CV

Curriculum Vitae

Mahnaz Yousefzadeh, Professor of Global Liberal Studies. Affiliate Professor, Art History NYUAD. Affiliate Professor, Italian Studies

UAE: P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi Office: +971 2 628 5136 (UAE)
Mobile: +971 585766764(UAE)
What’sapp +1 929 320 6111 (USA)


Education

April, 2002 SUNY at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, Ph.D. Modern European History

Dissertation: “The City and the Rise of Italian Civil Society: Regional Traditions and Modern Associations at the National Festival of the Dante Centenary (1863-1865).”   Dissertation Advisor:  Richard Trexler; Readers: David Kertzer, Jean Quataert

May,1991 – Hofstra University, Long Island, NY. B.A. in History; Minor: Comparative Literature.


Employment

2016-Present Clinical professor of Global Libral Studies, NYU.

2020-Present Affiliate Professor, NYU AD, Art History program

2016-present Affiliate professor, NYU AD, Core Program

2002-2016 Clinical Assistant and Associate Professor of Global Liberal Studies, NYU

2014-present Affiliate Professor, NYU Italian Studies Department

2015-2016 La Pietra, NYU in Florence, Visiting Professor

2012-2013 New York University in London, Visiting Professor

2007-2009 La Pietra, NYU in Florence, Visiting Professor

2007 NYU summer program in Southern Italy, Program Director and Faculty

2004 La Pietra, NYU in Florence, Visiting professor

Teach courses in: Liberal Studies Social Foundations, Cultural Foundations, Aesthetics and Politics of the Modern, FAS Italian and Middle Eastern departments, Mediterranean History (graduate and undergraduate); NYU Abu Dhabi Core Dignity and Indignity, and NYU AD History program, Mediterranean Archives, Translations, Histories.


Books

City and Nation in the Italian Unification: The National Festivals of Dante.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Florence’s Embassy to Sultan of Egypt: An English Translation of Felice Brancacci’s Diary. London and New York: Palgrave, 2019.


Articles and Book Chapters 

“Tobit and Persian Judaism: Exile and Writing between Florence and Persiante World,” Under peer review (September 2020). 

“Shafii al-Sharif’s Subhat-al-Akhbar in the Medici Collection: Visualizing Royal Genealogy in the Persico-Islamic and the Medici Courts,” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 21, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 159-183.

“Sea of Oman: Ferdinand I, G.B. Vecchietti and the Armour of Shah Abbas I,” Revista degli Studi Orientali, 2018; 51-71.

“The Burrato of the Bargello” in Awam Ampka and Ellyn Toscano, eds., Resignifications. Rome: Postcart, 2017. pp. 165-171.

“Florence’s Persia:  Magi, Merchants and Cavaliers” Serena Dipina, Felicita Tramontata, and Giuseppe Marcocci eds., Christian-Islamic Interactions in the Early Modern Mediterranean.  (University of Maryland Press: under peer review)

“Canonicity and Popularity in the Nineteenth Century: Dante 1865” in Joep Leerssen and Anne Rigney eds., Commemorating Writers in Nineteenth Century Europe: Nation Building and Centenary Fever (2014, Palgrave Macmillan) 

“Anti-Hegemonic Nationalism: The 1865 Centenary Festa of Dante,” in Peter Arnade and Michael Rocke, eds., Private Conduct, Gender, and Public Life in Early Modern  Europe and Mesoamerica: Essays in Honor of Richard C. Trexler, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Research, Essays and Studies, University of Toronto, 2008.


Literary and Critical Publications

House of Fraser,” About Place Journal, Volume VI, Issue 2, October 2020.

Can Interaction Design Civilize the Experience Economy?”  Interactions ACM, July-August 2013. http:// interactions.acm.org. (The Academic and Professional Journal of Computational Science).

“What is Iranian Jewish?” Shofar vol. 6, no. 2  (1995).


Conferences, Presentations, workshops

 “Medici’s Persia: Magi, Knights and Medusae”. Invited Lecture. Yale University. CMES Colloquium. November 7, 2019.

Pedagogies of the Global: Liberal Studies and Counter Hegemonic Knowledge Production”, NYU, October 24, 2019.

Dante and Italian Unification,” public lecture, Casa Italiana, New York University. October 16, 2019.

“Florence’s Persia: Magi, Cavaliere, Medusae,” invited lecture, La Pietra, Florence. September 12, 2019.

“Women of National Iranian Oil Company: 1970’s Ahvaz,” Invited presentation, Transnational Feminism Conference, NYUAD, December 6, 2018.

 “For Whom We Write,” invited reading and workshop, Migration Colloquium, NYU Abu Dhabi. September 30, 2018.

“Archive Fever: Ghosts of Florentine Piazza,” GLS Summer Symposium, Interrogating the Urban, La Pietra, Florence. June 2018.

From Bargello to Met Breuer,” presentation in The Black Mediterranean, Conference, Palermo June 12, 2018.

Roundtable Discussant, ‘Transnational Poetics at the Fin de Siècle’.  Conference sponsored by Liberal Studies New York University, May 14, 2018.

“Epigenesis of the Archive: Medusa’s Living Corpse,” presentation at Post-Humanism Conference, sponsored by Liberal Studies,  NYU, April 27, 2018.

“Refiguring the Archive: Political Theory in Medusa’s Living Corpse” invited lecture at Cristina Vatulescu’s Graduate Seminar, Casa Italiana, NYU,  April 10, 2018. 

“Medici Saracen,” Lecture sponsored by GLS Arts and Humanities and Casa Italiana, Introduced by Stefano Albertini, Casa Italiana, May 2018.

Invited participation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposium in conjunction with the exhibition “Like Life: Sculpture, Color and the Body,” April 16, 2018.

“Arts and Artifacts in Nation-building”, presentation in Professor Fiona Kidd’s Objects and Identities course, NYUAD, October, 2017. (presentation based on my first book, City and Nation (2011).

“Medici Oriental Press” presentation in Professor Gregor Stemmrich’s Foundations of Art History class, NYUAD, Fall 2017.

“Genealogies of Interaction Code,” presentation at Professor Piere Depaz’s Politics of Code course, NYUAD,  November 2017. 

Readings from creative non-fiction work in progress, “Magic Carpet,” “Iranian Leopards,” “House of Fraser,” in Catherine Corey’s Migration Course, NYUAD, October, 2017.

“Ferdinand de’ Medici, G.B. Vecchietti, and Persia,” Invited presentation at NYU Global Asia and History Seminar, NYU,  April 28, 2017.

“Translation in Global Classroom,” GLS London conference on Politics in the Classroom. June 2017.

“Bahr Oman: Ferdinand de Medici, G.B. Vecchietti, and the Armour of Shah Abbas” at the NYU AD History Seminar (cosponsored by Arab Crossroads and Literature). Abu Dhabi, October 27, 2016.

Timepiece or Chronicle of Ahvaz“, jury selected reading,  Hekayah Festival, Arts Center of NYUAD, on National Heritage Day of UAE, December 5, 2016.

Discussant/interview at presentation of “The Foot” by Ismael Khaledi, in Arab Voices Theatre production, NYUAD Arts Center. November 2016.

Kunststorisches Institute, Florence.  Invited participant, seminar on the Medici Oriental Press, May 26, 2016.

“Medici’s Perseus and Persia’s Medusa,” in The Medici and the Seas I: Mediterranean Identities, Renaissance Society of America, Boston, March 30-April 1, 2016.

A Genealogical Approach to Pedagogy” invited presentation at Global Studies Conference,  Global Institute for Advanced Studies. April 13-15, 2016.

Invited participation in a seminar on “Ariosto and Arabs” at I Tatti, Florence, Italy.  February 16, 2016.  

Generation, Inheritance and Weak Messianism,” Workshop/presentation in Epigenesis Between Science and the Humanities, NYU in London, November 12, 2015

Image and Time” Walter Benjamin London Research Network workshop with Werner Hamacher. London, University of London. October 23, 2015.

Medici’s Persians,” Conference paper, Iran and the West: Converging Perspectives“, University of Warwick, July 1-3, 2015.

Epigenesis Between Science and Humanities, Presentation/Workshop at NYU London, April 27, 2015.

Curating Culture,” NYU in London, February 23, 2015

Persiana Pompa da Anima Toscana: The Medici’s Persian Magi, Merchants and Cavalieri,” invited talk at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, January 25, 2015.

Visual and Sonorous,” `presentation/workshop, NYU Washington Square, October 30th, 2014.

Eros, Mimesis, Poesis,” Presentation/Workshop, Casa Italiana, NYU, October 1, 2014

Invited response paper to Ilaria Porciani, “Partitioned Countries, Museums, and Communities. Istria 1884-2014,” Columbia University, Italian Academy, November 7, 2014.

“The Medici’s Persian Magi, Merchants, and Cavalieri,” Lecture, Italian Studies department, NYU.  November 19, 2014.

The Magic Carpet,” Personal Essay presented at St. Lawrence University, London, UK. March 2014.

Persian Sophy at the Medici Court,” Invited paper at the International Workshop  Christian-Islamic Interactions,  Normale Superiore di Pisa, February 10-11, 2014.

Keynote speaker, “Dante and Milton: Visionary Nationalist.” Conference November 1, 2013, University of London. 

“Persian Sophi at the Medici Court,” invited lecture at the Italian Cultural Association of London, October 4, 2013. 

“Faith and Finance: the Medici’s at the court of Sultan Barsbay,” Cambridge, UK, Society of Medieval Mediterranean, July 2013.

“Florence’s Maiden Mediterranean Voyage.” Invited lecture, University Research Seminar, University College London, March 2013. 

Invited Speaker, The Warburg Institute, Art History Seminars, February 2013.

Situated Pedagogy and the Work of Translation,” Global Text, Global Context, NYU London, March 2012. 

Canonicity and Popularity in Nineteenth Century Commemorations: Dante Festivals of 1865.” Invited talk at Commemorating Writers in Europe 1800-1914, Utrecht 7-9 December 2011.

Florence and the Nation: The Centenary Festivals of Dante Alighieri in 1865,” invited speaker at the British Institute of Florence, November 2011. 

Dante’s Birthday: Florence and the Aesthetic Education of Italians,” keynote speaker, Salone dei Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence November 2011.

Arab Spring: A Conversation with Khaled Fahmy and Kouros Esmaeli,” NYU Spring 2011, organizer and Chair.

City and Nation in the Italian Unification, book presentation. Commentators David Kertzer, and Mary Gibson.  Casa Italiana, NYU.  September 2011.

“Globalizing the Humanities,” contribution to the LS panel “Realizing Global Education: Texts, Contexts, Curriculum, and Technology.” World Education Forum, Rome, January 2011.

“Mediterranean Journeys: Felice Brancacci, Pietro Della Valle and Ippolito Rosellini.”  Presented at ACLA, New Orleans, April 2010. 

 “Flood of Words: Counting and Un-counting the 1865 Dante Centenary Archives.”  Presented at “Risorgimento Revisited,” at the Italian Academy of Columbia University, New York, April 2008.

“Aesthetics and Politics of Immigration: San Lorenzo in Florence.” Paper presented at EACLALS triennial conference, Venice,  March 2008.

“Foucault and the Iranian Revolution.” Paper presented at Midwest Political Science Association Conference, Chicago, April 2006.

“Civility and Natural Law:  Hobbes’s Leviathan as an Education Treatise for the Sovereign and the Subject.” Invited contribution to Duke University’s Center for European Studies Conference, Trieste, Italy, April 2005.

“Anti-Hegemonic Nationalism: The 1865 Centenary Festa of Dante.” Presented at symposium “Public Life and Private Conduct: Changing Historical Perspectives Across the Early Modern World,” SUNY Binghamton, April 7-8, 2004.  

“Response to Sidney Tarrow’s The New Transnational Contention.”  Paper presented at NYU Center For European Studies sponsored workshop, “Understanding 21st Century,” April 2004.

“The Long Duree of European Formation: Nomos and Katechon.” Invited contribution to Duke University sponsored conference, Sovereignty and Subjectivity, Spain, March 2004

“To Rethink the Humanities.” Paper presented at a colloquium of the same title at Binghamton University, April 2003


Awards and Grants

(Listing only recent items)

NYUAD, Affiliate Faculty 2016-2020.

Invited participant in Global Institute of Advanced Studies, (2015-2016), NYU 2015-2016.

Curricular Development Faculty Challenge Grant, NYU, for “In the Beginning Was Dance,” 2014-2015. ($5000)

Global Research Institute Research Grant, NYU, for “Persians at the Medici Court,” Spring 2015.

Liberal Studies Semester research grant, “Sabbatical” for “Persians at the Medici Court,” Spring 2015.

Endorsement by the British Academy, as internationally known scholar for a Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa. 2014.


University Service

Fall 2018, NYUAD Affiliate Faculty, Served GNU connectivity: assisted LS Dean’s office with the set up and programming of J-term first LS Dean’s Circle in Abu Dhabi, January 2019. Regular meeting and discussions with members of Contract Faculty Committee, Faculty Forum, Faculty Governance, and organized discussions on global perspectives on Academic Freedom at Global Network University. 

Advised GLS mentees and continued to serve as second readers for GLS students in NYC while in Abu Dhabi. (met via skype).

Spring 2018-Spring 2019, LS Global Lecture Series Committee.

June 2018, Served/Volunteered in the 5th Annual FAS Diversity Summer Student Research. July 2018, Participated in FAS Workshop on Educational Technology.

July 28, 2017, served in Diversity Summer Student Research Conference.

Spring 2017 LS Reappointment and Promotion Committee (40 faculty were reviewed that year).

Fall 2017, NYUAD Affiliate faculty: Served GNU connectivity, invited and created two week-long programs at NYUAD for two guest scholars, Brett Levinson (Binghamton) and Ilaria Porciani (University of Bologna) in October and in November 2017.

Spring 2017. Wrote a descriptive and promotional piece for Liberal Studies website, describing the ways in which the interdisciplinary curriculum at LS has led to scholarly discoveries at our global sites. 

April 5, 2017, Presentation at the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Teach-In on Immigration. 

February 23, 2017:   Organized and participated in MUSLIM BAN AND THE LAW: Conversation with Alina Das. A workshop for LAW, ETHICS, and RELIGION concentration area.

January 9-10, 2017. Invited and organized logistics, travel and participation of distinguished historian from University of Tehran, Mansureh Ettehadiye at Family and Marriage in the Middle East Conference NYUAD. 

Fall 2016, Affiliate Faculty, NYUAD. Served GNU connectivity.

September 2016, visit to woman’s Labor Camp in Abu Dhabi with Christian Haefke (Economics), as a part of community engagement.

November 2016. presented at NYU Abu Dhabi workshop session on Diversity in the Global Classroom. NYUAD.

Fall 2015-Spring 2016 academic year, Assigned to Florence, advising, mentoring students.

October 10, 2014, LS Faculty Development event, presented on “Teaching Film In Core.”

July 2014, External examiner for Ph.D. defense, Annalea Tunesi, University of Leeds.

May 2014, Liberal Studies Core Colloquium, “Teaching Spinoza”. 2014: Faculty Affiliate at Italian Department, NYU.

Spring 2014:  LS Scholarly/Creative work Committee.

Spring 2014: Galatin thesis Reader, Francis Lydon; Galatin thesis Reader, Maanassa Sarabu; Second Reader GLS thesis Rachel Kim. 

2013-2014: LS Reappointment and Merit Committee.

2013-2014: LS Global History Search Committee.

2012-2013: Teaching Assignment, NYU in London: Initiated and facilitated CF/SF Committee meetings; advised Student Government; mentored a CF faculty member in London.

2011-2012:  “Artists in Residence,” Faculty Affiliate, Residential Learning Explorations Program.”. Created and organized year-long workshops and events for Tisch Freshman residence hall. 

2011-2012: LS Dean’s Circle Experiential Learning, advisor and reader,;  Dean’s Circle London trip,  January 2012, faculty support.

Fall, 2011, Organized, SFCC sponsored Global History Lecture, by Jean Quataert.  

Fall 2011, Organized LS event, Arab Spring, Khaled Fahmi.

Social Foundations and Global Cultures Curriculum Committees, 2003-present ; Contemporary Cultures and Creative Production Committee.

2011-present; LS Research Grant Committee 2010, Faculty Renewal Committee. 2010-2011, Search and Hiring Committee 2011-2012,  GLS Portfolio Committee 2012.

Teaching Assignment, NYU in Florence 2007-2009.

NYU Summer in Southern Italy, Director and Faculty. 2007.


Languages

Fluent in Persian and Italian; Reading knowledge of Arabic


Work Permits

UK Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa