Research Bio

Minoo Moallem is a cultural theorist whose research explores transnational feminism, diaspora, and the politics of religion and culture. She is best known for her work on transnational and postcolonial feminism, Iranian cultural politics and diasporas, Islamic nationalism, and the intersections of gender and globalization. Her book *Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister* examines the gendered politics of citizenship in the formation of the Iranian nation-state and its diaspora.  She is the co-editor of Fatema Mernissi for Our Times( with Paola Bachetta)  (Syracuse University Press, 2025), the author of Persian Carpets: The Nation as a Transnational Commodity (Routledge, 2018) and Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Cultural Politics of Patriarchy in Iran (the University of California Press, 2005 ). She is also the co-editor (with Caren Kaplan and Norma Alarcon) of Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State (Duke University Press, 1999). She is the guest editor of a special issue of Comparative Studies South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East on Iranian Immigrants, Exiles, and Refugees. Professor Moallem has also ventured into digital media. Her digital project, "Nation-on-the Move" (design by Eric Loyer), was published in Vectors—Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular.  

Moallem is Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley, and an affiliated faculty member in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Berkeley Center for New Media, Center for the Study of Race and Gender, Science, Technology and Society Center, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, Folklore Graduate Group, and Graduate Group in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research has been recognized for advancing feminist and postcolonial theory. Her expertise spans transnational feminism, Middle Eastern studies, and cultural studies.

Research Expertise and Interest

Transnational and Postcolonial Feminist Studies, cultural studies, Commodity Cultures, Visual and Material Cultures of Religion, Immigration and Diaspora Studies, Middle East Studies, Iranian Studies