I have been the overseas director for The American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS) since 2000. From 2000 to 2006 I was also the director of the Tehran Project, and from 2007 to 2012 the program and site director of the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for Persian in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. My area of specialization within Middle Eastern history is modern Iranian history. I have taught at The University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Khojand State University, the Tajik Institute of Management (TIM), Tehran University, The University of Texas at Austin, Peru State College, and I am currently teaching at The University of Nebraska at Omaha. My books include "Provincial Concerns: A Political History of the Iranian Province of Azerbaijan, 1848-1906" and annotated translations of "The Travel Diary of Ebrahim Beg" by Zayn ol-Abedin Maraghe'i and "The Rapture" by Mirza Mohammad Hasan Khan E'temad os-Saltaneh.

Reform and revolution in Iran and the Middle East; social thought in Iran, the Middle East, and Central Asia; the Cold War in Iran and the Middle East; ethnicity in Middle Eastern and Central Asian societies and politics; modernity in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Instructor, The University of Nebraska at Omaha