Nasser Fakouhi, born on 13 May 1956 in Tehran, is an Iranian anthropologist, sociologist, writer, translator, and university professor. His principal research interests include urban anthropology, cultural and social pathology, national and ethnic identities, emerging urban identities, globalization, and the cultural history of modern Iran.

He is a professor of anthropology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tehran and the founder and director of the Institute of Anthropology and Culture and its multidisciplinary website. He has also been affiliated with the International Sociological Association and the International Society for Iranian Studies.

Education

After receiving his high-school diploma in 1974, Fakouhi traveled to England to continue his education. He moved to France in 1975, initially studying architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris before entering Paris 8 University to study the social sciences.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology and subsequently completed a doctorate in sociology and political anthropology at Paris 8 University in the early 1990s. His doctoral dissertation examined the political mythology of modern Iran and was supervised by anthropologist Pierre-Philippe Rey and Clarisse Herrenschmidt, an anthropologist and specialist in ancient Iran. After his return to Iran, the dissertation was evaluated by Ahmad Tafazzoli and approved by the Iranian Ministry of Science.

Activities and Works

Following his return to Iran, Fakouhi worked at the Ministry of Energy, where he directed a public-information program promoting sustainable consumption. At the same time, he continued translating, teaching, and contributing articles and interviews to Iranian newspapers and intellectual journals, including Hamshahri, Shargh, Sarmayeh, Shahrvand, and Mehrnameh.

In 1998, he joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tehran’s Faculty of Social Sciences, where he later attained the rank of professor. He also served on the board of the Iranian Sociological Association and collaborated with the Academy of Persian Language and Literature on the development of Persian terminology for the social sciences.

Fakouhi founded the Institute of Anthropology and Culture, a scientific and multidisciplinary network involving scholars, intellectuals, students, and writers from Iran and other countries. He has also led an extensive project on the cultural history of modern Iran, from the Constitutional Revolution to the present. Inspired by the Annales School and cultural-history scholarship, the project examines Iranian culture through visual, literary, linguistic, oral, and semiotic sources.

His major Persian-language books include:

Political Violence: Theories, Concepts and Forms
Political Mythology: Art, Myths and Power
From Culture to Development
Applied Anthropology and Development
History of Anthropological Thought and Theories
Urban Anthropology
In the Labyrinths of Globalization
Fragments of Anthropology
Iranian National and Ethnic Identities: Articulation and Conflict
Anthropology of Art, Myths and Politics
Anthropological Discourse
Fakouhi has translated numerous works from French and English into Persian. These include books and essays by Roland Barthes, Pierre Bourdieu, Claude Rivière, Roger Breton, Marc Augé, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Octavio Paz, and J. M. G. Le Clézio. Among his best-known translations are Barthes’s Empire of Signs, Rivière’s Introduction to Ethnology, and Bourdieu’s On Television.

Achievements and Awards

Fakouhi’s principal academic and cultural achievements include:

Founding and directing the Institute and website of Anthropology and Culture
Serving as a professor of anthropology at the University of Tehran
Publishing numerous books on anthropology, urban studies, identity, and cultural theory
Translating major works of European social sciences and humanities into Persian
Publishing hundreds of scholarly and public articles, reviews, lectures, and interviews in Persian, English, and French
Initiating and directing the Cultural History of Modern Iran Project
Contributing to the development of Persian terminology in the social sciences
Advancing urban anthropology and the study of culture, ethnicity, and identity in Iran
No specific awards are mentioned in the supplied information. Nevertheless, his extensive academic publications, translations, institutional initiatives, and long-term research projects have established him as a prominent figure in contemporary Iranian anthropology and cultural studies.