Wikipedia

Hajar Yazdiha

Hajar Yazdiha (born 1983)[1] is an American sociologist focusing on the politics of inclusion and exclusion with regard to ethno-racial identities.[2] She is the author of the 2023 book, The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement.[1][2][3]

Hajar Yazdiha
Born1983 (age 40–41)
Berlin, Germany
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Virginia
Brooklyn College
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
OccupationSociologist
EmployerUniversity of Southern California
Notable workThe Struggle for the People's King
Websitehajaryazdiha.com

Early life and education

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Yazdiha was born in Berlin to political refugees from Iran.[1] She grew up in Northern Virginia.[1] She was inspired by a high school AP English teacher who wrote her a note saying, "You are one of a handful of true academics. Speak up and use your voice."[1]

Yazdiha enrolled in the University of Virginia, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English in 2005.[1][4] She was particularly interested in the work of Black writers, including W.E.B. du Bois, James Baldwin, and Audre Lorde.[1]

After spending six years in New York City, Yazdiha graduated from Brooklyn College with a master's degree in sociology.[1][5][4] She continued to study sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning a master's degree in 2013 and a doctorate in 2017.[1][5][4]

Career

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Yazdiha is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southern California.[2][5] She is affiliated with the school's Equity Research Institute.[5][6]

In May 2023, Yazdiha published her first book,The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement, which explores how the words of Martin Luther King Jr. have been co-opted and sanitized.[3][7][8] She was first inspired to write the book when reading coverage of the Abigail Fisher case against the University of Texas at Austin, in which she saw the words of King "were being misappropriated to claim affirmative action was anti-white racism."[2]

In addition to her articles in academic journals, Yazdiha has written editorials about King, civil rights, and related subjects for a number of publications, including The Conversation,[9] The Hill,[10] the Los Angeles Times,[11] and Time.[12]

Selected publications

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  • Yazdiha, Hajar (2023). The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691246475.
  • Yazdiha, Hajar (2023). "The relational dynamics of racialised policing: community policing for counterterrorism, suspect communities, and Muslim Americans' provisional belonging". Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 49 (11): 2676–2697. doi:10.1080/1369183X.2023.2193674.
  • Yazdiha, Hajar (2022). "Racialized Organizations in Racialized Space: How Socio-spatial Divisions Activate Symbolic Boundaries in a Charter School and a Public School". Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. 8 (4): 468–482. doi:10.1177/23326492221114811.
  • Yazdiha, Hajar; Boen, Courtney (2022). "It's a stomachache filled with stress": Tracing the Uneven Spillover Effects of Racialized Police Violence Using Twitter Data". Currents: Journal of Diversity Scholarship for Social Change. 2 (1). doi:10.3998/ncidcurrents.1780. PMC 9133729.
  • Yazdiha, Hajar (2021). "Toward a Du Boisian Framework of Immigrant Incorporation: Racialized Contexts, Relational Identities, and Muslim American Collective Action". Social Problems. 68 (2): 300–320. doi:10.1093/socpro/spaa058.
  • Yazdiha, Hajar (2020). "All the Muslims Fit to Print: Racial Frames as Mechanisms of Muslim Ethnoracial Formation in the New York Times from 1992 to 2010". Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. 6 (4): 501–516. doi:10.1177/2332649220903747.
  • Kurzman, Charles; Kamal, Ahsan; Yazdiha, Hajar (2017). "Ideology and Threat Assessment: Law Enforcement Evaluation of Muslim and Right-Wing Extremism". Socius. 3. doi:10.1177/2378023117704771.

Selected honors and recognition

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Life & Work with Hajar Yazdiha". VoyageLA. October 16, 2023. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d M., Daryl (October 26, 2023). "Interview With an Author: Hajar Yazdiha". Los Angeles Public Library. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Demby, Gene (January 10, 2024). "Everyone from the Tea Party to immigrants rights groups want a piece of Dr. King". NPR. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d "Hajar Yazdiha". CIFAR. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Hajar Yazdiha". USC Dornsife. University of Southern California. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  6. ^ "Dr. Hajar Yazdiha #ERI15Years @eri_usc's Celebration of Community: 15 Years of Solidarity & Service". USC Equity Research Institute (ERI). August 14, 2023. Retrieved January 15, 2024 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ "The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement". Princeton University Press. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  8. ^ Yazdiha, Hajar (January 15, 2024). "Tell the truth about Dr. King". The Boston Globe. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  9. ^ Yazdiha, Hajar (January 12, 2023). "How the distortion of Martin Luther King Jr.'s words enables more, not less, racial division within American society". The Conversation. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  10. ^ Yazdiha, Hajar (August 28, 2023). "60 years after the March on Washington, MLK's dream has become a nightmare". The Hill. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
  11. ^ Yazdiha, Hajar (August 28, 2023). "Opinion: Immigrant communities are indebted to the civil rights movement. But when will they grapple with their own anti-Blackness?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  12. ^ Yazdiha, Hajar (January 15, 2024). "The Problem With Comparing Today's Activists to Martin Luther King Jr". Time. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  13. ^ "USC Dornsife News Briefs". USC Dornsife. University of Southern California. May 23, 2023. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  14. ^ "Award-Winning Articles". Social Problems. Oxford University Press. Retrieved January 15, 2024. Toward a Du Boisian Framework of Immigrant Incorporation: Racialized Contexts, Relational Identities, and Muslim American Collective Action
  15. ^ "Faculty Recognition Archive". USC Dornsife. University of Southern California.
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