معرفی
Milad Odabaei serves as Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas's College of Arts & Sciences, with additional affiliation to the Middle Eastern Studies Program. His academic foundation includes a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from UC Berkeley (2018) and postdoctoral fellowships at McGill University and Princeton University (2018-2023).
Research Focus: Odabaei investigates how geopolitical violence and socioeconomic devastation shape cultural forms and subjectivities in Iran and broader Persianate/Islamicate contexts. Through ethnographic work in Iranian academic institutions, Shi'i seminaries (Tehran/Qom), Kurdish regions, and LGBTQ+ diasporic communities in North America, he analyzes translation practices and migration as dual manifestations of trauma and political hope. His scholarship bridges anthropological theory with critical Middle Eastern studies to trace fugitive knowledge production.
He teaches courses on anthropological thought, social theory, Islamicate traditions, and modern Middle Eastern studies with emphasis on religion, revolution, gender, and sexuality. Editorial leadership includes the 2023 Cultural Anthropology forum "Woman, Life, Freedom" and the 2019 special issue "Iranian Cosmopolitanism" for Comparative Islamic Studies, reflecting his engagement with contemporary political debates through scholarly curation.
