Dr Siavush Randjbar-Daemi

Dr Siavush Randjbar-Daemi

Senior Lecturer

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 3058
Email
srd5@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
Room 6b
Location
United Colleges
Office hours
Tuesday 9-10am, and by appointment.

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Research areas

Siavush鈥檚 core research interests lie in the evolution of the state in modern and contemporary Iran, and the contribution to the public sphere, particularly in periods of relative pluralism, such as the early 1950s or 1979-1981, of a variety of actors, from crowds formed by subaltern parts of society to socio-political elites.

听His first book,听The Quest for Authority: A History of the Presidency from Revolution to Rouhani, is the first full-length monograph to focus on the presidential institution in the Islamic Republic, from its inception to the present day.

Siavush is now working on a long-term project which will yield a number of outputs, the turbulent and unique political history of the 1977-1981 period through the lens of the 鈥淥ther Revolutionaries鈥�, those parts of the anti-monarchical coalition which succeeded in bringing the Pahlavi monarchy to an end but who were ejected from the public sphere by the early 1980s.

听In March 2021, Siavush was co-organiser of focused on the Tudeh Party of Iran in the Western academic sphere, on the occasion of the Eightieth anniversary of its foundation.

Siavush's article on the Tudeh Party of Iran's attitude towards the land reform initiatives of the Pahlavi state in 1958-1964 was the winner of the 2023 .

Siavush is co-editor of
(Bloomsbury/IB Tauris, 2023), a new anthology on the everyday life challenges of the Fada'i guerrillas in the 1970s.

Siavush is a keen student of the evolution of the Iranian press, and has collaborated with the University of Manchester Library in the creation of Nashriyah the first openly-accessible repository of relevant Iranian periodicals from the 20th听century. He is currently also producing a number of outputs on the life and times of several publications of the 1979 and 1951-53 period.

Besides Italian and English, Siavush's work has been published in several Persian language media, including the听Akhbar-e Rouz, Asr-e Nou听and Radio Zamaneh websites, and the听Andisheh-ye Pouya, Bukhara, Negah-e Now听and听Shahrvand-e Emrouz听journals published in Iran.

Siavush is also a frequent commentator on contemporary Iranian political developments and has appeared on the UK and international media at times of heightened Iran coverage, such as the June 2025 and February - March 2026 wars and the January 2026 protests. He has been interviewed on these and other occasions by, amongst others, BBC One TV, BBC News TV, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service radio, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Wales, Sky News UK, Euronews Romania, Deutsche Welle TV, the Associated Press, FirstPost India, RTV Slovenia.

Siavush warmly welcomes prospective PhD applicants who intend to base their dissertation on any of the strands detailed above. His current research supervision includes various aspects in the history of the Tudeh Party of Iran, the evolution of the car industry in the Pahlavi era and the activities of the Iranian opposition to the Shah in the Middle East in the 1960s and 1970s.

PhD supervision

  • Jan听Gray
  • Hannah听Hassani
  • Bita听Nienhaus-Naghashian

Selected publications

  • Open access
    Randjbar-Daemi, S., 21 Oct 2024, In: International Journal of Middle East Studies. 56, 2, p. 280-287 8 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Randjbar-Daemi, S., 27 Jul 2023, Fada'i Guerrilla praxis in Iran, 1970-1979: narratives and reflections on everyday life. Atabaki, T., Mohajer, N. & Randjbar-Daemi, S. (eds.). London: I.B. Tauris, p. 217-237 21 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter

  • Randjbar-Daemi, S., 28 Nov 2017, London: I.B. Tauris. 348 p. (International library of Iranian studies; vol. 71)

    Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Book

  • Open access
    Randjbar-Daemi, S., 1 Jun 2022, In: Middle Eastern Studies. 58, 4, p. 617-635 19 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Randjbar-Daemi, S., 2020, In: Middle Eastern Studies. 56, 6, p. 969-987

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Randjbar-Daemi, S., 1 Jul 2013, In: Iranian Studies. 46, 4, p. 641-663 23 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Randjbar-Daemi, S., 2017, In: Iranian Studies. 50, 2, p. 293-313

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

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