Fatemeh Keshavarz
Fatemeh Keshavarz is Professor and Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies at the University of Maryland and one of the leading contemporary scholars of Persian literature and culture. Combining literary scholarship, poetry, and public engagement, her work explores the enduring power of literary traditions to shape ethical reflection, cultural understanding, and human flourishing across societies.
Educated in Iran and the United Kingdom, Professor Keshavarz has devoted her career to the study of Persian poetry, Sufi literature, and Iranian intellectual history. Her scholarship is distinguished by its ability to bridge rigorous textual analysis with broader questions concerning identity, spirituality, cultural memory, and the role of literature in public life. Through her writings and teaching, she has helped make Persian literary traditions accessible to audiences far beyond the academy.
A major focus of Professor Keshavarz's research has been the study of Persian mystical poetry, particularly the works of Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī. Her influential book Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi offered new approaches to understanding the literary, aesthetic, and spiritual dimensions of Rumi's poetry. Her work has contributed significantly to contemporary appreciation of Persian Sufi literature as a sophisticated intellectual and artistic tradition rather than merely a source of spiritual inspiration.
Professor Keshavarz has also written extensively on modern Iranian culture and literature. Her widely acclaimed Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran challenged reductive portrayals of Iranian society by offering a nuanced account of everyday life, memory, and cultural resilience. Through both scholarly and public writing, she has consistently sought to promote deeper understanding between cultures while highlighting the richness and diversity of Iranian intellectual and artistic traditions.
In addition to her academic work, Professor Keshavarz is an accomplished poet writing in both Persian and English and a prominent public intellectual committed to cultural education and intercultural dialogue. Her efforts to promote understanding through literature and the humanities have led to invitations to address international audiences, including the United Nations General Assembly. In recognition of her contributions to peacebuilding and cultural understanding, she received the Hershel Walker Peace & Justice Award.
Among her major publications are Reading Mystical Lyric: The Case of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1998), Recite in the Name of the Red Rose: Poetic Sacred Making in Twentieth-Century Iran (2006), Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran (2007), and Lyrics of Life: Saʿdi on Love, Cosmopolitanism, and Care of the Self (2014). Together, these works have established her as one of the most influential contemporary interpreters of Persian literature and culture.
