Amy Motlagh

Amy Motlagh is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern/South Asian Studies at the University of California, Davis, holding the Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair in Persian Language and Literature. She specializes in Persianate literary traditions, race studies, and global cultural histories. Her research bridges Persian, Arabic, and world literatures while critically examining constructions of race and gender in Iranian contexts.

Education:

• Ph.D., Princeton University
• M.F.A., New York University
• B.A., Pomona College

Her research interests include the cultural history of Blackness in Iran, transnational literary circuits, and the intersection of law and literature. She launched the podcast The Story of Iran (2020) to explore Persianate cultural heritage through material objects. Her first book, Burying the Beloved (2012), analyzes gender norms in twentieth-century Iranian literature. Current projects investigate racial thinking in Iranian cinema and the global circulation of Persian literature.

Awards:

• Bita Daryabari Presidential Chair in Persian Language and Literature

As an affiliated faculty member at the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives in the Social Sciences and Humanities, she contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship. Her work bridges literary analysis with activism, evident in her collaborations with Persophone communities in northern California.