Shahrough Akhavi is currently Professor in the Department of Government and International Studies at the University of South Carolina. He received his B.A. from Brown University (1962), his M.A. from Harvard University (1964) and his Ph.D. from Columbia University (1969). Akhavi has conducted field research in Iran and Egypt in the sociology of Islam and social theory under grants from the Ford Foundation (1975), the National Endowment for the Humanities (1980-81), Fulbright Senior Scholar Program (1991), and Social Science Research Council (1998). He has served the profession in various capacities: President-Elect, Society for Iranian Studies, 2001-2002; Chairman, Nominating Committee, Society for Iranian Studies, 1997-98, Member Nominating Committee of the Middle East Studies Association [MESA] in 1989-1990 and 2000-2001; member Program Committee, Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies, 2001-2002; member, Albert Hourani Book Award Committee, MESA 1993-94.

Akhavi is the author of Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran (1980). He is Editor of the Middle East Series at State University of New York Press; Editor of the Middle East Series in Politics, History and Law at Routledge Publishers; Book Review Editor of Iranian Studies (1981-1996); Editorial Board member, Iranian Studies (1996-1998); Section Editor of the multi-volume, Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (1995); and Senior Consultant, Oxford Dictionary of Islam (forthcoming). He has numerous articles published in such journals as Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Current History, International Journal of Middle East Studies , Iranian Studies, Middle East Journal, Middle Eastern Studies, Problems of Communism, SAIS Review. He also has chapters in books published by such outlets as Yale University Press, Oxford University Press, University of Texas Press, University of Michigan Press, Syracuse University Press, The Smithsonian Institution, and E. J. Brill Publishers. He has written approximately 30 book reviews for many different journals, including African Studies Review, American Political Science Review, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Iranian Studies, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Journal of Church and State, Journal of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Journal of Islamic Studies, Journal of Politics, Middle East Journal, Middle Eastern Studies. Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Muslim World, Social Science Quarterly, Western Political Quarterly. He has presented professional papers, public lectures, and workshop presentations at leading American, Canadian, and European universities, including Harvard University, University of California at Berkeley, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, McGill University, and the Free University of Berlin.

Akhavi is the author of four invited OP-Ed articles on Iran for The New York Times. He has been interviewed and cited by such media outlets as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chicago Tribune, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, The Kansas City Star, The Dallas Morning News, The Detroit News, The Hartford Currant, Life Magazine, McLean's Magazine, (Canada), The Australian (Sydney), National Public Radio, the Voice of America, ABC Radio News, and The Discovery Channel. He has testified before Congress and was invited along with other scholars to consult with President Jimmy Carter at the time of the Iranian hostage crisis. He has also been a consultant numerous times with the Department of State and delivered presentations to its Foreign Service Institute. His current field of research is the dialectics of scripturalist and modernist discourses in contemporary Islamic thought.