Hajar Yazdiha Explained

Hajar Yazdiha
Birth Place:	Berlin, Germany
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Sociologist
Employer:	University of Southern California
Notable Works:	The Struggle for the People's King
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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.^[3]

Early life and education

Yazdiha was born in Berlin to political refugees from Iran. She grew up in Northern Virginia. 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."

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

After spending six years in New York City, Yazdiha graduated from Brooklyn College with a master's degree in sociology. 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.

Career

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

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

• Book: Yazdiha . Hajar . The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement . 2023 . . 9780691246475 .
• Yazdiha . Hajar . The relational dynamics of racialised policing: community policing for counterterrorism, suspect communities, and Muslim Americans’ provisional belonging . . 2023 . 49 . 11 . 2676–2697 . 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2193674 .
• Yazdiha . Hajar . 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 . 2022 . 8 . 4 . 468–482 . 10.1177/23326492221114811.
• Yazdiha . Hajar . Boen . Courtney . 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 . 2022 . 2 . 1 . 10.3998/ncidcurrents.1780. 9133729 .
• Yazdiha . Hajar . Toward a Du Boisian Framework of Immigrant Incorporation: Racialized Contexts, Relational Identities, and Muslim American Collective Action . . 2021 . 68 . 2 . 300–320 . 10.1093/socpro/spaa058.
• Yazdiha . Hajar . 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 . 2020 . 6 . 4 . 501–516 . 10.1177/2332649220903747.
• Kurzman . Charles . Kamal . Ahsan . Yazdiha . Hajar . Ideology and Threat Assessment: Law Enforcement Evaluation of Muslim and Right-Wing Extremism. . . 2017 . 3 . 10.1177/2378023117704771. free .

Selected honors and recognition

• 2023 — CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar^[13]
• 2022 — Louis Wirth Best Article Award, Section on International Migration, American Sociological Association^[14]
• 2022 — Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship^[15]

Notes and References

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