Atabaki, Touraj 1950-

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Atabaki, Touraj 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born February 23, 1950, in Tehran, Iran. Education: National University of Iran, B.S.; University of London, M.S.; Utrecht University, M.A., Ph.D., 1991.

ADDRESSES:

Office—International Institute of Social History, Cruquiusewg 31, 1019 AT, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Middle East, Witte Singel 25, Rm. 011, Post Box 9515, Leiden University, 2300 RA, Leiden, Netherlands. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, educator. Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, associate professor, 1987-2006; International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Netherlands, senior research fellow, 1995—; University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, department of history endowed chair, 2001-06; University of Leiden, Leiden, Netherlands, associate professor, 2006—. European Council of the International Institute of Persian Speaking Societies, director, 2000-03; consultant for Radio France International, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service; international observer monitoring elections in several countries. Visiting professor or research fellow at numerous universities in Europe and Asia.

MEMBER:

European Society for Central Asian Studies (secretary, 1991-98; president, 1998-2000), Middle East Studies Association of North America, Societas Iranologica Europaea, International Society for Iranian Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Iranian Heritage Foundation Fellow, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, 2003-04.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with others) Etymologisch woordenboek, Van Dale (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1989.

(Editor, with Margreet Dorlijn) Kurdistan in Search of Ethnic Identity, Houtsma Foundation Publication (Utrecht, Netherlands), 1990.

(Editor) Ayat-e 'Eshq, Tajiki Contemporary Poetry, Horizonte Verlag (Frankfurt, Germany), 1992.

Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth-Century Iran, British Academy Press (New York, NY), 1993, revised edition published as Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran, I.B. Tauris Publishers (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Joris Versteeg) Centraal-Azie: Mensen, politiek, economie, cultuur, Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1994.

(With Solmaz Rustamova-Towhidi) Baku Documents: Union Catalogue of Persian, Azerbaijani, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic Serials and Newspapers in the Libraries of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Tauris Academic Studies (New York, NY), 1995.

Azarbayjan dar Iran-e Mo'aser (title means "Azerbaijan in Contemporary Iran"), Tus (Tehran, Iran), 1997.

(Editor, with John O'Kane) Post-Soviet Central Asia, Tauris Academic Studies (New York, NY), 1998.

Beyond Essentialism: Who Writes Whose Past in the Middle East and Central Asia?, Aksant (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2003.

(With Erik J. Zürcher) Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization under Ataturk and Reza Shah, I.B. Tauris (London, England), 2004.

(Editor, with Sanjyot Mehendale) Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora, Routledge (New York, NY), 2005.

(Editor) Iran and the First World War: Battleground of the Great Powers, I.B. Tauris (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor) The State and the Subaltern: Modernization, Society and Politics in Turkey and Iran, I.B. Tauris (London, England), 2007.

(Editor) Tajaddod Ameraneh (title means "Authoritarian Modernisation"), Qoqnoos (Tehran, Iran), 2007.

(Editor) Historiography and Political Culture in Twentieth-Century Iran, I.B. Tauris (London, England), 2008.

Contributor of numerous articles to journals and chapters to scholarly books. Member of editorial boards, including Iranian Studies, Journal of Central Asian Survey, Review of International Affairs, Journal of Iran and the Caucasus, International Journal of Azerbaijani Studies, and the International Society for Iranian Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Touraj Atabaki is an Iranian-born academic working in the Netherlands and holding positions at both the University of Leiden—where he specializes in the social history of the Middle East and Central Asia—and at Amsterdam's International Institute of Social History, where he is a senior research fellow. Atabaki is a specialist in Central Asia and the Caucasus, who focuses his research and writing on issues dealing with modernity, migration, nationalism, labor, and subaltern studies. Subaltern is used in reference to any person or group that has a lower position in society simply because of race, religion, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation. Subaltern studies thus deals with the study of society and culture in postcolonial societies, as in South and Central Asia. Atabaki's research and writing is influenced by his own ethnic origin as well as his degrees in theoretical physics and history. On the Leiden Scientists and Scholars Web site, Atabaki noted that "the social history of the Middle East and Central Asia … still does not have ample explorers."

Atabaki has authored or edited numerous publications. His 1993 Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth-Century Iran (revised in 2000 as Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran) focuses on the northwest region of Iran known as Azerbaijan. Atabaki looks at the modern history of the region, noting how Azeris have played a significant role in Iran, from the Constitutional Revolution, through World War II, and on past. He employs regional, European, Soviet, and American sources. With John O'Kane, Atabaki edited the 1998 publication Post-Soviet Central Asia, which deals with conditions in the Central Asian republics since the disintegration of the Soviet empire.

Atabaki explores authoritarian leadership in the Middle East and Central Asia in the 2004 book edited with Erik J. Zürcher, Men of Order: Authoritarian Modern-ization under Ataturk and Reza Shah. The editors gathered a compendium of essays resulting from a 1999 conference. As Middle East Quarterly contributor Michael Rubin observed, "The resulting papers are well organized into a coherent whole." The book compares the modernizing campaigns of two contemporary strong men during the 1920s and 1930s: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Turkey and Reza Shah in Iran. While Rubin found the essays generally informative, he also noted that "the thickness of the narrative limits the reach of Men of Order to a reference for specialists rather than a resource for a wider audience."

Similarly, with the 2007 work, The State and the Subaltern: Modernization, Society and Politics in Turkey and Iran, Atabaki edits chapters further comparing the influences that social movements and leaders have had in the modernization of both Turkey and Iran.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Affairs, February, 2000, Galina M. Yemelianova, review of Post-Soviet Central Asia, p. 76; October, 2001, Gawdat Bahgat, review of Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and the Struggle for Power in Iran, p. 315.

Choice, April, 1994, G.L. Montagno, review of Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth-Century Iran, p. 1351; May, 1999, N. Entessar, review of Post-Soviet Central Asia, p. 1687.

International Affairs, May, 2005, Matteo Fumagalli, review of Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora, p. 658.

International Journal of Middle East Studies, May, 1996, Nayereh Tohidi, review of Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth-Century Iran, p. 296.

International Review of Social History, December, 2006, review of Men of Order: Authoritarian Modernization under Ataturk and Reza Shah, p. 508.

Journal of Peace Research, September, 2006, Pinar Tank, review of Men of Order, p. 633.

Middle East Journal, spring, 1996, review of Baku Documents: Union Catalogue of Persian, Azerbaijani, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic Serials and Newspapers in the Libraries of the Republic of Azerbaijan, p. 293; summer, 2005, review of Men of Order, p. 516; winter, 2008, Daniel Webb, review of The State and the Subaltern: Modernization, Society and Politics in Turkey and Iran, p. 187.

Middle East Quarterly, spring, 2006, Michael Rubin, review of Men of Order, p. 85.

Slavic Review, fall, 1995, Adeeb Khalid, review of Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth-Century Iran, p. 819; winter, 1999, Anoushiravan Ehteschami, review of Post-Soviet Central Asia, p. 908.

Slavonic and East European Review, April, 1996, Ali Granmayeh, review of Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth-Century Iran, p. 391; July, 1997, Ali Granmayeh, review of Azerbaijan: Ethnicity and Autonomy in Twentieth-Century Iran, p. 590.