• 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:
Tag:

CNN

Opinion

Don’t normalize Trump’s vision for America

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Alex Shams

Originally published on CNN on February 2, 2017. I am a child of a Muslim refugee. My father found safety and shelter in the United States after fleeing violence in

  • Share

About me

Alex Shams is an Iranian-American writer with a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.

follow me on

Recent posts

  • “Why Did So Many People Think This War Was a Good Idea?”
  • CBS Interview: How people in Iran feel about ceasefire with U.S., upcoming peace talks
  • Looking A Tyrant In the Eye: Iran’s Long Struggle for Freedom and Justice
  • Iran After Khamenei
  • Iran’s Protesters Are Caught Between State Repression and Foreign Intervention
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

  • Hormuz: A Psychedelic Ride through a Geological Wonder
    Hormuz: A Psychedelic Ride through a Geological Wonder
  • Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
    Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
  • Bulgarian Habibi: How Orientalist Stereotypes in Chalga Music Recover Memories of the Balkans’ Ottoman Past
    Bulgarian Habibi: How Orientalist Stereotypes in Chalga Music Recover Memories of the Balkans’ Ottoman Past
  • إيران “فارسية” ؟: تحديات الأسطورة الآرية والتعصب العرقي الفارسي
    إيران “فارسية” ؟: تحديات الأسطورة الآرية والتعصب العرقي الفارسي
  • Parsi Mumbai: The Legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s Urban Fabric
    Parsi Mumbai: The Legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s Urban Fabric
  • Palestinian village imprisoned in holy shrine of Nabi Samuel
    Palestinian village imprisoned in holy shrine of Nabi Samuel
  • The Arab heart of Mexico City
    The Arab heart of Mexico City
  • Sofreh aqd: An inside look at Iranian weddings
    Sofreh aqd: An inside look at Iranian weddings
  • The Tourist’s Guide to Tehrangeles: Exploring the Capital of the Iranian Diaspora
    The Tourist’s Guide to Tehrangeles: Exploring the Capital of the Iranian Diaspora
  • In photos: Hiking the ruins of Lifta
    In photos: Hiking the ruins of Lifta

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 © 2009–2026 Alex Shams