I am a historical sociologist studying development, social policy, and political economy of the global South.

My first book, A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran, is published by University of California Press. The Persian translation is published by Shirazeh Press. 

I also co-edited The Social Question in the Twenty-First Century: A Global View, along with Jan Breman, Ching Kwan Lee, and Marcel van der Linden. It is published by University of California Press on its open access imprint. The entire book is free to download. 

My current research projects focus on:

• Welfare politics in low and middle-income countries

• State formation in West Asia and North Africa

• Business-state relations in post-revolutionary Iran

• Class and social mobility in Iran before and after 1979

I am on the Editorial Committee of MERIP and a UCLA faculty advisor to the Center for Near Eastern Studies, the Program on Central Asia, the Asia Pacific Center, and the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History.