Afshin Shahi

Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Middle East Politics & International Relations at Keele University, Keele University
Dr Afshin Shahi is an associate professor (senior lecturer ) in Middle East politics and International Relations at Keele University. He obtained both his MA and PhD from the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University. Prior to joining the School of Social, Political, and Global Studies in 2023, he worked at the universities of Durham, Exeter, and Bradford.

In 2018 he was a visiting research fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. His research interests encompass Iranian politics, climate change and conflict, sectarianism, and political Islam in the Middle East. His articles have appeared in scholarly outlets including the Middle East Journal, the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and the Journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.

He is the author of the Politics of Truth Management in Saudi Arabia (Routledge, 2013) and the co-author of a forthcoming book, Iran: the Shia State and the Sunni Minority. He has been part of various editorial boards and for about four years he was an associate editor of the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. He is a regular contributor to national and global media outlets including the BBC and Aljazeera. His opinion pieces have appeared in various publications including Forbes magazine, Foreign Policy magazine, and the Conversation. He also actively works with both practitioners and stakeholders in his field. In 2017, he was a recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement at the University of Bradford.

His research interests include Middle East politics & security, political Islam and religious sectarianism. He is the author of 'The Politics of Truth Management in Saudi Arabia' and a number of peer-reviewed articles. He has contributed to international media outlets including, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, Bloomberg Business, the Telegraph, National Public Radio (US) ITV, Sky News and the BBC.