Ata Hoodashtian, Ph.D. is an associate professor and a research director based in Toronto, Canada.
Education
Ata Hoodashtian was born in Tehran, Iran, and has lived in the USA, France and Canada since 1975. He holds a Ph.D. In Political Science from the University of Paris (8), MA and DEA in Philosophy from the Paris-Sorbonne University (1).
Career
Hoodashtian has taught at the University of Paris (8), Institutes, ‘Grandes Ecoles’ at both graduate and undergraduate levels in Paris for about 10 years. Working in Central Asia as an Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Political Science, Hoodashtian has also served as the Director of the Research Center at Kimep University in Almaty, Kazakhstan for 3 years. An expatriate, Hoodashtian has taught in China (Shanghai), South Africa and Switzerland (Geneva). And has taught in Toronto, Montreal (Canada), Geneva (Switzerland), Paris (France), Istanbul, Izmir, Erzerum (Turkey), Bucharest (Romania), Kabul (Afghanistan), Niamey (Niger), Bamako (Mali), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Dakar (Senegal), Tunis (Tunisia), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Shanghai (China), Kabul (Afghanistan), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Kathmandu (Nepal).
Hoodashtian has collaborated with Yale University (Yale Center for International and Area Studies – USA), European, Central African, and Central Asian Universities. His career records in research Institutes include being the Chair of the Editorial Board of the “Central Asian Journal” for two years, a journal published by Kimep University, in collaboration with Yale University. He was a member of the CRISE, a research center at the University of Paris 8 as well.
He is one of the founders of Khorasan University, based in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He worked as the Vice-Rector at Swiss Umef University, Geneva (2015-2019). Since 2014 (to present), as an Associate Professor in the same university, he has been teaching in Political Science and Philosophy. Hoodashtian has worked as the Umef program Director in Niamey (Niger) and Bamako (Mali) and Yerevan (Armenia).
Research
Hoodashtian’s areas of research are Modernity, Modern and traditional cultural systems (East and West), Métissage of Values (cultural hybridity), Intercultural Studies, International Politics, Islamic society, Iran and modernity, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Contribution
Hoodashtian is co-founder of “Canadians for Democracy in Iran”, Toronto (https://cdi-org.ca/), and co-founder and ex-chairman of “Iran Academia” (Institute of Social Sciences, an online academic Institution, offering master’s in social sciences), Amsterdam, The Netherlands (https://www.iranacademia.com/). He is also co-founder of “Association of Freedom of Thought” (publishing “Freedom of Thought” https://azadiandisheh.com/), and member of the International Editorial Board of “Messenger”, a scientific Journal of the Armenian State University of Economics. Yerevan, Armenia (https://asue.am/en/science/banber), and a member of the Association for Iranian Studies. Dept. of Near & Middle Eastern, Civilizations, University of Toronto https://associationforiranianstudies.org/
Published works
He has published books and articles in English, French and Persian languages,
The books are as follows:
On Iranian revolutionary movements (1980) in Persian, published in Tehran, Iran
Modernity, Globalization and Iran, (2002), in Persian, published in Tehran, Iran
Modernity beyond the West (2006), in French, published in Paris, France
New Political Leadership (2021), in Persian, published in Sweden.
Politics
Since 2009, Hoodashtian has appeared in TV interviews such as CBC Canada, Voice of America (VOA) – Persian, BBC – Persian, Iran International and the like, on a regular basis, elaborating on Iranian and International affairs, the Middle East, Western and Eastern civilizations, secularism, the Islamic Revolution, modernity, etc.
