Nematollah Fazeli

Nematollah Fazeli (born 23 August 1964) is an Iranian anthropologist, author, and translator. Fazeli received his Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies. He received a masters in cultural anthropology from Tehran University. He is currently associate professor of cultural anthropology and cultural studies at The Institute of Humaties and Cultural Studies. He has been a Research Associate of SOAS since 2005. Fazeli’s formal academic training was in anthropology and the social sciences but he concurrently continued his studies of cultural studies and sociology of literature and art at a professional academic level. He is predominantly an ethnographer whose written works are on Iranian contemporary society, higher education studies, education, and urban studies.

Fazeli's main research undertaking has been the demonstration of modernity and the modernisation process in Iran. “Modernization or Contemporization of the Iranian Culture” (original title in Persian: “مدرن یا امروزی شدن فرهنگ ایران”), is a collection of his ethnographic case studies narrating the process of Iran's modernization through the prism of cultural studies. The book consists of two sections: “Reinvention or Contemporization of Traditions” and “Culture’s Mediazation and Technologization”, with nine chapters aiming to cast a look on the process of Iran's modernization, with his focus mainly on the 1380s (2001–2011).

Fazeli has written more than one hundred articles for scholarly journals and dozens editorials for venues such as "Sharq Newspaper". In Iran he has appeared in public forums and the media.