Kevin Schwartz is a recent Social Science Research Council postdoctoral fellow for Transregional Research and Visiting Scholar at Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied and wrote about Persian literary culture across West, Central, and South Asia. His writings on the politics, culture, and history of Iran and the Middle East have been featured in The Baltimore Sun, Jadaliyya, CounterPunch, and Reorient. He can be reached at k.lewis.schwartz@gmail.com.

A native of Shiraz, Aria Fani is a Ph.D. student in Near Eastern Studies at the University of California in Berkeley. He studies and writes about Persian poetry and its interplay with other literary cultures. His essays and literary translations appear regularly in Peyk, San Diego Persian Cultural Center’s bilingual publication. His writings have also been featured in Ajam Media Collective, PBS Tehran Bureau, The Huffington Post, Reorient, and Jadaliyya.