Erfan Saidi Moqadam
Pre-Faculty Fellow, Cultural Anthropology
313-577-2935
3063 Faculty/Administration Building
Department
Erfan Saidi Moqadam
I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at University of Kentucky. I am a specialist in the anthropology of the United States with a focus on migrant and minoritized communities, diasporic identity formation and religious practice. I pursue a range of scholarly interests through his research and teaching including theories of religion, whiteness and processes of racialization among migrant groups, ethnic identity and the Muslim-American experience. My research examines how everyday religious practices and the meanings they convey for the social order shape a community that is characterized by experiences of solidarity and differentiation, inclusion and exclusion and negotiation and conflict. My research expands our understandings of what it means to be Muslim in the U.S. and how processes of belonging for immigrant communities are linked with racialization.
Research interest(s)/area of expertise
- Migration
- Ethnoreligious identity
- Racialization
- Transnationality
- Iran and Iranian diaspora
- Middle Eastern communities in the U.S.
Education
Ph.D. in Anthropology, University of Kentucky, 2022Selected publications
- Saidi Moqadam, Erfan. 2024. "Racialization and claiming Whiteness among Iranian Americans in Kentucky." Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 1-19. doi: 10.1080/1070289X.2024.2378650
- Saidi Moqadam, Erfan. 2024. "Islam nuanced: transcending Shi’a clerical authority among Iranian Americans in rural Kentucky." Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life 18 (2):297-315. doi: 10.1007/s11562-024-00552-1
- Saidi Moqadam, Erfan. 2023. "In search of ‘cultural invisibility’: cultivating Iranian-American diasporic citizenship in rural Kentucky." Citizenship Studies 27 (8):1038-1056. doi: 10.1080/13621025.2024.2311244