Meet Foroogh Farhang, Assistant Professor of Middle East and North African Studies

Assistant Professor of Middle East and North African Studies Foroogh Farhang joined SUA’s faculty this summer. Before teaching in the International Studies Concentration at Soka, Farhang taught anthropology and international studies at the University of Vermont, Brown University, and Northwestern University. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and a graduate certificate in Middle East and North African studies from Northwestern University, as well as an M.A. in gender studies from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Her current book project examines refugee communities in Lebanon. In her free time, she enjoys playing flamenco guitar and the Kurdish tanbur.

How would you describe your area of expertise?

I’m a cultural anthropologist, and I focus on human mobility, borderlands, humanitarian law and practice, and national and international forms of governance. I’m also interested in social movements. I’ve done ethnographic field work and archival research in various parts of the Middle East, including Iran, Eastern Kurdistan, and Lebanon.

What sparked your interest in cultural anthropology and the topics you research?

I took the long route to get where I am. I did my undergrad in marine engineering in Tehran, Iran, where I grew up. In Iran, if you want to succeed — especially as a woman who doesn’t come from a background of economic, social, or cultural capital — it’s very common for your family to encourage you to concentrate on mathematics and physics in high school. So I did that, and then I studied engineering as an undergraduate, even though I didn’t think that was where I was going to end up in the long term.

I was politically active on campus when I was doing my undergrad. Through this feminist activism, I became interested in understanding how gender, women, and sexuality work in the world. And to study that, it was best to do so abroad. Good scholarships for master’s programs are rare in the U.S., so I went to Budapest to do an M.A. in gender studies at Central European University. My thesis advisor there was an anthropologist, so that’s how I got into the discipline. From there, I moved to the U.S. and did a Ph.D. program in anthropology. It’s interesting because it was a westward journey, but the further west I went, the more I felt I wanted to focus my research on the Middle East.

What do you enjoy most about teaching undergraduates?

I appreciate the way of thinking that undergraduates bring into the classroom, which is unsettled, restless, curious, and free from playing it safe. That’s something that can get lost when you become a more senior scholar in your field, so I think it’s a good reminder. Undergrads force you to come out of your bubble and see how everything that you discuss in the classroom is connected to what is happening out there. They are at an age of absorbing information and taking action. I selfishly want to be reminded to take action. And undergrads do that constantly with their questions and the way they don’t filter themselves. They often challenge you with questions about things you take for granted, like fundamental aspects of your field.

What classes are you teaching this year, and what topics are you most looking forward to exploring with students?

This semester, I’m teaching Political Islam in Comparative Context (INTS 381) and Peace and Conflict in the Middle East (INTS 240). Next semester, I’ll be teaching another course in international studies, Refugeehood: Politics of Mobility and Border Regimes. And I’m also going to be teaching Core 2, which is exciting.

I’m looking forward to creating a space in the classroom where students can discuss difficult topics like politics in the Middle East. Talking about conflicts is hard. But I’m looking forward to creating a space where students can engage directly with complex and often contentious issues, especially when it comes to the Middle East. I think that grounding our conversations in historical and ethical inquiry can help us transform opinions into informed perspectives, and let knowledge shape how we position ourselves in such contemporary debates.”

In my courses on peace and conflict in the Middle East and political Islam, I’m interested in exploring ideas of difference and thinking about how identities become engraved in our beings. We sometimes forget about the fact that we decide to live through our identities and hold on to them in the way that we do. But identities are very dynamic; we can change them, and the world changes them for us. That’s something I think about in my own research and in my personal life, and I’m interested in doing so with students.

As you know, SUA’s mission is to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life. What does global citizenship mean to you?

I think about global citizenship as a researcher who studies human mobility in a world of tightening borders. For me, the question becomes, how can we foster global citizenship when religious, national, and other forms of identity come into play and mark certain bodies, giving us a very unequal way of being global and being mobile in the world?

I would like to hold on to the idea of global citizenship as an aspiration, but I also would like to challenge it within the classroom. What does it mean to think through and practice an idea of global citizenship, understanding that the reality on the ground is very much against this idea? That is exactly the starting point that I would like to emphasize, especially on an internationally diverse campus like SUA. With students coming from around the world dealing with mobility restrictions in different ways, how can we be global? How can we avoid abstracting global citizenship in a way that does not reflect the reality that not all of us are able to embrace it and foster it in the same way? I would approach global citizenship as a question and as a challenge, rather than as an ideal in an abstracted sense.

What are your impressions of SUA so far? Do you have a favorite spot on campus?

I don’t think this will be the first time anyone at SUA hears this, but this campus is magical. Just walking around, I very much appreciate the sense of serenity that you get here, especially as an antidote to the turbulence of the world that we are living in. I think everybody needs this quiet, serene experience, while at the same time engaging with the world out there. It’s a very good balance! I don’t think I have a favorite spot yet, but I like walking the trail that goes around the perimeter of campus and just looking at the hills, the vastness of it. It’s beautiful. I saw a couple deer the other day, too.

At SUA, every student is required to learn a new language as part of their global learning and development as global citizens. As someone who speaks multiple languages, could you share how multilingualism has influenced your thinking, your view of the world, or the opportunities you’ve encountered?

Speaking different languages is almost like being equipped to live lives that you were not born to live. It’s all these experiences and adventures that you cannot have a full idea of unless you tap into and immerse yourself in a new people and culture. And that, unfortunately or not, is often through language.

I’m thinking of my field work experience in Lebanon, where people speak Levantine Arabic. I grew up speaking Persian, and I learned English and French. Through the school system in Iran, I had a very basic idea of Arabic, but I didn’t know much. They taught us mostly Modern Standard Arabic or Quranic Arabic, not the everyday Arabic that people speak, which is very different in different regions. Being in Lebanon for 20 months, my experience changed dramatically from the first time I went there with just 20% proficiency in Levantine Arabic. I got to the point where I could actually have deep conversations about very emotional topics. I could even be funny in a new language.

That’s one way to think about how languages can benefit students. Because even if you think it’s a lot of effort, or even if you already speak three languages, the more you speak, the more doors open. You can immerse yourself in different places, geographies, and people’s lives that you didn’t have access to before. Your brain starts working differently.

As a cultural anthropologist, you must do a lot of writing. What do you do when you’re working on a piece of writing and get stuck?

Every piece of writing is different, and every discipline has its own way of doing things. But for me, whenever I feel really blocked, I go back to the stories that I’m writing about. I try to imagine myself in that space, and I try to have a very sensory understanding of how it felt and why I want to write about it. The “why” matters so much in bringing you back into the mission of writing.

Another thing I find very helpful is to listen to or read novels while I’m blocked. The creative, imaginative way that novelists write opens up my rigid, limited understanding of language when I’m writing in an academic setting. It reminds me that language is vast. Novelists play with it. They imagine things with it that I don’t allow myself to do. So I let that come in a little bit.

If you could give your undergraduate self advice on how to excel in college, what would it be?

Don’t take anybody’s opinion seriously about what you’re interested in, what you’re doing, or how you think. Another thing I would tell myself is to never shy away from following your passion. And if you don’t have a passion yet, it will come to you. Just keep the doors open. It will happen. And when you see it, you will recognize it.