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Finding an Intellectual Home at UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies

Meet Babak Mazloumi, doctoral student in Comparative Literature and affiliated graduate student of UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies

Babak Mazloumi is PhD student in comparative literature at UCI. His research areas include contemporary Persian literature, literary translation as well as migration, exile, and diaspora. He arrived at UCI after completing two Master’s degrees, one in Iran in English Literature and a second one at NYU for the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought (Draper Program).

Babak’s has published and also has works in progress that explore the concept of exile at home and the relationships between exile and utopia. Babak is also a literary translator who has published works by Robert Coover, Dave Eggers, Steven Galloway, and Ismail Kadare into Persian. Currently, he is preparing for qualifying exams and plans to write his dissertation on the development of literary criticism in Iran since 1979 (the year the Shah was toppled and the revolutionaries came to power).

As Babak reflects:  "The Comparative Literature Program at UCI was the best selection for a person like me who wanted to focus on contemporary (and not classic) Persian literature as well as literary translation. My advisor, Professor Nasrin Rahimieh is a guru in both fields. Other professors, here, have also provided me with the theoretical knowledge and rigor required for a comparatist. Last but certainly not least, Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies & Culture has become my home at UCI. I am blessed to have Dr. Touraj Daryaee not only as a professor and member of my committee but also a mentor."