Associate Professor
Joint Appointment with the Institute of Islamic Studies
Ph.D University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2001)
I am currently completing a book tentatively titled The City of Knowledge: History and Culture in contemporary Shiraz. The book analyzes the production of knowledge in the Iranian city, focusing in particular on historiography and poetry to understand the ways in which intellectual practices partake in the construction of the imaginary of this city and the Iranian nation. Based on extensive ethnographic research, carried out since the early 1990鈥檚 until 2003, it examines a variety of contexts and texts, combining a discussion of different intellectual practices with an analysis of the discursive formations that circulate today in the city. While arguing that the case of Shiraz is specific, I believe that in contemporary Iran knowledge is a key terrain to understand contemporary social processes, to detail the ways in which 鈥渃ulture鈥� (farhang) has become a defining feature of the self. The analysis of the articulations and entailments of knowledge brings forth a different interpretation of the Iranian state and society, one that gives relevance not to religion or the nation as generative matrixes, but to the system of dispersion constituted by 鈥渃ulture鈥� as a constructed referential ground. Other current research interests include theoretical work on history and anthropology and a project on technology in Iran.
搁别辫谤别蝉别苍迟补迟颈惫别听笔耻产濒颈肠补迟颈辞苍蝉:
2005.聽"Power, Religion and The Effects of Publicness in Twentieth Century Shiraz," in聽Religion, Social Practice and Contested Hegemonies, M. Levine and A. Salvatore eds. New York: Palgrave, Macmillan
2004.聽"Culture, Power and Poetry in Shiraz,"聽ISIM Newsletter聽14, 2004, 40-41.
2003.聽(a cura di) Etno-grafie: testi oggetti immagini. Roma: Meltemi
2001.听"Considerazioni Inattuali" introduzione a "Colonialismo",聽Annuario Antropologia, Roma: Meltemi
2001.听"Transitando fra codici: Antropologia, Medio Oriente ed Orientalismo in Italia",聽Quaderni Asiatici, Milano
1991.聽L'Argento di un Povero Cuore: Centouno Ghazal di Sa鈥榙卯 Shir芒z卯. Roma: Cultural Institute of Iran, 1991.