Shireen Tahmaaseb Hunter is an independent scholar. Until 2019, she was a Research Professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in Washington, D.C., with which she had been associated since 2005, as Visiting Fellow and then Visiting Professor. She became an honorary fellow of ACMCU in September 2019.

Career

From 1965 to 1979 during the

Pahlavi era The Pahlavi dynasty ( fa, دودمان پهلوی) was the last Iranian royal dynasty, ruling for almost 54 years between 1925 and 1979. The dynasty was founded by Reza Shah Pahlavi, a non-aristocratic Mazanderani soldier in modern times, who ...

, Hunter served as a diplomat in the

Iranian ministry of Foreign Affairs The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( fa, وزارت امور خارجه, Vezārat-e Omūr-e Khārejeh) is an Iranian government ministry headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iran), Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is a member of cabinet. The ...

. She was at the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...

in Washington from 1983 to 2005, as Director of the Islam Program, 1998–2005, Deputy Director of the Middle East Program, 1983–1992, and Senior Associate (while in Brussels), 1993–1998. She also taught courses at Georgetown,

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

, and

Washington College Washington College is a private liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland. Maryland granted Washington College its charter in 1782. George Washington supported the founding of the college by consenting to have the "College at Chester" name ...

. She was Academic Fellow at

Carnegie Corporation The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

. From 1993 to 1997, Hunter was Visiting Senior Fellow at the

Centre for European Policy Studies The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) is a think tank based in Brussels, Belgium that undertakes research "leading to solutions to the challenges facing Europe today". It was established in 1983. Organisation CEPS is a leading think tan ...

(CEPS) in Brussels and directed CEPS' Mediterranean Program. She was Guest Scholar at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...

and Research Fellow at the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Center for International Affairs Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. Her ACMCU profile notes that she has written 16 books and monographs and has contributed to the publication of 12 books and monographs. In addition, she has written over 100 book chapters and journal articles, and over 500 opinion pieces. Hunter has lectured widely in the United States and the Middle East amongst others and has extensive media experience.

Views

Hunter is known to have authored one of the very first articles on the question of identity within the post-Soviet Republic of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. Hunter's field research about Azerbaijan's political elite and their

pan-Turkist Pan-Turkism is a political movement that emerged during the 1880s among Turkic intellectuals who lived in the Russian region of Kazan (Tatarstan), Caucasus (modern-day Azerbaijan) and the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), with its aim bei ...

irredentist views towards Iran puts emphasis on the detestation by such elites of Iranian Azeri

nationalists Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

. Her research also put emphasis on how the ruling establishment in Azerbaijan's capital of

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

are anxious about a feasible irredentist counter-claim by Iran and its Azeri elites on the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the fear that ethnic nationalist irredentism may boomerang back at them. According to Hunter, the existence of pro-Iranian sentiments among the inhabitants of the southern parts of the Azerbaijan Republic serve as evidence that concerns of this kind are perhaps legitimate.

Personal life

Hunter was born in

Tabriz Tabriz ( fa, تبریز ; ) is a city in northwestern Iran, serving as the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. It is the List of largest cities of Iran, sixth-most-populous city in Iran. In the Quri Chay, Quru River valley in Iran's historic Aze ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

and is an

Iranian Azeri Iranian Azerbaijanis (; az, ایران آذربایجانلیلاری, italics=no ), also known as Iranian Azeris, Iranian Turks, Persian Turks or Persian Azerbaijanis, are Iranians of Azerbaijani ethnicity who may speak the Azerbaijani lan ...

. She is married to Robert E. Hunter.

Books by Shireen Hunter

* ''Iran Divided: Historic Roots of Iranian Debates in Identity, Culture and Governance in the 21st Century'',

Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, September 2014. * ''Iran's Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era, Resisting the New International Order'', Praeger, 2010. * ''Reformist Voices of Islam : Mediating Islam and Modernity'' (editor and contributor),

M.E. Sharpe M. E. Sharpe, Inc., an academic publisher, was founded by Myron Sharpe in 1958 with the original purpose of publishing translations from Russian in the social sciences and humanities. These translations were published in a series of journals, the ...

, June 2008. * ''Islam and Human Rights: Advancing a US-Muslim Dialogue'' (co-editor), CSIS Press, 2005. * ''Modernization, Democracy, and Islam'' (co-editor and contributor), Praeger, 2005 (Translated into Persian.) * ''Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and Security'', M.E. Sharpe, 2004. * ''Strategic Developments in Eurasia After September 11'' (editor),

Frank Cass Frank Cass (11 July 1930 – 9 August 2007) was a British publisher. He was the founder of Frank Cass & Co., an imprint of books and journals of history and the social sciences acquired by Taylor & Francis in 2003. Early life Frank Cass was born ...

, 2003. * ''Islam: Europe's Second Religion'' (editor and contributor), Praeger, 2002. * ''The Future of Islam-West Relations: Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence?'', CSIS/Praeger, 1998. (Translated into Persian and Arabic.) * ''Central Asia Since Independence'', CSIS/Westview Press, 1996. * ''The Transcaucasus in Transition: Nation-Building and Conflict'', CSIS/Praeger, 1994. * ''Iran After Khomeini'', Praeger, 1992. * ''Iran and the World: Continuity in a Revolutionary Decade'',

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, 1990. * ''The Politics of Islamic Revivalism: Diversity and Unity'' (editor and contributor), Indiana University Press, 1988. * ''U.S. and the Middle East: Emerging Economic and Political Trends'' (editor),

Westview Press Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...

, July 1985. * ''OPEC and the Third World: The Politics of Aid'',

Croom Helm Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

Ltd. and Indiana University Press, 1984.

References

External links

*
Shireen Hunter
at

American Iranian Council The American Iranian Council (AIC) was formed in 1990 as a US-based bi-partisan think tank focused upon promoting better relations between the United States and Iran. Former United States Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was the original honorary C ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Shireen Iranian political scientists People from Tabriz University of Tehran alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies alumni Georgetown University faculty George Mason University faculty Washington College faculty 1945 births Living people Iranian expatriates in Switzerland Iranian expatriates in England American people of Iranian-Azerbaijani descent American expatriates in Switzerland American expatriates in England Women political scientists 20th-century Iranian women 21st-century Iranian women 20th-century American women 21st-century American women People of Pahlavi Iran