholarly journals and edited collections. Afary is a professor of religious studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. She previously taught at in the History Department and Women's Studies at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...

. In the 1980s, she served as the coordinator for the Iranian Jewish Association of California. She has served as president of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS-MESA), the Association for Middle East Women's Studies (AMEWS-MESA), and the

Coordinating Council for Women in History The Coordinating Council for Women in History is a national professional organization for women historians in the United States. It was founded in 1969 as the Coordinating Committee on Women in the Historical Profession to promote recruitment and s ...

of the American Historical Association (CCWH-AHA).

Bibliography

Articles

* * * * * * * * * *

Books

* * * * * * * (Winner of the British Society for Middle East Studies Annual Book Prize) * (Winner of the Latifeh Yarshater Book Award for Iranian Women's Studies, 2006) * *

Honours and awards

* She was the recipient of the ''Horace H. Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award'' from the University of Michigan. * Afary was awarded the ''Keddie/Balzan Fellowship'' by the International Balzan Prize Foundation for the 2008–2009 academic year to work at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(UCLA). * Dehkhoda Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Iranian Studies (Germany).

Sources

External links

Contributors: Janet Afary, Britannica
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Afary,_Janet's_profile_Edinburgh_University
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Janet Afary at Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
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Janet Afary's publications, The University of Chicago Press

Birds and Cages Amy Littlefield's review of Janet Afary, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran
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Janet Afary (Guest editor): Iranian Studies, Special issue: On gender a
{{DEFAULTSORT:Afary, Janet Iranian expatriate academics Iranian writers Iranian women writers Iranian emigrants to the United States Living people Iranian women academics University of California, Santa Barbara faculty University of Tehran alumni University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Faculty of Letters and Humanities of the University of Tehran alumni