Occupation
Associate Professor
Contact
ABOUT
My research and teaching bring together anthropological approaches to the study of Islam, science, gender, embodiment, and the state. My first book, The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny (Princeton University Press, 2018), examines the rationalization of the metaphysical “unseen” in Iran since the early twentieth century. Through ethnographic and historical analysis, I consider a range of knowledges and practices usually treated as marginal to orthodox Islam: sorcery and occult sciences, séances with the souls of the dead, jinn exorcisms, the marvels of Shi‘i mystics, and various New Age-inflected therapeutic spiritualities. My other interests include the relationship between revolution and state in Iran, Iranian spiritual cinema and its engagements with Hollywood sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, and debates over the Islamization of the social sciences.
Discipline
Anthropology
Sub Areas
Cinema/Film
Colonialism
Cultural Studies
Ethnography
Gender/Women's Studies
Historiography
History Of Religion
History Of Science
Iranian Studies
Islamic Studies
Islamic Thought
Media
Middle East/Near East Studies
Modern
Modernization
Mysticism/Sufi Studies
Nationalism
Persian
Political Economy
Pop Culture
State Formation
Technology
Theory
Geographic Areas of Interest
All Middle East
Iran
Education
PhD
| 2012
| Anthropology
| Harvard University
Abstracts
Sensing Jinn
