CV is available here
Books
2019. The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View, edited by Jan Breman, Kevan Harris, Ching Kwan Lee, and Marcel van der Linden. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. Read the entire book at UC Luminos Open Access.
Reviewed by G. Sampath in The Hindu (March 25, 2020)
Reviewed by Mirta Lobado in Revista Latinoamericana de Trabajo y Trabajadores (1, 2020-21)
Reviewed by Melanie Reyes in the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare (47, 3, 2020)
Reviewed by Emir Mahieddin in Cahiers d’Études africaines (245-246, 2022)
2017. A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran. Oakland, CA: University of California Press (Read the introduction / first chapter). Translations: Persian, 2019 (Tehran: Shirazeh Press).
Winner of the Middle East Studies Association Nikki Keddie Book Award
Winner of the Arab Studies Institute Political Economy Book Prize
Reviewed by Erdem Yörük in The American Journal of Sociology (124, 5, 2019). PDF
Reviewed by Georgi Derluguian in The British Journal of Sociology (70, 1, 2019). PDF
Reviewed by John Waterbury in Foreign Affairs (January/February 2018)
Reviewed in Middle East Journal (72, 1, Winter 2018)
Reviewed in Choice (55, 11, 2018)
Reviewed in Survival (60, 2, 2018)
Reviewed in Omran (7, 25, 2018 - in Arabic)
Reviewed in Gorky Magazine (September 2018 - in Russian)
Reviewed in Bustan: The Middle East Book Review (9, 2, 2018)
Reviewed in Dowlatyar: The Journal of Government and Public Management (6, Fall 2017 - in Persian)
Reviewed in Sociologie du travail (July-September 2020)
Listed in Essential Readings on Postrevolutionary Iran by Jadaliyya Online (June 2018)
Listed in Essential Readings on Revolutions in the Middle East by Jadaliyya Online (March 2021)
Articles and Chapters
2023. “Capitalism as a Concept of Difference in the Historiography of Iran.” Iranian Studies, Vol. 56, No. 2: 391–394. PDF
2022. “Labour Regimes, Social Reproduction, and Boundary-drawing Strategies Across the Arc of US World Hegemony,” with Phillip Hough. Pp. 173-188 in Labour Regimes and Global Production, edited by Elena Baglioni, Liam Campling, Neil M. Coe, and Adrian Smith. Newcastle, UK: Agenda Publishing. PDF
2021. “Myths of Middle-Class Political Behavior in the Islamic Republic.” Pp. 75-90 in The Contemporary Middle East in an Age of Upheaval, edited by James Gelvin. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. PDF
Volume reviewed in Perspectives on Politics.
Volume reviewed in Middle East Journal.
2021. “Difference in Difference: Language, Geography, and Ethno-racial Identity in Contemporary Iran,” with Rasmus Elling. Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 44, No. 12: 2255-2281. PDF
Reprinted in The Politics of Race and Racialisation in the Middle East, edited by Burcu Ozcelik. London: Routledge, 2022.
2020. “Unraveling the Middle Classes in Postrevolutionary Iran.” Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 37: 103-134. PDF (translated into Persian)
2020. “Of Eggs and Stones: Foreign Sanctions and Domestic Political Economy in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Pp. 72-96 in Economic Shocks and Authoritarian Stability: Duration, Financial Control, and Institutions, edited by Victor Shih. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. PDF
Volume reviewed in Perspectives on Politics.
2019. “Iran’s Commanding Heights: Privatization and Conglomerate Ownership in the Islamic Republic.” Pp. 363-399 in Crony Capitalism in the Middle East: Business and Politics from Liberalization to the Arab Spring, edited by Ishac Diwan, Adeel Malik, and Izak Atiyas. Oxford: Oxford University Press. PDF
Volume reviewed by John Waterbury in Foreign Affairs.
Volume reviewed in Contemporary Levant.
Volume reviewed by Robert Springborg in Middle East Policy.
2019. “Pen to the Tiller: Land Reform and Social Mobility Across the 1979 Iranian Revolution,” with Zep Kalb. Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 19, No. 3: 465-486. PDF
2019. “Roads from Calabria: The Arrighian Approach to Agrarian Political Economy,” with Jennifer Bair and Philip A. Hough. Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 19, No. 3: 391-406. PDF
2019. “The Social Question All Over Again,” with Jan Breman, Kevan Harris, Ching Kwan Lee, and Marcel van der Linden. Pp. 1-22 in in The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View, edited by Jan Breman, Kevan Harris, Ching Kwan Lee, and Marcel van der Linden. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. PDF
2019. "The Social Question in the Middle East: Past and Present." Pp. 188-207 in The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View, edited by Jan Breman, Kevan Harris, Ching Kwan Lee, and Marcel van der Linden. Oakland, CA: University of California Press. PDF
2019. “Do Nomenklatura Dream of Capital Strikes?” (Symposium on Dismantling Solidarity: Capitalist Politics and American Pensions since the New Deal, by Michael McCarthy). Critical Sociology, Vol. 45, No. 4-5: 751-756. PDF
2018. "Divergent Histories and Converging Inequalities in the Middle East and Latin America." Middle East Report 284/285: 18-23. PDF
2018. "Voter Behavior and Political Mobilization in Iran: Findings from the Iran Social Survey," with Daniel Tavana. Report for the European Middle East Research Group, Lund, Sweden. PDF: DOI:10.26369/RE.2018.001 (translated into Persian)
2018. “International Political Economy,” with Christiana Parreira. Pp. 221-237 in The SAGE Handbook of Political Sociology, vol. 1, edited by William Outhwaite and Stephen Turner. London: Sage Publications. PDF
2016. "Making and Unmaking of the Greater Middle East." New Left Review 101: 5-34. PDF (translated into Spanish)
2016. “All the Sepah’s Men: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Theory and Practice.” Pp. 97-118 in Businessmen in Arms: How the Military and Other Armed Groups Profit in the MENA Region, edited by Elke Grawert and Zeinab Abul-Magd. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. PDF
Volume reviewed in Perspectives on Politics.
Volume reviewed in Siyasat Arabiya.
2016. "Social Welfare Policies and the Dynamics of Elite and Popular Contention." Pp. 70-100 in Power and Change in Iran: Politics of Contention and Conciliation, edited by Daniel Brumberg and Farideh Farhi. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. PDF
Volume reviewed in Iranian Studies.
Volume reviewed in Democratization.
2015. “A Hidden Counter-Movement? Precarity, Politics, and Social Protection Before and Beyond the Neoliberal Era,” with Ben Scully. Theory & Society, Vol. 44, No. 5: 415-444. PDF
2015. “Notes on the Method of World-Systems Biography,” with Brendan McQuade. Journal of World-Systems Research, special issue edited by Kevan Harris and Brendan McQuade, Vol. 21, No. 2: 276-286. PDF (w/ pub. typos corrected)
2015. “The Breakaway Boss: Semiperipheral Innovations and the Rise of Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad.” Journal of World-Systems Research, special issue edited by Kevan Harris and Brendan McQuade, Vol. 21, No. 2: 417-447. PDF (w/ pub. typos corrected)
2015. “Did Inequality Breed the Arab Uprisings? Social Inequality in the Middle East from a World Perspective.” Pp. 87-111 in The Arab Revolution of 2011: A Comparative Perspective, edited by Saïd Amir Arjomand. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. PDF
2013. “The Rise of the Subcontractor State: Politics of Pseudo-Privatization in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 45, No. 1: 45-70. PDF
Reprinted in The I.B. Tauris Handbook of Sociology and the Middle East, edited by Fatma Müge Göçek and Gamze Evcimen. London: I.B. Tauris, 2022.
2013. “A Martyrs’ Welfare State and Its Contradictions: Regime Resilience and Limits through the Lens of Social Policy in Iran.” Pp. 61-80 in Middle East Authoritarianisms: Governance, Contestation, and Regime Resilience in Syria and Iran, edited by Steven Heydemann and Reinoud Leenders. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. PDF
Volume reviewed in Perspectives on Politics.
Volume reviewed in Foreign Affairs.
2013. “Vectors of Iranian Capitalism: Privatization Politics in the Islamic Republic.” Pp. 211-243 in Business Politics in the Middle East, edited by Steffen Hertog, Giacomo Luciani, and Marc Valeri. London: Hurst. PDF
Volume reviewed in The Arab Studies Journal.
Volume reviewed in the Journal of Islamic Studies.
Volume reviewed in Middle East Studies.
Volume reviewed in International Critique.
Volume reviewed in Political Studies Review.
2012. “The Brokered Exuberance of the Middle Class: An Ethnographic Analysis of Iran’s 2009 Green Movement.” Mobilization, Vol. 17, No. 6: 435-455. PDF
2012. “The Politics of Welfare After Revolution and War: The Imam Khomeini Relief Committee in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Pp. 134-150 in The Cup, The Gun and The Crescent: Social Welfare and Civil Unrest in Muslim Societies, edited by Sara Crabtree, Jonathan Parker, and Azlinda Azman. London: Whiting and Birch. PDF
Essays and Shorter Pieces
“Pandemic Politics in Iran.” Current History, Vol. 119, No. 821 (2020): 338-342. PDF (translated into Arabic).
“Shock without Success: Effects and Effectiveness of Economic Sanctions on Iran.” American Political Science Association Democracy and Autocracy Newsletter, Vol. 18, No. 2 (2020): 19-23.
“Polling an Islamic Republic: The Iran Social Survey,” with Daniel Tavana. American Political Science Association MENA Politics Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 1 (2019): 8-10. PDF
"How Years of Increasing Labor Unrest Signaled Iran’s Latest Protest Wave," with Zep Kalb. The Washington Post - Monkey Cage Blog, January 29, 2018 (translated into Persian).
“Unpacking the Welfare-Politics Nexus in the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Project on Middle East Political Science, Briefing 28 (2017): 26-30.
“What is Activism?” with Jillian Schwedler. Middle East Report, No. 281 (2017): 2-5. PDF
"Class and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran." Middle East Report, No. 277 (2016): 2-5 (translated into Turkish). PDF
"Three Types of Attractions for Investment in Iran" (in Persian). Donyā-ye Eqtesād, May 14, 2015.
“Iran’s Uncertain Course After the Deal.” Current History, Vol. 114, No. 776 (2015): 361-363. PDF
"Iran's Political Economy Under and After the Sanctions." Project on Middle East Political Science, Briefing 13 (2015): 10-12 (translated into Persian).
"The Rise of the Machines: Islamist Social Services in Comparative Perspective." Project on Middle East Political Science, Briefing 9 (2014): 18-20.
"The Sociologist Has Left the Building." Middle East Report, No. 270 (2014): 45-47 (translated into Persian). PDF
"A Domestic Playbook for Iran's Moderate President." Foreign Affairs, January 20, 2014.
"The Signal and the Noise in Middle Eastern Elections." with Alex Hanna. Foreign Policy, December 13, 2013.
"Failure and Success from the Inside and Outside: Studying Iran's Green Movement." Mobilizing Ideas, December 1, 2013.
“A Fistful of Tomans.” London Review of Books, Vol. 35, No. 2 (2013): 28-29.
"Iran, the Twenty-First-Century Island of Stability." Middle East Report Online, September 29, 2013 (translated into Persian).
"An 'Electoral Uprising' in Iran." Middle East Report Online, July 19, 2013 (translated into Dutch).
“The True Cost of Sanctions” [In Italian]. Aspenia, Vol. 60 (2013): 56-61.
“Recognize the Structural Crisis of the World-System: Immanuel Wallerstein in Conversation with Kevan Harris.” Pp. 169-185 in 22 Ideas to Fix the World: Conversations with the World’s Foremost Thinkers, edited by Piotr Dutkiewicz and Richard Sakwa. New York: NYU Press, 2013. PDF
“The Politics of Subsidy Reform in Iran.” Middle East Report, No. 254 (2010): 36-39.
“The Bazaar in Contemporary Iran.” In The Iran Primer, edited by Robin Wright, pp. 108-111. Washington DC: US Institute of Peace, 2010.
“The Imam’s Blue Boxes.” Middle East Report, No. 257 (2010): 22-23.
Book Reviews
Review of Postrevolutionary Iran: A Political Handbook, by Mehrzad Boroujerdi and Kourosh Rahimkhani. Iranian Studies, Vol. 50, No. 3/4 (2020): 682-684. PDF
Review of Religious Statecraft: The Politics of Islam in Iran, by Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 125, No. 6 (2020): 1721-1723. PDF
Review of Militarizing the Nation: The Army, Business, and Revolution in Egypt, by Zeinab Abul-Magd. American Historical Review, Vol. 123, No. 4 (2018): 1436-1437. PDF
Review of Making Morocco: Colonial Intervention and the Politics of Identity, by Jonathan Wyrtzen. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 124, No. 1 (2018): 257-259. PDF
Review of Middle East Studies for the New Millennium: Infrastructures of Knowledge, edited by Seteney Shami and Cynthia Miller-Idriss. Contemporary Sociology, Vol 47, No 3 (2018): 360-362. PDF
Review of Days of Revolution: Political Unrest in an Iranian Village, by Mary Hegland. Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 14, No. 4 (2016): 1248-1249. PDF
Review of On the Arab Revolts and the Iranian Revolution: Power and Resistance Today, by Arshin Adib-Moghaddam. International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 47, No. 4 (2015): 849-850. PDF
Review of Independence without Freedom: Iran’s Foreign Policy by R.K. Ramazani. Middle East Journal, Vol. 69, No. 3 (2015): 477-479. PDF
Review of The Politics of Nationalism in Modern Iran, by Ali Ansari. Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 12, No. 4 (2014): 934-935. PDF
Review of The Global Development Crisis, by Ben Selwyn. Journal of World-Systems Research, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2014): 315-318. PDF
Review of Iran Unveiled: How the Revolutionary Guards Is Transforming Iran from Theocracy into Military Dictatorship, by Ali Alfoneh. Middle East Journal, Vol. 68, No. 1 (2014): 163-165. PDF
Review of Iran's Struggle for Economic Independence, by Evaleila Pesaran. Iranian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 3 (2013): 484-488. PDF
Review of Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic, by Flint and Hilary Leverett. Middle East Journal, Vol. 67, No. 2 (2013): 317-318. PDF
Review of Immanuel Wallerstein and the Problem of the World: System, Scale, Culture, edited by David Palumbo-Liu, Bruce Robbins, and Nirvana Tanoukhi. Journal of World History, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2013): 661-664. PDF
Review of Tarashidam, Parastidam, Shikastam: Guftarhay-i dar Siyasat va Huvyiyat-i Irani, by Mehrzad Boroujerdi. Iranian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 6 (2013): 1013-1017. PDF
Review of The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East, by Charles Tripp. Middle East Journal, Vol. 67, No. 4 (2013): 660-662. PDF
Review of Democracy in Iran: History and the Quest for Liberty by Vali Nasr and Ali Gheissari and Democracy in Modern Iran: Islam, Culture, and Political Change by Ali Mirsepassi. Middle East Journal Vol. 64, No. 4 (2010): 660-662. PDF
"Islam's Land of Ideas." Review of Iran's Intellectual Revolution by Mehran Kamrava. New Left Review 65 (2010): 151-160. PDF
Media
Interviewed by Daniel Walter for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, March 20, 2020.
Interviewed by Rustin Zarkar for the AJAM podcast, November 29, 2018.
Interviewed by Heath Brown for the New Books Network, December 11, 2017.
Interviewed by Marc Lynch for Project on Middle East Political Science podcast, October 23, 2017.
Iran from Below: Findings from the Iran Social Survey, lecture at the Atlantic Council, October 18, 2017.
Interviewed for Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon podcast, May 30, 2017.
"Iran's Commanding Heights: Conglomerate Ownership in the Islamic Republic." Talk at the Economic Research Forum Seminar on the Political Economy of the Private Sector in the Middle East. Marrakesh, Morocco, December 22, 2016.
"Rouhani is More Successful than the Reformists: Iran's Domestic and Regional Politics are Intertwined" (in Persian). Op-ed in Andisheh-ye Pouyā 25 (2015): pg. 27.
"Realistic Pessimism, Imaginary Success: Eastern European Trajectories after 1989" (in Persian). Essay in Andisheh-ye Pouyā 22 (2014): pg. 49.
Interviewed for Baylor University's Research on Religion podcast by Tony Gill, June 22, 2014.
"Technocracy or Populism: Rouhani and Political Development One Year After the Election" (In Persian). Interview in Andisheh-ye Pouyā 16 (2014): pp. 49-50.
"Protest, It's My Business: Where are Social Movements from the New Middle Class Headed?" (in Persian). Interview in Andisheh-ye Pouyā 14 (2014): pp. 147-149.
Michael Burawoy interviewed by Kevan Harris (in Persian). Critique of Political Economy, July 1, 2013.
"Digital Utopia, Reality of Dreams" (in Persian). Interview in Andisheh-ye Pouyā 10 (2013): pp. 55-58.
“Why the Revolutionary Guards Do Not Run Iran’s Economy.” The Diplomat. Published March 21, 2013.
“What Iran’s Green Protest Movement Lacks: Labor.” Published on TIME.com, February 22, 2011.