Curriculum Vitae

CURRICULUM VITAE

Abbas Aghdassi  

 

History and Civilization of Muslim Societies
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM)
Mashhad, Iran, 91779-48955
Office: +98 51 3880-5979
Email: aghdassi@um.ac.ir

 

Office Hours: By appointment 

 

    

POSITION:

  • Assistant Professor, Department of History and Civilization of Muslim Societies, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad, Iran, since 2018
  • Director of Studies, FUM College Language Center (FUMC-LC), FUM, Mashhad, Iran, 2019-2021
  • Assistant Director, FUM Press (FUMP), FUM, Mashhad, Iran, 2017-2019

 

EDUCATION:

  • PhD., World Studies, FWS, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, 2017
  • Visiting Research Scholar, Sociology, The Graduate Center, New York, USA, 2015
  • M.A., World Studies, FWS, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, 2012
  • B.A., English Language and Literature, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, 2008

 

FIELDS OF INTEREST:

Muslim Minorities; Islamic Studies; Methods and Methodologies in Islamic Studies; Academic Persian; Contemporary Islam; Islam in America; History of Khorasan; History of the Middle East; Humanizing Orientalism; Christian-Jewish-Muslim Relations; Bibliography and Bibliometrics 

 

BOOKS:

 

PAPERS and CHAPTERS:

  • Hughes, A. W. & Aghdassi, A. (2023). Chapter 1: Moving Beyond. In: Aghdassi, A., & Hughes, A. W., (eds.) New Methodological Perspectives in Islamic Studies. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004536630_002 
  • Aqamohammadi, S., Gohari-Fakhrabad, M., Aghdassi, A. & Mojtahedi, M. (forthcoming). Ru’yā dar Andīshih va ‘Amal-i ‘Urafā-yi Dawrah-yi Ṭaymūrī, Faṣl-Nāmih-yi Ilmī va Pizhūhishī-yi Tārīkh-i Islām.
  • Aqamohammadi, S., Gohari-Fakhrabad, M., Mojtahedi, M. & Aghdassi, A. (2021/1400). Ru’yā dar ‘Amalkard-i Nokhbigān-i Farhangī-yi Dawrah-yi Taymūrī [Dreams in the Activities of the Cultural Elites in the Timurid Period]. Mutāli‘at-i Tārīkh-i Farhangī (Pijuhishnāmih-yi Anjuman-i Irānī-yi Tārīkh) [Cultural History Studies], 13(49),107-126. http://chistorys.ir/article-1-1399-fa.html 
  • Aghdassi, A. & Hughes, A. W. (2022). Introduction: Why New Methods in the Study of Islam?. In: Aghdassi, A., & Hughes, A. W., (eds.). New Methods in the Study of Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Aghdassi, A. (2021). Introduction: Perspectives on Academic Persian. In: Aghdassi, A. (ed.), Perspectives on Academic Persian (pp. 1-7). Language Policy, vol. 25. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75610-9_1
  • Aghdassi, A. (2019). Culturally Islamic, Islamically Cultural: Ethnographic Observations of a Twelver Shi‘a Khoja community. In: I. Akhtar (Ed.), Rāhē Najāt (The Path of Salvation): Religious and Social Dynamics of Mercantile Communities in the Western Indian Ocean, Festschrift for Françoise Mallison (pp. 37-54). Leiden: Brill. (forthcoming)
  • Aghdassi, A. (2019). Ethnic Religiosity. In: Leeming, D.A. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Boston: Springer. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_200223-1
  • Aghdassi, A. & Marandi, M. (2018). African American Twelver Shia Community of New York. Sociology of Islam, 6(1), 29-45. https://doi.org/10.1163/22131418-00601002
  • Aghdassi, A. (2017). Early Muslims in America. Tārīkh va Farhang, 49(1), 123-146. https://doi.org/10.22067/jhc.v49i1.65284
  • Aghdassi, A. (2016). The Twelver Shi‘a Islam in India in a Socio-Cultural Context. Journal of History and Culture, 3(1), 37-55.

 

PRESENTATIONS:

  • Bibliographic Analysis of (Shia) Muslims Minorities in British Muslim Studies, accepted for the “64th Annual Midwest Conference on British Studies,” Webster University in St. Louis, MO, September 29-Oct 1, 2017.
  • Culturally Islamic, Islamically Cultural: ethnographic observations of a Twelver Shia Khoja community, presented in “The Khoja Studies Conference,” EHESS, Paris, 15-16 December, 2016.
  • Absence of Self-ethics in Producing Knowledge in an Interdisciplinary World?, accepted for “Beyond Social Science History: Knowledge in an Interdisciplinary World,” 41st Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association, Chicago, IL November 17-20, 2016.
  • Divergence and Convergence in an Immigrant Community: case of ethnic groups of Shia Muslims of New York City, accepted for “Migrations and Borders in the 21st Century,” University Grenoble Alpes, October 12-14, 2016.
  • African American Twelver Shia Community of/in New York, presented in the “2nd International Conference in Shi’i Studies,” Islamic College, London (UK), 7-8 May, 2016.
  • Cultural diversity alongside linguistics diversity; India and the dilemma of keeping (national) identity? Reconsidering India’s English language (teaching) policies for primary level(s) in public sector education, accepted for the “Second international conference of India Studies,” University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, 2011.
  • Dreams and Nightmares about the West? Revisiting Philipson’s Linguistic Imperialism in the Context of Iranian English Literature and English Teaching Students, presented in “Zeytun Academic Exchange,” University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2011.

 

PROJECTS:

  • Principal Investigator, Bibliography of Islamism and Islamic Movements in South and Southeast Asia, Research Institute of Mashhad, Iran, 2016
  • Principal Investigator, Bibliography of Islam and Muslims in Britain, Research Institute of Mashhad, Iran, 2015
  • Translator, Pseudo-Scholarship on Islam in America, Research Institute of Mashhad, Iran, 2014
  • Translator, A Selection of the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe (vol. I), Research Institute of Mashhad, Iran, 2013
  • Principal Investigator, Bibliography of Iranian Studies in English, UT, Tehran, Iran, 2012

 

EDITORIAL ACTIVITIES:

  • Founding co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Religious Minorities under Muslim Rule (JRMMR), Brill, since 2023
  • Founding co-editor, Advances in the Study of Islam, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, since 2022
  • Guest co-editor, Research in Social Scientific Study of Religion (RSSR), Special Section 1, Volume 33, Socio-Historical Study of Religion in Greater Khorasan, Leiden, Brill (Forthcoming—November 2022)
  • Curator, Spotlight in Iranian and Persian Studies, Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO), New York, OUP, since 2021
  • Book Review Editor, World Sociopolitical Studies (WSPS), University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, since 2021
  • Advisory Board, Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry (SHERM), Oregon, Wipf and Stock, since 2019  
  • Managing Editor, Tārīkh va Farhang, FUM, Mashhad, Iran, since 2018  
  • Assistant Director, FUM Press, FUM, Mashhad, Iran, 2017-2019  
  • Copy Editor, Journal of New Intellectual Research, ISCA, Mashhad, Iran, 2018  
  • Copy Editor, Biannual Journal of Social Studies in Tourism, ACECR, Mashhad, Iran, 2017-2019
  • Occasional manuscript reviewer: Sociology of Islam, Tarikh va Farhang, World Socio-Political Studies, and Contemporary Islam  

 

TEACHING & RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS:

  • Teaching Fellow, Department of Oral Interpretation, ACECR, Mashhad, Iran, 2012-2018
  • Part-time Researcher, Department of Area Studies, Research Institute of Mashhad, Iran, 2013-2016
  • Part-time Researcher, Islamic Research and Information Center (IRIC), Tehran, Iran, 2012-2014
  • Short-term Researcher, Center for Diplomacy, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, 2012
  • Teaching Fellow, Department of Iranian Studies, University of Tehran, Iran, 2012

 

COURSES TAUGHT:

  • Islamic Studies in the West (B.A.)
  • Islamology in the West (M.A.)
  • Islamic Studies in the West (Ph.D.)
  • Methodology in Islamic Studies (M.A.)
  • The Contemporary Muslim World I (Middle East)
  • The Contemporary Muslim World II (North Africa)
  • English for the Students of History I
  • English for the Students of History II
  • English for the Students of History III
  • English for the Students of Theology
  • World Cultures (ACECR)
  • Seminar in Oral Interpretation (ACECR)
  • Oral Interpretation for Culture and Arts (ACECR)
  • Oral Interpretation for Politics and Law (ACECR)
  • Persian Academic Reading (UT)
  • Academic Writing

 

STUDENTS:

Supervisor:

  • Zarepour Ahmadabadi, Hossein, (M.A.), Tentative title: Zavāyā-yi Insānī-yi Moṭāli‘at-i Sharq-shināsān-i Sadih-yi Bīstum bar Pāyih-yi Khāṭirat-i Īshān [Humanizing the Scholarships by Orientalists of the Twentieth Century Based on Their Memoirs], 2021
  • Mousavi Nasab, Zeynab, (M.A.), Tarjumih va Taḥqīq-i Rasā’il-i Chahār va Panj az Kitāb-i Ham-zamān bā ‘Arshīyān: Moṭāli‘ātī dar Zamān-sanjī va Abzār-shināsī-yi Nojūmī dar Tamaddun-i Islāmī-yi Dowrih-yi Mīyānih [A Critical Translation of Sections IV & V of David King's In Synchrony with the Heavens: Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization], 2021
  • Erfanian, Mahboubeh, (M.A.), Tarjumih va Taḥqīq-i Kitāb-i Ulamā-i Farangī Mahal va Farhang-i Islāmī dar Jonūb-i Āsīyā, [A Critical Translation of Chase Robinson’s The ‘Ulama of Farangi Mahall and Islamic Culture in South Asia], 2020
  • Tajdeh, Zeynab, (M.A.), Tarjumih va Taḥqīq-i Kitāb-i “Ẓuhūr-i Dānishgāh-hā: Nahād-hā-yi Āmūzishī dar Islām va Gharb” [A Critical Translation of George Makdisi’s The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West], 2020

Advisor:

  • Mir-Riyahi, Taj, (M.A.), Taṣḥīḥ-i Nīmih-yi Duvvum (70 Faṣl) az Nuskhih-yi Khaṭṭī-yi Kitāb-i Jām-i JamNavishtih-yi Farhād Mīrzā [A Correction of the Second Half (Seventy Chapters) of the Jām-i Jam Manuscript by Farhād Mīrzā Mu‘tamid al-Dawlah], 2021
  • Aqamohammadi, Somayyeh, (Ph.D.), Ru’yā, Jāmi‘ih, va Sīyāsat dar ‘Asr-i Ṭaymūrī [Dream, Society, and Politics in the Timurid Period], 2021
  • Qodrati, Azam, (M.A.), Taṣḥīḥ-i Nīmih-yi Nakhust (70 Faṣl) az Nuskhih-yi Khaṭṭī-yi Kitāb-i Jām-i JamNavishtih-yi Farhād Mīrzā [A Correction of the First Half (Seventy Chapters) of the Jām-i Jam Manuscript by Farhād Mīrzā Mu‘tamid al-Dawlah], 2020

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

  • Coordinator, Religious Identities in Public Spaces, Faculty of Theology, FUM, Mashhad, Iran and Graz, Austria, 2017-2018
  • Assistant Director, Cultural Dialogues Between Iran and India, Faculty of Theology, FUM, Mashhad, Iran, 2018
  • International Advisor, ACECR-Khorasan Razavi, Mashhad, Iran, 2017-2018
  • Assistant Director, Int’l Conference of Justice and Ethics, FUM, Mashhad, Iran, 2017
  • Coordinator, Philosophy as a Way of Life, RIM, Mashhad, Iran, 2014
  • Coordinator, New Perspectives in Iranian Studies, FWS, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, 2013

 

MEMBERSHIPS:

  • AAAL (American Association for Applied Linguistics), Member, since 2021
  • ATLA (American Theological Library Association), Member, since 2020            
  • JSN (Junior Sociologists Network), ISA, Member, since 2020
  • APT(Association for Political Theory), Member, since 2020
  • AAR(American Academy of Religion), Member, since 2019
  • IWSA(Iranian World Studies Association), Member, since 2015

 

OTHER ACTIVITIES:

  • Bibliographic analysis and bibliometrics
  • Oral Interpreter, English into Persian and Persian into English, since 2011
  • Teacher Trainer, EFL for Young Adults, 2008-2011
  • Language Instructor, Dept. of Young Learners, ACECR, Mashhad, Iran, since 2004

 

LANGUAGES:

  • Persian—mother tongue
  • English—fluent
  • Arabic—fair
  • Dari—fair