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Combine Shahrough Akhavi’s background as a native Iranian, his education at Brown, Harvard, and Columbia, plus 36 years of research, teaching, and travel. The result is a picture of the professor of political science at USC who probably is the most frequently called upon to help people understand the Middle East.
He has served in the role since joining the University in 1973, though of late, there have been so many requests to speak he’s had to cut back on engagements.
Yet he continues to welcome the opportunity to address community groups, despite the fact that some religious organizations he’s spoken to in the past, “while not necessarily being interested in converting you to their view of revelation, are impatient with alternative ways of looking at issues.
“Getting alternative perspectives is how people enrich themselves,” said Akhavi, who, in addition to a raft of other scholarly activities, has also testified before Congress, and during the Iranian hostage crisis, was one of several scholars called on to consult with then President Jimmy Carter.
Four invited op-ed articles on Iran for The New York Times highlight an extensive list of publishing credits, along with serving as a source for practically every major news outlet in America.
The most frequently asked question he gets is probably one dealing with the religion of the people in the Middle East, which first and foremost, means Islam.
“But audiences are often surprised when I talk about Christianity as an important force in contemporary Middle East politics,” he added. That works in two ways, he said, because especially among Palestinians, there are important numbers of Christians, some of whom are more militant in their confrontations with Israelis over statehood issues and other matters, than there are Muslims.
The other way it works is through the influence of Christianity on American foreign policy, Akhavi said. In this sense, he refers to evangelical Christians who have a great stake in Israel being dominant because “it’s the only way that the Temple can be rebuilt, which in turn is the only way Jesus will return.”
Born in Teheran, Akhavi moved to the United States in 1945 with his parents and two brothers when he was 4. He decided to major in Middle Eastern studies only after realizing he “couldn’t escape” his background following “an intellectual odyssey as a transplanted Iranian with an odd name trying to assimilate into the American culture.”
He spoke some Persian as a child at home with his father, a former Iranian judge, but he didn’t learn to read and write Persian and Arabic until he enrolled for his master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard.
At Columbia for his doctorate, he studied with Zbigniew Brzezinski in its Soviet Studies Program and toyed with the idea of dedicating himself to it, but his Middle Eastern leanings eventually won out. Though politics fascinated him, he didn’t want to become a politician, so he opted for a career in teaching, starting at the University of California at Davis.
Three years later when he arrived at USC, the University didn’t offer a program in Middle Eastern Studies. But recently, Provost Becker has green-lighted the hiring of three new faculty members in an Islamic core area of anthropology, religious studies, and language that will significantly increase the University’s presence in the field.
A better understanding of the Palestine issue by Americans might help ameliorate tensions in the Middle East, Akhavi said. But his long-range forecast for the region is one of continued strife, though not because of “some intrinsic disposition for violence on the part of groups in the region.
“There are reasons that are animating these people to strike out,” he said. “We may not like it, but we have to understand that they’re not just striking out for the sake of it.
“The best I can say is that I’m skeptical about the future. The burden lies upon all the actors. There’s no single one whose change of behavior will automatically usher in some kind of a golden age.”
11/05
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Shahrough Akhavi, political science
