I am a historical and cultural sociologist of revolutions, state building, and grassroots militias, specializing on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Based on detailed historical findings, I write about cultural practices as a sociologist, and about contemporary Middle East politics as an Iran expert.

I am the Associate Professor of the History and Politics of Iran at Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and Fellow of St Antony's College and the Middle East Centre at the University of Oxford. 

I earned my PhD in sociology at the University of Chicago in 2018, and have previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies.