Narges Bajoghli
Associate Professor of Middle East Studies
Faculty Lead, The Middle East Focus Area
About
Narges Bajoghli (pronounced: Nar-guess Baa-jogh-lee) is a writer, scholar, and public intellectual whose work explores the intersections of revolutions, media, and war in global politics. She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she co-directs the Rethinking Iran Initiative and leads Parallax: The Human Stories Lab—a space for ethnographic research, storytelling, and multimedia engagement.
Her work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and other outlets. A trained visual anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, she directed The Skin That Burns (2013), a film about survivors of chemical warfare in Iran. Her recent graphic novella, Sanctioned Lives, visualizes oral histories of life under sanctions.
As an educator, Bajoghli has received multiple teaching awards for her courses on ethnography, revolutions, war, and political media. She is committed to mentoring the next generation of global thinkers and bridging scholarly research with public discourse through innovative, transmedia approaches.
Her first book, Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic (Stanford University Press), received the Margaret Mead Book Award and other honors for its groundbreaking ethnographic insights into the politics of media and military institutions in Iran. Her second book, How Sanctions Work in Iran, offers a rare, on-the-ground analysis of the social and economic impacts of sanctions. Her forthcoming book, Workshop of War, traces the legacy of chemical weapons from the Iran-Iraq War to the present, arguing that the Middle East has become a laboratory for global military experimentation.
Bajoghli’s research and writing have been supported by the Social Science Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the National Science Foundation. At Johns Hopkins, she has received the Catalyst Award, Discovery Award, and Nexus Award, and currently serves as a Provost’s Public Fellow.Her work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, and other outlets. A trained visual anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, she directed The Skin That Burns (2013), a film about survivors of chemical warfare in Iran. Her recent graphic novella, Sanctioned Lives, visualizes oral histories of life under sanctions.
As an educator, Bajoghli has received multiple teaching awards for her courses on ethnography, revolutions, war, and political media. She is committed to mentoring the next generation of global thinkers and bridging scholarly research with public discourse through innovative, transmedia approaches.
Bajoghli, N., Nasr, V., Salehi-Isfahani, D., and Vaez, A. (2024). How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare. Stanford University Press
Bajoghli, N (2019) Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic. Stanford University Press
In the News
Life in Iran After the Strikes: Executions, Arrests and Paranoia
The Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2025
Iran’s Strike on Israel Creates Military Uncertainty, Diplomatic Opportunity
San Juan Daily Star, April 16, 2024