• About me
  • Reporting
  • Opinion
  • Academic Work
  • Contact me

Alex Shams

  • About me
  • Reporting
  • Opinion
  • Academic Work
  • Contact me
Search for:

Alex Shams

  • About me
  • Reporting
  • Opinion
  • Academic Work
  • Contact me
Search for:
Category:

Arab World

Arab World Iran Israel Lebanon Palestine USA

The “Terrorists” in My Grandmother’s Neighborhood

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Alex Shams

Originally published in the Boston Review on January 13, 2025. Down a tree-lined street near my grandmother’s house in Tehran is a mosque where locals go to chat, rest, and

  • Share
Arab World Palestine Reporting

‘They Don’t Want People to Know We Exist’: Palestinians across the West Bank describe what life has been like since October 7

Posted on November 10, 2023 by Alex Shams

Originally published in New York Magazine on Nov. 10, 2023. Over the last month, Israel launched an assault across the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack, in

  • Share
Arab World Lebanon Mexico Reporting

“أرواحنا منقسمة إلى قسمين”: المجتمع العربي في مدينة مكسيكو

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Alex Shams

Originally published on July 2, 2022 on Noon Post. This article is a translation of an article originally published on Middle East Eye on November 15, 2016. العديد من العرب المقيمين

  • Share
Arab World Reporting

Corona Ya Corona: Arabic Pop Music Takes on the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on April 5, 2020. In times of crisis, musicians use their craft to make sense of realities confronting society. They help others come to

  • Share
Arab World Featured Oman Reporting

Muscat: Where the Arab World Meets the Indian Ocean

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on August 27, 2019. All photos by author Alex Shams. In Muscat’s souq, Arabic, Baluchi, Urdu, Hindi, and Malayalam mix freely, alongside a variety

  • Share

About me

Alex Shams is an Iranian-American writer and a PhD student of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

follow me on

Recent posts

  • Workshop: Investigating Power
  • The “Terrorists” in My Grandmother’s Neighborhood
  • A Persian Christmas Story: How A Jewish Shrine in Qazvin Connects Palestine and Iran
  • ‘They Hit Everyone and Anyone’: From Lebanon, residents share what life has been like since Israel launched its attack.
  • Iran Braces for Uncertainty After President Raisi’s Death
Search for:

About

Born and raised in an Iranian-American family in Los Angeles, Alex Shams has long been fascinated by the stories that places can tell us. Growing up, he learned Persian and Spanish; in college, he learned Arabic and studied abroad at the American University of Cairo before moving to Beirut after graduation. After receiving his master’s in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, he moved to Bethlehem, Palestine, where he was a journalist at Ma’an News Agency, the largest independent Palestinian news organization. He received his PhD. from the University of Chicago in Sociocultural Anthropology. His dissertation, entitled “Constructing Islamic Modernity: Power, Religion, and Masculinity in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” was based on three years of ethnographic research in Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan as well as archival research in the British Library and Ba’ath Party Archives.

follow

Popular posts

  • Urban Space and the Production of Gender in Modern Iran
    Urban Space and the Production of Gender in Modern Iran
  • The Arab heart of Mexico City
    The Arab heart of Mexico City
  • Retracing the Nakba in West Jerusalem's al-Malha
    Retracing the Nakba in West Jerusalem's al-Malha
  • Amba: The Iraqi Mango Pickle from India That Tops Palestinian Shawarma
    Amba: The Iraqi Mango Pickle from India That Tops Palestinian Shawarma
  • In photos: Snow blankets historic Old City of Bethlehem
    In photos: Snow blankets historic Old City of Bethlehem
  • Yara Shahidi, the Iranian-American Star of 'Black-ish,' Is Breaking Stereotypes On & Off Screen
    Yara Shahidi, the Iranian-American Star of 'Black-ish,' Is Breaking Stereotypes On & Off Screen
  • Easter in the destroyed Palestinian village of Maalul
    Easter in the destroyed Palestinian village of Maalul
  • Interview: Ilan Pappe on academic freedom in Israel and BDS
    Interview: Ilan Pappe on academic freedom in Israel and BDS
  • ‘We Have to Know When to Hope and When to Be Hopeless’: How six Iranians feel about the Woman Life Freedom movement, one year later
    ‘We Have to Know When to Hope and When to Be Hopeless’: How six Iranians feel about the Woman Life Freedom movement, one year later

Archive

Categories

  • Academic Work
  • Arab World
  • El Salvador
  • Featured
  • India
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Israel
  • Lebanon
  • Mexico
  • Oman
  • Opinion
  • Pakistan
  • Palestine
  • Reporting
  • USA
Back to top
Copyright © 2009–2022 Alex Shams