Shirin Khanmohamadi

Shirin Khanmohamadi is a Professor in the Department of Comparative and World Literature at San Francisco State University, where she has served since completing her PhD in Comparative Medieval European Literature at Columbia University in 2005. Previously earning a BA with Honors in Literature and Society from Brown University (1997) and an MA in English Literature with Postcolonial Studies focus from the University of Texas at Austin (2000), her academic career bridges medieval European studies with contemporary theoretical frameworks.

• Brown University - BA, Literature and Society/ MCM (Honors) 1997
• University of Texas, Austin - MA, English Literature (Postcolonial Studies) 2000
• Columbia University - PhD, Comparative Medieval European Literature 2005

Her research establishes critical frameworks for understanding medieval ethnographic writing through postcolonial and anthropological lenses, focusing on cross-cultural representations in travel narratives and epic literature. Key contributions include:

• Dialogic ethnography in William of Rubruck's Mongol account
• Islamicate prestige appropriation in Charlemagne legends
• Material culture transfer in chansons de geste
• Autoethnographic methodologies in Gerald of Wales' works
• Ecocritical analysis of medieval artifacts
• Bakhtinian 'sideways glances' in crusade narratives

She serves as Editor of Exemplaria: Medieval/Early Modern/Theory, with current research supported by NEH Faculty Awards (2022-2023) for her project Splendorous Saracens: Appropriating Islamicate Prestige. Her book In Light of Another's Word: European Ethnography in the Middle Ages (2013) redefined premodern ethnographic poetics.