• 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:

Refutrees

Palestine Reporting

Kale Project challenges Israeli control over Palestinian agriculture

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on April 8, 2015.  BEIT QAD (Ma’an) — Up a small, bumpy road on a hill overlooking the northern West Bank town of Jenin,

  • Share
Reporting

In photos: Rooftop garden flourishes atop Bethlehem refugee camp

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on February 16, 2014. In 1948, three-quarters of a million Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes inside what is today Israel. Since

  • 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?”
  • 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
  • Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel’s War on Iran
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
  • The Arab heart of Mexico City
    The Arab heart of Mexico City
  • Naskh va Taaliq: Connections Between Iran and Pakistan, Old and New
    Naskh va Taaliq: Connections Between Iran and Pakistan, Old and New
  • On Persian pilgrimages, Pakistanis and Indians reconnect with Iran
    On Persian pilgrimages, Pakistanis and Indians reconnect with Iran
  • Becoming Iranian-American
    Becoming Iranian-American
  • What Role Does Religion Play in Iran’s Protests?
    What Role Does Religion Play in Iran’s Protests?
  • À la découverte de la communauté arabe du Mexique
    À la découverte de la communauté arabe du Mexique

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