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Behrooz Moazami

Emeritus Professor of History

Education

Ph.D. Sociology and Historical Studies. The New School for Social Research, New York, 2004

Doctorat de Trosième Cycle (Ph.D.) Political Science, University of Paris VIII, France 1998

Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies (M.A.) Political Science, 1991

Departments

  • College of Arts and Sciences
  • History

Expertise

  • History
  • Middle East

Bio

Behrooz Moazami is Patrick G. O’ Keefe Distinguished Professor of History at Loyola University New Orleans. He is the founder and Director of the Middle East Peace Studies program. Dr. Moazami joined Loyola's History Department in 2007 and initiated the annual Loyola University Students Peace Conference in 2008. Previously he taught at several universities, including the New School for Social Research, the City College of New York, New York University, Pace University, Tulane University, and Long Island University. Moazami was promoted to the rank of Professor in 2019.

Moazami holds two doctorates. His first dissertation under the direction of Professor Jean Marie Vincent, “Les Etats nations européens  et l'avenir de la communaute européenne en tant que communauté politique,” in Political Science (University of Paris VIII, 1998) was acknowledged as Très Honorable and earned him the EU Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the Center for European Studies, New York University (2001-2002). He received the Albert Salomon Memorial Award in Sociology (New School for Social Research, New York, 2004) for his second dissertation, “The Making of the State, Religion, and the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1796--1979),” in Sociology and Historical Studies, co-directed by Professors Charles Tilly and Jose Casanova.

For more than two decades before joining academia, Moazami was a professional political activist and contributed to a number of Iranian dissident publications. He co-founded and co-edited Andisheye Rahai a Persian review on politics, theory, and society while living in Paris in exile (1983-1992).

His book State, Religion, and Revolution, 1796 to the Present (Palgrave-MacMillan, New York, London, 2013) challenges basic assumptions about recent Iranian history and constructs a new synthesis of the history of state and religion in Iran from 1796 to the present. Arguing that the 1979 revolution has not ended, he relates political and religious transformations in Iran to the larger instability of the Middle East region and concludes that turmoil will continue until a new regional configuration evolves.

The book with a new introduction has been translated into Turkish, Iran'da Devlet, Din ve Devrim; 1796'dan Bugüne (Iletisim Yayinlari, Istanbul, Turkey 2018).  Also, The Arab Institute for Research and Publishing (housed in Beirut and Oman) will publish the book in Arabic (Spring 2021).

Currently in his sabbatical year (2020-2021), Dr. Moazami is simultaneously working on two different projects in Persian: working on a brief history of the Iranian left from the late 1960s to the 1979 revolution (a collective and lengthy undertaking in Persian where he is the principal researcher and writer), and publishing a collection of his previous articles in a book format. All the while he continues to dream about and plan to promote peace and democracy in the Middle East.

Dr. Moazami is a Trustee of the Ardeshir Mohassess Trust formed to preserve the legacy of the artist and to help other gravely ill artists in need. Moazami, as a friend of late Ardeshir and a Trustee, has helped organize an academic conference and an exhibition at NYU (2010), facilitated production of the documentary, Ardeshir Mohassess: The Rebellious Artist, an IFVC Production, New York (2013), and an exhibition at Art Dubai (2014). He is planning to have a solo exhibition of Mohassess artworks in New Orleans in the Fall of 2021.

Classes Taught

  • Global History I
  • Israelis & Palestinians  (History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict)
  • The Modern Iran
  • Middle East & Islam 600-1650 (formerly Middle East I)
  • Middle East from 1650 to Present (formerly Middle East II)
  • Genesis of Radical Islamic movements
  • Violence in the Middle East: Political or Religious?
  • Fundamentals of Conflict and Peace, co-taught with Prof C. Wessinger.

Areas of Expertise

  • Iranian history and politics: state formation and institutionalization of religion, and Islamic revivalist movements since the nineteenth century.  
  • Modern Middle East Politics and History.                              
  • State formation in Europe since the nineteenth century: state theory, and European integration.
  • Comparative Historical Sociology: European and Euro-Asians State System, Large –Scale Political Transformation 

Publications

State, Religion, and Revolution, 1796 to the Present, Palgrave-MacMillan. New York. London (2013).

Co-authored with Michael Hanagan, Introduction to a 1995 Conversation with Eric Hobsbawm International Labor and Working-Class History, Volume 83, Issue -1, 5-13. (2013)

Co-authored with Michael Hanagan, Lise Grande, Nasser Mohajer, History in the “Age of Extremes”: A Conversation with Eric Hobsbawm (1995), International Labor and Working-Class History, Volume 83, Issue -1, 14-30. (2013)

"Rethinking the Role of Religion in Iran's History and Politics, 1796-1979," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAAME), Volume 31, Issue 1, 69-75: Duke University Press. (2011)

"The Islamization of Social Movements and the Revolution in Iran, 1963-1979," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (CSSAAME), Special Issue on the 30th Anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, Volume 29, Issue 1, 47-62: Duke University Press. (2009)