Ghobadzadeh, Naser

Professor Image

Ghobadzadeh, Naser

Email Degree Ph.D. (Political Science), University of Sydney, Australia, 2012

Courses

  • Global Politics POS 1002

Research Interests

  • Political Theology
  • Secularism and Post-Secular Thought
  • Classical and Contemporary Islamic thought
  • State-religion-society relations
  • Middle East Politics
  • Iranian politics

Naser Ghobadzadeh is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations in the Department of Politics and European Studies at the American University in Bulgaria. His research examines the relationship between religion and political power from a comparative and international perspective, with particular attention to state–religion relations, electoral authoritarianism, and the global politics of religious authority. His work contributes to debates in comparative politics and international relations on religion and global order, political legitimacy, transnational Islam, and the intersection of religion, conflict, and extremism.

He is the author of four books, including two monographs published by Oxford University Press: Theocratic Secularism: Religion and Government in Shiʿi Thought (2023) and Religious Secularity: A Theological Challenge to the Islamic State(2015). His additional books, published in Persian, address political change and state–society relations in Iran. His research has also appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Third World Quarterly, Democratization, Comparative Politics, Middle Eastern Studies, Critical Research on Religion, and Religions, and in edited volumes published by Oxford University Press, Routledge, and Palgrave Macmillan.

Prior to joining AUBG, Professor Ghobadzadeh held academic appointments in Australia, including at Australian Catholic University and the University of Melbourne, and most recently served as Visiting Professor of Political Science at Ashoka University in India. He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in international relations, comparative politics, political theory, religion and global politics, Middle Eastern politics, and post-colonial and non-Western political thought.

Alongside his academic career, he has worked with international organizations including UNICEF, UNDP, and UNHCR, and previously led the Foreign Policy Service at the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). His professional experience reflects a sustained engagement with both scholarly research and public and policy-relevant debates on global and regional politics.

Selected Publications

BOOKS

  • Theocratic Secularism: Religion and Government in Shi’i Thought, New York: Oxford university Press, 2023.
  • Religious Secularity: A Theological Challenge to the Islamic State, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. (Paperback printed in 2017)
  • Caspian Sea: Legal regime, neighbour countries positions and American role, Tehran: Farhang-e Gofteman, 2005 (In Persian).
  • A Critical Narrative of the State-Society Rift in Iran’s Second Revolutionary Decade, Tehran: Farhang-e Gofteman, 2002 (In Persian).

CO-EDITED BOOK AND SPECIAL ISSUE

  • Political Secularism and Religion, Religions, Basel (Switzerland): MDPI (co-edited with Ali Akbar), 2023.
  • The Politics of Islamism: Diverging Visions and Trajectories’, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, (Co-edit with John Esposito, Lily Rahim), 2018.

BOOK CHAPTERS

  • “Re-Thinking Shīʿī Political Theology.” Routledge Handbook of Middle East Politics. Ed. Sadiki, Larbi. New York: Routledge, 2020. 292-303.
  • “Islamist Transformations: From Utopian Vision to Dystopian Reality”, in Handbook of Political, Social, and Economic Transformation, Wolfgang Merkel, Raj Kollmorgen, Hans-Jürgen Wagener, (ed.), (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019): 321-333.
  • “Democratization of Islamic political theology”, in The Politics of Islamism: Divergent Trajectories and Contested Visions. John Esposito, Lily Rahim & Naser Ghobadzadeh (ed.), (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018): 47-86.
  • Theological contestation and political coalition-building”, in The Politics of Islamism: Divergent Trajectories and Contested Visions. John Esposito, Lily Rahim & Naser Ghobadzadeh (ed.), New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Co-Authored with John Esposito and Lily Rahim), 2018: 1-23.
  • Religious Secularity: Reconciliation between Political Islam and Secular Democracy”, in L. Z. Rahim (ed.) Muslim Secular Democracy: Voices From Within, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013): 31-52.
  • “Implications of Leadership Change in Middle East”, in Middle Eastern Future Security Environment, Tehran: Pajoheshkade Motaleate Rahbordi, 2005.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

  • ‘A typology of shī ʿī discourses and possibilities of democracy’, Critical Research on Religion, 11:2 (2023):187-204. (co-authored with Ali Akbar)
  • “Religious Devotion to Political Secularism”. Religions. 13:8 (2022): 694.
  • “Wasatiyya Discourse in Shi’i Islam: Ayatollah Montazeri and Human Rights Jurisprudence”. Religions 13:2 (2022): 126
  • “Religionization of politics in Iran: Shi’i seminaries as the bastion of resistance.” Middle Eastern Studies, 56:4 (2020): 570-584. (co-authored with Shahram Akbarzadeh)
  • “Nested Game of Elections in Iran.” Middle East policy 26.3 (2019): 92-106.
  • ‘Elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran: A source of democratic learning and moderation’, Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, 11, no.2 (2018): 157–77.
  • “Electoral Theocracy and Hybrid Sovereignty in Iran.” Contemporary Politics. 22, no.4 (2016): 450-468. (co-authored with Lily Z. Rahim)
  • “Sectarianism and the prevalence of ‘othering’ in Islamic thought”, Third World Quarterly, 36, no.4 (2015): 691-704. (co-authored with Shahram Akbarzadeh)
  • “Religious Secularity: A Vision for Revisionist Political Islam”, Philosophy and Social Criticism, 39, no.10 (2013): 1002-1024.
  • “Islamic Reformation Discourses: Popular Sovereignty and Religious Secularisation in Iran”, Democratization, 19, no.2 (2012): 334-351. (co-authored with Lily Rahim)
  • “A multiculturalism–feminism dispute: Muslim women and the Sharia debate in Canada and Australia”, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 48, no.3 (2010):301-319.