Alireza Shomali
Professor of Political Science, Jane E. Ruby Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences
Contact
About
Main Interests
Comparative Political Philosophy
Degrees
Ph.D., M.A. Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
Research: Comparative Political Theory
Teachings
FYS; On Democracy (First Year Seminar)
Pols 207; Classical Political Theory
Pols 217; Medieval Political Thought
Pols 227; Modern Political Theory
Pols 263; Politics of the Middle East
Pols 307; Freedom and Justice
Pols 337; Power and the State
Pols 347; Islamic Political Thought
Pols 357; Violence and Revolution
Pols 367; Politics and Religion
Pols 377; God and the Sovereign
Pols 401a; Conservative Political Thought
Pols 401b; Genuine Politics
Publications
Books
- Thoughtlessness and Decadence in Iran: A Sojourn in Comparative Political Theory. SUNY Press, 2019.
- Politics and the Criteria of Truth. Palgrave-Macmillan Press, 2010.
Selected Book Chapters and Articles
- “Political Hermeneutics; a theme in Farabi’s philosophy,” in Philosophical Hermeneutics and Islamic Thought; Contributions to Hermeneutics Series. S. Camilleri and S. Valrik (eds.). Switzerland: Springer (forthcoming 2022).
- “A Gloss on the Mirror, and a Proposal for Understanding Ibn al-Muqaffa’s Political Theory.” Iranology, Student Journal of Iranian Studies, University of Tehran 2(2), (2020): 146-166.
- “A Theoretical Component of Political Inegalitarianism in Perso-Islamicate Thought.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 27/2 (2017): 225–254.
- “Razi on Reason and Political Authority: A Study in Medieval Persian Political Thought.” Iranian Studies 49, 1 (2016): 29-56.
- “Mirror for Princes.” Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Macmillan Reference (2016).
- “The Unfolding of Unreason: J. Tabatabai’s Idea of Political Decline in Iran.” With M. Boroujerdi. Iranian Studies 48, 6 (2015): 949-966.
- “Razi’s Egalitarian Ideas.” Power and Identity, Studies on the Persianate World. Wydawnictwo Akademickie Dialog (2015), 135-164.
- “Metaphysics, Secularism and Cosmopolitan Democracy.” With E. K. Soltani in Iranian Identity and Cosmopolitanism; Spheres of Belonging, L. Stone (ed.). London: Bloomsbury (2014), 35-48.
- “On Sadi’s Treatise on Advice to the Kings.” With M. Boroujerdi in Mirror for the Muslim Prince; Islam and Theory of Statecraft. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press (2013), 45-81.
- “Adorno’s Dialectical Realism.” With Linda M. Alcoff. Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy 14, 2 (2010): 45-64.
Book Reviews
- Yavari, Neguin. “Advice for the Sultan: Prophetic Voices and Secular Politics in Medieval Islam,” in Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World: SCTIW Review (2015).
- Abdolkarim, “Expansion of Prophetic Experience: Essays on Historicity, Contingency and Plurality in Religion,” in Society for Contemporary Thought and the Islamicate World: SCTIW Review (2014).
- M., “Iran’s Intellectual Revolution,” in Middle East Journal 63, 2 (2009): 327-328.
- Roxanne L. Euben, “Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism,” in International Journal of Middle East Studies 37, 1 (2005): 109-110.