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Standing Faculty

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet

Associate Professor of History

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet received her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar. She completed her M.A., M.Phil., & Ph.D. in history at Yale University. Her book, Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946 (Princeton University Press, 1999) discusses Iranian nationalism and analyzes the significance of land and border disputes, with attention to Iran's shared boundaries with the Ottoman Empire (later Iraq and Turkey), Central Asia, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf region. Her book is being translated into Persian by Kitabsara Press, Tehran, Iran.

Professor Kashani-Sabet teaches courses on various aspects of modern Middle Eastern history, including ethnic and political conflicts, gender and women's issues, popular culture, diplomatic history, revolutionary ideologies, and general surveys. She is finishing a book on the history of women in modern Iran. She is also completing a book on America's historical relationship with Iran and the Islamic world.

Articles

  • "The Politics of Reproduction: Maternalism and Women's Hygiene in Iran, 1896-1941," International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES), February 2006. Nominated by IJMES for the Berkshire Article Prize.
  • "Hallmarks of Humanism: Hygiene and Love of Homeland in Qajar Iran," American Historical Review, October 2000.
  • "Picturing the Homeland: Nationalism and the Geographic Discipline in Iran," Journal of Historical Geography, October 1998. Translated into Persian as "Jughrafiya-yi Vatan," Guftugu (Tehran, Iran), 1999.
  • "Fragile Frontiers: The Diminishing Domains of Qajar Iran," International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES), May 1997.

Programs Organized

  • Women and Islamic Law Speaker Series, University of Pennsylvania, Founder
  • Commemorating the Constitution, 1906-2006: State Building & Global Responses to Iranian Constitutionalism, University of Pennsylvania, March 2006
  • Borders, Battles, and Cultural Bonds: A Historical and Political Perspective on (Persian) Gulf Societies, University of Pennsylvania, October 2005

Research Interests

  • Frontier history of Iran & its borderlands
  • Nationalism, ethnicity, and state formation
  • Ottoman-Iranian relations; Iranian-Afghan relations
  • Social history of hygiene
  • Women's and gender history
  • US-Islamic relations

Courses Taught (As Schedule Allows)

For current course listings, consult the Course Directory.

Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946