Ahmad Nadalizadeh earned his PhD in the Department of Comparative Literature at the
University of Oregon, where he taught, as an Instructor of Cinema Studies, undergraduate
and graduate seminars at UO’s Department of Cinema Studies. His research and teaching
draw from his interest in film and critical media theory, postcolonial and transnational
literary theory, and philosophy and aesthetics. Ahmad’s current book project focuses
on monumental historical events in modern Iran and their iteration in key poems, novels,
and films. Entitled Repetition Beyond Representation: Media, History and Event in Iran, 1951-1990, his manuscript emphasizes how these literary and cinematic works figure temporality
and fundamentally challenge a linear conception of historical progress. Ahmad’s research
has been recognized by the American Comparative Literature Association’s Charles Bernheimer
Prize (Honorable Mention) for the best dissertation in 2023. His research has been
complemented by his work as a practicing translator of works from Persian to English.
His collection of co-translations with Idra Novey, entitled Lean Against This Late Hour, was published by Penguin Press in April 2020, and was selected as a Finalist for
the 2021 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. His other translations have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Guernica, The Literary Review and elsewhere. In the fall of 2023, Ahmad began his career as an Assistant Instructional
Professor at the University of Wyoming’s Honors College.
