• 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:

History

Opinion

Bulgarian Habibi: How Orientalist Stereotypes in Chalga Music Recover Memories of the Balkans’ Ottoman Past

Posted on January 10, 2019 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Balkanist on January 10, 2019. The tension inherent to chalga and turbofolk music – is it local or foreign? – hints at the deeper paradox beneath contemporary

  • 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

  • “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

  • Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
    Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
  • إيران “فارسية” ؟: تحديات الأسطورة الآرية والتعصب العرقي الفارسي
    إيران “فارسية” ؟: تحديات الأسطورة الآرية والتعصب العرقي الفارسي
  • Iranians celebrate US elections with hilarious memes as Trump faces defeat
    Iranians celebrate US elections with hilarious memes as Trump faces defeat
  • Arab Film on Israeli Television: An Interview with Eyal Sagui Bizawe
    Arab Film on Israeli Television: An Interview with Eyal Sagui Bizawe
  • "أرواحنا منقسمة إلى قسمين": المجتمع العربي في مدينة مكسيكو
    "أرواحنا منقسمة إلى قسمين": المجتمع العربي في مدينة مكسيكو
  • Concrete tent embodies contradictions of Palestine refugee life
    Concrete tent embodies contradictions of Palestine refugee life
  • New identity law raises fears of Israeli effort to divide Christians
    New identity law raises fears of Israeli effort to divide Christians
  • Urban Space and the Production of Gender in Modern Iran
    Urban Space and the Production of Gender in Modern Iran
  • The Iraqi soldiers who sacrificed everything to defend Palestine in 1948
    The Iraqi soldiers who sacrificed everything to defend Palestine in 1948
  • Sofreh aqd: An inside look at Iranian weddings
    Sofreh aqd: An inside look at Iranian weddings

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