April 18, 2023
Joshua Landis is Sandra Mackey Chair and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies at the University of Oklahoma in the Boren College of International Studies.
He writes and manages SyriaComment.com, a daily newsletter on Syrian politics and publishes frequently in policy journals such as Foreign Affairs, Middle East Policy and Foreign Policy. His book, Syria at Independence: Nationalism, Leadership, and Failure of Republicanism, will be published by the Arab Center for research and Policy studies this coming year. He is a frequent analyst on TV, radio, and in print and is a regular on NPR and the BBC.
He has received three Fulbright grants to support his research in Syria and won numerous prizes for his teaching. He is past President of the Syrian Studies Association.
He has lived 15 years in the Middle East and 4 in Syria. He spent most summers in Syria before the uprising on 2011.
He was educated at Swarthmore (B.A.), Harvard (M.A.), and Princeton (Ph.D).
He is married to Manar Kashour and has two sons, Jonah Firas and Kendall Shaaban.
Chair of the Day
As a student, Jalal Farzaneh and his brother came to the US in 1978 and settled here in Oklahoma. Jalal received his bachelor and master of Architecture from OU. Together with his brother Mohammad, they started a Home Building company called “Home Creations” in 1981 which is one of the largest Home building companies in Oklahoma.
Jalal believes in Oklahoma and Oklahoma values. He is an advocator of peace, equality and coexistence through the mutual understanding of faiths, ethnicities and diversity of opinion. This is why Jalal and Mohammad started “Farzaneh Family Foundation” and through the foundation, the family has endowed two “Iranian and Persian Gulf Study” centers at both OU and OSU as well as 11 professorships and scholarships at different universities. He serves on the OU college of International board as well as OKC National memorial Foundation board and OCCC board of regents.
Jalal has been married to his wife Azam Farzaneh for more than 45 years and they have two boys who are part of family business: Ali Farzaneh, 41, PHD in Architecture, Hossein Farzaneh, 39 JD and They have 4 grandchildren ages, 7, 5, 4 and 1.