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:
- Director of Studies, FUM College Language Center (FUMC-LC), FUM, Mashhad, Iran, 2019-2021
- Assistant Director, FUM Press (FUMP), FUM, Mashhad, Iran, 2017-2019
- Assistant Professor, Department of History and Civilization of Muslim Societies, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad, Iran, since 2018
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; Methods and Methodologies in Islamic Studies; Academic Persian; Contemporary Islam; Islam in America; History of Khorasan; History of the Middle East; Humanizing Orientalism; Bibliography and Bibliometrics
BOOKS (edited, translated, monograph):
- Musavinasab, Z., & Aghdassi, A. (2023). Zamānsanjī-yi ‘Āmīyānah va Payvand-i Ān bā Nujūm-i Riāzī dar Dawrah-yi Islāmī [Folk Timekeeping and its Connection to the Mathematical Astronomy in the Islamic Period]. Mashhad, Iran: Intishārāt-i Dānishgāh-i Firdawsī-yi Mashhad. This is a critical Persian translation of David King’s In Synchrony with the Heavens, Sections VI & V.
- Aghdassi, A., & Hughes, A. W., (eds.), (2023). New Methodological Perspectives in Islamic Studies. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
- Aghdassi, A., & Hughes, A. W., (eds.), (2022). New Methods in the Study of Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Aghdassi, A. (ed.), (2021). Perspectives on Academic Persian. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature.
- Aghdassi, A. (1399/2020). Tashayyuʻ dar Āmrīkā. Tihrān: Intishārāt-i Kavīr. This is a Persian translation of Prof. Liyakat Takim’s Shi'ism in America.
- Aghdassi, A. (1398/2019). Islām va Musalmānān dar Birītānīyā: rāhnamā-yi manba‘shinākhtī-yi ās̲ār-i pazhūhishī-yi muntashirʹshudih bih zabān-i Ingilīsī dar sālʹhā-yi 2000 tā 2015 [Islam and Muslims in Britain: A Bibliographic Sourcebook (2000-2015)]. Qum: Markaz-i Bayn al-Milalī-i Tarjumih va Nashr-i al-Muṣṭafā.
- Aghdassi, A. (2018). Persian Academic Reading (PAR). Oxon: Routledge.
- Raesian, G., Morvarid, J. and Aghdassi, A., (eds.) (1397/2018). Justice and Ethnics in the Contemporary World: ICJECA 2017. Mashhad: Intishārāt-i Pizhūhishkadah-yi Muṭāliʻāt-i Islāmī dar ʻUlūm-i Insānī-i.
PAPERS and CHAPTERS (peer-reviewed):
- Zarepoor, H., Aghdassi, A., Babaei, T., & Sanaei, H. (2024). Bāzkhāni-yi Intiqādī-yi Dīdgāh-i John Donohue Darbārah-i Illal-i Siyāsī-i Tasbīt-i Āl-i Būyah-yi Irāq [Critical Review of John Donohue’s Perspective on Political Reasons for the Establishment of the Buwayhids in Iraq]. Tārīkh va Farhang [History and Culture], 55(2), 47-77. https://doi.org/10.22067/jhistory.2023.83695.1238
- Daneshyar, M., Abdi, V., & Aghdassi, A. (2023). Introduction: A Beginning to the Socio-historical Study of Religion in Greater Khurāsān. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, 33(1), 157-162. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004544574_010
- Ranjbar, F, & Aghdassi, A. (2023). Johann Zechendorff: Tālāyah-dar-i Mutāli‘āt-i Islāmī va ‘Arabī dar Ālmān-i Sadah-yi Hifdahum [Johann Zechendorff, the Forerunner of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Seventeenth-Century Germany]. Du-faslnāmah-yi Ilmī-yi Qur’ān-pizhūhī-yi Khāvar-shināsān [Bi-Quarterly Journal of the Qur’an and Orientalists], 17(33), 131-156.
- 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. Some published titles include,
- Alshaar, N. (2024—forthcoming). Muslim Sicily Encounters and Legacy. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Piraino, F. (2024—forthcoming). Sufism in Europe Islam: Esotericism and the New Age. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Bursi, A. (2024). Traces of the Prophets: Relics and Sacred Spaces in Early Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Aghdassi, A., & Hughes, A. W. (2022). New Methods in the Study of Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- 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, 2023.
- 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
- 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:
- Sadeqipour, Mohammad, (PhD), Farāz va Furūd-i Kumpānī-yi Livānt: Tijārat-i Birītānīyā Pīsh az Kuumpānī-yi Hind-i Sharqī [The Rise and Fall of the Levant Company: British Trade before the East India Company], in progress
- Kahani, Maryam, (PhD), Tahlīl-i Ravābit-i Īrān va Misr dar Dawrah-yi Pahlavī-yi Duvvum (A.H. 1320-1357) [An Analysis of Iran and Egypt Relations in the Second Pahlavi Era (C.E. 1941-1979)], in progress
- Alchokhechi, Fatemeh, (M.A.), Tarjumah va Taḥqīq-i Birītāniyā va Jāhān-i Islām [A Critical Translation of Britain and the Islamic World], in progress
- Ayazi, Fatemeh, (M.A.), Tarjumah va Taḥqīq-i Islām-i Kuhan dar Detroit: Vākāvī-yi Tārīkh-i Musalmānān-i Āmrīkā [A Critical Translation of Old Islam in Detroit: Rediscovering the Muslim American Past], in progress
- Khosravi, Samaneh, (M.A.), Tarjumah va Taḥqīq-i Shūrishī va Īmām dar Sadr-i Islām: Kāvush-hā-yī dar Tārīkhnigārī-yi Musalmānān [A critical translation of The Rebel and the Imam in Early Islam: Explorations in Muslim Historiography], in progress
- Erfanian, Mahboubeh, (M.A.), Tarjumah va Taḥqīq-i Kitāb-i Ulamā-yi Farangī Mahal va Farhang-i Islāmī dar Junūb-i Āsīyā, [A Critical Translation of Chase Robinson’s The ‘Ulama of Farangi Mahall and Islamic Culture in South Asia], in progress
- Zarepour Ahmadabadi, Hossein, (M.A.), Tarjumah va Taḥqīq-i Silsilah-yi Āl-i Būyah dar Irāq (AH 334-403): Shikl-dihī-yi Nahād-hā-yī Barāy-i Āyandah [A Critical Translation of The Buwayhid Dynasty in Iraq 945-1012 CE: Shaping Institutions for the Future], Defended, 2023
- 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], Defended, 2021
- 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], Defended, 2020
Advisor:
- Jafarpour, Robabeh, (PhD), Taḥavvulāt-i Iqtisādī va Ijtimā‘ī-yi Bārfurūsh az Dawrah-yi Shāh Abbās-i Avval (996-1037) tā Jang-i Jahānī-yi Avval (1914) [Political and economic developments of Barfurūs̲h̲ from ShahʿAbbās I the Great (1587-1628) to the World War I (1914)], in progress
- 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:
- Director, Office of International Affairs, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran, 2022-2024
- 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