Azar Nafisi

 

Work:

The Johns Hopkins University

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

1619 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC  20036

202.663.5785  -  202.663.5769 (fax)  -  anafisi@jhu.edu

 

 

 

 Education :

  

Oklahoma University                                                                                                                              Norman, Oklahoma

1972        Bachelor of the Arts – English Literature and Philosophy

1974                   Master of Arts – English Literature

1979        Doctor of Philosophy – English and American Literature

Dissertation:  The Literary Wars of Mike Gold:  A Study of the Proletarian Literature of the 1930s

 

Teaching Positions:

 

The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies         Washington, DC

1997 – present                                    Professorial Lecturer

                                                      Foreign Policy Institute

 

 

Private Workshops for female students on Human Rights and Culture                  Tehran, Iran

(Material culled from these workshops formed the basis of a new human rights education curriculum)

1995 – 1997                  Lecturer

 

Tabatabaii University                                                               Tehran, Iran

1992 – 1995                                     Associate Professor                                                      Department of Literature

1988 – 1992                                     Assistant Professor

 

 

Free Islamic University                                                               Tehran, Iran

1992 – 1993                                     Visiting Associate Professor                                                      Department of English

1988 – 1989                                     Visiting Assistant Professor

 

University of Tehran                                                               Tehran, Iran

1979 – 1982                                     Assistant Professor                                                      Department of English

 

Oklahoma University                                                               Norman, Oklahoma

1974 – 1977                                     Teaching Assistant                                                      Department of English

 

 

Courses taught:

 

Introduction to the Novel

Research Methodologies

Modern American fiction

Introduction to Drama

Novel I

Novel II

Literary Criticism I (18^th and 19^th centuries)

Literary Criticism II (20^th century)

 

Graduate Seminars:

 

Eighteenth Century English Literature: The Age of Swift and Pope

Eighteenth Century English Literature: The Age of Johnson

Novel, 18^th & 19^th

Novel, 20^th century

Backgrounds to modern fiction

Modern Psychological novel

Clash of Civilizations?

Politics and Culture

Politics and Literature

 

 

 

Fellowships and Grants:

 

The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies         Washington, DC

 

 

2000 – 2008                                    Director, The Dialogue Project                                    Foreign Policy Institute

(creating an alternative dialogue with Muslim majority countries, through culture )

 

Sample Events (from a total of 16 events) :

Imagination as Subversion: The Role of Imagination in Memoir (with PEN/Faulkner) – February 2008

Forum on Women and Leadership in Muslim Societies – November, 2002

Iranian Film Festival (with Freer/Sackler Galleries) – March/April, 2001

“Life Lines: The Literature of Women’s Human Rights” (with the Library of Congress) – March, 2001

Conference on U.S. and Iranian Youth – April, 2000 (culminated in a workshop that promoted dialogue between Iranian and American youth)

 

1997 – present                                    Visiting Fellow                                                                        Foreign Policy Institute

 

2008 – present                                    Director, Cultural Conversations                                    Foreign Policy Institute

(An innovative approach to cultural dialogue for

greater insight and influence in policymaking)

 

Sample Events (from a total of 12 events):

Symposium on the Future of the Humanities (with the Council of Independent Colleges) – March 2011

“’Netizens’ in Iran: A discussion on the Fate of Iranian Reporters (with Reporters without Borders) – April, 2010

“Picturing the Shahnameh:Word and Image in Ferdowsi’s Book of Kings” (with Freer/Sackler Galleries) -November, 2010

Power, Politics and the Prism of Literature”- November, 2008

The Politics of Participation: Women and Transformative Leadership (with Women’s Learning Partnership) – April, 2008

 

 

Grants:

 

2011 (Spring)                                                      Symposium Co-director                  The Carnegie Foundation/The Henry

Luce Foundation

 

2007 (Summer)                                                      Resident                  Writer                                    Yaddo

 

2005 (Spring/Summer)                                    Resident Writer                                    American Academy in Rome

 

2002 (Spring)                  Conference Director                  The Shaler Adams Foundation

 

2001 (Spring)                                                      Film Festival Co-Director                  The Open Society Institute

 

2000 – 2008                                                      Project Director                                    The Smith Richardson Founation

 

 

 

Oxford University – St. Anthony’s College                                    Oxford, England

1994                 Fellow (conducted a series of lectures on culture and the

important role of Western literature and culture in Iran after the 1979 revolution)

 

 

 

 

Honorary Degrees

 

Seton Hill University (2010)

 

Goucher College (2009)

 

Bard College (2007)

 

 

Awards:

 

 

Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation International Thought and Humanities Award – for her “determined and courageous defense of human values in Iran and her efforts to create awareness through literature about the situation women face in Islamic society.” (2011)

 

The Don and Arvonne Fraser Human Rights Award (2010)

 

The Elizabeth Ann Seton Woman of Courage Award  (2010)

 

Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Oklahoma (2001)

 

 

Literary Awards:

 

London Times, “100 Best Books of the Decade” for Reading Lolita in Tehran (2009)

 

Persian Golden Lioness Award for literature, presented by the World Academy of Arts, Literature, and Media (2006)

 

Frederic W. Ness Book Award (2005)

 

The Book Standard Bestsellers Award (2005)

 

Grand Prix des Lectrices d’ Elle (2005)

 

Achievement award from the American Immigration Law Foundation (2005)

 

Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (2004)

 

Non-fiction Book of the Year Award from Booksense (2004)

 

Latifeh Yarsheter Book Award (2004)

 

Encyclopaedia Iranica Award for Literature (2004)

 

Finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Memoir (2004)

 

 

 

Publications:

 

 

Books:

 

The Republic of Imagination, forthcoming, Penguin, 2012.

 

Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories of a Prodigal Daughter( Random House, 2008) – translated into 14 languages

 

With Sophie Benini Pietromarchi, Bibi e la Voce Verde, (Adelphi, 2006)

 

Reading Lolita in Tehran:  A Memoir in Books.  New York:  Random House, Inc., 2003.

(The book has spent over 117 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and translated in 32 languages.  Having won diverse literary awards, in 2009 Reading Lolita in Tehran was named as one of the “100 Best Books of the Decade” by The Times (London).

 

Antiterra:  A Critical Study of Vladimir Nabakov’s Novels.  Tehran, Iran:  Tarh-e No Publishing House, 1994.

(forthcoming translation, 2013, Yale)

 

 

Chapters (1994 onwards)

 

 

“Al-Mutannabi Street,” in Beau Beausoleil and Deema Shehabi, eds. Al-Mutannabbi Street Anthology (forthcoming in 2011))

 

“All that Remains,” in Yuri Dojc and Katya Krausova , Last Folio: textures of Jewish Life in Slovakia (Indiana University Press, 2011)

 

“The Mysterious Connections that Link Us Together” This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women (Macmillan, 2007)

 

“The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of,” in Lila Azam Zanganeh, ed. My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes (Beacon Press, 2006).

 

“Foreword,” A. Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings, translated by Dick Davis (Viking, 2006)

 

Introduction.  Hadji Murad.  By Leo Tolstoy.  New York:  Random House, Inc., 2003.

 

Introduction. My Uncle Napoleon. By Iraj Pezeshkzad. Random House, 2000.

 

“Tales of Subversion: Women Challenging Fundamentalism in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” in Courtney Howland, ed., Religious Fundamentalism and the Human Rights of Women, St. Martin’s Press, 1999.

 

“Imagination as Subversion:  Narrative as a Tool of Civic Awareness.”  Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation:  Implementing the Beijing Platform.  Edited by Mahnaz Afkhami and Erika Friedl.  Syracuse, NY:  Syracuse University Press, 1997.

 

“Images of Women in Classical Persian Literature and the Contemporary Iranian Novel.”  In the Eye of the Storm:  Women in Post-revolutionary Iran.  Edited by Mahnaz Afkhami and Erika Friedl.  Syracuse, NY:  Syracuse University Press, 1994.

 

 

 

 

Articles (1998 onwards)

 

 

“Hair and lipstick are Iranian women’s WMDs,”  The London Times, September, 2011

 

“Bob Dylan’s Disappointing, Hypocritical Concert,” The New Republic, April 11, 2011

 

“Vagabond Nation,” The New Yorker, April 8, 2011

 

“Sakineh and Neda,” The Huffington Post, July 25, 2010.

 

“Iran’s Women: Canaries in a Coalmine,” The London Times, November 27, 2010

 

“Secular and Religious Intellectuals in Iran,” SAISPHERE, 2009

 

“It’s Time to Put the Iranian Regime – and not the people – On Trial,” The Sunday Times, October 4, 2009

 

Co-authored with Jacki Lyden, “Message to Tehran: Let Our Truth Tellers Go,” The Globe and Mail, July 14, 2009.

 

“Sivilization,” Atlantic Magazine, November 2007.

 

“Culture War,” The New Republic, April, 2007

 

“Fight Iran with a War of Ideas,” The Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2007.

 

“Don’t Ban Dan Brown,” The Guardian, November 25, 2006.

 

“Liberal Education and the Republic of Imagination,” Liberal Education, Summer 2006.

 

“The Secret Garden,” The Guardian, Saturday May 13, 2006.

 

“Readers of the World Unite,” The Globe and Mail, December 6, 2005.

 

“The Voice of Akbar Ganji.” Journal of Democracy 16(4), 35-37, 2005.

 

“The Republic of Imagination,” The Washington Post, December 5, 2004.

 

“The Quest for the ‘Real’ Woman in the Iranian Novel.”  Social Research, Vol. 70, No. 3. (Fall 2003)

 

“Our Abandoned Muslim Allies,” The New Republic, February 21, 2003.

 

“Shirin Ebadi.”  The Wall Street Journal, op-ed.  October 13, 2003.

 

“Do I Have Life?  Or Am I Just Breathing?”  The Washington Post, op-ed.  July 6, 2003.

 

“The Books of Revolution.”  The Wall Street Journal, op-ed.  June 18, 2003.

 

“Words of War.”  The New York Times, op-ed.  March 27, 2003.

 

“They the People:  Our Abandoned Muslim Allies.”  The New Republic.  March 3, 2003.

 

“Women, Leadership and Islam,” SAISPHERE, 2002

 

“Dangerous Liaisons: The Interaction between Secular and Muslim Intellectuals.” Intellectual Change and the New Generation of Iranian Intellectuals, (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, October 2000)

 

“Voices of Iran,” Washington Post, July 15, 1999.

 

“The Veiled Threat:  The Iranian Revolution’s Woman Problem.”  The New Republic.  February 22, 1999.

 

“Hiding Behind the Rule of Law.”  The New York Times, op-ed.  December 19, 1998.

 

 

Sample of Chapters and Articles in Persian: (Before arriving in the United States in 1997, Professor Nafisi wrote over two dozen articles and lectures on modern fiction, modernism, modern Iranian literature.)

 

“Images of Women in the Persian Novel,” The Second Sex, Fall 1999

 

“Shahrzad and her Listeners, Goftegoo, 1994

 

“In Praise of Detail: On James Joyce’s The Dead”, in Reason and Freedom, K. Emmami, ed., (Tehran: Baghe-e Ayne Publishing House, 1993)

 

“Searching for Reality in Bahram Beyzaii’s Death of Yazdegerd,” in Critics on Bahram Beyzaii, Z. Ghookassian, ed. (Tehran: Agah Publishing House, 1992)

 

“Literary Structure in Heinrich Boll’s Ansighten Eines Clowns,” C. Pahlevan, ed. (Tehran: Agah Publishing House, 1992)

 

“Fun and Frolic in Fiction,” 1990

 

“Defamiliarization in Literature,” Keyhan, Spring, 1989

 

“Art is Liberation and Freedom,”  (Tehran:Mofid, 1989)

 

“The Dilemma of the Blind Owl,”  (Tehran: Kelk, 1988)

 

“A Sanctuary by the Window: The Poetry of Foroogh Farokhzad (Tehran: Kelk, 1988)

 

“Three Drops of Blood:  The First Iranian Symbolic Story” (Tehran: Mofid, 1987)

 

“Sadeq Chubak” (Tehran: Mofid, 1987)

 

“On Soraya in a Coma, by Esmail Fasih” (Tehran: Agah, 1987)

 

“Reality and Fiction,” (Tehran: Mofid, 1987)

 

 

 

 

Lecture Engagements, Media and Public Appearances

 

 

Dr. Nafisi has participated in literally hundreds of speaking engagements, lectures, and media interviews and appearances throughout the United States and Europe over the past several years. Topics on which she speaks and has written include culture, literature, education, human rights, the importance of the humanities and the arts, as well as on Iran, and women’s rights.

 

Sample Lecture Engagements (from 2005):

 

US & Canada:

 

 

2005 Events:

• Association of American Colleges and Universities, Washington, DC (Keynote Speaker)
• Pierce College, Puyallup, WA
• Columbia University, New York, NY
• Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ
• Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, Washington, DC
• Women’s National Book Association , Washington, DC  (Keynote Speaker)
• Willamette University – Atkinson Lecture Series, Salem, OR
• Linkage – Women in Leadership Summit, San Francisco, CA
• San Jose State University Foundation, San Jose, CA  (Keynote Speaker)
• Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto, Canada
• Citigroup, New York, NY

 

2006 Events in 2006:

• Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA
• Seattle Arts and Lectures, Seattle, WA
• Portland Arts and Lecture, Portland, OR
• UC San Diego, San Diego, CA
• Learning First Alliance, Washington, DC (Keynote speaker)
• Dallas Museum of Art – Arts and Letters Live, Dallas TX
• KLRU -TV, Austin, TX
• Tidewater Community College, Norfolk, VA
• New York Public Library, New York, NY
• Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
• Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, OH
• College of Wooster, Wooster, OH
• Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, Fort Wayne, IN
• University of Dayton, Dayton, OH
• Nebraska Humanities Council, Lincoln, NE (Keynote)
• Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT
• The New Yorker Festival, New York, NY
• PEN Canada, Toronto, CA
• Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NY
• Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ  (Commencement Speaker)
• Baylor University, Waco, TX
• Facing History & Ourselves, San Francisco, CA(Keynote)
• Chicago Humanities Festival, Chicago, IL
• Hannah Arendt Right Now Event – NY Institute for Humanities, New York, NY

 

2007 Events:

• Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY
• National Association of Independent Schools – Annual Conference, Denver, CO (Keynote)
• Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
• The Denver Newspaper Agency – Pen & Podium Series, Denver, CO
• The Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
• Friends of Central Library – Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series, Syracuse, NY
• Bard College – Commencement Speaker, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
• Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, Pittsburgh, PA
• University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC
• NYSEC Conference, New York, NY (Keynote)
• Southern Methodist University – Tate Series, Dallas, TX
• UC Davis, Davis, CA
• UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

 

2008 Events

• Yale University – Whitney Humanities Center, New Haven, CT
• Womankind Conference, Richmond, VA (Keynote Speaker)
• The University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL
• Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA
• UCLA Live!, Los Angeles, CA
• Cyahoga County Public University, Cleveland, OH
• University of Hartford, Hartford, CT
• Saint Anselm College, New Hampshire Institute of Politics, Manchester, NH
• Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, VA
• Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK
• University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK
• Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX
• Wright State University, Dayton, OH

 

2009 Events

 

• City Arts & Lectures, San Francisco, CA
• Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
• Seton Hall University, Greensburg, PA (Commencement Speaker)
• University of Texas – Austin – Harry Ranson Center, Austin, TX
• Symphony Space, New York, NY
• Goucher College, Baltimore, MD  (Commencement Speaker)
• Association of Literary Scholars & Critics, Denver, CO (Keynote Speaker)
• Council of Independent Colleges Annual Conference , Santa Fe, NM  (Plenary Speaker)
• Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH
• The Library Foundation of Hennepin County, Hopkins, MN
• National Book Festival, Washington, DC

 

2010 Events

 

• Just Buffalo Literary Center, Buffalo, NY
• Sigma Tau Delta, St. Louis, MO
• Teton County Library Foundation, Jackson, WY
• University of Evansville, Evansville, IN
• Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT  (Commencement Speaker)
• Emma Willard School, Troy, NY
• Marin Academy, San Rafael, CA
• Luminato Arts Festival, Toronto, CA
• State Humanities Council – Capps Lecture, Washington, DC  (Keynote Speaker)
• House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, MN
• Drake University, Des Moines Iowa
• Federation of State Humanities Councils, Arlington, VA (Keynote, Speaker)
• Tulsa Town Hall, Tulsa, OK

 

2011 Events:

 

• Association of Performing Arts Presenters – Annual Conference, New York, NY (Keynote Speaker)
• Associated Writing Program Conference – Panel for PEN, Washington, DC
• Madeira School, McLean, VA
• Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
• 92^nd Street Y, New York, NY
• Globe and Mail Open House Festival, Toronto, CA
• St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN
• Connecticut Forum, Hartford, CT (with Jonathan Franzen and John Irving)
• Association of Methodist Colleges – Annual Conference, Washington, DC (Keynote Speaker)
• Chautauqua Institute, Chautauqua, NY
• Albright College (Reading, PA)  (Keynote Speaker)

 

Europe:

 

• Rome Literary Festival (2004)
• Mantova Literary Festival (2005 and 2010)
• Berlin 7th International Literature Festival (2007)
• Festival La Milanesiana (2006)
• International PEN (2009)
• Nexus Institute Conference (2004 & 2006)
• Salzburg Festival Symposium (2006)
• University of Utrecht (2009)
• American School of Paris (2009)
• Johns Hopkins University, Bologna Center (2010)

 

 

 

Latin America:

• Festival Litararia International de Paraty (2010)

 

 

Other:

• Abu Dhabi  KITAB, International Publishers Copyright Symposium (2010)

 

Sample Media Outlets:

 

In addition to the list below, Dr. Nafisi has appeared in major media outlets across the globe, including Spain, Argentina, India, Iran, Ireland, Scotland, Brazil, France, Britain, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Croatia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, and Abu Dhabi.

 

 

• ABC News: This Week with Christiane Amanpour
• ABC Radio National (Sydney, Australia)
• Aljazeera “The Riz Khan Show”
• Arte Television (Franco-German)
• BBC World Service
• BBC Television and Radio
• The Big Think
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• CNBC-TV “Kudlow and Cramer”
• C-SPAN “Booknotes”
• C-SPAN “Washington Journal”
• CNN Financial News
• CNN – (Fareed Zakaria, Mary Snow, The Situation Room)
• Charlie Rose
• Corriere della Sera (Italy)
• The Daily Beast
• The Economist
• Le Figaro
• The Financial Times
• For a.TV
• David Frost
• French television and radio, including Thierry Ardison
• The Globe and Mail
• The Guardian (UK)
• HBO, “For Neda”
• Huffington Post
• Intelligence Squared
• Le Monde
• The London Times
• Le Matin
• McLaughlin’s “One on One”
• The New York Times (profile, 2003)
• NPR, “Diane Rehm Show”
• NPR “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross
• NPR, News Hour
• NPR, Studio 360
• NPR “Weekend Edition”
• El Pais
• Paris Match
• PBS, “Invitation to World Literature”
• PBS, NOW with Bill Moyers
• Radio Farda
• La Republicca (Italy)
• Sky TV
• Toronto Star
• VOA Satellite TV
• The Wall Street Journal
• Washington Post
• Washington Post Book World (cover story, 2009)
• German Television ZDF

 

 

 

 

 

 

Public Advocacy Appearances: 

 

Dr. Nafisi has consulted for various members of government, including Members of Congress, White House officials (up to and including the Vice President), and individuals working for the Department of State, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Defense, and the Embassies of the United Kingdom and Spain, among others.  Samples include:

 

 

 

United States Congress                                                                                                                              Washington, DC

April 2011                                    Public testimony on behalf of the “Humanities” (on behalf of National Endowment for Humanities)

 

United States Department of State                                                                                                            Washington, DC

February 2011                  Secretary Clinton’s Strategic Dialogue with Civil Society

 

 

United States Congress                                                                                                                              Washington, DC

June 2010                  NED Democracy Award: Honoring Iran’s Green Movement

 

United States Senate                                                                                                                              Washington, DC

March  2009                  Humanities on the Hill on behalf of the Maryland Humanities Council

 

United States Senate                                                                                                                              Washington, DC

1998                                    Testimony on behalf of Iranian Student Movement

 

 

Board Memberships:

 

American Association of Colleges and Universities

 

National Endowment for Democracy

 

US Center for Citizen Diplomacy

 

Maryland Humanities Council

 

Freedom House

 

Pen/Faulkner Foundation

 

Facing History and Ourselves

 

Random House, Modern Library

 

Turquoise Mountain Foundation

 

 Foundation for Iranian Studies

 

 

 

Academic and Administrative Positions:

 

National Endowment for Humanities                                                                                                            Washington, DC                 

April 2011                                    Member, Bridging Cultures Bookshelf on “Muslim Worlds”

 

American Islamic Congress                                                                                                                              Washington, DC

Judge, HAMSA’s “Dream Deferred Essay Contest”

 

Man Booker International Prize                                                                                                            London, England

2005        Judge

 

National Endowment for the Arts                                                                                                            Washington, DC

2006        Readers Circle Member for “The Big Read”

 

National Endowment for the Arts                                                                                                            Washington, DC

2006                                                      National Finals Judge for “Poetry Out  Loud”

 

American Association of Colleges and Universities                                                                        Washington, DC

2005 – present                  Member, National Leadership Council for Liberal Education and America’s Promise

 

Tabatabaii University                                                                                                                              Tehran, Iran

1993 –1995                                    Member, Editorial Board of University Publications

 

Ministry of Higher Education                                                                                                            Tehran, Iran

1991                                                      Chairperson, Evaluation Committee for National Graduate Entrance

Examination