Sponsored by the College of International Studies and the University of Oklahoma Iranian Studies Program, a lecture by Professor Mehrzad Boroujerdi titled “What Lays Ahead for US-Iranian Relations?” will be held on Thursday, October 11.
“The conflict between the United States and Iran is one of the most important and challenging conflicts in the world today,” said Afshin Marashi, Director of OU Iranian Studies Program. “There is deep distrust and mutual animosity between the two countries that has its roots in a history that goes back many decades. Mehrzad Boroujerdi is one of the very few people in the United States who can speak with a genuine depth of knowledge about this conflict.”
Boroujerdi is Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs where he also serves as the Founding Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program.
“Professor Boroujerdi is an internationally recognized scholar of Iranian history and politics who has worked closely with policy makers,” said Marashi. “He also currently serves as the President of the International Society for Iranian Studies, the worlds leading scholarly organization on Iran.”
The author of two books and over thirty articles in English and Persian, Boroujerdi has also been the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships from sources including, the Social Science Research Council, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Institute of International Education, the U.S. Department of Education, and the United States Institute of Peace.
Dr. Boroujerdi received his B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from Boston University, and his Ph.D. in International Relations from the American University in Washington, D.C. His doctoral dissertation won the Foundation for Iranian Studies award in 1990 for best dissertation in the field of Iranian studies. In 1998 he was awarded the Maxwell School’s Daniel Patrick Moynihan Award for outstanding teaching, research, and service.
From 1990 to 1992, Boroujerdi was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a Rockefeller Foundation fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
From 2000 to 2007 he served as the book review editor of the “International Journal of Middle East Studies.” He is a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute (Washington, D.C.), a member of the Social Science Research Council’s Religion and International Affairs Advisory Committee, an institutional trustee of the American Institute of Iranian Studies, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Near East Foundation.
As a Middle East expert, Boroujerdi is interviewed frequently by national and international news media, such as Associated Press, BBC, National Public Radio and the New York Times, as one of the leading Iran experts around the world.
Boroujerdi is the editor of an upcoming volume entitled “Mirror for the Muslim Prince: Islam and Theory of Statecraft.” For the last several years, Boroujerdi has been working on a large research project collecting data on more than 2,000 members of the political elite of post-revolutionary Iran.
“We are very fortunate to have Professor Boroujerdi visit us here at OU,” said Marashi. “He will bring a rare combination of scholarly detachment and sober reasoning, combined with a passionate interest in understanding this seemingly intractable conflict.”
