Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet received her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Morehead Scholar. She completed her MA, MPhil, and PhD in history at Yale University. Her book, Frontier Fictions: Shaping the Iranian Nation, 1804-1946 (Princeton University Press, 1999) analyzes the significance of land and border disputes to the process of identity and nation formation, as well as to cultural production, in Iran and its borderlands. It pays specific attention to Iran’s shared boundaries with the Ottoman Empire (later Iraq and Turkey), Central Asia, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf region. Her book was translated into Persian by Kitabsara Press in Tehran, Iran, and released in paperback by Princeton in 2011. The Turkish translation of this book was published by Istanbul Bilgi University Press.
To read about the impact of her work as a “locus classicus” when it was first written, see the following study by the renowned Iranologist, the late Bert G. Fragner.
For a roundtable discussion of Frontier Fictions on the 25th anniversary of its publication, see here: Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Kashani-Sabet’s article, “Fragile Frontiers: The Diminishing Domains of Qajar Iran,” undergirded an art exhibition entitled: “Fragile Frontiers — Visions on Iran’s In/Visible Borders” at the Yarat Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan, where artists interpreted the notion of frontiers through multi-media works that explored borderland migrations, shared historical and cultural experiences, as well as the unnatural separation of local communities.
Building on this body of research, Professor Kashani-Sabet is completing a forthcoming book, Tales of Trespassing: Borderland Histories of Iran, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf, in which she expands on her arguments about frontiers, nature, and border communities in Middle Eastern modernity. She spent the 2015-16 academic year at the Institute for Advanced Study School of Social Science in Princeton, New Jersey, participating in the School’s designated theme, “Borders and Boundaries.” During the 2021-22 academic year, she was a fellow of the Wolf Humanities Center’s forum on “Migration.”
In addition, Dr. Kashani-Sabet has worked extensively on the histories of disease, science, and reproductive politics. She published a book entitled: Conceiving Citizens: Women and the Politics of Motherhood in Iran (Oxford University Press, 2011), which received the 2012 book award from the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies for outstanding scholarship in the field of Middle East gender studies. She has also published articles on disability, hygiene, humanism, and quarantines in the context of the Persianate world.
Her latest book, Heroes to Hostages: America and Iran, 1800-1988 (Cambridge University Press) analyzes the ties between America and Iran not only through international diplomacy, but also through cultural and social history, with a focus on race, gender, and ethnic relations. It draws on a wide array of sources in Persian and English. Dr. Kashani-Sabet worked on this project for two decades, publishing peer-reviewed excerpts from it and delivering numerous public talks related to it, including at Penn. This book was recently recognized in The New York Times for its “insightful” and critical look at America’s imperial politics in Iran.
In 2014, with Beth Wenger, she co-edited a volume entitled Gender in Judaism and Islam: Common Lives, Uncommon Heritage. In addition, her co-edited volume with Robert Steele, Iran and Global Decolonisation: Politics and Resistance After Empire, was published in 2023 by Gingko Press – St. Andrews Series/University of Chicago Press. The contributors to this volume offer fascinating, deeply researched perspectives on Iran’s experiences during the Second World War, Iran’s relations with formerly colonized communities in Latin America and Africa, and Iran’s engagement with race, gender, and economic inequality.
Dr. Kashani-Sabet has written several works of fiction. Her novel, Martyrdom Street, was published by Syracuse University Press in 2010. An excerpt from this work is available for download below. She is writing another novel that grapples with the complexities of modern Iranian society. Dr. Kashani-Sabet views fiction as a creative medium for exploring the human and emotional dimensions of social upheaval. She also published a poem, “A Sestina in 1979,” which explores the beauty and burden of creating “boundless music.”
Professor Kashani-Sabet teaches courses on various aspects of modern Middle Eastern and global history, including ethnic and political conflicts, borderlands, gender and women’s issues, popular culture, diplomatic history, race and minority politics, revolutionary ideologies, and general surveys. She has also supervised several doctoral dissertations and served on graduate student committees at Penn and other institutions.
Dr. Kashani-Sabet directed the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania as a National Resource Center from 2006 to 2019. In that role, she also successfully secured competitive FLAS funding to support the study of less commonly taught Middle Eastern languages for the duration of her directorship. In 2006, Dr. Kashani-Sabet launched the Modern Middle Eastern Studies (MMES) undergraduate program and served as advisor to the major and minor program until 2019. From 2022 to 2024, she served as president of the Association for Iranian Studies, founded in 1967 to support Iranian Studies scholarship internationally. Dr. Kashani-Sabet has received funding from various entities, including the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), to develop cultural programs on the Middle East (Southwest Asia and North Africa). In 2010, she launched an Artist-in-Residence program at Penn with support from the SSRC.