Coronavirus Information
Until further notice, the University of Arizona, in accordance with the guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, encourages all employees to work remotely. Our office in 440 Marshall Building is closed to the public, but you can reach the School of Middle Eastern & North African Studies, Monday–Friday 8am-5pm:
- Director: Ben Fortna bcfortna@arizona.edu 520-621-1732
- Program Coordinator: Sergio Cañez canez@arizona.edu 520-260-0837
- Administrative Assistant: Randa Abdu randaabdu@arizona.edu 520-561-2098
Get COVID-19 updates and information for the University of Arizona community. Also, see SBS resources for continuing instruction and learning.
Austin O'Malley
Roshan Institute Assistant Professor in Persian and Iranian Studies
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Marshall 442
Austin O’Malley, the Roshan Institute Assistant Professor of Persian and Iranian Studies, received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2017. His research centers on the rhetoric, didacticism, and reception of pre-modern Sufi literature, and he is currently pursuing a book project that examines the poetry of Farid al-Din ʿAttar from an audience-centered, rhetorical perspective. Other ongoing projects include an investigation into the fictionality and truth of allegorical dream visions, an exploration of how hagiographical writing was adapted to meet the spiritual needs of changing audiences and work on an optical character recognition engine for the digitization of Persian texts. At the University of Arizona, he teaches courses on the literature, culture, and history of Iran and the wider Middle East. Before coming to Tucson, he was a Junior Fellow at the Martin Marty Institute at the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Lecturer of Persian at Northwestern University.