Fatemeh Shams

Fatemeh Shams is an Associate Professor of Persian Literature and Graduate Chair at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts & Sciences. She also serves as core faculty in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program. Her work bridges sociology, gender studies, and literature, focusing on politicized literary practices under authoritarian regimes. She has conducted archival research in Germany on exile poetry and holds a 2024 Greeley Peace Scholar title.

Her research explores themes like gendered historiography, exilic identity, and sensory representations of displacement. Notable works include A Revolution in Rhyme (Oxford UP, 2021), analyzing literary canon formation under the Islamic Republic, and her bilingual poetry collection When They Broke Down the Door, addressing tyranny and bodily autonomy.

• Awards: Jaleh Esfahani Poetry Award, Latifeh Yarshater Prize, Poetry International Chapbook Prize, Humboldt Fellowship
• Grants: Humboldt Foundation Fellowship (2022–2023), Greeley Peace Scholar award
• Activism: Advocacy for Iranian and Afghan women’s rights, board member of Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP)

Shams teaches courses on Persian literary traditions, modern Iranian culture, and gender in Middle Eastern literatures. Her work frequently appears in Poetry Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Iranian Studies.