I am a lecturer of Political Science at the California State University, Long Beach. My research and teaching interests are focused on Middle East politics and international relations, authoritarian decay, democratization, contentious collective action, human rights, and foreign policy with a regional focus on the Middle East.  I specifically focus on the intersection of local, national, regional, and global processes that lead to human emancipation by studying repertoires of contention, social movements, political mobilization, cultural change, authoritarian decay, democratization, and human rights. For these projects, I employ methodologies committed to the principles of parsimony, falsifiability, and clarity to produce scholarship that is replicable and reliable. 

I was born in Kermanshah, a border town between Iran and Iraq, and endured eight years of war between the two countries. When the bombardment began targeting public places such as schools and hospitals, my family fled to a village about 100 miles away from the front line for several years where I was bereft of any formal education.  After the eight-year war, I finished my high school and moved to Tehran for college. In 2003, I moved to the Netherlands for graduate school to study international relations and international law, before coming to the U.S. in 2005. My academic interests changed over time but Iran, and the Middle East in general, have always been a focal point in my personal and academic life. I have returned to Iran several times for family and research reasons.

My academic and life journey in Iran, across Europe, and now the United States has fostered my ability to learn in and from diversity. Equity, diversity, and inclusion are central to my professional and personal life. This commitment comes from my experience as a triple minority kid growing up in a poor, neglected, and war-torn town but embracing an unknown world ouside of my comfort zones. The questions that guide my research and shape my teaching and service stem from the questions I asked growing up in a context of poverty, war, inequality, and injustice. My life and career reflect my desire to find answers for many of those questions in hopes of improving conditions for people across the globe.