Updated May 2024
NARGES BAJOGHLI, PhD
Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Political anthropology; anthropology of media; revolutions and media; paramilitary and military organizations; war; visual culture; documentary films and documentary filmmaking; Middle East; Iran.
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2018 Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies
2016-18 Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public Affairs, The Watson Institute, and Affiliated Fellow at the Humanitarian Innovation Initiative, Brown
University
EDUCATION
2016 Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, New York University
2014 Graduate Certificate, Program in Culture and Media, New York University
2013 MPhil, Anthropology, New York University
2012 M.A., Anthropology, New York University
2008 M. A., Social Sciences, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago
2004 B.A., Department of Political Science, Wellesley College
FELLOWSHIPS
2016-18 Postdoctoral Research Associate in International and Public Affairs, The Watson Institute, Brown University
2016-18 Affiliated Fellow, Humanitarian Innovation Initiative, Brown University
2015-16 Fellow, The Center for Humanities, NYU
2015-16 Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, NYU
2009-15 MacCracken Graduate Fellowship, NYU
2009-10 Alice Palmer Fellowship for Graduate Studies, Wellesley College
GRANTS
2024. The Nexus Award, Johns Hopkins University
2022 The Wenner Gren Foundation: "Building the Field of Anthropology of Sanctions"
2022. Catalyst Award, Johns Hopkins University
2021 Dean's Innovation Fund, Johns Hopkins University
2021. Accelerator Grant, Johns Hopkins University
2019 Discovery Award, Johns Hopkins University
2013. Social Science Research Council: International Dissertation Research Fellowship
2013. National Science Foundation: Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Awarded/Declined
2013 The Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research: Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
2013 American Institute of Iranian Studies: Pre-Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
2013. Torch Prize Fellowship, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, NYU
AWARDS
2024 Excellence in Teaching Award, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS
2022 Catalyst Award, Johns Hopkins University
2022 Excellence in Teaching Award, Johns Hopkins University, SAIS
2021 Silver Medal, Independent Publisher Book Awards for Current Events (Political/Economic/Foreign Affairs) (Iran Reframed)
2020 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title, American Library Association (Iran Reframed)
2020 Margaret Mead Book Award from the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology (Iran Reframed).
2016-17 Dean’s Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences, NYU
PUBLICATIONS
Books
2024 How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare, with Vali Nasr, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Ali Vaez. Stanford University Press.
2019 Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic, Stanford University Press.
Journal Articles
2024 "Legacies of Protest Art in Iran: The Revolutionary Art Workshop of 1979," with Anne Eakin Moss and Niloofar Haeri. Public Culture, Vol 36, Issue 2.
2024 “The Perils of Producing Revolutionary Moderation: Entertainment, Style, and the Islamic Che in Iran.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol 30, Issue 1.
2024 “Decolonizing Transnational Feminism: Lessons from the Afghan and Iranian Women’s Uprisings of the 21st Century.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Vol 20, Issue 1, with Wazhmah Osman.
2023 “Social Movements, Power, and Mediated Visuality.” Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol 52.
2023 “Iran in Latin America: Striver Cosmopolitans and the Limits of U.S. Sanctions.” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development, Vol 14, Issue 2.
2023 “Studying the Impacts of Economic Sanctions in Iran: Everyday Life, Power, and Foreign Policy.” Introduction for special issue on sanctions in Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights,
Humanitarianism, and Development, Vol 14, Issue 2.
2020 "American Media on Iran: Hostage to a Worldview." Anthropology Now. Vol 11, Issue 3
2019 “The Researcher as National Security Threat: Surveillance, Agency, and Entanglement in Iran and the United States.” Comparative Journal of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, Vol 39, Issue 3.
2017 “The Outcasts: The Start of ‘New Entertainment’ in Pro-Regime Filmmaking in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Middle East Critique 26(1).*
Book Chapters
2016 “Iran and the Arab Spring,” with Arang Keshavarzian in The Arab Spring: Change and Resistance, 2nd Edition. David W. Lesch and Mark L. Haas, eds. Westview Press.
2014 “Digital Technology as Surveillance: The Green Movement in Iran” in Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East, Linda Herrera, ed. Routledge Press.
Documentary Films
2014 Director and Editor, The Skin That Burns (25mins). Distributed by Film Media Group. Documentary on Iran’s volunteer soldiers who were exposed to chemical warfare
during Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). For the Graduate Program in Culture and Media.
Book Reviews
2022 “Television and the Afghan Culture Wars” in Visual Anthropology Review, 38(1).
2018 “Prozak Diaries: Psychiatry and Generational Memory in Iran” in Anthropological Quarterly 91(1).
2016 “Captive Society: The Basij Militia and Social Control in Iran” in International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) 48(3).
2016 Review Essay: “Media in Iran: From the 1979 Revolution to the Green Movement.” Review of Middle East Studies 50(1): 1-5.
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
2019-Present Co-Director, SAIS Rethinking Iran Initiative. Organize academic, artistic, and policy conferences, events, and research: www.rethinkingiran.com
2023 Editor, Feminist Futures multi-media platform.
2022 Producer and Creative Director, Lives Under Sanctions multi-media platform.
2020-21 Editor, Iran Under Sanctions. Commissioned and edited 15 original research papers from scholars around the world on the economic, social, political, environmental impacts of economic sanctions.
SCHOLARLY CONFERENCES
Conferences and Symposia Organized
2023 Anthropology of Sanctions: Lives Lived Under Sanctions Conference. September 14-15, 2023, SAIS Johns Hopkins University.
2017 Middle East Toxic Wars, Brown University Engaged Scholarship Conference, Providence, November 10.
2015-16 Animating the Archives: A Series of Symposia on Iranian Cultural History, Series of Symposia, New York University: www.iranarchives.org.
2012 Fifth International Conference on the Iranian Diaspora, UCLA, October 13-14.
2010 Inside/Outside/Offside: The Role of Ideology and Citizenship in Iran from the 1979 Revolution to the 2009 Green Movement, UCLA, October 9.
2006 Bam and Beyond Seminar Part 2, Tehran, Iran, January 21.
2005 Bam and Beyond Seminar Part 1, Columbia University, November 6.
2004 First International Conference on the Iranian Diaspora, Tufts University, April 11-12.
Panels Organized
2020 "A New Era in the Islamic Republic: Politics in Iran and Perceptions in Washington," Middle East Studies Association, Virtual Conference (COVID-19) October 5-17.
2019 "Competing for Attention: The State and its Others in the Digital Age," American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC, November 20-24.
2019 "Islamic Media and Political Futures," Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 14-17.
2016 “Evidence in National Security Contexts,” American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, November 16-20.
2015 "The Politics of 'Moderate Islam' Beyond U.S. Empire," American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO, November 18-22.
2013 “Religion, Media, and Politics in the Middle East: An Anthropological Perspective,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 10-13.
Conference Papers
2022 "Iran in Latin America: Striver Cosmopolitans and the Limits of U.S. Sanctions," American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, November 9-13, 2022.
2021 “The Study of Power, Media, and Revolution in Iran and the U.S.: From a Ginsburg-ian Lens,” American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, November 18-21, 2021.
2019 “The Digital War: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran’s Media Production at Home and Abroad,” American Anthropological Association Annual
Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, November 20-25.
2019 “Iranian Regime Media: Islam, Nationalism, and Political Control” Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, November 14-17.
2016 “Research with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij Paramilitary Organization: Negotiating Access, Gathering Evidence, and Attempting Distance,” American
Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, November 16-20.
2016 “Transmitting the Revolution: An In-Depth Look at Pro-Regime Cultural Centers and Cultural Activists in Iran,” Surveying Iran Conference, Central European University
and University of Pennsylvania, Budapest, Hungry, September 1-2.
2016 “Research with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij Paramilitary Organization: Negotiating Access, Questioning Collaboration, and Attempting Distance,”
Society for Cultural Anthropology, Ithaca, NY, May 12-14.
2015 “Creating Moderate Shi’a Heroes for Youth in Iran,” American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO, November 18-22.
2014 “'Vaccinating Society': Soft War Politics in the Islamic Republic's Media World," Middle East Studies Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC, November 22-25.
2012 “Anthropology and Social Change,” organized by Emily Martin and Katherine McCaffery, American Ethnological Society Annual Conference, New York, April 21.
2011a “Censors and Cultural Producers: The Basij and Revolutionary Guards as Media Makers,” Conference: Cinema in Iran: Circulation, Censorship, and Cultural Production. Annenberg School for Communication at
University of Pennsylvania. Presented in Berlin, Germany, December 15-17.
2011b “Chemical Warfare, Invisible Traces, and Photographed Pain: Evidence from the Iran-Iraq War,” in Unsettling Accounts: Photographs, Traces, and Evidence Panel,
American Anthropological Association Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada, November 16-20.
2008a “The Outcasts: Reforming the Internal ‘Other’ by Returning to the Ideals of the Revolution,” Middle East History and Theory Conference (MEHAT), The University of
Chicago, May.
2008b “The Outcasts: Reforming the Internal ‘Other’ by Returning to the Ideals of the Revolution,” Visual Representations of Iran Conference, St. Andrews University,
Scotland, June.
2008c “The Outcasts: Reforming the Internal ‘Other’ by Returning to the Ideals of the Revolution,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference, Washington, DC,
November.
INVITED TALKS
2022 "Studying State Media Through a Nafician Lens," Hamid Naficy Encomium, Northwestern University, June 3.
2019 “The Production of Revolutionary Media,” Johns Hopkins University, February 19.
2019 “Iran, A Revolution at Forty,” University of Washington, January 28.
2017 “The Politics of Counting,” Princeton University, NJ, April 4.
2016 “Pro-regime Media in Revolutionary Iran,” Boston University, MA, November 3.
2016 “Anxieties of Power,” Oklahoma State University, OK, November 10.
2016 “Iran after the Nuclear Deal,” San Jose State University, CA, October 21.
2015 “Battling Truths: Defending the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Sacred Memories in Film and Literature,” Iranian Studies Initiative, New York University, NY, February 19.
2014 “Islamic Media: Technology and the Sacred,” Duke University, NC, February 6-7.
2013 “Social History of Iranian Cinema” Workshop, Northwestern University, IL, February 8.
2012 “The Green Revolution and Beyond: Religion, The Internet, and Politics in Iran,” Digital Religion: Knowledge, Politics, and Practice Conference at NYU’s Center for Religion and Media, NY, February 17.
BOOK TALKS
2020 SOAS, University of London
2020 Seminary Coop (University of Chicago)
2020 New York University
2020 George Mason University
2020 Stanford University
2020 San Francisco State University
2020 Penn State
2020 University of Michigan
2020 UCLA
2020 Brown University
2020 George Washington University
2019 University of Nebraska (Omaha and Lincoln)
2019 Tufts University
2019 American University of Beirut
2019 University of Arizona
2019 Princeton University
2019 Johns Hopkins University, SAIS
2019 Boston College
2019 Boston University
2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019 Yale University
FILM SCREENINGS
* Indicates a Q/A or a talk
The Skin That Burns
2017 University of Pennsylvania*
2015 Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival
2014 Naval Postgraduate School
2013 Ohio State University
2013 Noor Iranian Film Festival
2013 Princeton University*
2013 Peace on Earth Film Festival
2013 Columbia University School of Journalism*
2013 Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, NYU*
2013 Jaipur Film Festival
2012 Cantor Film Center, New York, NY*
2012 University of California, Irvine*
2012 Hiroshima, Japan
2012 The Hague, Netherlands
2012 Tehran Peace Museum, Tehran, Iran
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Johns Hopkins University, Sole Instructor
Fall 2020 Media Wars (Graduate level course)
Spring 2020 Ethnographic Research Methods (Graduate level course)
Fall 2019 Iran a Revolution at 40 (Graduate level course)
Fall 2019 Media Wars (Graduate level course)
Fall 2018 Media and the Middle East (Graduate level course)
Spring 2019 The Iranian Revolution at 40 (Graduate level course)
Brown University, Sole Instructor
Fall 2016 Middle East: Media Wars (Upper-Level Undergraduate course)
Spring 2018 Middle East: Media Wars (Upper-Level Undergraduate course)
New York University, Teaching Assistant
Video Production, Graduate Course (Fall 2015-Spring 2016; Fall 2014-Spring 2015)
Introduction to Anthropology (Fall 2012; Fall 2011)
Anthropology of Language (Spring 2012)
Certificate: Preparing Future Faculty: Achieving Success Through Communication, Spring 2015
ACADEMIC SERVICE
Professional
2023 Board Member, Middle East Section, American Anthropological Association
2023 Member, Margaret Mead Book Award Committee, American Anthropological Association
2023 American Anthropological Association, Middle East Studies Section Conference Program Committee
2023 Middle East Studies Association Conference Committee
2023 Reviewer, Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship Program
2022 Chair, Margaret Mead Book Award Committee, American Anthropological Association
2022 Reviewer, Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship Program
2022 Workshop Facilitator, Social Science Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship
2021 Member, Margaret Mead Book Award Committee, American Anthropological Association
2021 Chair, Program Committee, Middle East Studies Section, American Anthropological Association
2021 Conference Program Committee, Middle East Studies Association
2020 Nominating Committee, Middle East Studies Association
2020 Reviewer, Cultural Anthropology
2019 Contributor, Book Forum, Cultural Anthropology
2019 Reviewer, Visual Anthropology Review
2018 Reviewer, Public Culture
2017 Reviewer, American Anthropologist
2016 Reviewer, International Journal of Conflict Management
2016 Reviewer, Middle East Critique
2015 Reviewer, British Journal of Middle East Studies
2015 Reviewer, Medicine Anthropology Theory
2014-15 Association of Middle East Anthropology, Steering Committee for Conference Panel Planning
2012-14 Contributing Editor, Cultural Anthropology Journal
2011-13 Director, Outreach and Public Relations, Anthropology Now Journal
2011 Founder, Iranian Studies Graduate Students Association
Johns Hopkins University
2023 Discovery Award Grant Committee Member
2022 DELTA Grant Committee Member
2021 DELTA Grant Committee Member
New York University
2011-15 Steering Committee, Speaker Series, Iranian Studies Initiative, NYU
2014 Graduate Student Member, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Discipline
2012 Organizer, Radical Ethnography Study Group, NYU
2010 Steering Committee, Anthropology Graduate Students Association
Selected Media Publications and Appearances
2024 "How the War in Gaza Revived the Axis of Resistance" with Vali Nasr, Foreign Affairs
2023 "Iran and the Era of Global Feminist Uprisings," Wellesley Magazine (Cover Story)
2022
"'Woman, Life, Freedom': Iran's Protests Are a Rebellion for Bodily Autonomy," Vanity Fair.
"Why Mahsa Amini Protests in Iran Are Not Slowing Down," Democracy Now!
Hostages, HBO Documentary Series
2020
"How Trump's Sanctions on Iran will Worsen the Pandemic" New York Times
“Suleimani’s Death Changes Nothing for Iran” New York Times
“Soleimani’s Death Could Galvanize Shia Coalitions Against One ‘Foreign Aggressor’--
The U.S.” Democracy Now!
“What killing of Iranian general means for US, nuclear deal” PBS Newshour
2019
"A Closer Look at Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps" CNN
"Trump's Iran Strategy Will Fail. Here's Why." New York Times
"Iran's Other Generation Gap, 40 Years On." Foreign Affairs
2018
“Did a Terrorist Attack Just Save the Iranian Regime?” Foreign Policy.
“Iran Will Never Trust America Again.” Foreign Policy.
“Behind the Iran Protests.” Jacobin.
“A London Television Station Has Convinced Iran the Shah was Great.” Foreign Policy.
2017
“IRGC Media Producers Open New Front Against Rouhani.” Al Monitor.
“The Genesis of a New Iranian Nationalism.” Al Monitor.
“Syria Chemical Attack Unsettles Iran’s Chemical Weapons Survivors.” Al Monitor.
Story in the Public Square, The Pell Center, May 12, 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=270niN_Bq0g
FoxNews, Dan Yorke State of Mind: "Chemical warfare expert discusses trade, uses, and effects post-Syria attack," April 17, 2017:
http://foxprovidence.com/2017/04/17/417-chemical-warfare-expert-discusses-trade-uses-and-effects-post-syria-attack-on-state-of-mind/
BBC WorldService NewsHour: "The Lasting Impact of a Chemical Attack," April 10, 2017.
2016
“Tipsy in Tehran.” The New York Times Magazine.
“Learning to Play by Ear in Iran.” The New York Times Magazine.
PBS NewsHour: “Enforcing Iran sanctions still tangles Iranian-Americans in ‘spider’s web of laws’”
“The IRGC's Plans to Win Hearts and Minds.” Al Monitor.
“How Women, the Green Movement, and an app Shaped Iran's Election.” The Washington
Post.
“Women Win Big in Iran's Parliamentary Elections.” Al Monitor.
“Towards an Archive of the Basij: Memories from Iran’s Volunteer Militia.” Ajam Media
Collective
2015
“How Iran is Trying to Win Back the Youth.” The Guardian.
“Iranian Vets Also Push for Nuclear Deal.” LobeLog.
“Why Iran's Revolutionary Guard Supports the Deal.” LobeLog.
“Iran’s Unfair Nationality Laws.” Middle East Research and Information (MERIP).
2014
Adviser, CNN, Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown: Iran.
“Debating the Iran-Iraq War on Film.” Middle East Research and Information Project, 271.
2013
Op-Ed “US-Iran Nuclear Deal Should Open Up Academic Exchanges As Well.” The Guardian.
Guest on DemocracyNow! with Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh: Obama and Rouhani Welcome New Talks, Offering Hope to Iranians Suffering Under U.S.-Led Sanctions.
Op-Ed: "President Rouhani's Overtures to the West are Genuine. Iran Voted for Change." The Guardian.
“Iran's Chemical Weapons Survivors Show Twin Horrors of WMD and Sanctions." The Guardian.
2012
“Principled Defiance.” Interview with Shirin Neshat. Bespoke Magazine.
“Blisters and Sanctions.” Middle East Research and Information Project.
(http://www.merip.org/blisters-sanctions). (with Shahriar Khateri).
“Missed Opportunities: A Review of Arab Media.” The Revealer.
(http://therevealer.org/archives/11895)
“Iranian Cyber-Struggles.” Middle East Research and Information Project
(http://www.merip.org/mero/mero050312)
“Engaging the Public: Shirley Lindenbaum and Anthropology Now.” Anthropology News.
(http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2012/04/02/engaging-the-public/)
“OWS, Anthropology, and New York City Student Engagement.” Anthropology News,
(http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2012/01/10/january-aes-news/)
(with Natasha Raheja)
2011
PBS Frontline: “Empowering Iranian American Youth: The Camp Ayandeh Story – A
Conversation with Co-Founder Narges Bajoghli” by Arash Karami, August 14, 2011:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/08/empowering-iranian-american-youth-the-camp-ayandeh-story.html
Wellesley Magazine: “After the Revolution: Spotlight on Alum, Narges Bajoghli” by Marcy Barack Black, Spring 2011.
2009
“Devouring Their Own: The Basij in the Islamic Republic.” Huffington Post.
2005
Researcher and Sound Director, Red Lines and Deadlines, PBS Documentary
RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2009-13 Director, Oral History Project of Survivors of Chemical Warfare, Tehran Peace Museum
2003-12 Co-Founder Iranian Alliances Across Borders (501c3 non-profit organization)
Chair, Board of Advisors, Iranian Alliances Across Borders
2002-06 Executive Director, Iranian Alliances Across Borders
Co-Creator of: Camp Ayandeh (social-justice leadership summer camp for middle school and high school students); Student Summits (at university campuses around the United States); International Conferences on the Iranian Diaspora; and Curator of TRANSFORM/NATION: Contemporary Art of Iran and its Diaspora, sister-exhibitions in Washington, DC and Tehran (Summer 2007) with supplemental academic talks in both cities.
LANGUAGES
Fluent in Persian and Spanish
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Anthropological Association
Society for Cultural Anthropology
Middle East Studies Association
Association for Iranian Studies
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
