Bloomsbury and the Iran Heritage Foundation to launch new open access series

Bloomsbury and the UK charity Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF) are publishing a series of open access academic books on the history, politics and culture of modern and contemporary Iran, entitled The IHF Modern Iran Series.

The series will be grant-funded by the IHF and will be housed within Iradj Bagherzade’s Bloomsbury imprint IB Tauris, which specialises in Middle East studies. The books will be edited by Dr Hassan Hakimian, emeritus professor of economics and former director of the London Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London.

An advisory board of scholars in the field will also provide editorial guidance on the series, which will publish titles on everything from the interaction between state and society to Iran’s economy, art and cultural production and the role of women in Iran’s social and political transformation.

“For more than 40 years IB Tauris has been dedicated to deepening our understanding of the diverse cultures and histories of the Middle East," said David Avital, the imprint’s global editorial director. "Our publishing on Iran in particular has long been the pride of our list, so I’m thrilled that we have been able to join forces with the IHF and Dr Hassan Hakimian to launch the first ever fully open access book series on contemporary Iran."

Hakimian added: “Ranging from the cultural and social to the political and economic, from the beginning of the 20th century onwards, this open access series is set to bring cutting-edge research on Iran to scholars, researchers and readers worldwide."

IHF chairman Alireza Rastegar commented: “Expert scholarship is vital to our mission to promote and preserve the history, languages and cultures of Iran and the Persianate world and we believe that The IHF Modern Iran Series is an important step towards achieving this aim."