Dr. Anahita Arian

Anahita Arian

Kontakt: anahita.arian@uni-erfurt.de

Since April 2020 post-doctoral fellow affiliated with the professorship for the History of Science and the Center for Political Practices and Order, University of Erfurt. Funded by an Initialization Scholarship granted by the Thuringian Program for Funding of Young Female Academics and Artists.

Curriculum Vitae

  • 2012-2019 PhD in International Relations, University of Groningen, Netherlands. Doctoral thesis: The XVII C. Safavid Diplomatic Envoy to Siam: A Politics of Knowledge Formation.
  • June-August 2019 Visiting Scholar Orient Institute Beirut, Max Weber Foundation, Lebanon.
  • February 2019 Visiting Scholar Department of International Relations, Universidad de San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador.
  • 2017-2020 Research Associate at the Department of International Relations, University of Erfurt.
  • 2012-2017 Lecturer at the Department of International Relations, University of Groningen, Netherlands.
  • 2007-2010 MA in International Relations, University of Groningen, Netherlands.
  • 2003-2007 BA in International Relations, University of Groningen, Netherlands.
  • Linguistic proficiency in Persian, Dutch, English, German, French and Arabic.

Forschungsschwerpunkte

My work is characterized by interdisciplinarity as it cut across the disciplines of International Relations, History, History of Science, Philosophy, Theology, Anthropology and Literature. In my research, I focus mainly on questions that are concerned with knowledge formation and epistemics practices, and how these are connected to the realm of politics, the exercise of power, and the institution of political orders and their governance.  My research interests include history and theory of International Relations, Global Connected Histories, History of Science, Historical and Political Epistemology, Metaphysics, Postcolonialism, Decoloniality, Religion, Political Theology, and Aesthetics.

In my PhD dissertation, The XVII C. Safavid Diplomatic Envoy to Siam: A Politics of Knowledge Formation, I explored how a Persian diplomatic envoy to Siam in 1685 formed knowledge about peoples and cultures it encountered during its journey and how the envoy’s epistemic practices were governed by the Safavid political order. For this project, I worked with various manuscripts and conducted archival research at the National Library and Archives of Iran, the Library of the University of Tehran, the British Library (London) and at the Cambridge University Library in the United Kingdom.

In my new research project, I explore how in the Islamic medieval world (1200-1500 AD), political orders conditioned epistemic practices and the formation of knowledge in the discipline of astronomy, and how astronomy, in turn, affected the praxis of politics and the governance of political orders and life. Due to its interdisciplinarity, this research project traverses the fields of International Relations, History of Science, History, Theology, Philosophy and Archeoastronomy, and includes the study of Persian and Arabic manuscripts.