David Moshfegh

Biography

David Moshfegh earned his Ph.D. in History from U.C. Berkeley, where his work in European intellectual history focused on the intersection of the histories of scientific and academic disciplines, Orientalism and imperialism. His dissertation, “Ignaz Goldziher and the rise of Islamwissenschaft as a ‘Science of Religion’” places the advent of the ‘Science of Islam’ within the nineteenth century context of Protestant and Jewish reformists who competitively historicized and idealized their respective traditions. Alongside preparing a forthcoming manuscript of this project for publication, he is currently working on a second project, entitled, “From Kulturpolitik to Jihad: The Rise of Islamwissenschaft and German Orientalism in the Era of WWI”, that examines the development of this new Islamicist discipline in German Orientalist scholarship in the closing decades of the nineteenth century and tracks the field through the ‘Jihad debate’ within it during WWI. In conjunction with his work in European history, he has undertaken significant research within the Middle-East field on the trajectory of religious minorities in Islamic history. He has co-authored the sections on Jewish communities in the Islamic context for the third edition of Ira Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies and has taught courses on this subject. As Professor of History and Humanities at IE, he has taught courses in the Humanities program both at the undergraduate level and in the graduate Masters in International Management.  He has also taught extensively in the International Relations program, including courses on Modern Political Theory and The History of International Relations, which he teaches both at the undergraduate level and in the Masters in International Relations.  Furthermore, he also directs Humanities programming at IE and is thoroughly committed to enriching the Humanities offerings at our young institution and making the Humanities an integral part of the intellectual experience of IE students, both on a scholarly level and more broadly in cultivating the potential of a critical approach to life.

Research Interest

International Relations