Ahmad Mohammadpour

Ahmad Mohammadpour

  • Assistant Professor and Associate Department Chair, Sociology
  • Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  • Ph.D. in Sociology, Shiraz University

Bio

I am a sociologist and anthropologist from Eastern Iranian Kurdistan, also known as Eastern Kurdistan / Rojhelat (in Kurdish). I hold a Ph.D. in Sociology from Shiraz University and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. As a multilingual scholar, I have taught in English, Persian, and Kurdish in academic institutions such as Troy University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Vanderbilt University, Bu-Ali Sina University (Iran), and Salahaddin University (Iraqi Kurdistan).

My research has thus far appeared in various international peer-reviewed journals such as American Anthropologist, Current Anthropology, Security Dialogue, Gender, Work & Organization, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, Forum for Social Economics, The British Journal of Sociology, Critical Sociology, Third World Quarterly, Nations and Nationalism, Ethnicities, Asian Studies Review, Quality & Quantity, Asian Ethnicity, The British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, among others.

Scholarly Contributions and Creative Productions

Journal Articles

  • Mohammadpour, A. (2026). Reclaiming Histories: Debunking Aryanism's Myth in the Middle East and South Asia. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2026). Dispossessed geographies: Statelessness and eco-resistance in Rojhelat. Political Geography (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2026). “Nishtiman” Is Her Name: Kurdish Women in Rojhelat and the Racial Ordering of Recognition. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2026). The South Against Itself: Iranian Sociology, Non-Persian Ontologies, and the Global South’s Inner Coloniality. The American Sociologist (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2026). Narrating Salafism: Sunni Marginalization and Authoritarian Religious Governance in Iranian Kurdistan. Nationalities Papers (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2026). The Historical Architecture of De-development: Ethnonational Governance and the Production of Devastation in Rojhelat. International Journal of Political Economy (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A., Saeidi, F. (2025). Religion Meets Gender: The Impact of Sunni Islamic Discourse on the Jina Uprising in Eastern Kurdistan. Review of Middle East Studies
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2025). From Streets to Cemeteries: Statelessness, Resistance, and the Political Lives of Dead Bodies. Current Anthropology (Forthcoming)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2025). The Invention of Iran: From ‘Iranianness’ to ‘Persianness’. Asian Studies Review, (49) Issue 1 (Link)
  • Saeidi, F., Mohammadpour, A. (2025). Nationalizing the religion: Sufism in the ‘Persianate World’. Asian Ethnicity, (26) Issue 2 (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A., Khezri, M. (2025). Geographies of Exclusion: Mapping the Political Economy of Minoritized Nations in Iran. Forum for Social Economics Issue (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A., Javaheri, A. (2024). Weeping without tears: Kurdish female kolbers and gendered necropolitics of state in Iran. Gender, Work & Organization
  • Mohammadpour, A., Soleimani, K. (2024). The Racial Policies of De-development in the Middle East: A Comparative Study of Palestine and Rojhelat (Eastern Kurdistan). Current Anthropology
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2024). Blood for bread: Necro-labor, nonsovereign bodies, and the state of exception in Rojhelat. American Anthropologist, (126) Issue 1 (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2023). Blood for bread: Necro-labor, nonsovereign bodies, and the state of exception in Rojhelat. American Anthropologist (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2023). Persian orientalism: Raciolinguistic ideologies and the construction of ‘Iranianness’. Nations and Nationalism (Link)
  • Soleimani, K., Mohammadpour, A. (2023). The everydayness of spectacle violence under the Islamic Republic: ‘Fire at will’. Security Dialogue, (54) Issue 3 (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A., Soleimani, K. (2022). Silencing the Past: Persian Archaeology, Race, Ethnicity, and Language. Current Anthropology
  • Soleimani, K., Mohammadpour, A. (2022). Sovereignty and Developmental Policies in Palestine and Eastern Kurdistan. Estudios de Asia y Africa, (57) Issue 2 (Link)
  • Mohammadpour, A., Soleimani, K. (2020). ‘Minoritisation’ of the other: the Iranian ethno-theocratic state’s assimilatory strategies. Postcolonial Studies
  • Soleimani, K., Mohammadpour, A. (2020). Life and labor on the internal colonial edge: Political economy of kolberi in Rojhelat. British Journal of Sociology
  • Soleimani, K., Mohammadpour, A. (2019). Can non-Persians speak? The sovereign’s narration of “Iranian identity”. Ethnicities
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2019). Interrogating the Tribal: The Aporia of Tribalism in the Sociological Study of the Middle East. British Journal of Sociology
  • Soleimani, K., Mohammadpour, A. (2019). The securitisation of life: Eastern Kurdistan under the rule of a Perso-Shi'i state. Third World Quarterly

    • Book Chapters

  • Mohammadpour, A. (2026). The Philological Empire: Aryanism and the Racialization of Language in Iran and India Toward a Linguistic Anthropology of Iran. Springer

    • Presentations

  • Mohammadpour, A. (2024). “"Women, Life, Freedom" Movement in Iran and the Politics of Denial and Erasure” Presented at the Bentley University MLK A day of Social Justice, Celebration, Listening, and Learning Waltham, MA
  • Smith, C., Rawls, A. W., Everett, D., Cao, X., Mohammadpour, A., Carney, N. (2024). “Making "Taken For Granted" Racism Visible” Presented at the Bentley University MLK A day of Social Justice, Celebration, Listening, and Learning Waltham, MA
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2023). “Scholars at Risk and Their Academic Prospects in North America” Presented at the Refuge at Risk: Concepts, Infrastructures, Futures
  • Mohammadpour, A. (2022). “De-development, Political Violence, and Informal Control: The Kurds in Iran” Presented at the Harvard University MESA Global Academy Online

    • Service

    Service: Department

  • Faculty Mentor for Fall Open House 2025-10-05 - 2025-10-05
  • Mentor (Faculty) for Academic Exploration Day 2024-11-03 - 2024-11-03
  • Mentor (Faculty) for Exploration Day 2023-11-05 - 2023-11-05
  • Mentor (Faculty) for Academic Exploration Day Majors and Programs Fair 2023-04-15 - 2023-04-15
  • Representiave for Academic Exploration Day Majors and Programs Fair 2022-11-06 - 2022-11-06

    • Service: University

  • Department Chair for Department Co-Chair 2025-07-01 - Present
  • Committee Member for Salary & Benefit 2024-09-01 - Present
  • Committee Member for University Senate 2024-09-01 - Present
  • Committee Member for C&P Review Committee 2024-01-01 - Present
  • Committee Member for Inclusive Excellence Council 2024-01-01 - Present