| Office: | 19th President of the University of La Verne |
| Predecessor: | Devorah Lieberman |
| Successor: | Mark Hicks (acting) |
| Term Start: | 2023 |
| Term End: | 2024 |
| Alma Mater: | Occidental College (BA) Columbia University (Ph.D) |
| Website: | https://www.pardismahdavi.com |
| Office2: | Provost & Executive Vice President of the University of Montana |
| Termstart2: | 2022 |
| Termend2: | 2023 |
Pardis Mahdavi is an American scholar and former president of University of La Verne.[1] Previously, she was the provost and executive vice president of the University of Montana, the dean of social sciences at Arizona State University, acting dean of Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and the dean of women and chair of anthropology at Pomona College.
Mahdavi received her BA in diplomacy and world affairs from Occidental College; an MA in anthropology from Columbia University; an MIA (Master of International Affairs) from Columbia University; and a PhD in sociomedical sciences and anthropology from Columbia University.
She has been a fellow at the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and Google Ideas. Appointed by Governor Hickenlooper and re-appointed by Governor Jared Polis, Mahdavi served on the Colorado Commission on Higher Education for two years.
Mahdavi's research covers in labor, migration, gender, sexuality, human rights, youth culture, transnational feminism and public health, specializing in the context of shifting political and global structures. Her global area of expertise is the Middle East, and she has published many books and articles focusing on the area.[2] She is also a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post and has published numerous groundbreaking works focusing on different issues affecting the Middle East.
Mahdavi's first book, Passionate Uprisings: Iran's Sexual Revolution was published by the Stanford University Press in 2008 and has been a foundation in the discourse on Iran's changing sexual landscape. The book is a personal narrative based on Mahdavi's own experiences in Iran, as well as first person testimony of young Iranians participating in this modern sexual revolution. The work focuses on the intersection of youth, sexuality, politics and leisure, and highlights how the youth are changing social mores and in effect destabilizing the fundamentalist government.[3]
Her second book is titled Gridlock: Labor, Migration, and Human Trafficking in Dubai and was published in May 2011 by Stanford University Press. Mahdavi investigates Dubai as it has long been accused of being an epicenter of human trafficking. Her investigation provides research suggesting that Dubai is more complicated than the stereotypes suggest, and is more a city of migrants who are not all trapped, tricked and taken advantage of. Her research contrasts first person testimonies of migrants living in Dubai with interviews with U.S. politicians to show the disconnect between reality in Dubai and the discourse surrounding the nation.[4]