• Modern European history
• Modern Iran and the Iranian diaspora
• Migration, surveillance, and student activism
• Print culture
• Reformed dogmatics and Karl Barth
• Apocalyptic readings of Paul
I am a historian and theologian. I hold a Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan and am pursuing an M.Div. at Princeton Theological Seminary as a Francis Grimke Scholar. I am an Inquirer for ordination to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
My dissertation examines Iranian student activism in France between the end of the Second World War and the 1979 Iranian revolution. I draw on the surveillance files the French state kept on these students and on the periodicals they produced themselves, studying how they organized politically and how their activity came to be documented. I conduct research in French, Persian, and German.
Alongside my historical work, I write on theology. At Life Under the Word, I work on Reformed and apocalyptic Pauline theology, drawing especially on Karl Barth and on the Pauline scholarship of J. Louis Martyn and Beverly Gaventa.
I also keep a blog on this site, where I write essays on intellectual history and critical theory. Recent subjects include Foucault's historicism, Sartre's late theory of subjectivity, the contrasting temporalities of E. P. Thompson and Reinhart Koselleck, and the work of nostalgia in exile and diaspora politics. The blog also carries reviews of new scholarship.
Beyond my own writing, I consult with scholars and students on theirs, and I advise on course design. I also edit and translate for The New International. To discuss a project or to request my CV or résumé, please get in touch.