Rasoul Namazi
Assistant Professor of Political Theory at Duke Kunshan University

Rasoul Namazi's research focus is the comparative study of Islamic and Western political thought. His work is published in Journal of Religion, Perspectives on Political Science, American Political Thought, Iranian Studies, Interpretation, Review of Politics, Renaissance & Reformation, and Eurorient as well as several collected volumes.

Namazi’s book titled Leo Strauss and Islamic Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2022) is a comprehensive study of Leo Strauss’s writings on Islamic political thought. He is currently working on a book-length manuscript on early Islamic political thought and editing a volume on Leo Strauss's writings on religion.

A laureate of Prix Raymond Aron, Namazi has a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, M.A. in Political Philosophy and Ethics from Université Paris-Sorbonne, M.A. in Political Studies from EHESS, and B.A. in Political Sciences from the University of Central Tehran. Prior to joining Duke Kunshan University, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2019-2021) and a Research Fellow at the Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago (2016-2018).

Current Research Interests

History of Islamic Political Thought (esp. the Qur'an, Alfarabi, Averroes), Persian Political Thought, Early Modern Political Thought (esp. Machiavelli, Locke), Comparative Political Thought, Islamic Political Theology.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

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