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About Amir Sayadabdi

I am a Lecturer in Anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington. I am mainly interested in anthropology of food and its intersection with gender studies, migration studies, and studies of race, ethnicity, and nationalism.

Amir Sayadabdi is Lecturer in Anthropology at Victoria University of Wellington. He is mainly interested in anthropology of food and its intersection with gender studies, migration studies, and studies of race, ethnicity, and nationalism.

NBN Episodes hosted by Amir:

Urban Studies April 1, 2023

Citizen Designs

City-Making and Democracy in Northeastern Thailand

Eli Elinoff

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
What does it mean to design democratic cities and democratic citizens in a time of mass urbanization and volatile political transformation?  Citizen Designs: City-Making and Democracy in Northeastern Thailand (U …
Food February 10, 2023

Staple Security

Bread and Wheat in Egypt

Jessica Barnes

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Egyptians often say that bread is life; most eat this staple multiple times a day, many relying on the cheap bread subsidized by the government. In Staple Security: Bread and …
Middle Eastern Studies August 18, 2022

Hidden Liberalism

Burdened Visions of Progress in Modern Iran

Hussein Banai

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Compared to rival ideologies, liberalism has fared rather poorly in modern Iran. This is all the more remarkable given the essentially liberal substance of various social and political struggles - …
Food June 29, 2022

Edible Insects

A Global History

Gina Louise Hunter

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
From grasshoppers to grubs, an eye-opening look at insect cuisine around the world. An estimated two billion people worldwide regularly consume insects, yet bugs are rarely eaten in the West …
Food June 22, 2022

Food Instagram

Identity, Influence, and Negotiation

Emily J. H. Contois and Zenia Kish

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Image by image and hashtag by hashtag, Instagram has redefined the ways we relate to food. Emily J. H. Contois and Zenia Kish edit contributions that explore the massively popular …
Australian and New Zealand Studies March 2, 2022

Invisible

New Zealand's History of Excluding Kiwi-Indians

Jacqueline Leckie

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Despite our mythology of benign race relations, Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of underlying prejudice and racism. The experiences of Indian migrants and their descendants, either historically or …
Food February 22, 2022

A Mass Conspiracy to Feed People

Food Not Bombs and the World-Class Waste of Global Cities

David Boarder Giles

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
In A Mass Conspiracy to Feed People: Food Not Bombs and the World-Class Waste of Global Cities (Duke UP, 2021), David Boarder Giles explores the ways in which capitalism simultaneously …
Food February 22, 2022

Food in Memory and Imagination

Space, Place and Taste

Beth M. Forrest and Greg de St Maurice

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
How do we engage with food through memory and imagination? Food in Memory and Imagination: Space, Place and, Taste (Bloomsbury, 2022) spans time and space to illustrate how, through food, people have …
Middle Eastern Studies February 22, 2022

Coming of Age in Iran

Poverty and the Struggle for Dignity

Manata Hashemi

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Crippling sanctions, inflation, and unemployment have increasingly burdened young people in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Coming of Age in Iran: Poverty and the Struggle for Dignity (NYU Press, 2020) …
Food December 24, 2021

Tomato

A Global History

Clarissa Hyman

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
In the history of food, the tomato is a relative newcomer but it would now be impossible to imagine the food cultures of many nations without them. The journey taken …
Middle Eastern Studies December 20, 2021

Iranian Women and Gender in the Iran-Iraq War

Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Eighteen months after Iran’s Revolution in 1979, hundreds of thousands of the country’s women participated in the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88) in a variety of capacities. Iran was divided into women …
Food December 17, 2021

The Immigrant Kitchen

Food, Ethnicity, and Diaspora

Vivian Nun Halloran

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
In The Immigrant Kitchen: Food, Ethnicity, and Diaspora (Ohio State UP, 2016), Vivian Nun Halloran examines food memoirs by immigrants and their descendants and reveals how their treatment of food …
Food December 17, 2021

The Immigrant Kitchen

Food, Ethnicity, and Diaspora

Vivian Nun Halloran

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
In The Immigrant Kitchen: Food, Ethnicity, and Diaspora (Ohio State UP, 2016), Vivian Nun Halloran examines food memoirs by immigrants and their descendants and reveals how their treatment of food …
Food December 7, 2021

Saffron

A Global History

Ramin Ganeshram

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Explore the dramatic history of the world’s most expensive spice in Saffron: A Global History (Reaktion Books, 2020). Literally worth their weight in gold, sunset-red saffron threads are prized internationally. Saffron can …
Food December 6, 2021

Food

Fabio Parasecoli

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Everybody eats. We may even consider ourselves experts on the topic, or at least Instagram experts. But are we aware that the shrimp in our freezer may be farmed and …
Food December 2, 2021

Research Methods in Digital Food Studies

Jonatan Leer and Stinne Gunder Strøm Krogager

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Research Methods in Digital Food Studies (Routledge, 2021) offers the first methodological synthesis of digital food studies. It brings together contributions from leading scholars in food and media studies and explores …
Food November 30, 2021

Mustard

A Global History

Demet Güzey

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Whether grainy or smooth, spicy or sweet, Dijon, American, or English, mustard accompanies our food and flavors our life around the globe. It has been a source of pleasure, health …
Food November 23, 2021

Food Justice Now!

Deepening the Roots of Social Struggle

Joshua Sbicca

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Food Justice Now: Deepening the Roots of Social Struggle (University of Minnesota Press, 2018) charts a path from food activism to social justice activism that integrates the two. In an engrossing, historically …
Food November 22, 2021

Feeding Iran

Shi`i Families and the Making of the Islamic Republic

Rose Wellman

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Since Iran's 1979 Revolution, the imperative to create and protect the inner purity of family and nation in the face of outside spiritual corruption has been a driving force in …
Food November 18, 2021

Avocado

A Global History

Jeff Miller

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
The avocado is the iconic food of the twenty-first century. It has gone from a little-known regional food to a social media darling in less than a hundred years. This …
Food November 15, 2021

Vanilla

A Global History

Rosa Abreu-Runkel

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
Today I talked to Rosa Abreu-Runkel about her new book Vanilla: A Global History (Reaktion Books, 2020). Intoxicating and evocative, vanilla is so much more than a spice rack staple. It is a …
Food November 9, 2021

Coffee

A Global History

Jonathan Morris

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
In Coffee: A Global History (Reaktion Books, 2019), Jonathan Morris discusses the diverse cast of caffeinated characters who drank coffee, why and where they did so, as well as how …
Food October 26, 2021

The Immigrant-Food Nexus

Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America

Julian Agyeman and Sydney Giacalone

Hosted by Amir Sayadabdi
The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America (MIT Press, 2020) considers the intersection of food and immigration at both the macroscale of national policy and the microscale …