Arang Keshavarzian is Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University and a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report (MERIP). He is the author of Bazaar and State in Iran: the Politics of the Tehran Marketplace (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Greta Scharnweber (M.A. Arab Studies, Georgetown University, M.A. Religious Studies, Univ. Colorado) is Associate Director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center at New York University. She curates public programs for the NYU academic community and local K-12 teachers focused on the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. Recent projects have included programs to raise public awareness about the 2009 Iranian elections and their aftermath, programs on water issues in the MENA region, and an SSRC funded program that brings journalists together with academics to address challenges faced by both fields in understanding and writing about the Middle East.
