Bolourchi, Neda

Neda Bolourchi
Position: Associate Director and Post Doctoral Associate, Middle Eastern Studies Program
Email Address: neda.bolourchi@rutgers.edu
Office Address:
Lucy Stone Hall, Room B209
Livingston Campus
Office hours:
By appointment

Bio

Research Interests

Dr. Bolourchi's research focuses on the roles of religion, secularism, minorities, economic development, and utopic concepts in political movements and nation-state formation in the Middle East. Her forthcoming manuscript, Contending Visions of Iran examines the transformative discourse on Iran as sacred across the political and religious spectra during the twentieth century. Her examination focuses on crucial but underexamined mid-century speeches and periodicals that influenced the emotional attachment and actions of pro-democracy activists, monarchical supporters, leftists, and other political actors. She demonstrates how the competition between groups of state and non-state actors and their use of sacrificial rhetoric and imagery impacted non-political actors.

Dr. Bolourchi is also working on a second book project that examines the histories and narratives about Jewish-Iranian participation in the Iran-Iraq War.

She has forthcoming articles on the Quranic versus contemporary concepts of feda' and fedayeen.

Her interests include Histories of the Middle East; Classic and Modern Sociology of Religion; Minorities in the Middle East; Political Theology; Visual and Cultural Materiality of Shi'ism; Laws of Islamic Warfare; Theories and Histories of Nationalism, Economic Development, and Utopias.

Dr. Bolourchi's research travels include years in Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, and Iran. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others, has provided support multiple times. She has given lectures at Cornell University, Princeton University, Penn State University, Columbia University, and UCLA, among others.

Education