Behzad Yaghmaian
Behzad Yaghmaian is an Iranian-born author living in the United States. Currently, he is a Professor of Political Economy at Ramapo College in New Jersey. He has taught in the United States, Iran, and Turkey.
Yaghmaian has published a number of articles on globalization and Third World Studies in various academic journals. His book, Social Change in Iran: An Eyewitness Account of Dissent, Defiance, and Movements for Rights, was written after a year-long visit to Iran during the time of the brief political opening in Iran in 1998-99. During that period, Yaghmaian was a columnist for a popular reformist newspaper, Neshat, while also contributing articles to other widely-read dailies and magazines. He was the consultant for a 2003 PBS/Channel 4 (England) documentary about Iran.
In September 2002, Yaghmaian left the United States, traveling for two years in the Middle East and Europe following migrants from Muslim countries on the journey to the West. He lived among them, listened to their hopes, dreams, and fears, weaving together dozens of their stories of yearning, persecution, and unwavering faith in his latest book, Embracing the Infidel: Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West.
In 2007, Yaghmaian traveled to china to live among the growing population of internal migrants working in the country’s sprawling factories. His most recent book, The Accidental Capitalist: A People’s Story of the New China, is a narrative of China’s economic and social transformation told through personal biographies of migrants.
Yaghmaian has appeared on CNN, CNN International, Book TV, C-SPAN 2, Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria, Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now, NPR’s Morning Edition, WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, a number of NPR and local radio stations around the country, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and different radio programs in England, and Italy.
His op-ed pieces have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times Online,The International Herald Tribune and The Chicago Tribune, and his journalism has appeared in Le Monde Diplomatique and various popular online sites. Translations of his earlier stories were published in National Geographic and Le Monde Diplomatique in Turkish.