16 Facts About Hamid Dabashi

Hamid Dabashi is an Iranian-American professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City.

Hamid Dabashi wrote his dissertation on Max Weber's theory of charismatic authority with Freudian cultural critic Philip Rieff.

Hamid Dabashi's books are Iran: A People Interrupted, which traces the last two hundred years of Iran's history including analysis of cultural trends, and political developments, up to the collapse of the reform movement and the emergence of the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Hamid Dabashi argues that "Iran needs to be understood as the site of an ongoing contest between two contrasting visions of modernity, one colonial, the other anticolonial".

Hamid Dabashi's book Theology of Discontent, is a study of the global rise of Islamism as a form of liberation theology.

Hamid Dabashi's other book Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, Future is a text on modern Iranian cinema and the phenomenon of national cinema as a form of cultural modernity and featured in the Lonely Planet travel guide for Iran.

Hamid Dabashi is the author of numerous articles and public speeches, ranging in their subject matters from Islamism, feminism, globalised empire and ideologies and strategies of resistance, to visual and performing arts in a global context.

Hamid Dabashi was consulted by Ridley Scott for Kingdom of Heaven.

Scott claimed his film was approved and verified by Hamid Dabashi: "I showed the film to one very important Muslim in New York, a lecturer from Columbia, and he said it was the best portrayal of Saladin he's ever seen".

Hamid Dabashi was the chief consultant to Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now and Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men.

Hamid Dabashi appears in Bavand Karim's Nation of Exiles, providing analysis of the Iranian Green Movement.

Hamid Dabashi has served as jury member on many international art and film festivals, most recently the Locarno International Festival in Switzerland.

Hamid Dabashi has been a commentator on a number of political issues, often regarding the Middle East, Columbia University, American foreign policy, or a combination of those.

In 2002, Hamid Dabashi sharply criticized Rabbi Charles Sheer after he admonished several professors for cancelling their classes to attend pro-Palestinian rallies.

Hamid Dabashi was one of the three professors named in the Columbia Unbecoming controversy, which included accusations of antisemitism against the professors.

In September 2004, Hamid Dabashi sharply criticized Israel in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, writing that:.